Jews and the Left
"Modern political history indicates a clear connection between being Jewish and being radical, Both as individual theorists and activists of the stature of Marx, Luxemburg, Trotsky and Emma Goldman, and as organized mass labour movements in, for example, revolutionary Russia and early 20th century Britain and the USA, Jews have made a disproportionate contribution to the Left." (Philip Mendes)
Hitler came to power in January of 1933 promising the German people economic recovery. He blamed the problem on the nonnegotiable conditions imposed on Germany at Versailles and to some extent that was Germany's greatest problem along with a world-wide depression and Hitler put the responsibility for all this on Bolshevik, Communist and Marxist conspiracies, which he believed the Jews were behind in every case, therefore, Germany's terrible economic conditions were a result of this international Jewish conspiracy. And, it didn't take much to convince the Germany people that the Jews were behind all their problems. They were again the convenient scapegoat. Edwin Black writes that "The paranoid Nazis believed in the legendary, almost supernatural economic power of the Jews." The motto often stated by even ordinary Germans was:
The Problem is Nobody Wanted the Jews
Many Europeans already had deep antisemitic beliefs that were based on Christian myths about the Jews. Hitler believed that to getting rid of the Jews must be one of his most important objectives and he didn't care how he did it. He said he would give them all tickets on a luxury ocean liner if that would get rid of them. The problem is nobody else wanted them either - until the Zionist leadership agreed to transfer many of them to Palestine.
FDR Refused to Get Involved
"Roosevelt himself had shown little official concern for the plight of Germany's Jews. Shortly before the inauguration in the first week of March, one of (Rabbi Wise was a major leader of American Jewry) Wise's friends, Lewis Strauss, tried to convince the outgoing President Hoover and President-elect Roosevelt to send a joint message of alarm to the German government. Although Hoover sent word of his concern through the American ambassador in Berlin, FDR refused to get involved.".... (Quoted from Morton Rosenstock, "Louis Marshall, Defender of Jewish Rights (65) by Edwin Black, "The Transfer Agreement" (84) p16)
First Plan was Expulsion
Hitler wanted to get rid of the Jews but nobody wanted them.
Hitler wanted to get rid of the JEWS, but his first plan was not extermination, it was expulsion. He was willing to send all the Jews away from Germany if the rest of the world would just take them - and he said he would do it even on luxury liners if they would just take these Jews from him. The world refused and there was the Holocaust. The transfer of 60,000, arranged by the Zionists was only a partial payment. If the British had opened the gates up to "Palestine" they could have had hundreds of thousands of Jews. If America had lifted the quotas, Hitler would have given to America as many Jews as transportation could have been arranged for, but it didn't happen. There were antisemites in America and in Britain who refused to take the Jews.
"We haven't had this level of antisemitism since World War II," Avi Beker, secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress, told a meeting of Jewish leaders in Brussels. "European governments cannot just shrug their shoulders and say it's all part of the Middle East problem. On many occasions when there is a deterioration in the social fabric, it starts with the Jews, especially here on this continent where there has been a history of antisemitism." ("Prejudice returns from the graveyard of evil: Antisemitism in a native tongue - (05-02-2002) - The Washington Times - Suzanne Fields, a nationally syndicated columnist)
What about the Left?
Jews have been disproportionately in left social welfare and socialist movements and the Jews were frequently radicalized by antisemitism. The more Jews were persecuted and oppressed by right ring goverments, the more politically active Jews became on the left, but when the left no longer seemed be the answer to antisemitism, the idea of returning to the Jewish homeland became a consideration and many Jewish leftists turned to Zionism.
And, Many (so-called) "Progressives" also Traffick in Antisemitism:
"In recent ABC "Nightline" coverage of a rally in Berkeley, Calif., a reporter took a certain pride in telling viewers that "Nightline" chose not to run the image of a young woman holding up a caricature of Ariel Sharon, wearing a swastika prominently displayed on his armband, giving the Hitler salute. He found it too offensive. Notes Ron Rosenbaum in the New York Observer, that kind of "cover up" prevents us from observing how much "anti-Israel protests have become antisemitic.""(Fields)
"This great new surge of European antisemitism--if that is what these events signify--solves a puzzle that has been taxing a lot of Americans. Israel is a victim of terrorism, much as America was a victim of terrorism in September. Israel is defending itself against pitiless murderers with all available means, much as America is defending itself. Right and wrong in the matter, or so most Americans believe, could hardly be clearer. Why, then, Americans ask, is Europe taking the side of Palestine's suicide bombers, passing lightly over their crimes, while vilifying Israel's government for its restrained (under the circumstances) assault on the terrorist infrastructure of the West Bank? These perverted sympathies seem quite inexplicable--unless the answer, albeit painful to contemplate, is obvious. Anti-Semitism, it is argued, explains it all." (Leaders: Europe and the Jews; Anti-Semitism - (05-04-2002)-The Economist)
And these perverted sympathies always existed and the Jews are quite accustomed to it. When Britain decided to leave Palestine it did not cooperate with the Jews who sided with them in two wars, it fully cooperated with Arabs in the region by turning over whole garrisons to them in expectation that they would eliminate the Jewish hope for an independent state. There were several reasons which seem most obvious in retrospect; concern for their continued access to oil, a romantic, idealized version of Arab culture, and latent and sometimes overt antisemitism.
