Shocked By Your Shock

To Arabs and Muslims, what’s most newsworthy about the Ahmadinajead Holocaust conference is the strong Western outrage.

The Economist called it “Ahmadinajead’s strange version of History”, the New York Times called it “a circus of Holocaust denial and racism argued by discredited scholars”. Unfortunately to those oracles of Western opinion, the “strange version of history” is the only version that Arabs and Muslims know. To Muslims, “Holocaust denial” and “Anti Semitism” are not dangerous accusations. They’re just strange words.

I didn’t know about the Holocaust before the age of 20. And the only reason why I believe the Holocaust actually took place, is because I underwent six years of education at an American University, and because I have been reading The Economist and The New York Times for eight straight years. To the typical Arab on the street, that qualifies as brainwashing.

Being enraged won’t help Western opinion leaders. The Iranians are riding Arab and Muslim public opinion to increase their influence in the region, and shouting names like “rogues and fools” changes nothing.

When Aljazeera covered Western reactions to the conference, the undertone was sarcastic. The leaders of the western world (Merkel, Bush and Blair all condemned the conference), they said, are busy defending old history but they don’t care the least about Palestinian Children who are dying in “today’s holocaust”

Coincidentally, the American Ex-President Jimmy Carter wrote a book that, you guessed it, caused a “furor” because he used the word “apartheid” in describing the situation in Palestine and Israel.

A letter to the New York Times responds to the uproar and sums up what I think is the best solution for limiting Iranian influence:

Anyone who dares speak up for the Palestinians in America is certain to be vilified. Wise friends of Israel know that the one hope of its survival is an equitable resolution of the Palestinian issue.

This requires withdrawal from all territories seized in 1967, reimbursing Palestinians for confiscated land and other wrongs, and the development of a viable Palestinian state.