At the World Zionist Organization Congress on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu made what, even by his standards, was an outrageous claim. He said that Hitler was initially only in favor of expelling Jews from Europe (what was known as the Madagascar Plan) and that it was a Palestinian, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who persuaded him to embark on a campaign of extermination.

When I first heard Netanyahu’s statement, I immediately thought of a similar claim by Pastor John Hagee, the president of Christians United for Israel. Hagee, a virulent antisemite, had stated in a sermon that Hitler was a “hunter” sent by God to drive the Jews to Israel.

In these new accounts, however, it appears that Hitler was in fact an agent of the mufti, not God!