September 1, 2003
FOR THE GOYIM THEY SING
The topic to be discussed here is so emotionally
charged
that it needs to be read in sequence lest wrong opinions are formed. I
shall,
therefore, refrain from using bold print, which would lend itself to
quotes
taken out of context. About two months ago I came across a book by
Haddon
Klingberg Jr., Professor of Psychology at North Park University,
entitled When
Life Calls Out To Us. The Love and Lifework of Viktor and Elly Frankl.
The Story behind Man's Search for Meaning.
As discussed in War&Mayhem Dr. Frankl, whose lectures on
neurology
at the Poliklinik I attended in 1948, became a role model not only for
my
professional life but also in the personal sphere. What impressed me
most at
the time was not only his exemplary teaching style but that as a Jewish
survivor of concentration camps the man exuded only profound humanism
without
any trace of hate or resentment. Klingberg's book was, therefore, of
great
interest and I can strongly recommend it to anyone interested in
Frankl's
lifework.
I had always been puzzled why Frankl had not achieved greater
recognition by
leading Jewish authorities. Wiesenthal is known by everybody but
Frankl's name
does not have the same resonance among average persons. As an example
of
discrimination against Frankl I might mention that he was clearly
entitled to
the Chairmanship of Vienna's renowned Neuro-Psychiatric University
Hospital
when the position became vacant in 1949. It went instead to another
Jewish
neurologist, Hans Hoff, who had spent the war years first in Palestine
and then
New York. More about Hoff can be found in War&Mayhem.
After reading
Klingberg's book the reasons for the difference in the treatment meted
out to
Wiesenthal or Hoff versus Frankl became apparent.
Although not stated in these words, Frankl had committed four cardinal
sins in
the eyes of the Jewish establishment. One was that he refused to hate
the Nazis
for what they had personally done to him and his family. Rather than
looking
backward at past suffering he looked instead forward to the new
challenges life
had in store. The second sin was that he spoke out against collective
guilt,
even in 1945, and advocated reconciliation rather than en bloc
condemnation of entire groups of people, which he regarded as Nazism in
reverse. Individuals who had committed crimes should be punished but
the global
condemnation of "the Germans" or even "the Nazis," was not
appropriate. His was the voice of the physician who examines individual
people
and tries to find their positive characteristics which can help them to
overcome their negative ones and thus lead to more appropriate behavior
patterns. This stance is, of course, anathema to politicians and media
people
who want to first create and then sway "public opinion." The third
sin was that his psychotherapeutic treatment method of "Existential
Analysis," also referred to as "Logotherapy," (website: http://logotherapy.univie.ac.at)
was seen as serious competition for Freudian psychoanalysis, which
essentially
reduced the human being to a sex driven organism. Frankl saw the soul
and its
yearning for meaning in life. This is why he called his first book, the
manuscript of which was destroyed in Auschwitz, Aerztliche
Seelsorge.
The title, which is most appropriate in German, defies a succinct
translation
and the English title The Doctor and the Soul does not
capture its
essence. It could be rendered as: how the physician can provide care
for a
patient's soul. In German the word Seelsorge is regarded as
the domain
of priests and ministers but Frankl broke through this barrier. He said
essentially: Yes, priests should do their job, but physicians also have
a role
to play when they are confronted with patients whose problem is
basically a
spiritual one. While Freud, the materialist, had
derided
religion as an illusion, Frankl saw, felt, and acted on the human
being's
spiritual essence. This simply did not sit well in our "secular
society." The fourth sin was that, although Frankl had never renounced
his
Jewish faith, he had married, in a civil ceremony, a Catholic woman.
