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Haj Amin al-Husayni, the Mufti of Jerusalem, the leader of the Muslim community in Palestine, and the head of the Palestinian National Movement, led a 30-year struggle against the Jews in Palestine.

"Through the Eyes of the Mufti: The Essays of Haj Amin," translated and annoted by Zvi Elpeleg, chronicles this struggle.

During WWII, al-Husayni did all he could to bring about the defeat of the British. After encouraging the 1936 riots in Palestine, in which many Jews and British were killed, the Mufti escaped to Lebanon in 1938 with the aid of the French. From there he fled to Iraq. After the pro-Nazi rebellion in Iraq failed, the Mufti fled Baghdad to Germany, arriving Nov. 6, 1941.

The Nazis provided him with offices in Berlin with branches in other parts of Germany and in Italy, where he broadcast his radio programs urging Arabs around the world to become a fifth column, and urged them to initiate sabotage against the Allies and kill Jews. He helped establish espionage and saboteur networks, and recruited tens of thousands of Muslims in the Balkans into the German army (Wehrmacht).

In a speech Jan. 21, 1944 the Mufti observed, "National-Socialist Germany is fighting against world Jewry. The Quran says: 'You will find that the Jews are the worst enemies of the Muslims'." He added, "There are also considerable similarities between Islamic principles and those of National-Socialism... All this brings our ideologies close together and facilitates cooperation."

The Mufti began his political career at the end of WWI. His incendiary speech against Jewish immigration at the al-Nabi Moussa (Battle of Moses) celebration in Jerusalem in April 1920 ended in Jewish establishments and homes in the Old City of the city being ransacked and Jews assaulted. He was compelled to escape to Syria via Transjordan. In Palestine, he was sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years in absentia.

After Sir Herbert Samuel, the first High Commissioner in Palestine and a Jew, pardoned Haj Amin in August 1920, he returned to Palestine. In May 1921, Samuel appointed Haj Amin Mufti of Jerusalem.

After the defeat of Germany, the Mufti fled the country and was caught and held in France. During the summer of 1946, he escaped to Cairo.

This is a very significant collection of the Mufti's essays complied with annotations by Ambassador Dr. Zvi Elpeleg, a researcher at the Dayan Center, Tel-Aviv University. It is the primary source of the views of the man who formed the Palestinian National Movement. His political ideology has become part of the consciousness of millions of Arabs throughout the world.

In these essays, the Mufti responds to those in the Arab world who were critical of his leadership. Among the issues discussed are: the English-Jewish conspiracy, the hostility of the U.S. toward the Arabs and predisposition toward the Jews, the British reconciliation between Jews and Arab means suicide for the Arab Nation, the goal of the Zionists is to build the Temple on place of the Dome of the Rock at the al-Aqsa Mosque, the invasion of 1948, and why an independent Palestine was not established in 1948.

Dr. Alex Grobman is a Hebrew University trained historian. His is the author of a number of books, including "Nations United: How The U.N. Undermines Israel and The West," "Denying History: Who Says The Holocaust Never Happened," and "Why Do They Say It?" and a forthcoming book on Israel's moral and legal right to exist as a Jewish state.