Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Bigotry and the Islamic Center in New York
As others have pointed out, the question is not "why build an Islamic center (it is not a mosque) a few blocks from Ground Zero?" The question is "why so much opposition to this project?" The only and simple answer is pure bigotry. There is no rational reason for opposition, though opponents raise the spectre of offending the survivoring relatives and friends of those kill on September 11, 2001 when the World Trace Center was destroyed in New York. The United States of 2010 is a hotbed of bigotry, whether racial or religious. This brouhaha is a prime example. It seems that bigotry sells well to some voters, so politicians are playing it to the hilt. They know no shame no matter how disgusting their positions are. They characterize the Imam leading this project as extremist, even though he is a leading proponent of interfaith unity and a staunch opponent of terrorism. Personally, I don't like any religions and any religious institutions. But I distinguish between my own personal views and the right of others to have their own. Too bad that the bigoted bombasts are unable to do that, whether on Islamic centers, abortion rights, or gay marriage.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Spinning Obama or Obama is Spinning
Obama's deputy press flack says that leftists won't be satisfied unless we have Canadian style health care and abolish the defense department. Let's deconstruct that.
Of course, Canadian style single payer health care would be wonderful, but is that what we are criticizing Obama about? No, we are criticizing him for abandoning leadership entirely on that and many issues. Did Obama acknowledge that single payer is the only solution which addresses our many health care problems and then make concessions to get a bill which would pass? That is leadership. No, he eliminated single payer and single payer advocates from the discourse at the outset. The result, a health care bill that Rep. John Conyers called "a piece of crap." The health care industry loves it.
Let's ignore the straw man of abolishing the defense department and look at the real issues. Leftists want Obama to get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, he has mired us more deeply in Iraq and is pursuing an insane, psychotic (in the sense that it is totally out of touch with reality) program in Afghanistan.
In fact, on both wars, Obama is continuing Bush's manic policies without significant modifications. Ironically, if the Republicans attack Obama for endangering national security, they will be right since Bush and Reagan were the biggest producers of national insecurity we have yet seen.
Of course, it goes way beyond the two distorted issues Obama's flack raised. Policy toward Israel has not changed one iota. The focus on Iran, which is hardly a credible threat to anyone, is a cruel joke. Obama put finance capital in charge of his economic policies, and the rest of us are paying the price. It really is a case of the same sour wine in new bottles with different labels.
But let's be clear on one point. I am not disappointed. Obama is exactly as awful a president as I predicted he would be, which is why I didn't vote for him. That is my no-spin opinion.
Of course, Canadian style single payer health care would be wonderful, but is that what we are criticizing Obama about? No, we are criticizing him for abandoning leadership entirely on that and many issues. Did Obama acknowledge that single payer is the only solution which addresses our many health care problems and then make concessions to get a bill which would pass? That is leadership. No, he eliminated single payer and single payer advocates from the discourse at the outset. The result, a health care bill that Rep. John Conyers called "a piece of crap." The health care industry loves it.
Let's ignore the straw man of abolishing the defense department and look at the real issues. Leftists want Obama to get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, he has mired us more deeply in Iraq and is pursuing an insane, psychotic (in the sense that it is totally out of touch with reality) program in Afghanistan.
In fact, on both wars, Obama is continuing Bush's manic policies without significant modifications. Ironically, if the Republicans attack Obama for endangering national security, they will be right since Bush and Reagan were the biggest producers of national insecurity we have yet seen.
Of course, it goes way beyond the two distorted issues Obama's flack raised. Policy toward Israel has not changed one iota. The focus on Iran, which is hardly a credible threat to anyone, is a cruel joke. Obama put finance capital in charge of his economic policies, and the rest of us are paying the price. It really is a case of the same sour wine in new bottles with different labels.
But let's be clear on one point. I am not disappointed. Obama is exactly as awful a president as I predicted he would be, which is why I didn't vote for him. That is my no-spin opinion.
