This essay is going out a little sooner than I had expected in recognition of the likelihood that later this week the United Nations General Assembly will declare a Palestinian state.i Political and economic considerations,ii conditioned by two millennia of antisemitism, will make the vote easy for most member nations, who will ignore the facts that the formation of the United Nations was prompted by the Second World War and the Holocaust, and that the Palestinian entity that now exists has been acting aggressively toward Israel – a member of the United Nations – throughout its existence. Apparently most nations and most people, including Jews, either believe or want to believe that there will be peace in the world if the Palestinians, the Iranians, the Syrians, and other similar agitators, get what they demand. I do not share that view.
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Before Jesus was born there were Jews in Rome. Certainly there was a Jewish settlement before there was a Popeiii or a home for the Church It originated in 161 BCE, and the Jews were free, and without any special restrictions – just the ones imposed on all foreigners. Only later, when they destroyed the Temple of Solomon, did the Romans treat the Jews as a conquered people. But the victory over them was nationalistic, not religious. And there were Jewish communities in what is now Iraq and Iran, and in Egypt and Saudi Arabia long before Muhammad was born and Islam originated. Whatever ill feeling existed toward the Jews by individuals was not specifically related to their religion, but to personal grievances and the perception of threats posed by the Jewish nation.
Subsequently both Christianity and Islam declared that they superseded Judaism, and each claims it now represents the true faith. And both of them have, through the centuries, belittled Judaism and worked actively to eliminate Jews. They have used philosophical arguments and terminology that hide their underlying hatred, emphasizing the view that the ideas they have expressed and the actions they have taken represent the Divine Will – that, to be clear, they harbor no animosity toward the Jews but they are doing G-d's work, and the Jews have brought it on themselves.
When both new religions were small and struggling themselves, they posed little threat to the Jews. Not that the Jews were without enemies, but communities that were, themselves, being persecuted or trying to deal with internal dissension, had little time to pick fights with others. It wasn't long, however, before both of these new religions gained adherents by one means or another,iv and, having done so, they have developed theologies that involve blaming a religion that comprises less than a quarter of a percent of the world's populationv for most of the world's problems. And if the fault cannot be placed on the Jews in general, it certainly must rest with Israel or Israel's Prime Minister. In a post-Holocaust world, long after the end of accusations of poisoning the wells and the killing of Christian children for their blood, and even after the rethinking of charges of deicide, there remain the stories of the Jews controlling the banks and the media, of Israel being the cause of all the problems in the Middle East,vi and of Jews holding sway over the American government and thumbing its nose at everyone else.
Yet the truth contradicts these slanders. The Jews and Israel have contributed far more to the world in which we live than vice versa. But the world refuses to accept the people it has persecuted. It ignores the problems existing around the world – problems it cannot solve – while it focuses on Israel and the claimed injustices, supported by an extensive public relations campaign, of the Palestinians. In the words of Eric Hoffer,vii a twentieth century philosopher,
The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.
Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it, Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchman. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese-and no one says a word about refugees.
But in the case of Israel the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace .
Hoffer was probably not Jewishviii but he recognized what so many others have ignored – that the world doesn't have a single standard when it comes to bias and self-interest.ix
And that bias lacks any logical consistency.x To the capitalists, the Jews are communists. To the communist, the Jews are capitalists. To Arab nations, and, for a time, to the United Nations as a whole, Zionism (read Judaism and Israel) was racism, and even now the idea of a Jewish state is anathemaxi to nations that honor Islamicxii and Arabxiii Republics. Israel, which includes, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and other religious groups of all races in its population, is “racist” because it views itself as a Jewish state. Yet countries that are proudly judenreinxiv are free of taint.
What can be done about the problem? Very little. What can be done about the specific accusations? Virtually nothing. Denial is defensiveness, and proof of their validity. Rationality is irrelevant when bias is the issue. If the “cause” for the accusation or treatment is shown to be fallacious, another will be found. Treatments will always be one-sided since blame must be addressed, and fighting back against lies with words will be viewed as defensive, and an attempt to deflect valid criticism. So other means must be found.
The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources. Yet at this moment Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer [1967] had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general.
I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us.
Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon [the rest of] us.xv
But there is a positive side to the whole thing. It pays to be a scapegoat. The blaming of Israel and the Jews for everything is reminiscent of more than two millennia of such scapegoating. The upside is that a scapegoat must be kept alive. If it is eliminated, the real problems– the ones avoided by shifting the blame – must be addressed, and the world doesn't want to face them or do that. So Israel will live to be faulted for something or other another day.
i The regular weekly schedule will resume on Sunday, September 25th.
ii The need for affordable oil and for Arab favor.
iii Peter was the first Pope and the “Rock” (Cephas) upon which Jesus built his church (Matthew)
iv Often by the sword.
vi Indeed, throughout the world.
vii From 1968. Cited by The National Review Online (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fnews/1675470/posts)
ix Hoffer, ibid:
Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world. Other nations when they are defeated survive and recover but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June [1967] he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews. No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on .
There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die[d] in Vietnam or when two Blacks are executed in Rhodesia. But when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one remonstrated with him. The Swedes, who are ready to break off diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to Norway.
The bracketed material was added for clarification and because the quote is from 1968. Sadly the double standard is as prevalent as ever.
xi “Don't order us to recognize a Jewish state. We won't accept it.” Mahmoud Abbas
xii Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mauritania
xiv Free of Jews.
xv Hoffer, ibid.
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