Gebran Bassil is expressing a reflexive Arab nationalist antisemitism that has been far outstripped by actual events — but apparently Bassil wasn’t paying attention. In chapter nine of Bat Ye’or’s seminal Islam and Dhimmitude, she discusses at length the ambiguities of Arab nationalism, showing how as a movement it destroyed Middle Eastern Christian communities, dividing them and weakening them. Arab nationalism was also linked to Nazism and of course, theological anti-Semitism. In Sylvia Haim’s “Islam and the Theory of Arab Nationalism,” reprinted in Andrew Bostom’s The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, Haim quotes the founder of the Arab nationalist Ba’ath Party, Michel Aflaq:
Muhammad was the epitome of all the Arabs, so let all the Arabs today be Muhammad. . . . Islam was an Arab movement and its meaning was the renewal of Arabism and its maturity . . . [even] Arab Christians will recognize that Islam constitutes for them a national culture in which they must immerse themselves so that they may understand and love it, and so that they may preserve Islam as they would preserve the most precious element in their Arabism.
Haim concludes: “For Aflaq, Islam is Arab nationalism.” (Emphasis in original).
Bassil’s antisemitic conspiracy paranoia is born of a myopic ignorance of the close relationship between Arab nationalism and Islam, and of how Arab nationalism has devastated the Christians of the Middle East by making them subservient to an Islamic agenda that ultimately has not spared them, and of how Israel is facing the same jihadist foe that the rest of the free world faces.
For the sake of their own survival, Christian Arabs should and must reject Gebran Bassil and the point of view he represents. Most will not do so.
“Bassil: Arabs should confront ISIS and Israeli terrorism,” Daily Star, October 12, 2014:
BEIRUT: Arabs have a duty to confront the terrorism of both ISIS and Israel, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said Sunday in Cairo during an international donor conference for Gaza.
“Our gathering today as Arabs is a normal thing, as Palestine is our mother cause,” Bassil said, addressing officials of Arab and Western countries who gathered in the Egyptian capital to announce pledges for rebuilding batter Gaza.
“We were the first to say that Israel and ISIS are similar in their terrorism and destruction, and that they converge to the extent that ISIS is the best Israeli tool to create divisions in the region.”
Describing Israel as a “racist” country, Bassil said that Gaza cannot witness sustainable development unless Israel stops its course of “sustainable destruction.”
He called on Arab nations to confront the Israel and ISIS, and said Arabs should unite and not rely on international actors to come to their rescue when in trouble.
“We only ask for the intervention of the international community when we cannot help ourselves, and when the human values structure is about to collapse.”
Bassil said the Lebanese Army had proved that Arab armies can act even without “foreign-imposed no-fly zones.”
“The Lebanese Army is working on preventing the advancement of ISIS toward our villages without any aircrafts,” he added, calling on Arabs to use all their capacities to achieve justice before it is too late.
“Will we need, one day, to hold an international conference to reconstruct the whole Middle East because of ISIS?,” Bassil asked.
Rezali Mehil says
IS is the best Israeli tool…
LOL even I am having a problem trying to swallow that one…
haha hahaa
…he’s the real tool…
never mind him… I was more interested in the $4Billion (of which about 2Billion has already been promised..by the Saud, Qatar and the US) to rebuild Gaza.
Problem is not the money …but for Israel allowing in the heavy machinery to help rebuild (through the embargo) Gaza…ofcourse the Jews will claim that the cement will be used for building tunnels …and not homes…and what with no agreement with Hamas…this will be the more interesting problem.
If Israel do not allow the machinery in …it could take decades for Gazans to be rehomed….Israel says it wants cement quantities to be monitored house by house …a ridiculous state of affairs.
Best solution here is for Israelis to move back from the land they have grabbed and allow Pals to occupy the houses already built there…and then agree to a 2 state solution.
more Later …
Rezali
Cicero says
Is this the same Lebanon which decades ago was termed the Paris of theMiddle East? What has happened to the civilising influence of the Lebanese Christians?
In fact what. Has been the fate of the Lebanese Christians? Where are they now?
When did Lebanon morph into an Islamic state? When did the. Lebanese. Muslim population numbers overtake the numbers of the Lebanese Christian population? Actually I remember this same phenomenon taking place in India, Kashmir, and now evenAlbania has a Muslim majority population.
How come it. Is only young Muslim Albanian males fleeing to the Uk.why are not the Christian Albanan males doing the same thing? I smell. A raptor maybe even,a dog.