Friday, July 30, 2010
The Afghan Leaks
The Obama administration is reacting in a typically and predictably paranoid manner to the leak of tens of thousands of incident reports, which appear to reveal potential war crimes among other things. The point to keep in mind, however, is that the US Afghan war and policy is insane. It is psychotic in the sense that it is totally out of touch with reality. Its stated goals are entirely impossible to achieve. Therefore, a paranoid reaction is to be expected. The real question is how to cure the mentally ill patient, the US government and its allies. If the leak of these documents helps to do that, then it will be an important contribution to peace.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Political Zionism: The Ideology of Jewish Self-Hatred--Part 5
So, what do these early Zionists have in common? They all blame the victim. They agree that the cause of anti-Semitism is the lack of a Jewish state. Herzl also mentions other material causes, but he comes around to that one. He and Pinsker clearly assert that Jews bring anti-Semitism with them wherever they go. Let's point out that anti-Semitism of the sort they were dealing with was a purely European phenomenon. Algeria was mentioned, but it was a French colony. Europeans exported it to some of their colonies. But this skewed European focus obscures the fact that there was nothing like that phenomenon anywhere else, including in the Turkish, Arab, and Persian countries of the Middle East even though there were very sizable Jewish populations in those countries. Second, they all agree that there is something called a Jewish people with origins in Palestine even though Pinsker states quite well the reasons that no such entity existed. On this point, I refer you to the excellent book, The Invention of the Jewish People (2009) by Shlomo Sand, who is a professor of history at the University of Tel Aviv. Sand's entirely scholarly and well-sourced book shows that the vast majority of modern Jews descend from converts and that the mostly likely concentration of descendants of the ancient Hebrews who lived in ancient Israel is precisely among the modern Palestinians who first became Christians and then Muslims under foreign conquest. Thus political Zionism (we use that term to distinguish this largely secular movement from religious Zionism which prophesies the return of Jews to Palestine along with a messiah) is founded on at least two premises easily shown to be false. Further, political Zionism, which these writings clearly demonstrate grew in the same soil as non-Jewish anti-Semitism, xenophobic nationalism, and fascism which culminated in the slaughters of Jews, Gypsies, leftists, homosexuals, and many others during World War II, incorporated some of the same ideas into their ideology. The anti-Semites said that Jews did not belong in their home countries. The Zionists agreed with them. The anti-Semites promoted stereotypes about Jewish behavior; the Zionists said that there is truth to the stereotypes because Jews don't have their own nation. The testimony of these early Zionists confirms that the vast majority of Jews rejected their ideas and their project to colonize Palestine. They were considered crazy kooks. Why would a self-respecting Jew embrace an ideology which teaches her or him to hate him or herself and blames her or him for the acts of anti-Semites? Why would a self-loving Jew agree to leave instead of to fight? That is why I indict political Zionism as a form of racial discrimination as the United Nations once held; it is racism first and foremost against Jews. The project of the Zionist movement, which was to create an apartheid state in Palestine, leads to the second expression of racial discrimination, which aimed to remove the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine using a variety of actions which are clearly war crimes. The best book on that is Ilan Pappe's The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Pappe is another Israeli historian. There are many, many books on these subjects, but I will recommend one more if you can find it. Abram Leon, a Polish Jew who died in Auschwitz in 1944, wrote an excellent study The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation. Leon presented some of the same material that Sand presents on Jewish history, but he also shows that anti-Semitism was a specifically European phenomenon derived from the role that Jewish moneylenders played under feudalism and then magnified by the collapse of feudalism in Eastern Europe.
So, the next time that a Zionist defender of Israel makes the anti-Semite or self-hating Jew attack, tell him or her to look inward. To be sure, there are still lots of non-Jewish anti-Semites in the world, but some of them are allies of Israel. (Consider the Argentinian regime which tortured Jacobo Timerman and was armed by Israel.)
