The Indictment The Arab-Israeli Conflict in Historical Perspective By Sabina Citron Gefen Publishing House, 2006, 378 pages ISBN 965-229-373-3

Reviewed by Israel Drazin - January 31, 2011

Sabina Citron offers a fresh, surprising examination of the Arab-Israeli conflict that argues that anti-Semitism, sometimes sub-conscious, has caused many people and nations to be open to the obvious falsehoods of Arab propaganda, their distortions of Jewish and Arab history. She explains why these people and nations fear terrorism on their own soil, but are not bothered by the mindless murders committed by terrorist bombers in Israel.

She describes "the roots of anti-Semitism," as she sees it, "from Nicaea to Auschwitz" to today. This generation "claims to abhor the violence of war, nevertheless appears to have unending patience and understanding for the new enemy the world is facing, regardless of the horrible, brutal, and savage violence it employs in pursuit of its goals." People can't see the anti-Semitism in themselves and others. Looking back at Hitler "coming to power in Germany, we still don't understand how rational human beings became irrational." This is the situation today.

Citron shows how the problem of anti-Semitism was not restricted a half century ago to Germany. Even the neutral Swiss helped the Nazis. The United States, England, Canada, South America, and other countries refused to assist Jews during the holocaust, and at times handed Jews to the Nazis to be killed. She shows how after the war the UN "became perverted from an institution originally devoted to promote peace" and human rights to "serving the despots and human rights abusers."

She describes how Israel "has become the target of anti-Israel anti-Semitic abuses, from the very (heart) of the United Nations." She analyses the current insistence of the entire world that Israel hand over its land to Arabs to attain peace. She shows that this surrender of property will endanger Israel's ability to defend itself in the event of war. She quotes a Christian Arab: "the demands on Israel right now are demands for the nation to commit political, military and cultural suicide." She writes that the "fact that the EU (European Union) is again turning a blind eye to the revelations that Hamas is, or 'may be' on the United Nations' payroll in Gaza, leaves one speechless." She states that anti-Semitism has blinded the world to these facts. Now, she concludes, it is clear that anti-Semitism is more brazen than ever.

• Antisemitism: Myth and Hate from Antiquity to the Present, by Marvin Perry and Frederick M. Schweitzer.
  An overview on the history and consequences of antisemitism, offering an in-depth analysis of the myths and misconceptions that have developed concerning the Jews. Plus sketches of contemporary myth-makers from Henry Ford to Louis Farrakhan.
  
  
• A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad, by Robert S. Wistrich.
  A masterful and detailed analysis of the rise and spread of the new, global antisemitism, and the threat that it poses not only for Jews, but for the world as a whole. Wistrich also examines the origins of antisemitism and the various forms that it has taken through the ages.