"One must come to terms with the
past. One cannot
wholly
escape
it. One may reject it, but
the very mode
of rejection
is
often conditioned
by the past
itself. A man
is, first, the
son of
his father.
In almost
all tribal societies,
the patronymic
is part
of one's name.
And the sins
of the fathers
-- in the psychological,
if not the legal
sense -- are
apt to be burdens
on
the sons as
well."
--
Jacob
Neusner, 1972, p. 64
We must inevitably
conclude a circle
in these many
pages, back
where we began: a reassertion of the ethical legitimacy
of investigating
collective (“peoplehood”)
responsibility
for collective
deeds, so clearly,
and ominously,
epitomized in
the example
of the Germans
and the growth
from them of
Aryan fascism.
Primo Levi,
a well-known
Jewish survivor
of Auschwitz,
flying in the
face of “political
correct” platitudes,
confronts directly
the obvious
value and logic
of critical
generalizations:
“It is dangerous,
wrong, to speak
about the “Germans,”
or any other
people, as of
a single undifferentiated
entity, and
include all
individuals
in one judgment.
And yet I don’t
think I would
deny that there
exists
a spirit of
each people
(otherwise it
would not be
a people) a
Deutschtum, an italianitia, an hispanidad: they are the sums of
traditions,
customs, history,
language, and
culture. Whoever
does
not feel within
himself this
spirit, which
is national
in the best
sense
of the word,
not only does
not entirely
belong to his
own people
but is not part
of human civilization.
Therefore, while
I consider
insensate the
syllogism, ‘All
Italians are
passionate;
you are Italian;
therefore you
are passionate,”
I do however
believe it legitimate,
within certain
limits, to expect
from Italians
taken as a whole,
or
from Germans,
etc., one specific,
collective behavior
rather than
another. There
will certainly
be individual
exceptions,
but a
prudent, probabilistic
forecast is
in my opinion
possible.” [LEVI,
P.,
1988, p.183-184]
What, we may
fairly wonder,
from the evidence
found in this
volume, is the
“probabilistic
spirit” of the
Jewish people?
Levi’s unemotional,
reasoned assertion
opens the door
to an avalanche
of troubling
issues about
them.
The positive side
of the Jewish
“contribution
to civilization”
(“Jonas Salk
invented the
polio vaccine,”
etc.) is not
in this volume.
That perspective
is represented
in its one-sided
form everywhere
elsewhere, always: an impenetrable monolith of
saintly Jewish
self-celebration
in today’s popular
culture. This
volume, however,
is more akin
to a long complaint,
an underscoring
of Jewish historical
responsibility.
This book insists
that, while
Jews take credit
for so much
good in modern
civilization,
they must also
take their fair
share of blame
where it is
also reasonably
merited.
Why is
this necessary?
Because modern
Jewry is not
an oppressed
minority. It
is, by all measures,
a center of
economic and
social power,
and political
control. Virtually
all corners
of society are
effected by
Jewish influence.
Yet modern Jewish
identity continuously
screams its
alleged disadvantages,
configuring
as a relentlessly Accusing Finger, constantly
demanding --
demanding attention,
demanding concession
-- all rooted
in the
foundation
of the Jewish
martyrology
tradition. To
this day the
Jewish community
still defames
Arabs, Poles,
Lithuanians,
Ukrainians,
Russians, and
others, including
all Gentiles as a categorically
“guilty” Other
for historical
crimes against
Jewry. Modern
Jewish identity
has become a
collective aggression,
a collective
demand, a collective accusation, a collective insistence
upon continued,
never-ending
reparation and
further power.
As the old saying
goes, there
are two sides
to every story
-- but the non-Jewish
side of history
(in its interaction
with Jews) is
afforded absolutely
no forum anywhere
in popular culture.
The best defense is an offense,
as the Jewish
community today
knows well;
they are so
very skillful
at it. This
volume asserts
a counter-view
to Jewish mythology
and aims to
balance the
scales. The
common notion
that anti-Semitism
is a “mystifying
disease,” or
that “prejudice”
and “discrimination”
is always and
completely irrational,
is preposterous.
All people make
prejudicial
and discriminatory
decisions about
everything continuously,
based upon their
life experience,
as part of the
process called
life. What human
being is not
“discriminatory?”
We are all human.
But why are
Jews afforded
so much "prejudicial"
slack in their
apparent "right"
to defame all
others around
them with impunity?