Zionism is now a much more immediate threat to Jews and to the world than non-Jewish anti-Semitism. Just as African-Americans had to confront those who internalized racism, Jews have to confront Zionists and challenge all of the historically and morally decrepit elements of their ideology. And this is not only the responsibility of Jews but of all interested in justice, peace, and world survival.
So, the next time that a Zionist defender of Israel makes the anti-Semite or self-hating Jew attack, tell him or her to look inward. To be sure, there are still lots of non-Jewish anti-Semites in the world, but some of them are allies of Israel. (Consider the Argentinian regime which tortured Jacobo Timerman and was armed by Israel.)
Zionism is now a much more immediate threat to Jews and to the world than non-Jewish anti-Semitism. Just as African-Americans had to confront those who internalized racism, Jews have to confront Zionists and challenge all of the historically and morally decrepit elements of their ideology. And this is not only the responsibility of Jews but of all interested in justice, peace, and world survival.
Political Zionism: The Ideology of Jewish Self-Hatred--Part 4
Chaim Weizmann led the establishment Zionist movement in the first half of the 20th century and was the first president of Israel.
Zionism Needs a Living Content (1914) in Hertzberg
In its initial stage, Zionism was conceived by its pioneers as a movement wholly depending on mechanical factors: there is a country which happens to be called Palestine, a country without a people, and, on the other hand, there exists the Jewish people, and it has no country. What else is necessary, then, than to fit the gem into the ring, to unite this people with this country. The owners of the country must, therefore, be persuaded and convinced that this marriage is advantageous, not only for the people and for the country, bu.t also for themselves. On this basis grew Zionism. First, we must sell many shekalim to show the Turks how strong we are, in the meantime, the leaders will discuss the question of the marriage....
It is the Zionists' good fortune that they are considered mad; if we were normal, we would not think of going to Palestine, but stay put, like all normal people. Who does not believe in taking a hard road and thinks that a dangerous road should not be taken had better stay abt home. With fear and timidity the permanent home of the nation cannot be established. Never has a people freed itself by profitable investments, but by energy and sacrifice. And we Jews have not made many sacrifices yet, and that is why we own only 2 per cent of the Palestinian soil.
What value there is in real sacrifice, the example of a Jew from Kiev will show you; his name is Barski. One of his sons, a worker, was killed on Palestinian soil, at Degania; the bereaved father writes a letter of comfort to the workers in Palestine and send his second son into this most dangerous life to take the place of the fallen one. This is the continuation, writes the bereaved father. And it is this Jew who is the greatest political Zionist after Herzl.
Reminiscences in Hertzberg (1937)
We Jews got the Balfour Declaration quite unexpectedly, or in other words, we are the greatest war profiteers. We never dreamed of the Balfour Declaration; to be quite frank, it came to us overnight. But--"What you have inherited from your father you must earn it anew to really possess it!" (Goethe) The Balfour Declaration of 1917 was built on air, and a foundation had to be laid for it through years of exacting work; every day and every hour of these last ten years, when opening the newspapers, I thought: Whence will the next blow come? I trembled lest the British Government would call me and ask: "Tell us, what is this Zionist Organization? Where are they, your Zionists?" For these people think in terms different from ours. The Jews, they knew, were against us; we stood alone on a little island, a tiny group of Jews with a foreign past.
David Ben-Gurion was a founder of the Histadrut and the first prime minister of Israel.
The Imperatives of the Jewish Revolution (1944) in Hertzberg
.... The separatist tendency that has manifested itself in our land uses the empty phrase "of proletarian origin" as its slogan. This doctrine is totally foreign to the spirit and essence of the Jewish revolution. Not the origin but the mission, not "whence" but "whither," is what will decide the fate of our revolution. The Jewish people is not a proletarian people and there are no sons of the proletariat to assure the success of its revolution. The mission of the Jewish revolution is to transform the Jewish people into a laboring people....
