By Prof. Paul Eidelberg

Why anyone should still be shocked by the virulent Jew-hatred broadcast by Yasir Arafat's Voice of Palestine is passing strange. Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak has become inured to this Jew-hatred. He does not even complain about the Palestine Authority's unremitting incitement of Arabs to murder Jews - which incitement violates the Oslo or Israel-PLO Agreement. His silence, however, only heightens Arab contempt for Jews and incites them to more violence.

Incidentally, Arafat is a Cairo-born Egyptian, and the most obscene Jew-hatred is purveyed by Egypt's state-controlled media in violation of the Israel-Egyptian Peace Treaty of March 26, 1979. Jew-hatred is endemic in the Arab-Islamic world, thanks largely to the Koran.

No less than Winston Churchill called the Koran the "Mein Kampf of war."True, one can find in the Koran "suras" affirming the Jews' God-given right to Eretz Israel. But in dealing with "infidels," what has animated adherents of the Koran for 1,300 years is the doctrine of JIHAD (holy war): "Believers, take neither Jews nor Christians for your friends" (Sura 5:50). "Allah does not forbid you to be kind and equitable to those who have neither made war on your religion nor driven you from your homes.... But he forbids you to make friends with those who have fought against you ... or abetted others who do so" (Sura 60:8-9). From this passage comes the necessity on the part of Arabs to describe Jews as "aggressors." The Koran's imperative on dealing with "aggressors"? "Kill them wherever you find them" (Sura 2:190).

Why do Israel's political leaders turn a blind eye toward Arab-Islamic Jew-hatred? Why do they mislead Jews about "reciprocity" or about "security" or about "peace" with those who hate Jews and are committed to Israel's destruction? Why do they expect Yasir Arafat and Bill Clinton, neither of whom are famous for veracity, to abide by words on a piece of paper after Israel withdraws from her heartland, Judea and Samaria?

Jews can't handle Jew-hatred, even though they have been exposed to it for thousands of years. Here are a few chilling samples from Martin Luther's "Exhortation Against the Jews" of February 15, 1546 - and bear in mind that this Jew-hatred permeated the German mentality:

"The Book of Esther is dear to the Jews, it is so well in line with their bloody and poisonous sentiment. There is no people under the sun so avid of revenge, so bloodthirsty, believing itself to be God's people merely in order to strangle and immolate the heathens. "Know, Christian, that next to the devil thou has no enemy more cruel, more venomous and violent than a true Jew.

"These are thieves, brigands who do not eat any food, do not wear on their bodies a single thread, which they have not stolen from us and taken away by the most voracious usuries."Who prevents the Jews from returning to Judea? Nobody....We shall provide them with all the supplies for the journey, only in order to get rid of that disgusting vermin."

Religious fanaticism? No doubt. But let's not forget Voltaire, an atheist and a humanist, who had this to say in his article "Juif" in the widely read DICTIONNAIRE PHILOSOPHIQUE: "In short, we find in them [the Jews] only an ignorant and barbarous people, who have long united the most sordid avarice with the most detestable superstition and the most invincible hatred for every people by whom they are tolerated and enriched. Still, WE OUGHT NOT TO BURN THEM" (emphasis added).

Of course there are many Judophiles among Christians. But Jewish history has been influenced not by Christian love but by Christian hatred. And it will not be philoSemitism but antiSemitism that will influence Israel's immediate future.

Understandably, but also unfortunately, Jews would rather be loved than feared. The trouble is that love is fickle and depends primarily on others, whereas fear depends primarily on you, what you are and what you do. That' s why defense analysts talk about "deterrence."

The mere fact that Israel is preoccupied with peace arouses contempt in Israel's anything but peace-loving neighbors. (And Jordan is no exception.) Strange as it may seem, Israel's preoccupation with security is the greatest cause of its insecurity. And there the fault lies not with the Jewish people so much as with the shortcomings of Israel's leaders, which shortcomings, however, are magnified and multiplied by the unrepresentative and fragmented character of Israel's political institutions.

The tendency of a nation preoccupied with security is to react to others - if it reacts at all. In the case of Israel, however, or rather of prime minister Ehud Barak, he reacts to Arab violence by yielding more Jewish land to Arafat!

What Israel needs most is a positive goal, a Jewish agenda. That's why Yamin Israel's party program advocates not only a Jewish Constitution for the State of Israel, but a set of practical measures that will solidify the country and enable Israel to take the initiative in foreign affairs.

Interested readers should contact Yamin Israel via e-mail: yamin@galanet.net.