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Mein Kampf in Gaza—and Beyond
President Yitzhak Herzog on Novermber 12 reveals the copy of Hitler’s book ‘Mein Kampf’ that IDF forces located in Gaza. Photo:
Photo: Israeli Presidency Spokesperson
JNS.org – What’s “Mein Kampf” doing in Gaza?
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has revealed that an Arabic-language copy of Adolf Hitler’s notorious manifesto of antisemitism and militarism was found in a Gaza apartment that Hamas was using as a base of operations. The terrorist who was studying it wrote notes in the margins.
Sixty-seven years ago, another Israeli leader announced the discovery of copies of “Mein Kampf” in the possession of a different enemy. On Dec. 5, 1956, Golda Meir, then foreign minister of Israel, spoke before the General Assembly of the United Nations to explain why her country had been compelled to launch a pre-emptive strike against Egypt a week earlier. Her remarks included a surprising reference to Hitler’s book.
Ever since Israel’s War of Independence concluded in 1948, Egypt had been preparing its next attempt to destroy the Jewish State, Meir explained. There had been constant attacks by terrorists based in Egyptian-occupied Gaza, relentless economic warfare (an early version of the BDS movement) and a massive arms deal between Egypt and the Soviet Union. “For eight years,” she said, “Israel has had no respite from hostile acts and loudly proclaimed threats of destruction.” The Egyptians left Israel no choice but to strike first, or face annihilation.
Foreign Minister Meir saw a connection between the Holocaust and Egypt’s aggression. “The concept of annihilating Israel is a legacy of Hitler’s war against the Jewish people,” Meir said. “It is no mere coincidence that the soldiers of [Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel] Nasser had an Arabic translation of ‘Mein Kampf’ in their knapsacks.”
Hitler wrote “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle) while in prison after his failed coup, the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. With its numerous references to internal German controversies and domestic policy matters, the book might not seem to have any natural appeal to non-Germans. But after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, Mein Kampf attracted widespread international attention, both from those who feared him and those who admired him.
The book’s extreme antisemitism and advocacy of German territorial expansion attracted sympathetic interest in the Arab world. Extracts appeared in the Arabic press in Iraq and Lebanon in 1934. Unauthorized translations were published in Egypt in 1937 and Palestine in 1938. According to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency report at the time, the editor of the Palestinian edition “carefully purged the passage in which the Arabs are graded fourteenth on the racial scale.”
As part of the deNazification process implemented in Germany by the Allies after World War II, the Nazi Party was banned, public display of the swastika was prohibited and the printing of Nazi literature, including “Mein Kampf,” was outlawed. It was only due to a legal technicality—the expiration of the book’s copyright—that as of 2016, selling or purchasing “Mein Kampf” is no longer a crime in Germany.
The question of the copyright to “Mein Kampf” set off a curious legal battle in the United States in 1939 involving Alan Cranston, the future U.S. senator. Cranston, who was fluent in German and had visited Germany in 1936 as a journalist, noticed that the American edition, published by Houghton Mifflin, omitted the most extreme and violent passages from the original edition.
Determined to expose the real Hitler to the American public, Cranston set to work preparing a condensed tabloid edition that highlighted the omitted sections. One of Cranston’s secretaries misunderstood the nature of the project and reported to the Anti-Defamation League that Cranston was preparing Nazi propaganda. After realizing what Cranston was actually doing, ADL staffer Benjamin Epstein assisted him with the research.
Cranston called it a “Reader’s Digest-like version” of “Mein Kampf.” Priced at just 10 cents, the tabloid sold 500,000 copies in 10 days, according to Cranston. While Houghton Mifflin was paying Hitler royalties from sales of its sanitized version of “Mein Kampf,” the Cranston edition carried a blurb which read “Not 1 cent of royalty to Hitler,” and pledged to send the profits to refugees fleeing the Nazis. “Fritz Kuhn’s American Nazis threw stink bombs at newsstands selling it in Yorkville and St. Louis,” Cranston biographer Eleanor Fowle wrote.