Next analysis and alternative views.
Zionism Needs a Living Content (1914) in Hertzberg
In its initial stage, Zionism was conceived by its pioneers as a movement wholly depending on mechanical factors: there is a country which happens to be called Palestine, a country without a people, and, on the other hand, there exists the Jewish people, and it has no country. What else is necessary, then, than to fit the gem into the ring, to unite this people with this country. The owners of the country must, therefore, be persuaded and convinced that this marriage is advantageous, not only for the people and for the country, bu.t also for themselves. On this basis grew Zionism. First, we must sell many shekalim to show the Turks how strong we are, in the meantime, the leaders will discuss the question of the marriage....
It is the Zionists' good fortune that they are considered mad; if we were normal, we would not think of going to Palestine, but stay put, like all normal people. Who does not believe in taking a hard road and thinks that a dangerous road should not be taken had better stay abt home. With fear and timidity the permanent home of the nation cannot be established. Never has a people freed itself by profitable investments, but by energy and sacrifice. And we Jews have not made many sacrifices yet, and that is why we own only 2 per cent of the Palestinian soil.
What value there is in real sacrifice, the example of a Jew from Kiev will show you; his name is Barski. One of his sons, a worker, was killed on Palestinian soil, at Degania; the bereaved father writes a letter of comfort to the workers in Palestine and send his second son into this most dangerous life to take the place of the fallen one. This is the continuation, writes the bereaved father. And it is this Jew who is the greatest political Zionist after Herzl.
Reminiscences in Hertzberg (1937)
We Jews got the Balfour Declaration quite unexpectedly, or in other words, we are the greatest war profiteers. We never dreamed of the Balfour Declaration; to be quite frank, it came to us overnight. But--"What you have inherited from your father you must earn it anew to really possess it!" (Goethe) The Balfour Declaration of 1917 was built on air, and a foundation had to be laid for it through years of exacting work; every day and every hour of these last ten years, when opening the newspapers, I thought: Whence will the next blow come? I trembled lest the British Government would call me and ask: "Tell us, what is this Zionist Organization? Where are they, your Zionists?" For these people think in terms different from ours. The Jews, they knew, were against us; we stood alone on a little island, a tiny group of Jews with a foreign past.
David Ben-Gurion was a founder of the Histadrut and the first prime minister of Israel.
The Imperatives of the Jewish Revolution (1944) in Hertzberg
.... The separatist tendency that has manifested itself in our land uses the empty phrase "of proletarian origin" as its slogan. This doctrine is totally foreign to the spirit and essence of the Jewish revolution. Not the origin but the mission, not "whence" but "whither," is what will decide the fate of our revolution. The Jewish people is not a proletarian people and there are no sons of the proletariat to assure the success of its revolution. The mission of the Jewish revolution is to transform the Jewish people into a laboring people....
Next analysis and alternative views.
Political Zionism: The Ideology of Jewish Self-Hatred--Part 3
Ber Borochov would be only a footnote in history if his ideas had not inspired the founders of the Israeli Labor Party.
Our Platform (1906) in Hertzberg.
....
Since the Jewish nation has no peasantry, our analysis of its national problem deals with urban classes: the upper, middle, and petty bourgeoisie; the masses who are being proletarized; and the proletariat.
....
The Jewish problem migrates with the Jews. Thus a universal Jewish problem is created which involves not only Jewish philanthropists but also the political powers of the civilized nations . . .
....
Proletarian Zionism is possible only if its aims can be achieved through the class struggle; Zionism can be realized only if proletarian Zionism is realized.
. . . The Jewish proletariat is in need of revolution more than any other. ....
....
Political territorial autonomy in Palestine is the ultimate aim of Zionism. For proletarian Zionists, this is also a step toward socialism.
....
Vladimir Jabotinsky is the intellectual father of the Likud Party in Israel.
