Reply #17: And furthermore: I have pulled up an article from Cole's [View All]

[Colorado Blue]

this blog. I had heard from other sources, that he is somewhat inaccurate regarding certain matters, and that is in fact what I found, in this one piece.

He is, on the question of the status of Jewish people in the Middle East, on their second-class status within Islam, and on the influence of the "Elders of Zion", off the mark.

In the article I read, he says Jews were a "protected minority" under Islam. That is true, to a point. Jewish people are considered "people of the book", and allowed to practice their religion. The Koran does, in some passages, seem to reflect the right of the Jewish people to the lands roughly known as Israel, and considered theirs by heritage.

It is also true, that Jews were relegated to jobs considered "unclean" for Moslems and widely villified for not choosing to convert. They lived in separate areas in the towns and wore different clothes. Jewish people were referred to as "dogs".

During WWII, the Nazi malaise spread to North Africa, and a sort of mini-holocaust occurred there. If you need links about this, let me know. Worse, the Nazi dialectic entered Middle Eastern politics.

As political and fundamentalist Islamism have taken hold, anger at Jewish people for not converting, has grown. What was a sort of low-level antisemitism, has become quite virulent.

Also, Cole claims that the "Elders of Zion" wasn't important in the M.E. until the last couple of decades. Actually, this document was widely disseminated early in the 20th century and served, as much as anything, to poison the water between the Jewish settlers and the Arabs.

The settlers, don't forget, were INVITED into the region, by the Arab king. It was thought they had something to offer. And indeed, populations grew in regions were the settlers lived and worked, and income levels rose substantially. Opposition to them was far from monolithic. This was a feudal society and landowners were happy to take Jewish money, in exchange for land. There was friendship, too, between people.

Had it not been for some extremely rascist individuals and texts that are still being taught today, this story would have had a different outcome.

I think, if you are getting your information about Israel and Jews in the Middle East strictly from Juan Cole, you are not getting the whole picture, or even an historically accurate picture.

Documentation on the above is widely disseminated and is very old news.

Thank you.