Vivienne Leijonhufvud (goldie) says
Yep I remember when Lebanon was the Paris of ME. One of my early bosses a Lebanese Christian Architect had to escape from Lebanon in the late ’70’s. My oldest school friend (infants can you believe) was forced to leave Iran with her brilliant academic Iranian husband and two baby boys back in ’84. Islam the grand illusion come on forced muslims find your roots. They ain’t Islam for sure.
Anon says
“Israelis to move back from the land they have grabbed…”
“the land they grabbed”
How far back in time do you want to reference?
How many centuries do we need to trace back?
Islam is the “occupier.”
Vivienne Leijonhufvud (goldie) says
Shift your arses Arabs out of Israel. History and arheology proves you ain’t got a leg to stand on. Scum and killers.
Buraq says
@ the benighted bint, Rezali
It’s true, Rez! The Jews invented Islam. Look at Al Qur’an, it’s full of stuff from Jewish religious texts. Look at the number of Jews who support Islam and ‘hate’ themselves. But this is only for public consumption.
In reality, Islam was invented by the Jews to hold back the development of Arab nations. It’s a 7th Century sort of Stuxnet. And now, there are Muslim theocratic States the world over suffering economically and their societies are at each other’s necks all the time.
The answer is to dump this faux religion! Dump Islam and show these wily Jews that you’re not going to be fooled any longer. Think of the benefits, Rez! A peaceful world, CAIRfree.
Only a clown believes in a religion specially designed to hobble their progress! Re-revert today, Rez!
Ha Meshuga says
If muslims moved back from the land they have stolen and still steal and gave back the property they stole and returned the lives of people they killed and enslaved, the world would be so much more peaceful and happier….
wildjew says
Watching Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. Republicans are obsessed with getting Assad above and beyond defeating Islamic State and helping our Kurdish allies. Republican genius / strategist Carly Fiorina, Former CEO of Hewlett Packard, is obsessed with Assad as is John McCain and other stalwart Republicans.
Don McKellar says
Well, that sure makes a whole lot of durn sense, yes it do! Yup! Dem jews are behind ISIS and using it as a tool to divide Arabs and discredit Islam! Dang it, this guy is a dang GE-NI-US! DANG!
jewdog says
Mideast Christians who ally with Islam are hugging the crocodile. They are a rapidly dwindling group who represent a mere vestige of what they once were. At least some of the ones in Israel have figured it out.
Lookmann says
A day in muslim’s life is not complete without blaming the Israelis for the miserable conditions they face.
IQ al Rassooli says
Gebran Bassil, like 99.99% of Arabs & Muslims demonstrate an IRRATIONAL hatred for Jews based entirely upon Muhammad’s Quran & Sunna especially with Muhammad’s alleged ‘revelations’ in the Medina period that ABROGATE (over rule) all earlier conciliatory verses from the Mecca period that repeatedly spoke very favourably of BOTH Christians & Jews
He like all subservient Islam grovelling Christian DHIMMIS do not even know the history of Arab conquests.
Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Holy Land, Persia, North Africa and other countries in Asia were ARABIZED not Islamized. There is no such thing as Islam, a word used by the Arabs to hide the FACT that all these countries were conquered, occupied, plundered, raped, enslaved and their earlier histories ERADICATED by the conquering uncivilized hordes coming out of Arabia from 635AD onwards.
After all, what do Muslims of every nationality, colour and race believe in?
Allah, the NAME of the supreme god of 360 deities of Pagan Arabia centuries BEFORE Muhammad & his Quran
Muhammad bin Abd Allah, an Arab who claimed to be the messenger of Allah without a single witness to any of the events or revelations that he allegedly received from the rock god called Allah
Mecca, a Pagan Arabian city
Ka’aba, a Pagan Arabian shrine
Black Stone, Pagan Arabian fetish
Hajj, Pagan Arabian tradition
Circum-ambulating the Ka’ba, Pagan Arabian tradition. Etc…
The Lebanese were the descendants of the Phoenicians & have absolutely NOTHING to do with Arabs
The Coptic Christians of Egypt are the descendants of the Pharaohs as were 99% of the Egyptians before they were FORCED to convert either through terror or Jizziya
Arabs & Muslims are NEVER willing to look themselves in the mirror because they know that the reflection would be HORRIBLE
There are 57 Muslim majority states in the world comprising 20% of humanity (1,500,000,000) people who are the LEAST Productive, Inventive and or Creative in human history threatening 80% of none Muslim humanity (Christians Buddhists Hindus Jews and others) whom I call Ummat al Kuffar/ Nation of Infidels (from Muslims point of view) who are the MOST Productive Inventive Creative & Powerful in human history BUT have Clueless & Gutless leaders running sacred like a chicken without a head
Our enemies are our leaders and a generally comatose peoples
IQ al Rassooli
Kafir & Proud!
