In 1999 Yossef Bodansky’s, book on Islamic extremism, titled Islamic Anti-Semitism as a Political Instrument was published. Bodansky’s was already an acknowledged authority on international terrorism, Bodansky’s book was a hard hitting, well-researched work on a very important and far too often ignored topic. Islamic organizations and governments use anti-Semitism to further political goals. Anti-Semitism is used in the Islamic world to encourage militant attitudes toward Israel, the United States and the West in general.

Bodansky’s insights have been proven too important to ignore and this book deserves to be given a second look.

In much of the Islamic world anti-Semitism is used as a method of mobilizing widespread support for Islamic extremist organizations from the Arab masses. The thrust of Islamic Anti-Semitism as a Political Instrument is that governments of Islamic Fundamentalist countries and Islamic terrorist organizations use anti-Semitism in their campaign to destroy Israel. Anti-Semitic incitement is used as an instrument of populist agitation in order to reach the Arab masses.

Bodansky seems to believe that the current peace process is endangered by the use of anti-Semitism in Islamic politics. Bodansky draws a strong connection between the expansion of radical militant Islam and state sponsored anti-Semitism and shows that both trends will continue to affect the Islamic world.

Islamic Anti-Semitism As A Political Instrument is extremely well researched and serves as an excellent reference for those who may be knowledgeable about Islamic extremism as well as others concerned with Middle East affairs.

Bodansky is a leading expert on Islamic fundamentalism and Islamic terrorism. Among Bodansky’s many previous books is Target America which received widespread attention and praise in the wake of the World Trade Center bombings. His other books include Terror: The Inside Story of the Terrorist Conspiracy in America, Some Call It Peace: Waiting for the War In the Balkans, Crisis in Korea, and Offensive in the Balkans.

Bodansky wrote a book titled bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America – that was published before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Bodansky is perhaps best known as the former Director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare at the United States House of Representatives and he is a senior editor for the Defense & Foreign Affairs group of publications. He has acted as a senior consultant for the United States Department of Defense and the United States Department of State and as Director of Research at the International Strategic Studies Association.

The book was published by the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies, based in Houston Texas, and the Ariel Center for Policy Research (ACPR) which is based in Shaarei Tikva in Israel. The Freeman Center specializes in analyzing the political/military issues facing Israel. The Ariel Center describes itself as having been “established in 1997 as a non-profit, non-partisan organization, committed to stimulating and informing the national and international debates concerning all aspects of security policy - notably those policies in Oslo and subsequently called the Peace Process.”