Jews do owe a debt of gratitude to Britain for the Balfour Declaration which in 1917 recognized the historic, Jewish attachment and claims in the land - at a time when there was a mere shadow of a Jewish and an Arab presence in what was then a mere backwater, unproductive, waste and swampy territory of the former Ottoman empire after WWI.
However, successive British governments and colonial authorities managed to choke off the Balfour policy almost from the beginning, and while Arabs managed to emigrate freely, Jewish emigration was practically cut off entirely by the 30s when it was needed the most to escape the "Final Solution."
"At the same time that the British slammed the gates on Jews, they permitted or ignored massive illegal immigration into Western Palestine from Arab countries Jordan, Syria, Egypt, North Africa. In 1939, Winston Churchill noted that "So far from being persecuted, the Arabs have crowded into the country and multiplied . . . ." Exact population statistics may be problematic, but it seems that by 1947 the number of Arabs west of the Jordan River was approximately triple of what it had been in 1900."\
"The current myth is that these Arabs were long established in Palestine, until the Jews came and "displaced" them. The fact is, that recent Arab immigration into Palestine "displaced" the Jews. That the massive increase in Arab population was very recent is attested by the ruling of the United Nations: That any Arab who had lived in Palestine for two years and then left in 1948 qualifies as a "Palestinian refugees". " (Josesph Katz in the February 15, 2001 issue of "Time to Speak") "Casual use of population statistics for Jews and Arabs in Palestine rarely consider how the proportions came to be. One factor was the British policy of keeping out Jews while bringing in Arabs. Another factor was the violence used to kill or drive out Jews even where they had been long established." (Katz)
The British maintained strict immigration quotas for the Jews. At the same time the British allowed unencumbered, free immigration by Arabs.
"There is no such thing as a Palestinian Arab nation . . . Palestine is a name the Romans gave to Eretz Yisrael with the express purpose of infuriating the Jews . . . . Why should we use the spiteful name meant to humiliate us? (Katz)
"The British chose to call the land they mandated Palestine, and the Arabs picked it up as their nation's supposed ancient name, though they couldn't even pronounce it correctly and turned it into Falastin a fictional entity." (Golda Meir quoted by Sarah Honig, Jerusalem Post, 25 November 1995)
It is the left which is supposed to be progressive which all too often today also indulges bigotry, including antisemitism, thinly cloaked as Anti-Zionism.
"Modern political history indicates a clear connection between being Jewish and being radical, Both as individual theorists and activists of the stature of Marx, Luxemburg, Trotsky and Emma Goldman, and as organized mass labour movements in, for example, revolutionary Russia and early 20th century Britain and the USA, Jews have made a disproportionate contribution to the Left." (-- Philip Mendes)
After most revolutions instead of conditions improving for the Jews, which they sometimes did for awhile, the Jews very often became the scapegoat for all that goes wrong following the revolution, just as today the Jews are again being betrayed by a "left" it helped to create. Granting Jewish rights would frequently result in an antisemitic backlash. All over Europe, emerging nationalist movements blamed the Jews for all the problems of the new industrial society.
An anti-Jewish backlash seems to be emerging or is it exaggerated? Are Jews today the scapegoat because of policies in Israel or something else?
For some on the left to deny the right of the "Jewish State" to exist is tantamount to denying the right of Jews to exist.
Leftists love to quote the Jews - especially those Jewish ultra-orthodox fringe sects "as if" they are representative of Jewish opinion, or the "New Historians" but what they don't understand is that intellectual honesty requires self-criticism and revision. This is the Jewish scientific method. It is like a creationists quoting a scientist who is hyper critical of evolution - which is not a negation of evolution at all; it is a confirmation of the strength of that theory that it can stand the test of criticism - just as being critical of Zionism can be a affirmation of Zionism.
