Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East Hardcover – February 25, 2014

Indispensable reading to those who want to understand the Middle East , the Arab-Israeli conflict and the aytolahs world view .

Given the praise from respected writers, such as Benny Morris and Yossi Klein Halevi, I expected great things from this book. Boy was I ever severely disappointed. This book is not a scholarly work, but rather a series of informative broadsheets that one might receive from the ADL or the Simon Wiesenthal Center about the proliferance of anti-Semitism and ex-Nazis in the Arab and Muslim worlds. Most of the facts are unquestionably true, but the conclusions that are drawn are not, and this really is not a work of scholarship. The narrative's chronology is constantly broken by reference and comparison to the current situation in the Middle East and the relating/equating of the Nazi world to al-Qaida, Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Nasser, Sadat, Hizballah, and Khomeini. If the authors are to be believed, then Haj Amin al-Husaini was at the center of the Nazi regime, played a part in designing the Final Solution, always had the ear of Hitler and his inner circle, and effectively ran the Middle East between 1917 and 1948. Think I'm exaggerating? There's a chapter entitled "A Bid for Partnership in the Axis". There is no doubting that the man was a rabid fanatical anti-Semite, but even the authors' research shows that al-Husaini was mostly all talk and no action. Also claiming that he was solely responsible for the tragic mess of Palestinian history is a bit much, not to mention that he was the Arab leader who most influenced the post World War II Middle East and he is the source of Arab and Muslim political intransigence and rejectionism. Copious errors (such as the names of British Mandatory officials and the peculiar conflation of the Lubavitcher Rebbe with Rav Soloveichik), the heavy reliance on unnamed documents in Prof. Schwanitz's private collection, and unabashed rightwing political orientation (was it really necessary to use quotation marks to describe the 1993 Oslo Accords?) make me wonder what caused Yale University Press to put its name on this book. There are much better and less polemical books regarding the German-Arab-Islamism connection - David Motadel's Islam and Nazi Germany's War, Sean McMeekin's The Berlin-Baghdad Express. The authors were capable of thoughtful scholarship and need not have taken the low road of writing a tirade hoping to conflate today's anti-Semitic Islamists with yesterday's Nazis in the minds of readers.

This is not a real page turner but appears to be a very complete account this little know bit of history. The documentation seems to be thorough. My biggest complaint is that the writing style is more than a little dry and tedious at times. This is not a read for entertainment but for someone who want more background on the subject. I'm mostly convinced that the chronology of events is accurate.I'm not convinced of the conclusion of significant causality between the Third Reich and the Grand Mufti. I doubt the Holocaust would have been less severe without the Grand Mufti's help nor that the middle east would be much safer today if the Third Reich had not supported the Grand Mufti. Both were capable raining misery on the world without the others help.I will grant that there was one missed opportunity. The Grand Mufti was a criminal and should have been tried and hanged. He got a pass from the Allies on this account since it seemed the safer, wiser course at the time. That was most likely a mistake.

The book rehearses the history of the Palestinian involvement in the run up to the second world war and in the war itself on the side of the Nazis. It covers the agreement between the Nazis and the representative of the Palestinians for control of the Middle East and a complete removal of all Jews in an Arab/German killing of the Jews of Palestine. The book provides evidence that this policy continued thru Arafat and to the present. Our Presidents and diplomats (assuming that the author hasn't invented all his evidence) are therefore deluding themselves that a settlement is possible and that Israel is at fault for lack of progress.

Magnificent analysis and discussion of history that has been neglected or purposely hidden. This is a factual account that does much to expose revisionism or pure censorship. There is an excellent analysis to the 1930 efforts (mostly by the British) to gain Muslim support in the coming war. Everything was offered - even in violation of the Balfour Declaration and League of Nations directives - to Muslim states and so much was offered that the existing states agreed but Haj Amin al-Huseini would not agree and many Muslims sided with Hitler. There is a direct line between the history of the 20th century concerning the Middle East and current efforts to force some sort of "peaceful agreement". This book sheds light but, sadly, there are many who prefer the darkness.

An extremely informative and very topical book tying together the shameful alliance between Nazis and Islamists. Although many facts were known previously, some have never before been widely publicized. Absolutely essential to understanding not only contemporary events in the Middle East, but also still prevailing attitudes in the Islamic world and even very actual German-Turkish relations. Highly recommended for anybody interested in knowing how today's Middle East developments still strongly reflect events going back one hundred years in history. And the sad conclusion is that leaders of Western democracies still have not learned from history.

Anyone who does not know the Nazi-Islam connection and the influence of the Nazi collaborationist and co-author of the European Holocaust, Arafat's distant uncle the Mufti of Jerusalem, has no understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Palestinian leadership and Arab States are still today continuing in Hitler's uncompromising goal of the annihilation of world Jewry. Failure to understand this fundamental truth is like failing to understand that the sun rises in the East. This undeniable truth is the elephant in the room.And the elephant wears a swastika !

Very Satisfied!

Incredible book that everyone should read to understand how the Muslim world and the Middle East is such a terror riddled hateful place. Well written and documented -its a good read.

Surely everybody knows that the Grand Mufti was a close ally of Hitler. In some ways this book turns that on its head. The Islamists were always, authoritarian, racist, fanatical, follow one leader, full of hatreds, regimented, vicious to the slightest disagreement, in so many ways they preceded the Nazis by Centuries. Different motivation, similar ideological character.The main difference is that Germans (not specifically Nazis) were technologically and socially very advanced, whereas the Arabs were barely able to feed themselves and were a passive grossly underdeveloped backwater for Centuries under the Ottomans. Not much has changed since then.Nazism has been defeated, but Islamism, a centuries old ideology with so much similarity to the briefer fascism in Europe, goes from strength to strength. Well documented, but clearly a book with a strong agenda, that occasionally overrides their scrupulousness in proving their historical record

Excellent research by the late Barry Rubin in his last book.Using recently opened archives he goes much further than the well known collaboration between the Chief Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Al Amin Al Husseini's relationship to Hitler.The book starts back in early 1880s when Kaiser Wilhelm was the first of a succession of German politicians who tried to take advantage of Jihadi tendencies among Muslims to attack the UK, France and Russia.

Le vieux complot antisémite enfin dévoilé : l'alliance germano-arabe est mise au grand jour, et dénonce aussi la politique anglo-américaine de la 2e guerre mondiale. L'Etat d'Israël est enfin pleinement justifié, et se défendra contre vents et marées.