from Peter Myers..

(1) Abbas: Jews were massacred for centuries because of their "social behavior related to usury and banks"(2) Netanyahu attacks Abbas speech, calls him 'Holocaust Denier', ie Denier of the Primacy of Jewish Suffering(3) Palestinian leader Abbas says Jews' behaviour led to Holocaust(4)  Herzl admits Jewish role in Usury: "our terrible power of the purse"(1) Abbas: Jews were massacred for centuries because of their "social behavior related to usury and banks"https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Abbas-says-European-Jews-were-massacred-because-of-their-behavior-553263EUROPE JEWS’ ‘ROLE’ GOT THEM MASSACRED, ABBAS SAYSAbbas also cited a theory that Ashkenazi Jews do not hail from what is modern-day Israel, but rather Khazaria.BY ADAM RASGON MAY 1, 2018 22:12Jews in Europe were massacred for centuries because of their “social role related to usury and banks,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday.Abbas made the statement in a speech at the beginning of a meeting of the Palestinian National Council, a top PLO body that is convening in Ramallah this week to elect members to two other PLO institutions.The comments marked the second time in several months that the 83-year-old Palestinian leader spoke about his take on Jewish and Zionist history. In a speech in January at a meeting of the PLO Central Council, Abbas discussed his perspective on Jewish and Zionist history, arguing Israel is a “colonial project with no relationship to Judaism.”His comments in January were met with a highly critical response and accusations of antisemitism by Israeli government officials and Jewish organizations and overshadowed other remarks he made about coexistence and nonviolence.Abbas’s remarks on Monday appear to reflect that the PA president has become less concerned with the ramifications of making comments that Israel and much of the international community likely reject.“From the 11th century until the Holocaust that took place in Germany, the Jews – who moved to Western and Eastern Europe – were subjected to a massacre every 10 to 15 years. But why did this happen?” Abbas said on Monday, before interjecting, “The Jewish issue that was widespread in all European countries... was not because of their religion, but rather their social role related to usury and banks.”He said his comments were based on the writings of Karl Marx and two other Jewish authors.Esther Webman, an expert on Arab perspectives of the Holocaust, said Abbas’s remarks on the persecution of Jews are inaccurate.“[His statement] certainly is not accurate, because Nazism wanted to annihilate Jewish people wherever it is,” she said in a phone call. “An ideology, such as Nazism, that wants to erase all Jews is against Jews. The argument that Jews were killed for their social role is nothing more than an excuse that was used to justify the annihilation of Jews.”During the Holocaust, the Nazis and their collaborators murdered some six million Jews.Abbas also cited a theory that Ashkenazi Jews do not hail from what is modern-day Israel, but rather Khazaria, an empire that was located between Eastern Europe and the Middle East hundreds of years ago.“Arthur Koestler, an American-Jewish Zionist, wrote a book about the 13th tribe... Where did you get the 13th from? They invented them. Where? In the Khazar Kingdom. When? In the ninth century,” Abbas said. “This kingdom was not religious and then it became Jewish... It later broke up, and all of its residents moved to Europe. These people are the Ashkenazi Jews. They have no relationship to Semitic culture, Abraham, Jacob and others.”There were 12 Israelite tribes.Koestler was not an American.Koestler and some other historians such as Shlomo Sand have argued that Jews from Central and Eastern Europe are the descendants of Khazars.However, Alexander Beider, a scholar of Jewish studies, and other academics have dismissed the Khazar theory about the origins of European Jewry. In an article in The Daily Forward in 2017, he called the theory “junk science.”