"The attacks on the Mufti were part of a larger pro-Zionist education campaign aimed at portraying the Arab leaders of the Middle East as reactionary despots intent on destroying the progressive Jewish experiment in Palestine. Several months before the end of the war, the American Zionist leadership determined that if a Jewish state were to be created, “the idea that the Arabs consent must be obtained . . . must be broken down.” Accordingly, they decided that their propaganda should stress that the Arabs represented “a reactionary element in the Middle East.”
Shortly afterwards, publicist Eliahu Ben-Horin wrote that “Arab social philosophy and the existing forms of Arab society are in harmony with the Nazi-Fascist system rather than our democratic ideas.” The Arab rulers of the Middle East, the last remaining bulwarks of feudalism in the world, “fight bitterly against any democratic or civilizing innovation.”
Zionist depictions of Arab society and Arab nationalism after World War II attempted to deny that there was any basic conflict between the goals of the Jewish settlers in Palestine and the aspirations of the land’s Arab majority. Believing that increased prosperity and better health care could win the loyalty of Palestine’s non-Jewish population, Zionists blamed tensions and unrest in the country on unscrupulous leaders committed to protecting their own selfish interests."