For Gentile readers these aspects may all be "so what," but for some
influential segments in the Jewish community they are indeed pretty
near
traitorous. For these sons of Jacob (I deliberately do not call them
sons of
Isaac because Esau, Isaac's first born, has a decidedly bad name in
Jewish
religious circles) there still exists a tribal mentality of a
beleaguered
"us versus them." This brings me to the title of this essay. Frankl was
fond of jokes and one of his favorite ones, as quoted from Klingberg's
book
was, "An old Jewish man who had emigrated to Berlin is walking in the
famous park there. Then a bird appeared overhead lets its droppings go
and they
land right on the old man's hat. He takes off his hat, looks at it, and
says,
'For the goyim they are singing.' "
Obviously one laughs at the joke but as Freud told us jokes can have
deeper
meaning and in this instance it reveals a basically paranoid attitude
bred by a
history which emphasizes intermittent persecutions in some parts of the
world
rather than periods of relative well-being. Gentiles, or goyim, as
non-Jews are
referred to in private Jewish conversation with a connotation that is
somewhat
akin to the "n word," will never understand the deep trauma some Jews
labor under. When Gentiles either ignore it, or are trying to make up
for past
sins, they tend to merely perpetuate a mind-set which is inherently
unhealthy.
This is one facet of Jewish life which deserves be recognized and
openly
discussed.
Paranoid type of thinking exemplified by - because we have been
persecuted in
the past we are ordained to be persecuted in the future until the
Messiah
arrives - can be compensated for by a feeling of superiority over
others. This
combination of mental attitudes is a major contributing factor to the
hostility
Jews have encountered intermittently throughout history. To understand
this
very delicate, difficult, but terribly important subject I'd like to
discuss
first my professional experience with paranoid patients. Paranoia does,
in
general, not start out with ideas of persecution but with an experience
which
the individual regards as extremely important and which the rest of the
world
should share. When others who fail to appreciate that need, either
ignore or
ridicule the person, the sense of "I am right and the rest of the world
is
wrong" is born. When the person then not simply retires into his own
fantasy land but actively endeavors to recruit others into his belief
system he
will encounter resistance and at that point active retaliation by
society,
which does not want to conform to the wishes of the individual, will
occur.
This is the typical sequence when paranoia is limited to one person.
The family
steps in, the patient will be taken to a psychiatrist and a treatment
course
will be instituted. A problem for society at large arises if this
particular
person is "charismatic," intelligent, intact in all other mental
functions and can rally others into his personal belief system. Under
those
circumstances events are set in motion which have incalculable
consequences.
The group then feeds on myths of superiority, which are denied by the
rest of
society. The resultant ill will by society has two consequences. One is
the
increased cohesion of the in-group in face of actual or perceived
danger and
the other active and at times violent hostility by
the larger
overall society. In this way antisemitism was born and this is why it
is so
difficult, if not impossible, to eradicate.
These thoughts are not purely academic at present, but have very
practical
consequences which affect the lives of all of us. The state of Israel
was
created as a reaction to European antisemitism. It was Herzl's, and
like-minded
others', belief that when the Jews leave Europe and build a prosperous
state in
Palestine, antisemitism would lose its raison d'être
and all the world
would then be happy and grateful for the benefits Jews are providing to
the
world. The fatal flaw (both literally as well as figuratively) in this
assumption
was the non-recognition of the existence of an indigenous population in
Palestine. The slogan under which Zionist colonizers flocked to
Palestine in
the late 19th and especially early 20th century was "A land
without people for people without a land." This is a classic example of
how a wrong assumption has to lead to wrong results. People did live
there.
They were in the vast majority Arabs and they acted exactly in the
manner
Sultan Abd ul-Hamid II predicted. When Herzl wanted to acquire
Palestine for
the Jews with the promise of providing financial help to the ailing
Ottoman
empire the Sultan replied, through a mutual friend, "If Mister Herzl is
indeed such a good friend of yours, as you are mine, then advise him
not to
take even one more step in this matter. I cannot sell a single foot of
my land,
because it doesn't belong to me, but to my people. My people have
fought
for this empire with their blood and have fertilized it with their
blood. We
shall have to cover it again with our blood before one tears it away
from us .
. . The Jews should save themselves their billions [Milliarden]. If my
empire
is parceled out, they might get Palestine for free. Only our cadaver
can be
partitioned. I do not agree to vivisection [Herzl Tagebuch
entry of
June 19, 1896. Translation is mine]." One can only wonder about how
much
past as well as future misery might have been avoided had Herzl been
able to
take this advice to heart and had indeed abandoned his project.
