Via Taranto and the Wall Street Journal and the Middle East Media Research Institute we learn that the director of the Alexandria Library museum in Egypt considers The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to be not only genuine, but a Jewish holy book on the level of the Talmud. He also is skeptical of the Holocaust, believing that Hitler could easily have killed all the Jews in Europe if he'd wanted to, but he didn't, and the West is deceived on this point. Here are the details.

Recently, a manuscript museum opened at the new Alexandria Library, which was renovated by the Egyptian and Italian governments via UNESCO. In the November 17, 2003 issue of the Egyptian weekly Al-Usbu', correspondent Jihan Hussein reported that the museum had added 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion' to the display case of the holy books of the monotheistic religions, next to a Torah.

In an interview with the Egyptian weekly, museum director Yousef Ziedan explains why he did it:

"When my eyes fell upon the rare copy of this dangerous book, I decided immediately to place it next to the Torah. Although it is not a monotheistic holy book, it has become one of the sacred [tenets] of the Jews, next to their first constitution, their religious law, [and] their way of life. In other words, it is not merely an ideological or theoretical book.

"Perhaps this book of the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' is more important to the Zionist Jews of the world than the Torah, because they conduct Zionist life according to it.

 . . It is only natural to place the book in the framework of an exhibit of Torah [scrolls]."

Memri also quotes this gem from an article Zeidan posted on the Web:

When Hitler's atrocities are mentioned, immediately point out the cremation of the Jews in the gas chambers. This happens because of the knowledge that is passed on regarding the Holocaust.

This is knowledge that has reached the world via a diverse stream of information from journalists' reports, historical research, compensation, unceasing buzz in the media, and films such as Schindler's List which made the entire world cry and which was banned in our country so that we won't cry too over the fate of the poor Jews!

What is important is that the information arrived, but what about reality? In reality, 50,000,000 fell victim to the Nazis, among them 1,000,000 Jews and the rest Gypsies, Poles, and other nations. In reality, an analysis of samples from the purported gas chambers has proven that these were sterilization chambers, without a sufficient quantity of cyanide to kill.

In reality, had Hitler wanted to annihilate the Jews of Europe, he would have. He had an opportunity. The distance between events and widespread knowledge about them is great.

It is for reasons like this that a division between the civilized world and barbarians makes sense. The surprise is not that some people in Egypt believe things like this, but that the director of an important museum does, and is not embarassed to proclaim it to the world.

[ permalink, http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/03.12.06b.htm ]

To return to Eric Rasmusen's weblog, click http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/0.rasmusen.htm.

---