Evidence Submitted to the Palestine Royal Commission (1937) in Hertzberg
Three generations of Jewish thinkers and Zionists, among whom there were many great minds--I am not going to fatigue you by quoting them--three generations have given much thought to analyzing the Jewish position and have come to the conclusion that the cause of our suffering is the very fact of the Diaspora, the bedrock fact that we are everywhere a minority. It is not the anti-Semitism of men; it is above all, the anti-Semitism of things, the inherent xenophobia of the body social or the body economic under which we suffer....
We are not free agents. We cannot "concede" anything. Whenever I hear the Zionist, most often my own Party, accused of asking for too much--Gentlemen, I really cannot understand it. Yes, we do want a State; every nation on earth, every normal nation, beginning with the smallest and the humblest who do not claim merit, anyany role in humanity's development, they all have States of their own. That is the normal condition for a people. Yet, when we, the most abnormal of peoples and therefore the most unfortunate, ask only for the same condition as the Albanians enjoy, to say nothing of the French and the English, then it is called too much. I should understand it if the answer were, "It is impossible," but when the answer is, "It is too much," I cannot understand it.....
I am going to make a "terrible" confession. Our demand for a Jewish majority is not our maximum--it is our minimum: it is just an inevitable stage if only we are allowed to go on salvaging our people....
There is only one way of compromise. Tell the Arabs the truth, and then you will see the Arab is reasonable, the Arab is clever, the Arab is just; the Arab can realize that since there are three or four or five wholly Arab states, then it is a thing of justice which Great Britain is doing if Palestine is transformed into a Jewish state. Then there will be a change of mind among the Arabs, then there will be room for compromise and there will be peace.
Our Platform (1906) in Hertzberg.
....
Since the Jewish nation has no peasantry, our analysis of its national problem deals with urban classes: the upper, middle, and petty bourgeoisie; the masses who are being proletarized; and the proletariat.
....
The Jewish problem migrates with the Jews. Thus a universal Jewish problem is created which involves not only Jewish philanthropists but also the political powers of the civilized nations . . .
....
Proletarian Zionism is possible only if its aims can be achieved through the class struggle; Zionism can be realized only if proletarian Zionism is realized.
. . . The Jewish proletariat is in need of revolution more than any other. ....
....
Political territorial autonomy in Palestine is the ultimate aim of Zionism. For proletarian Zionists, this is also a step toward socialism.
....
Vladimir Jabotinsky is the intellectual father of the Likud Party in Israel.
Evidence Submitted to the Palestine Royal Commission (1937) in Hertzberg
Three generations of Jewish thinkers and Zionists, among whom there were many great minds--I am not going to fatigue you by quoting them--three generations have given much thought to analyzing the Jewish position and have come to the conclusion that the cause of our suffering is the very fact of the Diaspora, the bedrock fact that we are everywhere a minority. It is not the anti-Semitism of men; it is above all, the anti-Semitism of things, the inherent xenophobia of the body social or the body economic under which we suffer....
We are not free agents. We cannot "concede" anything. Whenever I hear the Zionist, most often my own Party, accused of asking for too much--Gentlemen, I really cannot understand it. Yes, we do want a State; every nation on earth, every normal nation, beginning with the smallest and the humblest who do not claim merit, anyany role in humanity's development, they all have States of their own. That is the normal condition for a people. Yet, when we, the most abnormal of peoples and therefore the most unfortunate, ask only for the same condition as the Albanians enjoy, to say nothing of the French and the English, then it is called too much. I should understand it if the answer were, "It is impossible," but when the answer is, "It is too much," I cannot understand it.....
I am going to make a "terrible" confession. Our demand for a Jewish majority is not our maximum--it is our minimum: it is just an inevitable stage if only we are allowed to go on salvaging our people....
There is only one way of compromise. Tell the Arabs the truth, and then you will see the Arab is reasonable, the Arab is clever, the Arab is just; the Arab can realize that since there are three or four or five wholly Arab states, then it is a thing of justice which Great Britain is doing if Palestine is transformed into a Jewish state. Then there will be a change of mind among the Arabs, then there will be room for compromise and there will be peace.