Houghton Mifflin sued Cranston for copyright infringement. Cranston’s novel legal defense (recounted in my forthcoming book, “Whistleblowers: Four Who Fought to Expose the Holocaust to America”) was unsuccessful; he was ordered to halt publication and destroy all existing copies of his edition of Mein Kampf.
In more recent years, Hitler’s manifesto has continued to enjoy considerable popularity in the Arab world. In 1982, Israeli troops found numerous Arabic-language copies of Mein Kampf in PLO strongholds that they overran in Lebanon. In 1999, the French news agency AFP reported that it was a bestseller in the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories, according to sales figures compiled by the most popular bookstore in Ramallah, the P.A. capital.
Although it is now nearly a century old, the fiery message of “Mein Kampf” evidently still appeals to those who share at least some of its author’s sentiments.
Originally published by The Jewish Journal.
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Tlaib Sports Palestinian Keffiyeh at Carter Funeral, Thanks Late President for ‘Speaking Out Against Apartheid’
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addresses attendees as she takes part in a protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza outside the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, US, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), one of the most strident opponents of Israel in Congress, wore a Palestinian keffiyeh to the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter, commemorating the late American leader’s advocacy against so-called “apartheid” in the Jewish state.
“Rest in peace, President Jimmy Carter. It was an honor to be there with your family. I wore my Palestinian keffiyeh to show my gratitude for your courageous stance in speaking out against apartheid and standing up for peace,” Tlaib posted on X/Twitter, along with a picture of her keffyeh.
Rest in peace, President Jimmy Carter. It was an honor to be there with your family. I wore my Palestinian keffiyeh to show my gratitude for your courageous stance in speaking out against apartheid and standing up for peace. pic.twitter.com/Vf0XLN2BtJ
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) January 9, 2025
The keffiyeh, a traditional Arab headscarf, has become known as a symbol of solidarity with the Palestinian cause and opposition to Israel since the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023.
High-profile politicians, including all five living US presidents, attended Carter’s funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC on Thursday. The former president died on Dec. 29, 2024 at 100 years old due to heart failure.
Over the past couple of decades, Carter’s public commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has ruffled feathers among supporters of the Jewish state. In 2006, Carter raised eyebrows after publishing a book titled, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, which condemned Israel for constructing settlements in the West Bank and accused the Jewish state of constructing a racially-discriminatory political regime.
In 2009, Carter traveled to the Middle East and held meetings with leaders of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Critics noted that he did not criticize Hamas leadership during his meeting and praised the terrorists as being “frank and honest.”
In 2015, Carter further incensed proponents of the Jewish state when he seemingly defended senior Hamas leader Khaled Mashal and argued that the terrorist group was not an obstacle to peace in the region.
“I don’t believe that [Mashal’s] a terrorist. He’s strongly in favor of the peace process,” Carter said at the time.
“I don’t see that deep commitment on the part of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to make concessions which [former Prime Minister] Menachem Begin did to find peace with his potential enemies,” Carter continued.
Since entering Congress, Tlaib has positioned herself as one of the most vocal anti-Israel critics in US politics. Tlaib, the first Palestinian American woman to serve in the House of Representatives, has repeatedly used her platform to lodge condemnations against Israel.
The congresswoman has accused Israel of committing “apartheid” against Palestinians. In the year following Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, Tlaib has smeared the Jewish state’s defensive military operations as a “genocide,” calling on US President Joe Biden to force a “ceasefire” between Israel and the terrorist group and implement an “arms embargo” against the Jewish state.
On Thursday, Tlaib slammed the House for passing a bill which would sanction members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its issuing of arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant
“What’s their top priority the first week of the new Congress? Lowering costs? Addressing the housing crisis? No, it’s sanctioning the International Criminal Court to protect genocidal maniac Netanyahu so he can continue the genocide in Gaza,” Tlaib wrote on social media.
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Sydney Synagogue Daubed in Antisemitic Graffiti in Latest Attack on Australian Jews
Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah, Australia, was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti on Jan. 10, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
A synagogue in Sydney was daubed in antisemitic graffiti on Friday, police said, the latest in a spate of incidents targeting Jews in Australia.
