The Warped Mirror: Amalek and Der Spiegel

No doubt, when it comes to demonizing Israel, the race is on - though it's not entirely clear if the finish line is set at the bottom of journalism or the height of hypocrisy. In any case, here is a strong contender: under the title "Potential for Apocalypse," the German news magazine Der Spiegel asked on Monday: "Is War between Iran and Israel Inevitable?" The lead-in for the long essay of some 4400 words provides a sensationalist summary to whet the appetite of readers:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may seem very different, but they are united in their apocalyptic religious visions. Their respective beliefs may be propelling them on a collision course with potentially horrific consequences."

I rubbed my eyes in disbelief, and read it again, and again - but that's what it says: Bibi Netanyahu, the secular prime minister of a secular democracy, has "apocalyptic religious visions" that somehow "unite" him with the Holocaust-denying, fanatically religious Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who recently "won" re-election by "divine assessment," because the "supreme leader" of the Iranian mullahcracy said so.

The author of this piece of gibberish is apparently a veteran journalist, Erich Follath, who poses as an expert on this kind of comparison because he has met Netanyahu a few times - first back in 1976, shortly after Yonatan Netanyahu was killed at Entebbe - and he has also been to Iran and even interviewed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Well, then, the man must know what he is talking about!!!

As it turns out, this is not the first time Follath opines on a member of Israel's current government: on the occasion of Avigdor Lieberman's recent visit in Berlin, Follath took the trouble to come up with a "speech," or rather a lecture that he thought Germany's foreign minister should give to put his Israeli colleague in place. Several German-language blogs commented on the unabashed hatred and anti-Semitism displayed in Follath's fantasy speech.

This time around, Follath tried hard to appear more sophisticated:

To understand what motivates the Iranian president and the Israeli prime minister, and what convictions guide their policies, it is important to examine the deeply religious ideas that shape both Ahmadinejad and Netanyahu and practically destine them to clash with each other: the theology of the Islamic Haqqani school and the Jewish concept of Amalek. ... it helps [as this author has done] to have personally met the people involved and to have studied their milieu during numerous trips to Iran and Israel over the past three-and-a-half decades. These experiences form the pieces of a puzzle, and although the resulting image is not all - encompassing and does not explain everything, it is at least an image based on a concrete search for evidence and on personal experience of the reality on the ground."

Isn't that impressive! Follath has "studied their milieu"! Now, given that Follath thinks that Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad are "twins in spirit," it's worthwhile to quote a few gems from his description of the "milieu" of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

in his mid-20s, Ahmadinejad met Mesbah Yazdi and came under the spell of mystical fundamentalism. Ahmadinejad has long been an avowed supporter of the same ultra-religious school of Shia as Mesbah Yazdi. The Haqqani group, in its religious fervor, is reminiscent of the zealots of another religion, the born-again Christians (a group which includes, incidentally, former US President George W. Bush)."

Aha, George W. Bush is also part of the picture... Well, anyway, according to Follath, Ahmadinejad meets his "mentor" Mesbah Yazdi every week for an "ideological tête-à-tête" - and this is how he describes Mesbah Yazdi's views:

Ideologically ... he is an ultra-conservative hardliner and a theoretician of the radicals ... He openly advocates suicide bombings, calls for the carrying out of the fatwa imposed against author Salman Rushdi and demands 'the blood of any person who insults Islam.' And he considers 'the Zionists' to be the fundamental source of evil on earth."

Fortunately, there isn't really any reason to worry, because, as Follath points out: "Ahmadinejad, Holocaust denier and avowed hater of Israel, has repeatedly assured that he will not attack the 'Zionist entity' militarily." Of course, Follath also knows experts on Iran who will confirm that Ahmadinejad's supposed threats must really be understood in a "metaphysical way."

So that is settled then, what a relief. Oh no, wait - there is still this very very scary, sinister Bibi Netanyahu... It's not that Follath says anything negative about Bibi, he just quotes others: for example the former White House spokesman Joe Lockhart, who "called the Israeli prime minister 'one of the most obnoxious individuals ... -- just a liar and a cheat.'" And then there is the "liberal and consistently well-informed Israeli daily Haaretz," which reported: "'Politicians in touch with Netanyahu say he has already made up his mind to destroy Iran's nuclear installations' -- apparently without Washington's approval."
 
Obviously, Follath can thus only conclude that "Netanyahu is almost certain to remain unbending on the question of Iranian nuclear bombs, steering Israel toward an attack." He also notes that Netanyahu seems "to yearn for his adversary Ahmadinejad to remain in office, as even the respected German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported with astonishment, citing Israeli sources." In search for an explanation for all these astonishing things, Follath points his readers to Jeffrey Goldberg: "When American author and Israel expert Jeffrey Goldberg recently asked a Netanyahu confidant to explain this fixation, he simply replied: 'Think Amalek.'"

Please note that you are supposed to politely overlook the fact that the all important "Think Amalek" remark wasn;t made by Netanyahu, but a "confidant" of the prime minister. No reason to be pedantic here, really. Now, are you ready for Judaism 101 on the meaning of "Amalek," courtesy of Follath? Yallah, here we go:

This is the Jewish concept that forms a potentially disastrous parallel to the Islamic Haqqani school -- a pair of mirror-image concepts that could spell war. ... In a broader sense, the term Amalek refers to the existential threat to Judaism at all times, under all circumstances and by all enemies ... No Jewish generation is permitted to forget the conflict with Amalek, because Amalek embodies the intrinsically evil and destructive. Fighting Amalek is the duty of every devout Jew, a 'mitzvah aseh' or commandment of action. According to some interpretations of ancient scripture, this mitzvah is more far-reaching, namely a commandment to eliminate the original enemies of the Jews.... According to Jewish apocalyptic constructs, a Jewish state would cease to exist after a possible Iranian nuclear first strike. In other words, it is better to attack first in the case of doubt."

So if it wasn.t for the "Jewish apocalyptic constructs," there wouldn.t really be much of a problem with an Iranian nuclear attack on Israel? I see...

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How appallingly shoddy this piece truly is can be nicely illustrated with a blogpost written some four weeks ago by Gershom Gorenberg, who picked up on Goldberg's article that contained the ominous "Amalek" reference and tried to clarify the meaning of the concept.

Needless to say, Follath would have greatly benefited from reading this post. One of the first points Gorenberg rightly emphasized is that it was not Netanyahu himself who referred to Amalek. Gorenberg also noted that it was very unlikely that Netanyahu would use this religiously inspired concept, and he pointed out that, as the son of a historian, "Bibi tends to take his metaphors from history." Of course, like everybody who knows anything about Netanyahu, Gorenberg immediately thought of the famous "It's 1938 and Iran is Germany"-speech that Netanyahu gave in November 2006.

It isn't hard to understand why Follath preferred NOT to mention that speech ... Indeed, it.s not only German history that would have made any reference to 1938 a bit uncomfortable, but also the present: after all, Germany is doing brisk business with Iran. Ironically enough, the German-language version of the Spiegel magazine carries this week a report that reveals that among Western industrial countries, Germany is Iran's biggest trading partner, making it the second-largest exporter to Iran after China. And, mind you, the report explains that German companies are opposed to "premature" sanctions against Iran ... 

Well, but why care about the German business "milieu" - after all, there are "Jewish apocalyptic constructs" to worry about!