History's wars
are not foreordained but result from wrong assumptions and the Zionist
dream,
which is turning into a nightmare for all of us, is just one of them.
But Herzl was obsessed, and he as well as his followers, could not and
still
cannot, abandon the quest for Eretz Yisrael, which
encompasses for
some at minimum the current state plus the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
The
maximalists dream of the restoration of King David's borders, which are
actually quite nebulous if one asks historians. The failure of American
administrations to recognize this quest, which can bring only further
bloodshed, has led us into the current impasse in the Middle East.
Under the
slogan that we have to fight terrorism and secure the survival of "the
only democracy in the Middle East," America has been led into the war
with
Iraq and if Likud supporters, both here and in Israel, had their way we
would
also eliminate Syria and Iran as potential threats to Israel. Let me
emphasize
that the threat to Israel was not the only reason for our invasion of
Iraq but,
to deny that it was a contributing factor would also be inaccurate.
Now we come to the problem: How can a small nation of six million
people, of
whom about one million Arabs are partially disenfranchised even within
the pre
1967 borders, prosper in the face of ever growing hostility? To answer
this
question we have to look at how Jewish intellectuals think about
themselves and
what methods are employed to gain support from inside and outside their
own
community. As far as self appreciation is concerned I would now like to
quote
from a few Jewish sources. One is a recent letter I received from the
Simon
Wiesenthal Center which starts out,
"Dear Friend,
I'm writing you today with news about a frightening trend that is
sweeping
across the European continent.
Since October of 2000, the beginning of the Palestinian Intifada II,
the Simon
Wiesenthal Center has been tracking with growing alarm, a dramatic rise
in hate
rhetoric and hate crimes targeted toward Europe's Jewish population . .
. . The
situation has grown so serious that Simon Wiesenthal, now 95, told me
that
'there is more antisemitism today than we experienced in the 1930's.'"
The
message is that Jews not only in Israel but also in Europe are in
serious and
growing danger and must rally to the meet the threat. Financial support
for the
Wiesenthal Center was requested; as if the problem could be solved with
money.
To highlight the threat to Israeli Jews the tax-exempt organization
FLAME
(Facts and Logic About the Middle East), which advertises in a number
of newspapers
and magazines, argues vigorously against the creation of a Palestinian
state.
It is claimed that the state would never remain demilitarized, continue
to
threaten Israel's very existence, and eventually lead to a nuclear
holocaust.
One of the "facts" cited in support of this thesis is that a
Palestinian state is unjustified "because there are no distinct
'Palestinian' people. The concept of a Palestinian state came about
after the
Six-Day War in 1967." Well, this is simply untrue, and the writers of
FLAME must know it. Palestine was the official name for the country
under the
British Mandate; ergo the people living there were Palestinians
regardless of
what religion they professed. The division of Palestine into a Jewish
and an
Arab state was first suggested by the Peel Commission in 1937 and
officially
adopted by the UN in 1947. The argument whether the Arabs living in
Palestine
were really "Palestinians" reminded me of the story of a an old man
in the Sudetenland, "When I was born I lived in Austria, then I lived
in
Czechoslovakia, then I lived in Germany, now I live in Czechoslovakia
again and
I have never even set foot outside of my village." Since the FLAME
article
reflects the current Israeli government's position it is obvious that
the "road
map" never had a ghost of a chance to succeed. Regardless of what the
Palestinians did or did not do the will from the Israeli side simply
wasn't
there. In spite of the so called truce Israeli settlements continued to
be
expanded and the construction of the "fence" which in part separates
Palestinian farmers' villages from their fields was started. All of
this is
done in the name of security for Israel, which reinforces the basically
paranoid mind-set into which Americans are now being recruited.