In the long
term, endlessly
one-sided “victim”
assaults upon
alleged oppressors
are not healthy
solutions to
interethnic
tensions. True
resolvement,
true health,
is a dialogue, an exchange, and exploration
of mutual prejudices (and the reasons for them), and a
willingness
to be drawn
to sympathy
for the others’
side -- not
merely consistent
concession to
one group’s
accusation and
demand.
If today’s Jewry did not
constantly wield
-- and exploit
--
a distorted
history as evidence
of (and claim
to) moral supremacy,
if Jewry did
not function
as an unified
entity towards
collective self-aggrandizement
at the expense
of all others,
and if Jews
melted as truly equal neighbors into American
(or wherever
they lived)
society, and if Israel was merely another country
and not an international
Jewish nerve
center, there
would be no
reason to write
this volume.
Unfortunately,
this book is
much, and crucially, merited.
One cannot fairly
discuss Gentile
racism without
addressing the
very powerful
Jewish version
of the same
thing. One cannot
righteously
discuss any
notion of “anti-Semitism”
without equal
attention to
Jewish “anti-Gentilism.” One cannot fully address Jewish identity without examining its
traditional
religio-racist
tenets. One
cannot understand
the worldwide
centuries-old
animosity towards
Jews without
understanding
the enduring
Jewish animosity
towards all
others. One
cannot understand
the Holocaust
without understanding
the genocidal
basis of Israelite
land claims
in the Old Testament.
One cannot understand
how the Holocaust
fits into modern
Jewish identity
without an examination
of the virtual
Jewish need (rooted in old religious tenets:
“punishment
by God”) to
be victims.
One cannot understand
the nature of
American consumer
society without
understanding
the enormous
Jewish contribution
to its formation
and maintenance.
(Conversely,
one cannot fully
understand the
nature of communism
without addressing
its Jewish impact
in deconstructing
Christian social
order). One
cannot fully
understand the
workings of
the modern mass
media without
addressing its
Jewish component.
One cannot understand
Jewry’s claim
to be champions
of social justice
without noting
its significant
obverse: traditional
Jewish “double
standard” ethics
and the profoundly
disproportionate,
and elite, Jewish
representation
in white collar
fraud, international
drug networks,
the prostitution
trade, the slumlord
ethic, and so
forth, as well
as Jewry’s rank
as the wealthiest
ethnic community
in America.
One cannot dismiss
the many "stereotypes"
about Jews and
money, without
investigating
the evidence
that prove cores
of truth to
these assertions.
(How, one wonders,
does a collective
commitment to
social justice
in capitalist
society make
a group of people
-- so incongruously
-- the most affluent?) One cannot understand
the awesome
American governmental
charity to Israel
without understanding
the Jewish role
in American
government and
popular culture.
One cannot understand
“democratic”
Israel without
understanding
its profoundly
undemocratic
fabric and the
ancient “nation
apart” principles
upon which it
has been created.
And one cannot
understand today’s
notions of American
democracy without
understanding
“particularist”
Zionism’s increasing
subversion of
it via the dominance
of Jewish political
money.
There are plenty of
people of Jewish
descent who
do not support
Israel, who
are not wealthy
slumlords, who
are not racist,
and who exhibit
in all spheres
the solidest
of moral character.
But where are
they when the
Collective Jewish
Body speaks,
acts, and oppresses
in their name? If the Jewish community
dictates a “community
of fate” by
bloodline, surely
all those of
even partial
Jewish heritage
have a stake
in raising critical
voices against
the steamroller
that claims
them.
In the non-Jewish
world, there
are those who
have no interest
in being led
by Jewish messianism,
whether religious
or secular.
There are those
who do not believe
that Jewry and
disputable “Jewish
values” represent
the navel of
the world. There
are those who
are tired of
endless Jewish
complaint and
demand. And
our proposed
multicultural
society must
ultimately fail
if it is so
incredibly Jewish-centered
and, emulating
the Zionist
model, so heatedly
Balkanized.
A just, and
real, multicultural
democracy in
the social,
political, and
economic worlds
would represent
ethnic communities
in a rough approximation
of their population
numbers. Let
all peoples
have a voice,
per the original
concepts of
the Constitution.
That's fair,
at least as
fair as humans
can aspire.
But we do not
have that. In
far too many
realms, we have
Jewish dominance.
Does speaking
the truth about
Jewish identity,
power and history
lead to Jews
being led to
concentration
camps and ovens?
(As so many
Jews preposterously
proclaim, as
a veritable
religious conviction
today). Nonsense.
World wars (where
murder is
the norm)
lead to people
thrown in ovens.
Fanatical ethnocentrism
leads to people
thrown in ovens.
The suppression
of free speech
leads to ovens.