And, while we share a common heritage, Jews were hardly ever a monolith of common views, except a majority have come to realize that Zionism has for most Jews been a liberation from antisemitic persecution.
"The anti-Zionism of some sects of ultra- Orthodox Jews that is often used to refute the notion that "anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism" is based on a specious argument. These sects do not deny the right of the Jews to the Land of Israel. In fact, they assert the right of the Jews to all of it. Their anti-Zionist misnomer stems from denying that the Jewish right to Israel can be exercised before what they believe will be a future messianic age. (Ron Dermer, "Appeasement, not antisemitism"-(05-10-2002)-Jerusalem Post)
"In contrast, the Muslim fanatics who are murdering Jews in Israel and burning synagogues in Europe deny the right of the Jews to any inch of what they consider to be Islamic land." (Post)
"Palestine has never existed . . . as an autonomous entity. There is no language known as Palestinian...There is no distinct Palestinian culture...There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. ...."Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians (another recent invention), Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, etc. ...Keep in mind that the Arabs control 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands. Israel represents one-tenth of one percent of the landmass. But that's too much for the Arabs. They want it all. And that is ultimately what the fighting in Israel is about today . . . No matter how many land concessions the Israelis make, it will never be enough." -- (from "Myths of the Middle East", Joseph Farah, Arab-American editor and journalist, WorldNetDaily.Com, 11 October 2000. Farah is a Lebanese Christian who supports Israel. He is often on the right side of issues but where truth is concerned there is no right or left, only what is true.)
"There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not" (Professor Philip Hitti, Arab historian to Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, 1946)
"It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria." (Delegate of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations Security Council, 1956)
It is not important that Palestine "never existed." What is important is peaceful coexistence and if that requires establishing a state for Palestinians, then it should be done if it can be done without sacrificing Israel's security and satisfies the national aspirations of the Palestinians. While I would rather see that done in one state it appears that may not be possible. If that means two states, and that is their decision, then they should endeavor to create a peaceful two-state solution.
For many anti-war activists, their Jewishness is the result of their exposure to antisemitism on the left - and the chief reason many retain their Jewishness is because of this current of antisemitism, which also manifests itself in antiZionism.
Many on the Jewish left are also very critical of the government in Israel, just as they are of governments elsewhere but many Jews on the left also support the existence of the State of Israel for the obvious reasons that history does tend to repeat itself.
"Anti-globalization activists have also adopted Israel as a symbol. For them, the Jewish state is the bagman for laissez-faire capitalists they see as out to turn the world and its people into one undifferentiated market in which everything is reduced to the level of commodity. Consequently, virtually every anti-globalization demonstration these days has some anti-Israel component, which is manipulated to the fullest by pro-Palestinian forces pushing their own agenda." (Ira Rifkin, "Globalization and the Jews"-(01-12-2003)-Jerusalem Post)
Likewise, every anti-war demonstration also has a very pronounced component which is anti-Israel. It does not have a component which is as vocal about injustices in Turkey, Egypt, Turkey, the mistreatment of women in every Islamic regime, execution of political prisoners in China, the injustices in Russia and right wing regimes in South America - but assuredly every "Peace and Justice" demo will have it's anti-Zionists.
"One reason for this is Israel's close relationship with the United States, seen by critics as the primary source of globalization's destructive economic and cultural values. In this sense, Israel is vilified as an unofficial 51st state, an American beachhead from which to assert control over Arab oil and spread a self-indulgent Western lifestyle." (Post)
Hateful Mythology of Hate
But even if Israel needs U.S. support and may have to call upon the U.S. for protection (which may or may not be there when that time comes), historic antisemitism prevails. Old canards are revived. Jews are thought to have too much influence, to be too wealthy, to be to elitist. Jews are accused of manipulation and for being global puppet masters for multinational corporations. Jews are considered too smart, too successful and especially too Jewish.
Most Jews support "progressive" causes; hold "progressive" positions; and many Jews are being alienated by an antisemitic left.
