Preachers of Hate

Kenneth Timmerman is a journalist who has spent most of his life covering the news in the Middle East. In Preachers of Hate he traces the roots of anti-Semitism and how it is growing around the world, especially in the Middle East. He covers much of the same ground as other books I have read recently, but he uses a lot of primary source materials, interviews, and quotes to illustrate first-hand the hatred and racism of leaders and major figures not only in the Middle East but around the world.

One of the main sources of modern anti-Semitism is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fictional document published by the secret police in Russia around 1890 to 1900 to stir up hatred toward the Jews. The book pretends to be the minutes of secret meetings by Jewish leaders where they plot to take over the world. This document has been published in many languages and spread around the world. Even today, the lie that there is a worldwide conspiracy of Jews to take over the world is rampant in many countries.

Every fanatical Islamic radical is familiar with this document and they believe it is true. Islamic religious leaders use this work to indoctrinate young men and stir up in them a hatred for the Jews. Millions of copies are available in Arabic in every Arabic language bookstore around the world. It is one of the primary texts used to stir up animosity towards Israel and all Jews living around the world.

Another interesting fact is the alliance between Hitler and radical Islamists before and during World War II. Because of their mutual hatred of the Jews, an agreement was made to work together to eradicate the Jews from the earth. Prominent Nazi leaders had high level meetings with Arab leaders in order to facilitate the murder of millions of Jews not only in Europe, but throughout the Middle East during the war.

I also found the story behind how Yasser Arafat won the Nobel Peace prize in 1994. The prize was shared with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin in order to quell public outrage. How any of these men could be considered candidates for a peace prize is beyond belief, especially Arafat. Yasser Arafat was adept at manipulating public opinion, mainly by promoting peace in English to the Western press and then turning around in Arabic and promoting the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews. If his statements in English were taken at face value without any consideration of his actions or true beliefs, it might be possible for him to be seen as a peacemaker. However, his actions and undeniable public statements leave no doubt that he had no intention of making peace with Israel. Instead, he worked tirelessly for Israel’s destruction and would settle for nothing less than complete annihilation of the Jews.

Here are some quotes from the book that clearly illustrate this point.


Here is a quote that clearly shows the message Arafat publicly declared he wanted to send to Palestinian children:

In an interview with Arafat broadcast on TV he was asked what message he wanted to share with the Palestinian children he quickly replied, “A Child who is grasping a stone, facing a tank, is it not the greatest message to the world when that child becomes a martyr. We are proud of him. Such a child will be given a new life.”

In addition to this, children are taught how to achieve martyrdom. One of the main roles of religious clerics is to educate young children in the art of suicide bombing. In Palestine, religious leaders are not men called by God but appointed by Arafat. They have no interest in religious education unless it is useful for stirring up hatred for the Jews. They are commanded to preach Jihad against Israel or be damned as the very word of God. This is a direct call to murder Jews for no other reason than hate. Killing Jews is not a political need but a religious requirement, and it is not an order from Arafat but the word of God Himself.

This is the message that has been pounded into them at the mosques week after week, year after year; if they want to be good Muslims they have to kill Jews. This is an important lesson we in the west have to heed. The enmity being preached against America and the West has nothing to do with politics or support for Israel but the simple fact that we are not Muslims.

Arafat’s top appointed cleric in Gaza preached: “The Jews are the allies of the Americans and the Americans are the allies of the Jews, and they are against you, Oh Muslims. Wherever you are, kill the Jews and those Americans who are like them and those who stand by them. They are all in one trench against the Arabs and the Muslims.


At the end of a video for children urging them to become martyrs, the official seal of the Palestinian Authority comes on at the end with a written message in Arabic and English: “Ask for death; the life will be given to you.”

Timmerman points out that not even Hitler’s youth were urged to commit suicide; they were taught to kill, not be killed. This is the ultimate in child abuse. That young children are being indoctrinated to hate Israel and the West and commit suicide in order to murder them still hasn’t been fully understood by the West.


