Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

(MEMRI via JNS) — The Jews “who came to Palestine” are pagan Khazar converts, not the Children of Israel, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in a Dec. 18 speech posted online by the official Syrian Arab News Agency and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

The Syrian dictator went on to state there is “no evidence” that six million Jews died in the Holocaust, and that the Nazis did not employ any special methods of torture or killing for Jews, who he said were killed just like other victims of World War II.

The Holocaust was “politicized” and used as a false pretext to transfer the Jews from Europe to Palestine, said Assad. He also claimed that America was the one who supported the rise of the Nazis in Germany between the world wars.

“Most of us do not know that the rise of Nazism between the two world wars happened with American support. The question on everybody’s mind is: ‘How is it that despite the German collapse and European constraints, Nazism was allowed to rise and build an army?’” It was done with American support, money, loans and investments,” he said.

While “nobody denies” there were “holocausts,” he continued, the singling out of the Jewish victims of WWII was proof of political motive.

“True, there were concentration camps, but what shows you that this is a politicized issue, and is not a humanitarian issue, and is not real, [is] how come we talk about these six millions, and not the 26 million Soviets who were killed in that war? Are those six millions more precious? The same acts were everywhere. There was no method of torture or killing specific to the Jews. The Nazis used the same method everywhere,” said Assad.

“However, this issue was politicized, in order to falsify the truth, and later to prepare for the transfer of the Jews from Europe to other areas, or [rather] to Palestine. The Jews who came to Palestine are Khazar Jews, from east of the Caspian Sea. They were pagans who converted to Judaism in the eighth century. They emigrated to Europe, and from there, came to this region. They have nothing to do whatever with the [ancient] people of Israel.”