Osama bin Laden is no fan of the Jewish people. According to bin Laden, “These Jews are masters of usury and leaders in treachery. They will leave you nothing, either in this world or the next.” Furthermore, bin Laden and al-Qaeda lists Israel as one of the four principal “enemies of Islam”. These enemies similarly include: heretics; Shia; and most notably, America.
According to Nasrallah, Jews are “the murderers of the prophets.” Nasrallah has referred to Israel as “the state of the grandsons of apes and pigs – the Zionist Jews.” When asked about the sovereignty of the State of Israel in an interview with the Washington Post, Nasrallah affirmed, “I consider its presence both unjust and unlawful.”
While these terror leaders and their subordinates preach severe hatred of the Jewish people, their terror networks actively practice what they preach. These groups, and others such as Hamas, have launched and claimed responsibility for deadly attacks specifically targeting Jews. In 2006, Hezbollah launched a month-long military campaign firing thousands of rockets at Jewish civilian centers. In 2008, the deadly attack in Mumbai centered around a small religious center for Jewish tourists.
The web of Radical Islam and hatred runs much deeper than militant terrorists. Today, there is a sophisticated effort to mold the minds of Muslims to hate the Jewish people from an early age. And the teaching of hatred is combined with a glorification of martyrdom.
From textbooks to television shows, teachings are laced with anti-Jewish sentiment. Documented examples include: geography lessons that show maps without any mention of Israel and math lessons with problem-solving questions starting with phrases such as, “If there are ten Jews on a bus, and you kill eight…”
Children’s television shows in various Middle Eastern countries use popular cartoon figures to preach hatred. Hamas-run television features a show for children starring a suicide bomber that looks strikingly similar to Mickey Mouse. An Egyptian cleric appearing on a children’s television program summarizes a lesson by repeating that “Jews are the people of treachery, betrayal, and vileness.”
By indoctrinating hatred from an early age, it becomes easier to recruit terrorists to murder Jews even at the sacrifice of their own lives.