Another important distinction to be made is that the present political conflict in Israel today is not the cause of the hatred of the Jews. Rather, it is the hatred of the Jews that is causing all the violence in the Middle East. It is not a matter of Israel’s political policies or defensive measures. No matter what Israel does, the only solution for the radical Muslim extremists is the total annihilation of Israel and the death of all Jews.

What Arafat and other Muslim leaders have done is take a minor border conflict in Palestine and have transformed it into a global conflict between Islam and non-Muslims, an eternal battle between Good and Evil. The Muslims have taken the position of no peace, no accommodation, no compromise, no coexistence. Muslims are being taught that the conflict between Muslims and Jews is total and eternal, and it will end only when the Muslims have murdered the last Jew hiding behind a tree or a stone.


Timmerman also gives some important information on Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda and the Saudi support of global terrorism through the takeover of mosques around the world by radical Wahhabi teachers.

Osama bin Laden boasted about his terrorist training camps, saying that “the only expense for a new trainee is the cost of travel to the camp. Everything else is paid for by Al Qaeda. We are building an international army, Mohammed’s army, to combat occupying governments. There are 26 million Muslims in Europe, and in the United Kingdom we have over 385 Islamic fundamentalist organizations, 1,200 mosques, and 800 fundraising organizations. We form a fifth column and we will create chaos. We won’t stop until we see the Muslim flag flying over Number 10 Downing Street.”

According to CIA former head George Tenet, “Al Qaeda’s terrorist network is present in over 60 countries. An estimated 20,000 men have received military and intelligence training in their camps before returning to their home countries. They form the backbone of a deadly worldwide Jihad.”

Was Israel a Mistake

In the article “Was Israel a Mistake?” Books & Culture, January/February 2007, pages 36-37, Paul Merkley reviews three recent books on the relationship between Christians and the new state of Israel, Cross on the Star of David: The Christian World in Israel’s Foreign Policy, by Uri Baialer, Christian Zionism: Road-map to Armageddon, by Stephen Sizer, and Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, by Jimmy Carter. The first book is based on serious historical research that lays a solid foundation for future works, while the last two books take an anti-Israel stance and are based more on polemics than serious historical research.

According to Merkley, in Christian Zionism, Sizer brands all Christian supporters of Israel as mindless dispensationalists. His book is poorly researched and too polemical to be taken seriously. Jimmy Carter’s book is also one-sided and sounds like he is still sour about the failure of the Camp David Accords. Carter focuses only on Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinians as if there were no provocations made by them at all. He is also naïve to think that peace will come to the Middle East if both sides just play nice and agree to just borders.

Here is Merkley’s conclusion:

But this is not the frame of mind of the people who so recently elected Hamas to be their government, and who consistently tell the pollsters, by whacking great margins, that there will never be peace until Israel ceases to exist. The Palestinians are never going to embrace this healthy attitude so long as international voices with the prestige of Jimmy Carter keep up their unrelenting assault on Israel's right to life.

You can read the article at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2007/001/12.36.html

Coffins on Their Shoulders

Gary M. Burge, in his article “Coffins on Their Shoulders” in Books & Culture, January/February 2007, pages 34-35, reviews two books on the Arab-Israeli tragedy, Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy, by Shlomo Ben-Ami, and Coffins on Their Shoulders: The Experience of Palestinian Citizens of Israel, by Dan Rabinowitz and Khawla Abu-Baker. Both books give a personal and intense look at the pain and suffering in Israel.

This topic is very volatile and generates more heat than light. Most books are either pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian with nothing in between. It is hard to write a balanced and fair account of what is happening in the Middle East, but these two books break new ground in attempting to do just that. Read this article for its personal histories and extensive impartial research in order to gain a more balanced view of what is happening in Israel today.

Read the article at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2007/001/11.34.html