Political Zionism: The Ideology of Jewish Self-Hatred--Part 2
Theodor Herzl was born in Budapest of the Austro-Hungarian empire. He was also assimilated and a journalist. It was his coverage of the Dreyfus trial in France which sparked him to want to deal with the Jewish question. Dreyfus was a French officer falsely accused of espionage and convicted because he was Jewish. Herzl addressed his piece, "The Jewish State," to "my dear Lord Rothschild." In that sense, he was writing a funding proposal.
Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State (1896) in Arthur Hertzberg's The Zionist Idea
The idea which I have developed in this pamphlet is an ancient one: It is the restoration of the Jewish State.
The world resounds with clamor against the Jews, and this has revived the dormant idea.
....
The understand of economics among men actively engaged in business is often astonishly slight. This seems to be the only explanation for the fact that even Jews faithfully parrot the catchword of the anti-Semites: "We live off 'Host-nations'; and if we had no 'Host-nation' to sustain us we should starve to death." This is one case in point of the undermining of our self-respect through unjust accusations....
The Jewish question still exists. It would be foolish to deny it. It is a misplaced piece of medievalism which civilized nations do not even yet seem able to shake off, try as they will. They proved they had this high-minded desire when they emancipated us. The Jewish question persists wherever Jews live in appreciable numbers. Wherever it does not exist, it is brought in together with Jewish immigrants. We are naturally drawn into those places where we are not persecuted, and our appearance there gives rise to persecution. This is the case, and will inevitably be so, everywhere, even in highly civilized countries--see, for instance, France--so long as the Jewish question is not solved on the political level. The unfortunate Jews are now carrying the seeds of anti-Semitism into England; they have already introduced it into America.
Anti-Semitism is a highly complex movement, which I think I understand. I approach this movement as a Jew, yet without fear or hatred. I believe that I can see in it the elements of cruel sport, of common commercial rivalry, of inherited prejudice, or religious intolerance--but also of a supposed need for self-defense. I consider the Jewish question neither a social nor a religious one, even though it sometimes takes these and other forms. It is a national question, and to solve it we must first of all establish it as an international political problem to be discussed and settled by the civilized nations of the world in council.
We are a people--one people.
We have sincerely tried everywhere to merge with the national communities in which we live, seeking only to preserve the faith of our fathers. It is not permitted us. In vain are we loyal patriots, sometimes superloyal; in vain do we make the same sacrifices of life and property as our fellow citizens; in vain do we strive to enhance the fame of our native lands in the arts and sciences, or her wealth by trade and commerce. In our native lands where we have lived for centuries we are still decried as aliens, often by men whose ancestors had not yet come at a time when Jewish sighs had long been heard in the country. The majority decide who the "alien" is; this, and all else in the relations between peoples, is a matter of power. I do not surrender any part of our prescriptive right when I make this statement merely in my own name,, as an individual. In the world as it now is and will probably remain, for an indefinite period, might takes precedence over right. It is without avail, therefore, for us to be loyal patriots, as were the Huguenots, who were forced to emigrate. If we were left in peace . . .
But I think we shall not be left in peace.
Oppression and persecution cannot exterminate us. No nation on earth has endured such struggles and sufferings as we have. Jew-baiting has merely winnowed out our weakings; the strong among us defiantly return to their own whenever persecution breaks out. This was most clearly apparent in the period immediately following the emancipation of the Jews. Those Jews who rose highest intellectually and materially entirely lost the sense of unity with their people. Wherever we remain politically secure for any length of time, we assimilate. I think this is not praiseworthy. Hence, the statesman who would wish to see a Jewish strain added to his nation must see to it that we continue politically secure. But even a Bismarck could never achieve that.
....
