Angry Arab watch

The former free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, and now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus and visiting professor at UC, Berkeley

-- whose politics of hatred can be summed up in this kind of statement: "I am not satisfied with somebody's criticisms of Israel here and there: the task is to categorically reject the Israeli racist project, without equivocation. Anything short of that is a form of endorsement of racism and war crimes." --

provides a quote from Churchill:

"Churchill on Hitler“I have always said that if Britain were defeated in a war I hoped we should find a Hitler to lead us back to our rightful position among nations.”

It is supposed to tell us something about Churchill that diminishes his giant footprint in the history of the free world.

Here is the real story behind and around this quote, which the professor etc., in his devout adherence to academic standards, chose to exclude from his blog. Churchill's comment on Hitler was in response to Hitler's speech to the Reich­stag in early Novem­ber 1938, in which Hitler had attacked Churchill and oth­ers who had objected to the Munich Pact by name and describ­ing them as “war­mon­gers.” Churchill's response starts with the statement Dr. As’ad AbuKhalil provided, but is just the introductory note in a short speech that follows :

"What Churchill then said has often been quoted out of con­text to sug­gest that he was an admirer of Hitler. A par­tial quo­ta­tion is in Churchill by Him­self, the “Peo­ple” chap­ter, Hitler, page 346. But just so there’s no doubt, I have sup­plied all the words rep­re­sented by ellipses in my book:

I have always said that if Great Britain were defeated in war I hoped we should find a Hitler to lead us back to our right­ful posi­tion among the nations. I am sorry, how­ever, that he has not been mel­lowed by the great suc­cess that has attended him. The whole world would rejoice to see the Hitler of peace and tol­er­ance, and noth­ing would adorn his name in world his­tory so much as acts of mag­na­nim­ity and of mercy and of pity to the for­lorn and friend­less, to the weak and poor.

Since he has been good enough to give me his advice I ven­ture to return the com­pli­ment. Herr Hitler also showed him­self unduly sen­si­tive about sug­ges­tions that there may be other opin­ions in Ger­many besides his own. It would be indeed aston­ish­ing if, among 80,000,000 of peo­ple so vary­ing in ori­gin, creed, inter­est, and con­di­tion, there should be only one pat­tern of thought. It would not be nat­ural: it is incred­i­ble. That he has the power, and, alas! the will, to sup­press all incon­ve­nient opin­ions is no doubt true. It would be much wiser to relax a lit­tle, and not try to frighten peo­ple out of their wits for express­ing hon­est doubt and diver­gences. He is mis­taken in think­ing that I do not see Ger­mans of the Nazi regime when they come to this coun­try. On the con­trary, only this year I have seen, at their request, Herr Bohle, Herr Hen­lein, and the Gauleiter of Danzig, and they all know that.

In com­mon with most Eng­lish men and women, I should like noth­ing bet­ter than to see a great, happy, peace­ful Ger­many in the van­guard of Europe. Let this great man search his own heart and con­science before he accuses any­one of being a war­mon­ger. The whole peo­ples of the British Empire and the French Repub­lic earnestly desire to dwell in peace side by side with the Ger­man nation. But they are also resolved to put them­selves in a posi­tion to defend their rights and long-established civ­i­liza­tions. They do not mean to be in anybody’s power. If Herr Hitler’s eye falls upon these words I trust he will accept them in the spirit of can­dour in which they are uttered."

When someone provides a quote bereft of any additional information surrounding it, the reader ought to be on his guard that he is being taken for a fool.