Mohamed Gad El-Zoghby’s Crazed History of Zionism

by Hugh Fitzgerald

Egyptian researcher Mohamed Gad El-Zoghby, interviewed on Safa TV on August 12, 2018, made some statements that are worth recalling now as illuminating of the “Palestinian” mindset. He said that just like  in Europe, which had “founded the [Zionist] enterprise, in the days of Napoleon, in order to get rid of the Jews,” the American people and government “could not tolerate the Jews.” His fantastic tale is here.

If El-Zoghby is right, and both in Europe and  America people “could not tolerate the Jews,” then this merely confirms just how right the Muslim Arabs have been to despise them. Muslims are joined by everyone else, antisemitism makes the whole world kin.

In an episode of a series called “Know Your Enemy,” El-Zoghby said that only in the days of Herzl, the “powerful and popular president” who “led America during WWII” and was “the only president to serve three terms,” did the interests of the American Jews and of the Zionist enterprise converge. He went on to say that Herzl [!] had brought in “man of shadows” Truman, “a most simple man,” as his VP because he did not want a VP who would rob him of his popularity.

Mohamed Gad El-Zoghby says: “What was the original position of the U.S. on the plan to establish the Zionist state? The people and the government of the U.S. could not tolerate the Jews, just like Europe. When Europe founded the [Zionist] enterprise, in the days of Napoleon, it did so in order to get rid of the Jews.”

It was not Europe that “founded the [Zionist] enterprise” in the “days of Napoleon.” It was Jews who, long after Napoleon was dead, decided to promote the idea of a Jewish state in Palestine. The First Zionist Congress was held in Basel in 1897, about a century after Mohamed Gad El-Zoghby thinks Napoleon was supporting the [non-existent Zionist] enterprise, because he, like so many others, supposedly wanted to get rid of the Jews. Among the many offenses to history in El-Zoghby’s short discussion is that concerning Napoleon. He was far from hostile to the Jews; he emancipated them — gave them full civil and political rights — both in France and wherever his armies established outposts of the French Empire. He was also long dead when the first Zionist Congress was held. Zionism was a positive Jewish movement to establish a state that, among other things, would be a refuge for Jews facing mounting antisemitism in Europe. It was not a movement by antisemites who saw Zionism, according to El-Zoghby, “as a way to rid Europe of its Jews.”

“In America, however, things were different. Both on the governmental and popular levels, there was no gate they could open [to get rid of the Jews], because America is ruled by interests. The European immigration waves that founded America were based exclusively on an economic mentality. America today is more like a corporation than a state. It is completely ruled by economy, capital, and influence. It’s a corporation. The main European immigration wave was from among the Anglo-Saxon race – the extremist Christians. They blame the Jews for the blood of Christ.”

Here we have a suggestion, unsurprising coming from Mr. El-Zoghby, that Jews could not  be pushed out of America, as so many wished to do to them, because of their financial success in America. Jews and Money, the favorite subject of European antisemities, now is finding  favor  with Muslim Arabs. They were too rich, and therefore too powerful, to expel, in El-Zoghby’s telling. It is perhaps worth noting that the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing “equal protection of the laws” to all Americans, which would have prevented any such mass expulsion, is unknown to El-Zoghby.

“The European Jews in America had opposed the Zionist enterprise until then, because they believed America, not Palestine, to be the Promised Land.”

Jews in America did not “oppose the Zionist enterprise.” Not all were committed Zionists, which is different from “opposing”  Zionism. Many Jews felt quite content in the United States, but were well aware that the situation of Jews in other places — in Russia, Eastern Europe, Germany, and in Muslim lands, too — was dire and these people required a refuge. Reverend Stephen Wise, perhaps the most celebrated American rabbi of his day, was an ardent Zionist, who joined with such other prominent figures as Justice Louis Brandeis and Felix Frankfurter to make the case for Zionism, to both Jews and non-Jews alike. With the arrival of Hitler and the Nazis, American Jews became even more favorable to the cause of Zionism.

“But when Herzl, the founder of the Zionist enterprise, realized the danger posed by the lack of support of the Jews of America, he communicated with them. After what happened in WWII and the rise of Hitler in order to annihilate the Jews, the interests converged. That’s when the American Jews linked themselves to the Zionist enterprise. If this was on the governmental level, what can we say about the level of the presidents themselves? The most famous president accused of collaboration with the Jews was Truman. Truman succeeded Herzl [sic]. Herzl was a unique president. He was the only president to serve three terms, because he led America during WWII. He was elected at the time. Herzl was a very powerful and popular president.”

The comical confusion spins out of control on the part of this “Egyptian scholar,” who does not know the name of the most famous American president of the 20th century, but has gotten it into his head that that president is named “Herzl” and is “the founder of the Zionist enterprise” — that is, he is Theodor Herzl who, instead of founding modern Zionism in the  late 19th century, apparently founded it in the 1930s, when he was the American President. This reflects El-Zoghby’s belief in the vast power of American Jews. They could even put their own man in the Presidency. Note, too, El-Zoghby’s referring to Truman as being “accused of collaboration with the Jews” — a sinister twist is given to the fact that Truman did nothing more than recognize the State of Israel. Some “collaboration with the Jews.”

“Herzl did not want to have a powerful vice president, who would rob him of his popularity, so he brought the so-called ‘man of shadows,’ Truman, who was a most simple man. It’s like when President Abdel Nasser selected Sadat.”

An absurd remark. Franklin Roosevelt — or “Herzl” in El-Zoghby’s version — in 1944 was at the height of his popularity, with the Depression long over, and World War II having taken a decisive turn, in both Europe and the Pacific, in favor of the Allies. Roosevelt (Herzl) had no need to worry about a vice president “who would rob him of his popularity.” The point being made here by El-Zoghby is that Truman, a “most simple man,” was selected because of his lack of any notable qualities — and his supposed mediocrity helps explain, according to El-Zoghby, why he turned out to be guilty “of collaboration with the Jews.” A less mediocre man would not have “collaborated” with the perfidious Jews.

What is the whole point of this article? It is to make Mohamed Gad El-Zoghby’s  Egyptian audience think that Zionism was not really a product of Jewish longing, of Jewish suffering, of Jewish striving, of Jewish nation-building, but rather, was promoted mainly by those non-Jews who wanted, beginning with Napoleon — and with good reason, because everyone dislikes the Jews, according to El-Zoghby — to get rid of “their” Jews by foisting them onto the land belonging to those innocent victims of Zionism, the Arabs of Palestine. And that’s why — no need for El-Zoghby even to spell it out — that Europe, and America, are to blame for the “Palestinian” tragedy and they need to make amends, not least by ending their support for Israel and generously supporting the “Palestinians.”

It turns Zionism upside-down and inside-out. But Mohamed Gad El-Zoghby and 1.6 billion Muslims wouldn’t have it any other way.

First published in Jihad Watch