Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice"A powerful book. It combines the coolness of scholarship with conclusions that cannot fail to engage the passions."—Saul Bellow The Arab-Israeli conflict has unsettled the Middle East for over half a century. This conflict is primarily political, a clash between states and peoples over territory and history. But it is also a conflict that has affected and been affected by prejudice. For a long time this was simply the "normal" prejudice between neighboring people of different religions and ethnic origins. In the present age, however, hostility toward Israel and its people has taken the form of anti-Semitism-a pernicious world view that goes beyond prejudice and ascribes to Jews a quality of cosmic evil. First published in the 1980s to universal acclaim, Semites and Anti-Semites traces the development of anti-Semitism from its beginnings as a poison in the bloodstream of Christianity to its modern entrance into mainstream Islam. Bernard Lewis, one of the world's foremost scholars of the Middle East, takes us through the history of the Semitic peoples to the emergence of the Jews and their virulent enemies, and dissects the region's recent tragic developments in a moving new afterword. "A powerful and important work, beautifully written and edited, and based on a range of erudition (in the best sense) that few others, if any, could command."—George Kennan |
Contents
7 | |
9 | |
11 | |
The Holocaust and After | 25 |
Semites | 42 |
Jews | 58 |
AntiSemites | 81 |
The Muslims and the Jews | 117 |
The Nazis and the Palestine Question | 140 |
Other editions - View all
Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry Into Conflict and Prejudice Bernard Lewis No preview available - 1999 |
Common terms and phrases
accusations Africa ainst Al-Musawwar ancient anti anti-Jewish anti-Semitism anti-Zionism Arab countries Arab world attack Axis powers became Beirut British Cairo Christian confined conflict cultural defeat defined definition difficult diplomatic domination Eastern Europe Egypt Egyptian enemy European evil expressed figures final finally find first foreign France French German groups hatred Hebrew hich Hitler hostility ideology immigration important influence Iran Iraq Islamic world Israel Israeli Jerusalem Jewish community Jewish National Home Jewry Jews Judaism lands language leaders Lebanon London major massacre Middle East minor mitic modern movement mufti Muslim Nazi Nazism nineteenth century official Ottoman Empire Palestine Palestinian peace persecution Poland Poliakov political population prejudice propaganda Protocols published Qur’an race racial racist regime religion religious rule Russian Saudi Semitic Semitic languages settlement significant social socialist sometimes Soviet specific struggle Sulayman Syria Talmud theme ti-Semitic translation West Western writings Zionist