“The theory is absolutely without evidence,” Beider wrote. “As any historian will tell you, generations of Jews, like generations of any people, leave historical traces behind them. These traces come in multiple forms. For starters, people leave behind them historical documents and archeological data. Predictably, archaeological evidence about the widespread existence of Jews in Khazaria is almost nonexistent.”In his speech, Abbas also reiterated that Israel is “a colonial project” and that Jews were not backers of building a Jewish state in historic Palestine. “Now let’s talk about the homeland of the Jews,” he said. “They say they are yearning for Zion... History says this is baseless. The proof is that the first person to call for a Jewish state was Cromwell, the British leader, in 1653... Napoleon Bonaparte came after him [and said the same thing]. And after [Napoleon], Churchill, the grandfather, came in 1840 [and said the same thing]... So everyone was calling for a Jewish state, but not the Jews... The story of building a national home didn’t come from the Jews, but rather the colonial states.” According to Abbas, the European leaders wanted to plant “a foreign people” in Palestine as a way to impress conflict and division in Arab states and thereby maintain control over them and exploit their strategic location. He also said Nazi Germany made efforts to help to create Israel and cultivate a supportive population there. Abbas said the Nazi Economy Ministry and the Anglo-Palestine Bank made an agreement that any Jewish German who wanted to immigrate to Palestine could have his or her tangible and intangible assets transferred there. “Did Hitler love the Jews to this extent?” Abbas asked rhetorically. “What did Hitler want? He wanted the Jewish homeland [in Palestine] to be supportive of him.” Nazi Germany, the Anglo-Palestine Bank and the Zionist Federation of Germany agreed in August 1933 to the Haavara Agreement, which allowed Jews to relinquish their possessions in Germany in exchange for payouts when they arrived in Palestine. Nonetheless, Abbas clarified that he still wants to coexist with the country in a two-state solution.“[Israel being a colonial project] does not mean that we should uproot them,” Abbas said. “We are not saying that... We want to coexist with them on the basis of two states, a Palestinian state and Israel on 1967 borders.” Abbas also said the Ramallah-based Palestinian leadership is in favor of building ties with Israeli supporters of peace. “We are with the supporters in Israel,” he said. “We want to cooperate with them to build peace in Israel and the region... Thus, there is communication. We will continue to communicate with those who want peace and those we expect want peace.” Later in his speech, Abbas eschewed violence as a means to oppose Israel’s military rule in the West Bank, offering his support for “peaceful, popular resistance.”(2) Netanyahu attacks Abbas speech, calls him 'Holocaust Denier', ie Denier of the Primacy of Jewish Sufferinghttps://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/PM-Netanyahu-Time-for-Abbas-to-step-down-following-antisemitic-comments-553300Netanyahu: Abbas Was A Holocaust Denier, Has Remained A Holocaust Denier Abbas alleged on Tuesday that European Jews were massacred for centuries because of their "social behavior related to usury and banks."By Tovah Lazaroff, Jpost.Com Staff  May 2, 2018 12:39 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a scathing attack against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday morning for his speech the day before that relied on classic antisemitic slogans connecting Jews with money lending. Abbas' views on the Holocaust have long been suspect because of his academic work, in which he gave space to an argument that disputed the death of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, claiming that less than one million were killed. "Abu Mazen [Abbas] gave another antisemitic speech,” Netanyahu said. In a display of “ignorance and insolence, he claimed that the Jews of Europe were persecuted and murdered not because they were Jews, but because they engaged in interest-bearing loans,” Netanyahu said. “Abu Mazen once again recites the most despicable antisemitic slogans. Abbas “was a Holocaust denier and has remained a Holocaust denier,” Netanyahu said. “I call on the international community to condemn Abu Mazen's grave antisemitism,” Netanyahu continued and added that it's time for such antisemitism to disappear from the world. Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett (Bayit Yehudi), reacting to Abbas' speech, said Wednesday that the Palestinian leader was "drenched in antisemitism from head to toe." "Abbas’s body is drenched with antisemitism, from head to toe. He continues the tradition of his predecessors, the Grand Mufti who was a friend of Hitler, and Arafat, an arch-murderer of Jews," he said. "He fills the minds of the next generation with the poison of antisemitism. Peace will come from the public, not from a corrupt and antisemitic Palestinian Authority,” he said. In a speech at a meeting of the Palestinian National Council, Abbas alleged that European Jews were massacred for centuries because of their "social behavior related to usury and banks." "From the 11th century until the Holocaust that took place in Germany, the Jews – who moved to Western and Eastern Europe – were subjected to a massacre every 10 to 15 years. But why did this happen?" Abbas said on Monday, before interjecting, “The Jewish issue that was widespread in all European countries... was not because of their religion, but rather their social behavior related to usury and banks.” Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) also condemned Abbas's remarks on Wednesday. "The antisemite is out of the bag. Mahmoud Abbas, a small and irrelevant man, has revealed in the last few days... what he truly thinks of the State of Israel and Jews. The man, who funds families of terrorists who massacred and are massacring us, will go down in history as a Holocaust denier, racist and inciter, if at all," said Edelstein. Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) said Abbas revealed his true nature when speaking in Arabic, rather than English. "The Holocaust-denying Mahmoud Abbas revealed in Arabic what he hides in English: that he is the head of those inciting against the existence of the Jewish State in the Land of Israel," said Hotovely. "Someone who continually claims that the Jewish State is a colonialist enterprise, spreads hatred and works to prevent peace in the Middle East can certainly not be a partner for peace, but instead a force that makes it more unattainable," she said. Writing on Twitter on Tuesday, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman castigated Abbas's speech as a "new low," and said his remarks show that Israel is not responsible for the continued failure of American-led efforts to secure a final peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump's Special Representative for International Negotiations, also condemned the speech. "President Abbas’ remarks yesterday in Ramallah at the opening of the Palestinian National Congress must be unconditionally condemned by all. They are very unfortunate, very distressing & terribly disheartening. Peace cannot be built on this kind of foundation," Greenblatt wrote on Twitter. Adam Rasgon and Samuel Thrope contributed to this article.(3) Palestinian leader Abbas says Jews' behaviour led to Holocausthttps://www.sbs.com.au/news/palestinian-leader-abbas-says-jews-behaviour-led-to-holocaust Palestinian leader Abbas says Jews' behaviour led to Holocaust Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told a meeting on the West Bank on Monday that Jews' "social function" and financial practices had led to the Holocaust, rather than anti-semitism. The remarks have been strongly condemned in Israel and the United States. Trump's special envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Jason Greenblatt, said the comments should be "unconditionally condemned by all". "They are very unfortunate, very distressing and terribly disheartening. Peace cannot be built on this kind of foundation," Mr Greenblatt tweeted. During the 90-minute speech at a rare meeting of the National Palestinian Council in Ramallah, President Abbas attributed the theory to Jewish scholars and pointed out that pogroms against Jews had not taken place in Arab countries with Jewish communities. "So the Jewish question that was widespread throughout Europe was not against their religion but against their social function which relates to usury [unscrupulous money-lending] and banking and such," he said during the televised speech. The US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman described the remarks as a "new low". "To all those who think Israel is the reason that we don't have peace, think again." David M. Friedman @USAmbIsrael  Abu Mazen has reached a new low in attributing the cause of massacres of Jewish people over the years to their "social behavior relating to interest and banks." To all those who think Israel is the reason that we don't have peace, think again. 7:06 AM - May 2, 2018 Americans for Peace Now, a group that promotes Israeli-Palestinian peace based on a two-state solution, also condemned the "vile, anti-Semitic speech". "His words were completely unacceptable, thoroughly offensive and damaging to efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace," the organisation said in a statement. Israel has previously labelled Abbas a Holocaust denier - a claim he denies. - with Wires, Source: SBS(4)  Herzl admits Jewish role in Usury: "our terrible power of the purse" Theodor Herzl wrote in The Jewish State:{p. 91} When  we sink, we become a revolutionary proletariat, the subordinate officers of all revolutionaly parties; and at the same time, when we rise, there  rises also our terrible power of the purse.{end} See a scan of that page at http://mailstar.net/herzl-jewish-state-90-1.jpgMore at http://mailstar.net/herzl.html.-- Peter Myerswebsite: http://mailstar.net/index.html