Iraqi newspaper: 'Iraq needs Adolf Hitler'

BAGHDAD (Christian Examiner) – Iraq is looking for a hero to protect it from the Jews – someone just like Adolf Hitler – an editorial in the Iraqi daily Al-Zaman claimed March 6.

According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), writer Karim Al-Taee wrote in the paper that the Jews have enacted a plan to settle Mosul in northern Iraq while the country is distracted by its fight with the Islamic State (ISIS). The Jews reportedly living there now – an area from which ISIS has purged Christians – are also plotting to take over all of Iraq's resources, Al-Taee wrote.

The fanciful piece of anti-Semitic propaganda is not new to the region. Similar articles have appeared in Shiite newspapers in Iran. It is rare, however, that such pieces are given voice in an established Iraqi newspaper, which is not an Islamic republic, but a secular state.

Al-Taee wrote that the situation afflicting Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein is the same as what Hitler described in Mein Kampf, his political manifesto which launched his rise to power and the mass extermination of 6 million Jews.

"The main reason for the war in Germany was the Jews, because they weakened the nation and its people and [completely] consumed [the country's] resources. They exploited [their control] of funds and the interest [earned on them] in order to attain the most senior positions in the state, and to kill its people both spiritually by poisoning their minds with ideas distancing the people from their nationalism and affiliation, and physically by starving them and making the daily concern about food into their main worry," he wrote.

Al-Taee wrote that the West was playing a "nice game" in Iraq "with the Jews at their head." The Jews, he wrote, were settling Mosul, buying land at "rock-bottom prices," and orchestrating the work of the Islamic State to confuse Iraq.

The Islamic State, however, has promised to destroy Israel once it has established a caliphate over the Middle East. In October 2015, ISIS released a video showing a Hebrew-speaking militant promising "soon there will not be one Jew left in Jerusalem."

According to Al-Taee, those sorts of videos are all part of the Jewish plan to gain control of Iraq.

"Hitler said: 'The Jews are like parasitic plants that burden the nations and compete with them for their sources of income. The Jew conceals his [true] aspirations behind the mask of his powdered face, and behind the screen of the Jewish community. Then, when he thinks he is capable of imposing his rule and establishing his state, he reveals his true self, and begins implementing his malice and actualizing his objectives," he wrote.

He alleged the same thing is happening to Iraq, where the people and the government are being "made pawns" by an imperialist alliance made up of the West and the Jews, both of which are forcing consumerism on the people, tearing down Iraqi national pride and pitting religion against religion (Sunni v. Shiite).

"This barbaric [Jewish] entity that has gotten completely out of control has no basis for existence. It was created... to distract the people from important affairs of state, and to clear the decks for the thieves and the bloody games in parliament, that are manipulated by the West to its heart's content," Al-Taeem wrote.

Al-Taeem's rhetoric is, ironically, strikingly similar to that of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who called on March 4 for the Iraqi government to be overthrown for its corruption. He also contacted Egyptian radicals in November 2015 to seek an alliance against their common enemy, "the Jews and their subordinates." Al-Sadr is the top Shiite cleric in Iraq. He was responsible for the Shiite uprising in Fallujah in 2004, which posed one of the most serious challenges to U.S. troops during the Iraq War.

"If we [the Iraqis] take a close look at the situation, we will clearly see the evil of the game that has been forced on us, or into which we have inserted ourselves. But even though everyone, or most, are aware of all the real and dangerous moves, they ignore them, claiming falsely that they do not notice them. What truly interests the people are legitimate material demands; what primarily interests politicians is stealing money and filling their Western bank accounts," Al-Taeem wrote.

"We [Iraqis] are revolving around a single axis – the Jews. They are the first and last manipulator of their pawns among the Iraqi politicians and MPs [members of parliament]. The only solution for Iraq is a genuine revolution; a student intifada will bring a better future if we place the voice of the homeland, the citizen, and civics above everything else; subject ourselves to the law of reason and logic; raise the slogan of 'Iraq and only Iraq,' and at least for a while, set aside our secondary identities."

A "student intifada" was the catalyst for the Islamic Revolution in Iran, now a staunch opponent of Israel that threatens to destroy the Jews on a daily basis.

Al-Zaman is a "pan-Arab" newspaper with offices in London, Oman and other countries. It was founded in 1986 by Saad Al-Bazzaz, the former media chief for Saddam Hussein and a Baath Party member.