But as mentioned earlier for paranoia to flourish it needs not only the
threat
of persecution but also a sense of entitlement. In order to understand
this
aspect one has to read Jewish literature and the book by Max I. Dimont The
Indestructible Jews. An action-packed journey through 4,000
years of
history, is a
good
example. He divides Jewish history into three acts. The first one, "The
Manifest Destiny", covers the era from the patriarchs to Jesus; the
second, "The Existential Dilemma" deals with the period from Jesus to
Ben-Gurion, and the third act, "The Paradox of the Diaspora" is being
played out now. Dimont believes, and he may well be right, that the
Jews are
what he called "the surfboard riders of history." They attach
themselves to one rising civilization infuse it with their belief
system and
when that civilization is in decay, they catch the next wave. For this
reason
they need both the Diaspora as well as the state of Israel as its
spiritual
center. Let me now quote some key passages to get a flavor of Dimont's
thinking.
"The Jews will not worship idols, be they religious, secular or
scientific. A consequence . . . is that of the Jews as skeptics, who
never
accept the say-so of anyone not even God . . . They are a people of
law. They
are a people born with a pontificating finger, moral busybodies, who
are
forever telling the world what is right and what is wrong . . .
Finally, Jews
have always supported education and general welfare. . . the Jewish
ethic
rallies round the flag that symbolizes what is noblest in man."
In regard to Jewish Diaspora Dimont wrote,
"Each Diaspora interaction enriched Judaism, giving it a new virility,
verisimilitude, and a broader spectrum of intellectual activity. But
its inner
core always remained distinctly Jewish. No matter how much the Jews
borrowed,
they did not doubt the superiority of Judaism itself. . . . With each
new
challenge, with each successive enlargement of the Diaspora Judaic
ideas were
indelibly imprinted on each host civilization. This 'Judaization' of
the world
that has imperceptibly coursed below the surface of history in our
second act
is destined to surface in the third."
Dimont then asks, "Will it be the destiny of the Jews in the third act
to
proselytize the universalistic aspect of their faith to a diasporized
world
sick unto its scientific soul, ready, perhaps, at last, to accept their
prophetic message? Is it possible that Christianity, Mohammedanism,
communism
have been but stepping stones to make it easier for diasporized man to
cross
over into a universal Judaism? . . . . At the end of the first act,
Jesus
proclaimed a religious brotherhood of man in heaven. At the end of the
second
act Marx proclaimed an economic brotherhood for man on earth. What will
be
proclaimed at the end of the third act? Will the Christian Jesus
reappear as
promised by the Gospels, or will a Jewish Messiah appear as promised by
the
prophets? Thus in the third act, man himself will be faced with an
existential
choice. Should he choose the Christian paradise in heaven, with an
avenging
Jesus returning to end mankind with a Judgment day, or should he choose
the
Jewish paradise on earth brought about by a messianic concept of
brotherhood?"
Dimont then addresses the question,
"How could these forthright Zionist agnostics [who had settled in
Palestine prior to nationhood] claim to be heirs to the messianic
ideal? How
could they deny God and yet proclaim the chosenness of the Jewish
people?
Perhaps Ben-Gurion best resolved this dilemma when he said
'My concept of the messianic idea is not a metaphysical but a
social-cultural
one . . . I believe in our moral and intellectual superiority, in our
capacity
to serve to serve as a model for the redemption of the human race . . .
"
Dimont concluded,
"Perhaps this is why God chose the Jews, if there was indeed divine
choice. He could count on them. As one scholar so perceptively summed
it up -
'In Judaism, God turned to man and said, 'Finish the job for me,' and
man said
'I will.' In Christianity, man returns to God and says 'I cannot do it,
finish
the work for me,' and God says 'I will'. In essence the Christians are
unable
to fulfill the task assigned to man by God, and slough the job back to
God via
Jesus. . . . As long as the Jews stick to the ethics of the Torah and
the
ideology of the Prophets they will remain indestructible. When all men
embrace
this ethic and ideology, they, too, will symbolically become 'Jewish.'
There
will then be only man."
I have quoted so extensively from my 1973 edition because these are the
ideas
over which the current war in Israel as well as the more general war
with
Islamic fundamentalists are fought over. Let me highlight just a few
points.