Military states
and institutionalized
racism leads
to people locked
up in concentration
camps. Censorship,
intolerance,
and allegiances
to sacred racial
pedigrees lead
to mass murder.
How is it that
the mere mention
of the unpleasant
facts of Jewish
history is dictated
to be tantamount
to genocide
against the
Jewish people?
True, there
was an Adolf
Hitler: his
existence is
used as a Jewish
shield against
any criticism. True, Hitler condemned
the Jews and
sought to exterminate
them (as he
did others)
as part of a
master plan
to rule the
world. But it
is absurd, even
manipulatively
sinister, to
dismiss the
context of the
broader scope
of World War,
and the struggles
and sufferings
of all other
people, and
equate criticism
of Jews with
mass murder.
For good reason,
as we have amply
seen, criticism
of Jews throughout
history knows
the full political
spectrum. Even
Hitler’s hated
ideological
enemy and polar
opposite, Karl
Marx, criticized
Jews. Even in
the works of
Theodore Herzl,
the secular
Zionist “King
of the Jews,”
one can find
echoes of the
same themes.
Not mass murder.
But legitimate
criticism.
The Jewish community
maintains a
"head in the
sand" approach
to Jewish history
and identity,
systematically
censoring all
the many Jewish-inspired
unpleasantries
of the past,
singularly gleaning
from all of
human history
only the "Jew
as victim" scenario.
Those
who dare to
break the institutionalized
muzzles today
to address Jewish
bigotry, past
and present,
are themselves
defamed as bigots.
Always and everywhere,
the Jewish community is held to be beyond
criticism.
Today "anti-Semitism"
is repeatedly
and categorically
described throughout
the Jewish community
as merely a
"mystifying
disease," only
attributable
to Hitlerian
psychological
perversions.
This is profound
evidence that
the collective
Jewish community
has lost its
intellectual,
and moral, compass.
It fears even
partial blame
for the tragedies
in its history.
The Jewish community
is in denial.
Not only is
it in denial,
it censors at
every opportunity
any penetration
of this denial.
When one studies
history carefully,
intent upon
finding a rational
"cause" for
anti-Semitism,
there are, unfortunately,
answers to be
found. And if
there should
ever be a real
"cure" for this
"disease," the
FULL story of
history must
be squarely
faced. And honestly.
That's the beginning
of real dialogue.
The Jewish conviction that
their historical
suffering transcends
all others is
religiously
based (even
the term "Holocaust"
has religious
roots) and the
"Holocaust is
unique" theology
can be dismissed,
as we have seen,
rather easily,
except to the
degree that
ANY atrocity
is in some ways
special to its
own context.
This Jewish
view of itself
(that no other
genocide approaches
the special
Jewish suffering)
is also racist:
it is the traditional
Chosen People
identity (the
racial lineage
to Abraham theme)
expressed in
a secular (although
catastrophic)
form.
Because of profound
Jewish power
and presence
-- and enduring
intra-Jewish
allegiance --
throughout modern
popular culture,
the many myths
of Jewish identity
are an integral
part of the
daily diet of
modern America.
And, increasingly
since the Enlightenment,
the Jewish struggle
to cope with
its collective
neurosis (Who
is a Jew? What
is a Jew? How
do I balance
Jewish chauvinism
and ethnocentrism
against worldwide
universalistic
themes?) has
been woven like
a knot into
the very essence
of modern western
society.
It is the principle
of democracy
that it is in
everyone’s best interests to resolve
an issue by
fully, and freely,
exploring it.
In a true democracy,
those that are
factually and
ethically wrong
may be proven
as wrong, not
repeatedly threatened,
shouted down
at first voice
and suffocated.
The alternative
to the free
exchange of
ideas is censorship,
authoritarianism,
totalitarianism.
And fascism.
Jewry’s self-preserving
strategy through
the centuries
has always been
to stifle free
debate, lobby
with governing
powers behind
the scenes,
and to sit on
the lid of the resultant pressure cooker. (Orthodox
Jewry, after
all, formally
forbids critical
exploration
of its tenets).
Then comes the
shock for Gentiles
when, all at
once, as if
an explosion,
the repressed
story is somehow
suddenly revealed.
This volume
argues that
in a free society,
all
facts, and the
full realm of
evidence,
must
be placed on
the table towards
open discussion.
And, afforded
the full range
of information,
“the people”
(moral, decent,
democratic people
-- Jews among
them) can decide
what it means.
The fact that
this simple
democratic premise
is such a radical
idea in the
case of the
Jews is the
beginning of
the healthy
debate. Let
us begin with
honesty for
a change:
Who are the saints
of history?
