Adam Horowitz writes:
Did you see this obituary in the Times today for Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, at the ripe old age of 98? What a life--which in an interesting way mirrors the trajectory of part
of the Jewish community in the US.
Here's someone who in the 1950s "was called up for active duty from the Air Force Reserve, but found that his security clearance had been revoked because of his outspoken opposition to the death penalties handed down in the Rosenberg spying case and his support for the radical singer Paul Robeson. Given the choice between accepting an honorable discharge or facing a military trial, he opted for a trial." Wow.
Now go to his Jerusalem Post obit by David M. Weinberg: "Interestingly, Rackman became very right-wing politically in Israel, something that seemed to clash with his social and religious liberalism and his passion for Jewish unity. 'There's no contradiction,' he explained to me in 1997. 'My devotions are all-embracing and absolute. I am consummately committed to the entire Jewish People and totally committed to the whole Land of Israel!' he declared."
Too bad, but there is the generational switch. I hope someone ended up telling him that Paul Robeson wasn't Jewish.
What is the answer that resolves this contradiction? The rabbi had an abiding hatred for the other two Abrahamic religions.
He supported Communism here because he had a firm and abiding hatred of European Christians and Christianity. And a big part of Western Communism was the elimination of the Church. On the other hand, he supported right-wing Zionism in the ME because he had a similarly virulent hatred of Islam and its practitioners.
QED
Jewish Zionists understand that their material interests in the West rest upon left-wing universalism and multi-culturalism, which allows them to operate in the shadows as one of many “minorities” without being singled out by the (dying/assassinated) Christian majority; whereas in the Levant, their material interests rest upon spartan Jewish nationalism, where they safely operate as a majority. Hence Jewish Zionists adopt whatever politics are more conducive to their interests depending on where they are located. If they move to one sphere or the other, their politics will immediately change accordingly. No wonder neither the Left nor Right any longer trusts “the Jews.” For the Jewish Zionist, politics isn’t a matter of right or wrong, good or bad, but self-interest according to location.
The guiding principle: "Is it good for the Jews?"
No matter where, or when, or what ideology available to sue. Whatever works.
Very practical.
They haven't survive all these centuries by not being astute at
working any angle for their own benefit.
I have to hand it to Ed (and the entire Kevin MacDonald tendency) : this example is a powerful argument that Jewish 'logic' is nationalistic, right down to its supposed 'logical' essence.
Let's face it Rowan, if you haven't read Kevin MacDonald's trilogy on Judaism it's hard to come by a cogent explanation to this thread's subject line . It not only presents bracing new information, it helps connect the dots.
That's why I say "The Culture of Critique" trilogy is possibly the most important socio-historical intellectual work of the last half century. If you haven't read it, you can't say you have a firm understanding of 20th Century history (or the dearly departed rabbi's life trajectory, for that matter).
yeah, it has enormous explanatory power, because it relies upon a deus ex machina, namely, what I call the strategising gene. Which doesn't exist – genes don't think.
the idea that you should 'export' communism to your rival capitalist powers, while making as sure as possible that it doesn't infect your own working class, is of course a classic British psywar view, and I am sure you will find it mentioned by Churchill somewhere in his interminable memoirs, hopefully with his usual drunken frankness.
Obviously a "strategizing gene" doesn't exist. However, "gene machines", as Richard Dawkins characterizes them in "The Selfish Gene" do exist. And they exist to propagate the particular genetic material in each "machine".
The essence of this thread is the lengths that strongly-identified Jews will go to, in order to promote specifically Jewish interests and yes, genes. This includes the political gymnastics and intellectual contortions described above.
The more one delves into this question, the more one is awe-stricken by its breadth and depth.