Dimont tells us that the Jewish vision of morality is the only correct
one. It
has to be pushed onto the rest of the world, which has to be
"Judaized." "Diasporized man" is a neologism and I doubt
that people of other nations or religions feel that they live in a
"Diaspora." A "universal Judaism" is an oxymoron. Judaism, strictly
speaking, is a set of laws given by Moses to the Israelites to form a
nation
which sets them apart from the goyim! The messianic concept of
brotherhood was
always limited to members of the twelve tribes. When one reads the Old
Testament carefully, Gentiles could join but would have to undergo
conversion
to Jewish law, which for males includes circumcision. The expansion of
some
aspects of Judaism into a universal religion was due to Jesus martyrdom
and
mainly St. Paul's missionary trips to the Gentiles. It is they who
should get
the credit. I have discussed these aspects in my next book Understanding
Jesus. A Medical Perspective which, as of today, is still looking
for a
publisher. When it comes to "moral and intellectual superiority," I
thought that this concept of the inherent superiority of one racial or
ethnic
group over another was buried with Hitler in the bunker, but apparently
not.
The ethics of the Torah and the prophets, which should be accepted by
the rest
of the world is also a catch phrase without meaning but mindlessly
repeated by
numerous Jewish authors. The Torah is not only the first five books
attributed
to Moses in the Old Testament but the entire body of Jewish written and
oral
law, which most Jews do not adhere to anyway. The prophets were
nationalists
who showered doom and gloom upon all their neighbors as well as the
wayward
Jews. This vision hardly lends itself to a peaceful future. Thus to
call upon
the world to adopt the "universal aspects of the Torah and the
prophets," but in the same breath deny the existence of God strikes me
as
less than honest. Furthermore the truly universal aspects of the moral
law
antedated Moses. It would be most wholesome for writers like Dimont to
read
Pritchard’s The Ancient Near East. This collection of
documents from
the beginnings of our civilization ought to remove chauvinistic
preconceptions
and provide respect for those ancients upon whose words the laws and
wisdom
literature of the Bible was based. A great many of the commandments the
Israelites were ordered to adhere to in the Torah were actually
literally
copied from Hammurabi's [ca. 1728-1686] laws. He received them likewise
from
his god whose name was, however, Shamash not Yahweh.
The statement that "there will then be only man," is a concept not
even religious Jews subscribe to and an effort to turn the entire world
into
atheists must create resistance. Yet it is precisely these ideas which
are
being pushed in America and which the world receives through
television. These
fuel the hatred not only against Jews but Americans as their protector.
Small
wonder that some Muslims will say in so many words: not over my dead
body.
Lest one assumes that it is merely one author who harbors and promotes
these
thoughts one needs only to read Jewish newspapers, magazines,
as well
as a variety of books by Jewish authors. Dimont, and those who think
like him,
also have a profoundly distorted view of what Christianity is, or
should be,
all about. Just as many Christians, especially Evangelicals, harbor an
idealized view of Judaism and the state of Israel which has no
counterpart in
the real world. Thus Dimont's writings are typical for a paranoid
mind-set
which consists of an exaggerated sense of self importance masking the
unspoken
fear of the "avenging Jesus." The dead Jesus and the possibility that
God might exist haunt some Jewish intellectuals and this is the reason
why not
only Christianity but all religions have to disappear. The claim that
Jews as a
whole rally to the flag which stands for "what is noblest in man"
also sounds quite hollow when one considers Jewish behavior vis a vis
their
Arab citizens and to the Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Security
will never be achieved by brutality and each escalating reprisal will
merely
lead to more bloodshed. There are indeed some responsible Jews in
Israel as
well as here who argue against these policies but they are the
proverbial voice
in the wilderness which gets drowned out by the clamor for revenge and
"security."
On the other hand there is one point where I have to agree with Dimont.
The
"Judaization" of America has succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of
Jewish immigrants after WWII. Even our foreign policy is currently no
longer in
the hands of the professionals in the State Department but is run by a
small
civilian neoconservative group in the Pentagon who turn Israel's goals
into
those of America. This is the tragedy of the beginning century because
the
American people, by and large, do not realize that they are being used
for
ulterior motives.
