The New Heinrich Himmler Telegram to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem
Recently a new telegram sent by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammed Amin al-Husseini in 1943 was discovered in the archives of the National Library of Israel.
This was immediately trumpeted throughout the world as ‘proof’ that the Third Reich wasn’t interested in a territorial solution to the jewish question (aka Zionism) and thus did not support the creation of Israel. (1)
I will deal with the particular question of the Third Reich’s interest in Zionism as a solution to the Judenfrage in another article, but what I would like to highlight here is that the telegram literally says nothing that we do not already know.
We know the Third Reich by 1943 was not interested in settling the jews of Europe in Palestine and that the Reich was – following German policy in the First World War – supportive of Arab nationalism and Islamism as a way to undermine and topple the colonial empires of the British and the French in the region. (3) Indeed, the people who formulated and advocated for this policy were largely the same as those who had done so before and during the First World War. (4)
All Himmler says in the telegram is that the Third Reich supported the Arab claim to Palestine, that the jews were invaders (which was, and is, quite true), the Third Reich rejected the unilateral Balfour declaration and that as such Germany would support the Palestinians in their struggle against their common enemy: the jews.
It really is that simple.
It doesn’t impact the evidence of the Third Reich’s interest in Zionism as a solution, because Zionism did not specifically mean creating the state of Israel but rather giving the jews their own state. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that as that is discussed in Herzl’s 1896 ‘Der Judenstaat’ – who believed that a state in what is Argentina would be more practical than trying to settle in Palestine - and until the Balfour Declaration.
There was a great deal of debate about where the prospective ‘jewish state’ was to be located.
It is not surprise however that fools and half-baked ideological Zionist cranks like to forget to mention such trivial details…
References
(1) http://forward.com/fast-forward/367667/supportive-telegram-from-himmler-to-grand-mufti-unearthed-in-israel/
(2) http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/livingstones-anti-semitism-defence-undermined-by-himmlers-support-arabs-1614567
(3) Sean McMeekin, 2011, ‘The Berlin-Baghdad Express: The Ottoman Empire and Germany’s Bid for World Power, 1898-1918’, 1st Edition, Penguin: New York, pp. 344-366
(4) Ibid.