Germany didn’t go directly from Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 to the Holocaust. Like the jihad against Jews in America today, it was done in stages.
A milestone in the death march was Kristallnacht, or “Night of Broken Glass,” on Nov. 9 and 10, 1938.
In an orgy of violence, the Nazis torched synagogues and looted Jewish homes and businesses. Nearly 100 Jews were killed, and 30,000 were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
It’s happening again, here in America, the nation that defeated the Third Reich. First came the violent demonstrations on college campuses, then individual Jews were targeted. Antisemitic attacks account for 68% of all religion-based hate crimes.
Now, jihadis have progressed to assault and murder.
Elias Rodriguez and Mohamed Sabry Soliman would appear to have little in common, except a burning desire to kill Jews. Mr. Soliman is an Egyptian who is in the U.S. illegally. On June 1, he attacked a group of Jewish marchers in Boulder, Colorado, who were trying to call attention to the plight of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip. They included an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor.
Soliman threw Molotov cocktails at the group. The octogenarian he hit was “engulfed in flames.” As Soliman was being led away by police, he shouted, “Free Palestine.”
He later told investigators that he wanted to “kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead.” “Zionist people” is code for Jews.
Rodriguez cried, “Free Palestine,” when he fatally shot two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington on May 21. The activist from Chicago belonged to a number of revolutionary groups, including the Party of Socialism and Liberation.
A coalition of Palestinian and Marxist organizations has started a “Free Elias Rodriguez” campaign, claiming the murders were “a legitimate act of resistance against the Zionist state.”
Soon, if someone kills you for having an “I stand with Israel” yard sign, it will be called “a legitimate act of resistance against the Zionist state.”
One more name should be added to this rogue’s gallery: Amin al-Husseini. Pre-World War II, he was the grand mufti, or chief, Muslim religious authority in British Mandate Palestine. Al-Husseini was the father of Palestinian nationalism. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has praised him as a “hero” and a “pioneer.”
In the 1920s, he incited riots against Jews throughout the Holy Land. Al-Husseini spent World War II in Berlin, advising Adolf Eichmann and Heinrich Himmler on carrying out the Holocaust. He recruited a battalion of Bosnian Muslims for the Waffen SS. After the war, he returned to the Middle East to cheer on the Arab war against Israel.
The campus jihad is his heir. Instead of jackboots and armbands, its uniform is the kaffiyeh, the Palestinian headscarf, and a face mask.
Its slogans – “Free Palestine” and “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” – are calls for genocide. Hamas’ horrifying atrocities and massacre of 1,200 on Oct. 7, 2023, were a preview of what Islamists have in store for every Jew in Israel.
The notion that the Palestinians are somehow distinct from Hamas is an illusion. Roughly 70% of Palestinians support Hamas, and some 75% polled in the months after the Oct. 7 attacks said the murders, kidnappings and torture were justified.
There are 7.2 million Jews in Israel, approximately 46% of the world’s Jewish population. Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have made it clear that their Palestinian state will rise from the ashes of what was once Israel. That’s why, regardless of international pressure and domestic dissent, the United States must continue to arm Israel. The alternative is a border-to-border Auschwitz.
Britain and France are moving toward official recognition of a Palestinian state. Spain, Norway, Ireland and Slovenia made the move in 2024. We should sever diplomatic relations with these nations as a warning that a price is to be paid for condoning terrorism.
This monumental struggle isn’t just the Arab world against Israel, but Islam versus humanity. As the “occupiers” of Arab land, there is a special animus toward Jews.
Still, it’s Christians who are being slaughtered in sub-Saharan Africa. All the terrorist attacks from New York City in 2001 to New Orleans on Jan. 1 were directed at America, not Israel.
Terrorists understand what most of the world does not: that Israel is the wellspring of Western civilization, including all the things Islamists hate most, such as personal freedom and democracy.
It usually starts small. First, they are goose-stepping in the streets, then they are building death camps. They are waving Palestinian flags, then they are hitting Holocaust survivors with Molotov cocktails.
This column was first published at the Washington Times.