We now have to address the question how is Dimont's vision to be
accomplished.
The answer is already partly in his book and in last month's essay on
"The
Niger Forgery". "Thou shalt wage war by deception" is not
limited to the Mossad; it now permeates all aspects of our society. To
get by
with deceptions the responsible officials can either lie or stonewall,
by not
releasing pertinent documents and Congress' as well as the media's
acquiescence. Even the minutes of Vice President Cheney's meeting on
energy
policy in early 2001 are not allowed to be released because they would,
in all
probability, throw a rather different light on the administration's
response to
the 9/11 disaster. While secrecy and outright lies are one mechanism,
the
spread of fear by exaggerating possible dangers is the other, as
exemplified by
the rhetoric which led up to the Iraq invasion, and expressed also in
the
letter from the Wiesenthal Center as well as in FLAME.
One year ago I wrote in the essay "October Surprise?" that I had been
told in August by a person who was privy to administration information
that the
decision for war had already been made and that our efforts to convince
Senator
Bennett to act as a voice of reason in Washington were fruitless. I had
no
possibility at that time to verify the information but corroboration
came in an
article from The Guardian. The British have appointed an
independent
commission under Lord Hutton to examine the recent suspicious death of
Dr.
Kelly who was the country's foremost expert on Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction. The Guardian wrote in its August 23, 2003
edition under
the headline, "Emails show how No 10 constructed case for war," that
Tony Blair was told on September 8, 2002 by President Bush at Camp
David that
the invasion of Iraq had been decided on. It was Blair's job to make
the
British people come on board and the flurry of e-mails under discussion
was to
provide the justification for the war rather than an attempt to avoid
it.
"The sense that the decision had been made is also echoed by the former
cabinet minister, Clare Short, who opposed the war and who told the
Commons
foreign affairs committee that she had been informed by three senior
people -
believed to be another cabinet minister, an MI6 chief and a top civil
servant -
that war was inevitable. One of them told her to stop fretting because
it could
not be stopped."
Evidence how the American people were hoodwinked into the war can also
be found
on the Internet in an interview with Ray Mc Govern by Will Pitt on June
26,2003
(www.truthout.org).
McGovern, a CIA analyst for 27 years, had served under seven Presidents
beginning with Kennedy and ending with Bush I. His job was to brief the
highest
administration officials, and as he relates the motto of the CIA,
chiseled in
marble at the entrance, is "You Shall Know The Truth, And the Truth
Shall
Set You Free." In those days CIA officers did indeed present truthful
analysis results to the policy makers and were not interfered with,
regardless
whether a given administration liked or did not like the data. The CIA
was an
independent agency which could go after facts. This changed profoundly
in the
run-up towards the Iraq war. President Bush II had ignored the briefing
on
August 6, 2001 which had its title "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in
the
US." Condoleeza Rice, our National Security Advisor, admitted after
September 11 that she had not looked at her predecessor's, Sandy
Berger, file
on terrorism. As she said, "It was still on my desk when September 11
happened." According to McGovern the driving force in the exaggeration
of
the potential Iraqi threat, which justified the invasion of the
country, was
the Vice President as well as the civilians in the Pentagon especially
Wolfowitz. Mc Govern, also told his interviewer, "When the decision was
made last summer that we will have a war against Iraq, they were
casting about.
You'll recall White House Chief of Staff Andy Carr saying you don't
market a
new product in August. The big blast off was Cheney's speech in
Nashville, I
think it was Nashville anyway, on August 26. He said Iraq was seeking
materials
for its nuclear program. That set the tone right there."