Wellington says
The larger point that could be argued here is why anyone who is not an Arab would want to be a Muslim since Islam and the promotion of all things Arab are tied at the hip.
Put another way, if you’re a Muslim and not an Arab, you’re a shill for the promotion of the Arab world. You’re particularly clueless if you’re a black Muslim since the Islamic world engaged in the African black slave trade from the seventh century onwards (and thus many centuries before the Western world did) and continued to engage in it even after the Judeo-Christian world realized the great wrong black African slavery was and eliminated it, replete with profuse apologies for doing so, something the Islamic world to this day has never apologized for, just as it never apologizes for anything. But then, even with Arabs, Islam is all about duping people since it was founded by a monumental fraud who was also a psychopath and a pedophile to boot.
I wish tons of Muslims would wake up to the fact that Islam is a way of promoting a seventh-century Arab merchant who performed no miracles, who bastardized and ill-understood Judaism and Christianity, who was nothing short of a bandit at times, who was an illiterate, who had a control-freak nature written all over his character, someone for whom the so-called Allah was his sock puppet and, get this, one who never had a SINGLE sexual desire forbidden him by Allah (how convenient). Oh yeah, wake up, Muslims. You’ve been had.
But tons of Muslims won’t wake up. And therein lies a major tragedy perpetrated by an ongoing illusion, i.e., that Islam is something true and good. Well, it is neither. Quite the opposite in fact.
Bezelel says
Great riff of a post, and all true.
Vivienne Leijonhufvud (goldie) says
Great post right to the point. Arabs invented Islam and forced the rest of the middle east under the sword to accept it. Islam is very definitely based on Paganism plagiarized from the Talmud Torah and New Testament. Mohammed ascended into heaven for chrissakes. It is patently obvious this is a lie. Muslims absolutely need to wake up check out your real history before 632 A.D. Ignorant Muslims who don’t understand AD it is Latin Ano Domini coming from Hebrew Adonai!
ploome says
of course you know that “Bassil’s antisemitic conspiracy paranoia” resonates in Europe.
Many Europeans and European governments believe the same…if only Israel would………………….die
everything would be so much better
Maria says
Islam is a Jewish creation to make Muslims look bad.
pumbar says
Islam has a problem with dogs. The problem is that they think dogs are unclean and shun them. So when you fart at the dinner table who can you blame? The Jooooz of course.
dumbledoresarmy says
Brigitte Gabriel is one Lebanese Christian who proved capable of learning. She used her commonsense and powers of practical observation of reality and realized that Israel and the Jews were *not* evil; indeed she learned to like, love and respect them.
And now as well as doing her very, very best to try to wake up Americans to the danger represented by Islam, she is a staunch friend of Israel.
*That* is the path that the remaining Lebanese Christians should take; rather than descending into the Void along with the Muslims.
My prayer, as a Christian, for all who in Lebanon call themselves Christian, is that Jew-hatred will be *exorcised* from among them; that they will be set free not only from this crippling and ugly pathological condition that is antisemitism, but set free from dhimmitude.
I do hope that Mark Durie’s two books “The Third Choice” and its practical, pastoral companion piece, “Liberty to the Captives” will be quickly translated into Levantine dialects of Arabic, and into Egyptian Arabic as well; I think they have the potential to help with the spiritual liberation – the unbinding – of the local Christians.
el-cid says
What is unconscionable is that the present world leadership, represented by Barak Obama, continues to support this anti-Jewish conspiracy belief by making Israel the center of so much foreign policy discussion. The belief that Israel has anything to do with Arab problems is equivalent to believing that Jinns are the cause–completely magically thinking.
The world needs a leader that will go to the UN and say, let’s take Israel off the agenda and start talking about something real.
Judi says
Here, here. Israel is the world’s scapegoat. Meanwhile it is the only civilized country in the Middle East.
bc says
One thing you can count on with these supremacists is that they are barking mad.
Only in the demented minds of these people could the idea be germinated that Israel would create such a monster in their own backyard. Whatever shortcomings the Israels have they are well educated, rational and also civilised. The latter being a concept incomprehensible to Islamic supremacists.