No one can deny the gravity of the Jewish situation. Wherever they live in appreciable number, Jews are persecuted in greater or lesser measure. Their equality before the law, granted by statute, has become practically a dead letter. They are debarred from filling even moderate high offices in the army, or in any public or private institutions. And attempts are being made to thrust them out of business also: "Don't buy from Jews!"
Attacks in parliaments, in assemblies, in the press, in the pulpit, in the street, on journey--for example, their exclusion from certain hotels--even in places of recreation are increasing from day to day. The forms of persecution vary according to country and social circle. In Russia, special taxes are levied on Jewish villages; in Romania, a few persons are put to death; in Germany, they get a good beating occasionally; in Austria, anti-Semites exercise their terrorism over all public life; in Algeria, there are traveling agitators; in Paris, the Jews are shut out of the so-called best social circles and excluded from clubs. The varieties of anti-Jewish expression are innumerable. But this is not the occasion to attempt the sorry catalogue of Jewish hardships. We shall not dwell on particular cases, however painful.
....
The common people have not, and indeed cannot have, any comprehension of history. They do not know that the sins of the Middle Ages are now being visited on the nations of Europe. We are what the ghetto made us. We have without a doubt attained pre-eminence in finance because medieval conditions drove us to it. The same process is now being repeated. We are again being forced into moneylending--now named stock exchange--by being kept out of other occupations. But once on the stock exchange, we are again objects of contempt. At the same time we continue to produce an abundance of mediocre intellectuals who find no outlet, and this endangers our social position as much as does our increasing wealth. Educated Jews without means are now rapidly becoming socialists. Hence we are certain to suffer acutely in the struggle between the classes, because we stand in the most exposed position in both the capitalist and socialist camps.
....
Palestine or Argentina?
Is Palestine or Argentina preferable? The Society will take whatever it is given and whatever Jewish public opinion favors. The Society will determine both these points.
[paragraph on the advantages of Argentina] ....
Palestine is our unforgettable historic homeland. The very name would be a marvelously effective rallying cry. If His Majesty the Sultan were to give us Palestine, we could in return undertake the complete management of the finances of Turkey. We should there form a part of a wall of defense for Europe in Asia, an outpost of civilization against barbarism. We should as a neutral state remain in contactl with all of Europe, which would have to guarantee our existence.
....
Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State (1896) in Arthur Hertzberg's The Zionist Idea
The idea which I have developed in this pamphlet is an ancient one: It is the restoration of the Jewish State.
The world resounds with clamor against the Jews, and this has revived the dormant idea.
....
The understand of economics among men actively engaged in business is often astonishly slight. This seems to be the only explanation for the fact that even Jews faithfully parrot the catchword of the anti-Semites: "We live off 'Host-nations'; and if we had no 'Host-nation' to sustain us we should starve to death." This is one case in point of the undermining of our self-respect through unjust accusations....
The Jewish question still exists. It would be foolish to deny it. It is a misplaced piece of medievalism which civilized nations do not even yet seem able to shake off, try as they will. They proved they had this high-minded desire when they emancipated us. The Jewish question persists wherever Jews live in appreciable numbers. Wherever it does not exist, it is brought in together with Jewish immigrants. We are naturally drawn into those places where we are not persecuted, and our appearance there gives rise to persecution. This is the case, and will inevitably be so, everywhere, even in highly civilized countries--see, for instance, France--so long as the Jewish question is not solved on the political level. The unfortunate Jews are now carrying the seeds of anti-Semitism into England; they have already introduced it into America.
Anti-Semitism is a highly complex movement, which I think I understand. I approach this movement as a Jew, yet without fear or hatred. I believe that I can see in it the elements of cruel sport, of common commercial rivalry, of inherited prejudice, or religious intolerance--but also of a supposed need for self-defense. I consider the Jewish question neither a social nor a religious one, even though it sometimes takes these and other forms. It is a national question, and to solve it we must first of all establish it as an international political problem to be discussed and settled by the civilized nations of the world in council.