Antisemitism lives and there is often a deafening silence....from the Left
"Antisemitism is alive and well and living in the 21st century. Of course, now it is all couched in anti-Israel rhetoric, the new cover for the old malady, and somehow socially acceptable. But it is not only in the one-sided media that I hear its echoes. Its very real manifestations are being played out in firebomb attacks on synagogues and community centres and Jewish school buses around the world. And where are the politicians and religious leaders? Deathly quiet." (Michele Mandel, "Silence Greets the New Antisemitism\and Israel Left to Fight Alone Again" - 04-14-2002 The Toronto Sun)
"In Saskatoon a synagogue is firebombed and in Ottawa a synagogue is desecrated. In Toronto, a community centre and a Jewish agency that helps developmentally disabled adults are defaced. An arsonist breaks into the Anshei Minsk Synagogue in Kensington Market, one of the oldest synagogues in Toronto, and sets a fire 2,000 Jewish holy books, just as the Nazis did in the 1930s. And a Jewish heart surgeon has his shoulder broken after he is shoved into a parked car during an anti-Israel demonstration on Bloor St." (Mandel)
"In Europe, the birthplace of modern antisemitism, it rages with alarming impunity. Especially brazen in France, which has the largest Muslim community in Europe, Jewish institutions, cemeteries, schools and synagogues have been attacked by thugs and arsonists. Five French synagogues were firebombed last week alone. A school bus filled with Jewish children was stoned and another was torched. And the government, too afraid of angering its large Muslim population, does little to stop it." (Mandel)
"In Germany, two rabbis visiting from the United States were beaten by a group of six in Berlin after being asked "Are you a Jew?" The same scene has been replayed in Belgium, Caracas, Casablanca and Helsinki, and there are no international demands for the antisemitism to stop." (Mandel)
What you do hear is the mythology of Israeli mistreatment of Palestinian terrorists who are intent on destroying them. What you do hear is the antisemitism of the left which is very vocal in the anti-war movement.
"For weeks, Palestinian homicide bombers strapped with dynamite have targeted crowds of vulnerable civilians. Day after day after day, in pizza parlours and ice cream shops and discos. My, how quiet the world is. Where is the condemnation from church groups? Where are the non-Jewish protesters?" (Mandel)
Resurgent Antisemitism? - Consider what follows from "The Left's Anti-Semitic Chic", Washington Post, 2/25/2004; George F. Will - Will is not Jewish. He is a conservative writer but in this case the facts he outlines in his article are indisputable.
"A cartoon in a mainstream Italian newspaper depicts the infant Jesus in a manger, menaced by an Israeli tank and saying, "Don't tell me they want to kill me again." This expresses animus against Israel rather than twisted Christian zeal."
"The European Union has suppressed a study it commissioned, because the study blamed the upsurge in anti-Jewish acts on European Muslims and the European left."
"Nineteen percent of Germans believe what a best-selling German book asserts: The CIA and Israel's Mossad organized the Sept. 11 attacks."
"On French television, a comedian wearing a Jewish skullcap gives a Nazi salute while yelling, "Isra-Heil!""
If Israel is not the Great Satan, it is allied with him -- America. European anti-American demonstrations often include Israel's blue and white flag with a swastika replacing the star of David, and signs perpetuating the myth, concocted by Palestinians and cooperative Western journalists.
Omer Bartov, a historian at Brown University, writes in the New Republic that much of what Hitler said, "can be found today in innumerable places: on Internet sites, propaganda brochures, political speeches, protest placards, academic publications, religious sermons, you name it."
Certainly there are abuses and overreaction by some in Israel, but consider what you would do if threatened with constant suicide bombings and mortar attacks on your towns and settlements. Consider how you might feel if you lost a child or a brother or mother or father and the enemy is clearly visible and teaches it's children to kill you. Consider that most Palestinians are not progressives and they do not show the same concern for civilian life that many in Israel do, and consider that there has been no one to talk to about reconciliation. Fortunately this position of antisemitism on the left is a fringe of the most ignorant, least informed, least read, least intelligent among them. Reason must prevail. And peaceful coexistence with Palestinians must prevail.
Israel is a democracy and criticism is expected in a democracy. The government is constantly examining it's policies and subjects itself to constant criticism and changes in policy. No other country in the Middle East is as open and as self-critical as Israel - yet every criticism is magnified and repeated by the left and Israel's other detractors. But the left is quiet about the obvious contravention of human rights and abuses of the totalitarian Islamic regimes. Israel is called racist because it is a "Jewish" State (a term denoting nationalism) whereas every one of the Islamic countries in the region, all 22 of them are Islamic and the term denotes religion yet they are never labeled racist by the left and the world community. The charge of racism against Israel was overturned and was not appropriate in the first place, yet those on the left, while quiet about the racism of Muslim countries continues to accuse Israel of a charge which does not apply and never did.
Hank Roth