This is what seems to really have happened, the tragedy of 9/11 was
used as the
excuse to pursue other goals by manufacturing non-existent threats
against the
U.S., supposedly emanating from Saddam Hussein. Fear had to spread and
our
moral superiority over the rest of the world had to be proclaimed. This
policy
has now committed us to an indefinite guerilla war in Afghanistan as
well as
Iraq and possibly other places around the world. Although the CIA as
well as
the FBI analysts in the field had done their level best to detect and
warn of
imminent dangers they were ignored by their higher-ups. Problems of
this type
will neither be solved by an additional layer of bureaucracy called
Homeland
Security Office nor by a Patriot Act which allows the government to
snoop on
its citizens at will.
What can be done now? First of all the press and television have to
demand a
truly independent investigation of the events leading up to 9-11-2001
and the
administration's response to it. Public pressure for an accounting is
needed
before Congress will react and take the appropriate steps. Senators and
Representatives have re-election on their minds and will not act unless
the
public is truly aroused and it is the media's job to keep government as
honest
as possible. Stonewalling by the President as well as the Vice
President in
regard to crucial documents should be condemned and brought before the
judiciary. If judicial orders are then denied on grounds of "national
security" the responsible people should be held in contempt. Nothing
but
the disclosure of the full truth will ever get us out of this quandary
we have
gotten into during the past two years. Our national security is not
served by
secrecy but only by a fully informed citizenry.
As far as Iraq is concerned the predictions about the consequences of
this
invasion, which have been made during the past year in these pages,
have sadly
come true. The guerilla war in Iraq against everyone who cooperates
with
Americans, as urged by bin-Laden in his tape recorded message prior to
our
invasion, is now also a reality. I presented excerpts in the March,
2003 essay
"From Homo Sapiens to the Naked Ape." The most recent highlights are
the tragic attacks on the UN headquarters and even the most revered
Shiite
mosque in Najaf. Ayatollah Mohammed Baquir al-Hakim had advocated
accommodation
with the infidels and this was not to be condoned. Attacks upon the
Kurds are
likely to be in the offing next. At this late stage everybody in the US
now
wants the UN to assume a greater role. But this cannot be achieved in
the way
Charles Krauthammer wants it. The headline of his essay on the last
page of Time
September 1, 2003 was, "Help Wanted. Why America needs to lean hard on
its
allies to lend a hand in Iraq." This reflects precisely the sense of
arrogance which is discussed above. First we tell the world that
regardless of
what they want we will go it alone, and when that didn't quite work out
as
envisioned they should come and bail us out. But we intend to keep the
major
contracts for the rebuilding of Iraq and the anticipated future
profits. People
who think this way forget that our allies are not our servants, they
are free
people and the scenario as outlined above is not likely to find their
approval.
Only when we demonstrate that we are willing for them to share not only
burdens
but also rewards is help likely to be forthcoming.
To the Jewish people and their sympathizers I suggest that they take
the
contents of Whither Zionism? and of "The Neocons'
Leviathan," which was published here in April of this year, to heart.
Please recognize the failure of the neoncons, as well as Likud's,
policies and conduct
yourselves according to the high ethical principles your writers
proclaim. Place
yourself into the shoes of the Palestinians in the occupied territories
and
consider what the world-wide Jewish reaction would be if the roles were
reversed and Palestinians treated Jews the way Palestinians are being
treated
now. Remember that the Golden Rule works both ways, "You will
be
treated the way you treat others." Realize, furthermore, that when a
total
of about 14 million people want to convert a world of more than 6
billion to
their belief system - be it religious or secular - it cannot work; it
must
backfire. Complaining about antisemitism, spreading further fear and
drumming
up money will not help.
The answer to the challenges ahead is honesty and conduct commensurate
with
universal, rather than parochial, human values. Goethe has summed them
up in,
"Edel sei der Mensch, hilfreich und gut." The human being's
task is to be noble, helpful and good! This is everyone's duty and not
limited
to a given religious, national or ethnic group. Frankl, a Jew, has
shown that
it can be done even when a tremendous personal loss has taken place. So
have
other Jews both here and in Israel. But misguided Jewish zealots, who
have
converted some Gentiles to their cause, are dragging us down the wrong
road. It
will be up to individual responsible Jews to publicly and vociferously
speak
out against this type of "leadership" because goyim cannot do this
job for them.
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