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
Acknowledgments | 7 |
Preface to the Norton paperback edition | 9 |
Introduction | 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 active Africa ancient anti anti-Jewish anti-Semitic literature anti-Semitism Arab countries Arab world Arabia Aryan attack attitudes Axis Axis powers became began Beirut Britain British Cairo Christendom Christian conflict cultural defeat diplomatic domination Eastern Europe Egypt Egyptian enemy ethnic evil expressed foreign France French German Greek groups hatred Hebrew Hitler hostility ideology immigration important influence Iran Iraq Islamic world Israel Israeli Jerusalem Jewish communities Jewish National Home Jewry Jews Judaism language leaders Lebanon London major massacre ment Middle East minorities modern movement mufti Muslim Nazi Nazism neighbors nineteenth century non-Muslims official Ottoman Empire Palestine Palestinian peace persecution Poland Poliakov political population prejudice problem propaganda Protocols published Qur'an race racial racist regime religion religious role rule Russian Saudi Semitic Semitic languages settlement social socialist sometimes Soviet Union struggle Syria Talmud theme tion traditional translation West Western writers Zionist