We are a people--one people.
We have sincerely tried everywhere to merge with the national communities in which we live, seeking only to preserve the faith of our fathers. It is not permitted us. In vain are we loyal patriots, sometimes superloyal; in vain do we make the same sacrifices of life and property as our fellow citizens; in vain do we strive to enhance the fame of our native lands in the arts and sciences, or her wealth by trade and commerce. In our native lands where we have lived for centuries we are still decried as aliens, often by men whose ancestors had not yet come at a time when Jewish sighs had long been heard in the country. The majority decide who the "alien" is; this, and all else in the relations between peoples, is a matter of power. I do not surrender any part of our prescriptive right when I make this statement merely in my own name,, as an individual. In the world as it now is and will probably remain, for an indefinite period, might takes precedence over right. It is without avail, therefore, for us to be loyal patriots, as were the Huguenots, who were forced to emigrate. If we were left in peace . . .
But I think we shall not be left in peace.
Oppression and persecution cannot exterminate us. No nation on earth has endured such struggles and sufferings as we have. Jew-baiting has merely winnowed out our weakings; the strong among us defiantly return to their own whenever persecution breaks out. This was most clearly apparent in the period immediately following the emancipation of the Jews. Those Jews who rose highest intellectually and materially entirely lost the sense of unity with their people. Wherever we remain politically secure for any length of time, we assimilate. I think this is not praiseworthy. Hence, the statesman who would wish to see a Jewish strain added to his nation must see to it that we continue politically secure. But even a Bismarck could never achieve that.
....
No one can deny the gravity of the Jewish situation. Wherever they live in appreciable number, Jews are persecuted in greater or lesser measure. Their equality before the law, granted by statute, has become practically a dead letter. They are debarred from filling even moderate high offices in the army, or in any public or private institutions. And attempts are being made to thrust them out of business also: "Don't buy from Jews!"
Attacks in parliaments, in assemblies, in the press, in the pulpit, in the street, on journey--for example, their exclusion from certain hotels--even in places of recreation are increasing from day to day. The forms of persecution vary according to country and social circle. In Russia, special taxes are levied on Jewish villages; in Romania, a few persons are put to death; in Germany, they get a good beating occasionally; in Austria, anti-Semites exercise their terrorism over all public life; in Algeria, there are traveling agitators; in Paris, the Jews are shut out of the so-called best social circles and excluded from clubs. The varieties of anti-Jewish expression are innumerable. But this is not the occasion to attempt the sorry catalogue of Jewish hardships. We shall not dwell on particular cases, however painful.
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The common people have not, and indeed cannot have, any comprehension of history. They do not know that the sins of the Middle Ages are now being visited on the nations of Europe. We are what the ghetto made us. We have without a doubt attained pre-eminence in finance because medieval conditions drove us to it. The same process is now being repeated. We are again being forced into moneylending--now named stock exchange--by being kept out of other occupations. But once on the stock exchange, we are again objects of contempt. At the same time we continue to produce an abundance of mediocre intellectuals who find no outlet, and this endangers our social position as much as does our increasing wealth. Educated Jews without means are now rapidly becoming socialists. Hence we are certain to suffer acutely in the struggle between the classes, because we stand in the most exposed position in both the capitalist and socialist camps.
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Palestine or Argentina?
Is Palestine or Argentina preferable? The Society will take whatever it is given and whatever Jewish public opinion favors. The Society will determine both these points.
[paragraph on the advantages of Argentina] ....
Palestine is our unforgettable historic homeland. The very name would be a marvelously effective rallying cry. If His Majesty the Sultan were to give us Palestine, we could in return undertake the complete management of the finances of Turkey. We should there form a part of a wall of defense for Europe in Asia, an outpost of civilization against barbarism. We should as a neutral state remain in contactl with all of Europe, which would have to guarantee our existence.
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