Police will deploy a special task force to investigate the attack on the Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah that happened in the early hours of Friday morning, New South Wales state Police Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna told a news conference.
“The people who do the sort of thing should realize we will be out in force to look for them; we will catch them and prosecute them,” he said.
Television footage showed multiple swastikas painted on the building, along with a message reading “Hitler on top.”
“[There is] no place in Australia, our tolerant multicultural community, for this sort of criminal activity,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a news conference.
The incident is the latest in a series of antisemitic incidents in Australia in the last year, including multiple incidents of graffiti on buildings and cars in Sydney, as well as arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne that police have ruled as terrorism.
Australia has seen an increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and Israel launched its war against the Palestinian terrorist group in Gaza. Some Jewish organizations have said the government has not taken sufficient action in response.
The country launched a task force last month following the Melbourne synagogue blaze, focusing on threats, violence, and hatred towards the Australian Jewish community.
Australia’s ice hockey federation said on Tuesday it had cancelled a planned international qualifying tournament due to safety concerns, with local media reporting the decision was linked to the participation of the Israeli national team.
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Netanyahu Says Houthis Paying ‘Heavy Price’ After Israel Strikes Yemen
Smoke rises after Israeli strikes near Sanaa airport, in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
Israeli warplanes bombed a power station and two ports in Houthi-controlled Yemen on Friday in retaliation for the Iran-backed terrorist group’s drone and missile strikes against Israel, and pro-Houthi media said at least one person had been killed and nine wounded.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the Houthi rebels in Yemen were “paying and will continue to pay a heavy price for their aggression against us.”
“Today, we attacked terrorist targets of the Houthi terrorist regime along the western coastal strip and deep in Yemen. The Houthis are a proxy of Iran, and they serve the terrorist objectives of the Iranian axis in the Middle East,” Netanyahu added. “They constitute a danger to Israel and the entire region, including global freedom of navigation.”
The strikes hit the Red Sea port of Ras Issa and the major port of Hodeidah and the Hezyaz central power station in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, and Harf Sufyan District in Amran province also came under air attack, said Al Masirah TV, the main news outlet run by the Houthis.
An employee at the Ras Issa port was killed and six others were injured, while three people, including a worker, were wounded in the strikes on Hezyaz, the outlet said.
The Israeli military said more than 20 aircraft took part in the attack, dropping around 50 bombs and missiles in an operation which required airborne refueling during the 2,000-km (1,240-mile) flight.
Earlier, British security firm Ambrey said airstrikes on the Ras Issa port targeted oil storage facilities in the vicinity of shipping berths, though no merchant vessels were reported to have been damaged.
The supply of petroleum derivatives is stable, the Houthi government spokesperson Hashem Sharaf Eddine said after the attack.
An Israeli military statement confirmed the targets, saying the power station served as a “central source of energy for the Houthi terrorist regime in its military activities.” It added that the targets struck were examples of the “Houthis’ exploitation of civilian infrastructure.”
“The Houthi terrorist regime has repeatedly attacked the State of Israel, its citizens and civilian infrastructure in Israel,” including using drones and surface-to-surface missiles, the IDF said. “The State of Israel has the right and obligation to defend itself.”
The Israeli military added that Houthi “attacks on international shipping vessels and routes continue to destabilize the region and the wider world.”
“While the Houthi terrorist regime operates as an independent terrorist organization, it relies on Iranian cooperation and funding to attack the State of Israel and its citizens,” it continued. “The IDF will continue to operate at any distance against any threat to the State of Israel and its citizens.”
Within the past 48 hours, the Houthis have fired three drones at Israel‘s commercial hub Tel Aviv and more drones and missiles at the US aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said.
The Houthis have targeted Israel, hundreds of kilometers to the north as well as international shipping in waters near Yemen since November 2023 in support of Palestinian terrorists at war with Israel in Gaza.
Israel has responded with airstrikes in Houthi-held areas of Yemen, as have British and US forces in the region.
Netanyahu said last month Israel was only at the beginning of its campaign against the Houthis.
The post Netanyahu Says Houthis Paying ‘Heavy Price’ After Israel Strikes Yemen first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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