Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu preceded his flight to Germany Wednesday for a meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel with by rejecting criticism of his remarks last night that linked Mufti al-Husseini with the Holocaust.
Opposition leader Yitzchak Herzog, his cohorts on Israel Radio’s Kol Yisrael (Reshet Bet) and the Palestinian Authority were all over the Prime Minister Wednesday morning, accusing him of re-writing history and inciting Arabs.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s comments on the Mufti during his speech to the World Jewish Congress were perfectly timed, giving him ammunition to carry with him when talking with Merkel about Palestinian Authority incitement.
He rejected criticism that his comments implied that Hitler was not responsible for the slaughter of 6 million Jews, and he explained:
It is absurd. I had no intention to absolve Hitler of responsibility for his diabolical destruction of European Jewry. Hitler was responsible for the Final Solution to exterminate six million Jews. He made the decision.
It is equally absurd to ignore the role played by the Mufti, Haj Amin al -Husseini, a war criminal, for encouraging and urging Hitler, Ribbentropp, Himmler and others, to exterminate European Jewry. There is much evidence about this, including the testimony of Eichmann’s deputy at the Nuremberg trials, not now, but after World War II. He said:
He replied to Arab criticism that he false accused the Mufti of advising Hitler to burn Jews and said:
There is much evidence about this, including the testimony of Eichmann’s deputy at the Nuremberg trials, not now, but after World War II. He said:
‘The Mufti was instrumental in the decision to exterminate the Jews of Europe. The importance of his role must not be ignored. The Mufti repeatedly proposed to the authorities, primarily Hitler, Ribbentropp and Himmler, to exterminate the Jews of Europe. He considered it a suitable solution for the Palestinian question’.
Eichmann’s deputy, added:
‘The Mufti was one of the instigators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and was a partner and adviser to Eichmann and Hitler for carrying out this plan’.
He reminded listeners that “Haj Amin al-Husseini is still a revered figure in Palestinian society. He appears in textbooks and it is taught that he is one of the founding fathers of the nation, and this incitement that started then with him, inciting the murder of Jews – continues.