Ruth King

Sultry summer days are perfect for reading. I’ve spent the first part of the season finishing a delightful memoir by Rosanne Klass entitled Land of the High Flags: Afghanistan When the Going Was Good” —and when it was good, none captured this once exotic nation better than Klass who traveled and lived there.

I also read a memoir by Amos Oz (yes, he of the anti-Israel screeds) entitled A Tale of Love and Darkness which is almost free of the bias of the anti-Israel land of Oz. It is an evocative retelling of his childhood and the dedication and love of the land that propelled the Jewish pioneers, among them his parents and grandparents, to reclaim and build Israel. Get a used copy.

There is one book that I have not read in its entirety, that I don’t recommend for the beach because it weighs more than a small sack of potatoes, and that one must never read at an airport where it might set off bells. It is a book I return to often, reading long passages and even chapters at a time. It is a book that has entirely upended my opinions with respect to the unrelenting war the Arabs and their Moslem cheerleaders have waged on Israel and indeed on all Jews since the time of the prophet Mohammed. It is Andrew Bostom’s The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism-From Sacred Texts to Solemn History.

This remarkable anthology on the theme of Moslem anti-Semitism relies on obscure texts, Koranic scripture, diaries, ancient and modern documents. The research is so extensive that even a bizarre letter to the editor published in the Arabic newspaper Akhir Sa’a in Egypt in 1948 is quoted. The author, a light skinned Egyptian Muslim complains: “It would seem that most people in Egypt are unaware of the fact that among Egyptian Muslims there are some who have white skin. Every time I board a tram I see people pointing at me saying, ‘Jew, Jew!’ I have been beaten more than once because of this. For that reason I humbly beg that my picture (enclosed) be published with an explanation that I am not Jewish and that my name is Adham Mustafa Galeb.”

I confess that Andrew Bostom, M.D. the book's author, is my friend and guru and under his tutelage I have learned about Jihad…..its origins in the Koran, its history, its goals and its role in the frenzied hatred of all “infidels” that drives Islamic terrorists.

Because of Dr. Bostom, I am also familiar with the prophetic writings of Bat Ye’or and Professor Saul Friedman and those other scholars whose research debunked the notions that a “golden era” of comity existed between Jews and the Arabs and that anti-Semitism was an import from Europe to the Middle East. That rosy and false retelling of the lives of Jewish minorities among Moslem Arabs blinded Israel into accepting false promises, truces, agreements and road maps which have weakened the state and dispirited its citizens as each time they led to more terror, more war and more demands.

The book has been praised by a wide spectrum of respected journalists and scholars. However, most indebted to Andrew Bostom are all those who care about a safe Israel.

The Zionist prophets such as Herzl and Jabotinsky and even AFSI’s beloved Shmuel Katz did not write about the faith driven raison d’etre of Israel’s enemies, namely, to recreate a Caliphate throughout the Arab Middle East in which the few surviving Jews could exist only as dhimmis.

Their failure--and the failure more recently of so many others--is understandable. The Arab world went through a series of upheavals and spawned ideologies that drew attention from the menace of Islam. There was Pan-Arabism, a movement to unite the entire Arab world; there were Arab attempts at “socialism”; there was pan-Arab socialism; and of course, there was the constant cold war threat of Soviet expansion in the Middle East.

There was also the myth of a nascent, independent Third World in which Israel could serve as a bridge between Western democracy and emerging nations in Africa and Asia. Many of these countries were Moslem but took part in trade, educational and agricultural exchanges with Israel -- which almost all of them dropped immediately after the 1967 War.

The battles fought and won by Israel were seen within those contexts. As an ally of the United States on whose aid and support Israel became increasingly dependent, Israel promoted its role as a defense bulwark against Soviet ambitions.

When pressing Israel's case in the face of the blood curdling calls for Allah’s help in its destruction which were repeated in Arab sermons, in the media, on broadcasts, and at the United Nations, Israel and too many of its supporters (I include myself) did not identify the religious aspect of Jew hatred which is endemic in Islamic history.

Even in a post 9/11 world, Israel, willfully blind to the reality of enemy goals, embarks on one foolhardy concession after another.

But fortunately, in a post 9/11 world, a physician in Rhode Island was stirred to study and confront the roots of terrorism and Jihad in Islam and his interest and support for Israel further propelled him to produce this absolutely essential text.

Outpost readers and all who want a safe Israel should buy two copies and give one to local schools or libraries. Many copies would be even better.