Theodor Herzl is a saint of the Jewish right. The popular translation of the Zionist leader’s diaries was published in 1956. Surprise: it left out this passage from the Complete Diaries (published in five volumes by Thomas Yoseloff in 1960, now out of print):
December 24, 1895
I was just lighting the Christmas tree for my children when [head Vienna rabbi Moritz] Gudemann arrived. He seemed upset by the "Christian" custom. Well, I will not let myself be pressured! But I don’t mind if they call it the Hannukah tree–or the winter solstice.
Good and pagan of you, Theodor. Don’t let them pressure you! The story is a reminder that assimilation was a profound force in European Jews’ lives. Herzl, a would-be assimilationist, turned to Zionism because of the prevalence of anti-Semitism: he observed how educated Jews were being discriminated against all around him. Herzl built Zionism out of his own frustrated aspirations to be a political leader. Europeans wouldn’t let him have such a role in their councils. Herzl seized it as the leader of the Jewish people. I admire that.
The Christmas moment reminds us that Zionism has been opposed to assimilation from the start. Assimilation, or integration, is now a fact of life in western society. Jews can aspire to virtually any office in the United States. And Jewish organizations pressure Jews not to have Christmas trees, out of fears that Jews will completely assimilate.
And Herzl’s cry–We cannot assimilate here–now is upheld where? In Israel. We cannot assimilate in the Middle East. Huge pressures come to bear on individuals who might think for themselves. The Arabs are Islamofascists, etc.
Maybe it’s time for Jews to honor "’Arab’ customs." They could start with the Nakba.
You think Jews can aspire to be president? With all the talk from even liberals of “dual loyalty”?
Look how you trashed Rahm Emanuel for being even that close to the sitting president.
The Nakba is not an Arab custom. Its a Palestinian historical experience. Important to remember. Important to forgive as well.
How misleading. The worries about dual-loyalty come only when US politicians (Jew and Gentile) conflate US and Israeli interests and sometimes think the latter’s to be superior.
Witty:
I couldn’t see how the US would have the slightest problem with a Jewish president, even one with dual loyalty issues: right now American Zionism still dominates the US discourse on I-P, although things are slowly changing.
In the future a Jewish US President would simply be required to be evenhanded on the I-P issue, is that too much to ask for?
“[...] a president with some Muslim descent [...]“
As if it’s a bad smell following him around. His father was Muslim, Obama is clearly Christian though. Now try and get over it.
Clearly? He is as Christian as Arafat who attended christmas services religiously.
Barack Obama’s father was not a Muslim, he was an avowed atheist.
From Makdisi Overlooks US Journalistic Nazification
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Herzl and Normalizing Jewish Power
“The Nakba is…a Palestinian historical experience. Important to remember. Important to forgive as well. ”
And the Holocaust is important to remember. Important to forgive as well. I’ll tell you what, Richard Witty, you go first.
We have a black president, a president with some Muslim descent. We’ve had a prominent woman presidential candidate, two women vice-presidential candidates.
There’s NEVER been a Jewish presidential candidate, nor in my lifetime vice presidential.
Lieberman in 2000, how old are you Richard?
Good question. 8 1/2, but mind you he already has children.
There was opposition to Rahm Emanuel because he had worked for the IDF during Gulf War I, not because he was Jewish. What percentage of the Congress is Jewish vs what percentage they make up in the population? Surely you’re not suggesting that Jews are under-represented in the halls of power?
With the recent addition of Al Franken, there are now 13 Jewish Senators out of 100. I believe that there have been a total of 5 African-American Senators in all of US history. 2 of them shared the same seat and one was not elected (Buriss replaced Obama).
Without Franken, ther would still be thirteen as the former senator is also Jewish.
You seem to have a problem with Jews in the senate.
LI,
Your anti-Semitism isn’t welcome here. Go somewhere else and spew your filth.
Saxon,
No, he seems to have a problem with Witty saying that Jews can’t become President.
Right! forgot about Coleman. Thanks.
I don’t have a problem at all. I’m just stating the numbers to show the representation skew. I do think it’s troubling however, that there have been very few African-American senators, in terms of representations of populations in the US. I really brought it up because Richard Witty was decrying America for not allowing there to be Jews in power, which, in the Senate anyway, is definitely not the case.
lovelyisraelis,
Though I personally disagree with the foreign policy of Wolfowitz & Kissinger you are ignoring some important things.
1. It is anti-semitism if you are labeling an individual disparagingly and implying that he is whatever he is because he is Jewish. You seem to do that. In this way, “anti-semitism” can be interchanged with “racism”, as if I said something singling out a group as all of one ethnicity in a negative way. An appropriate response would be “Kissinger, Wolkowitz, etc. are absolutely terrible people who have enacted the worst foreign policy in the modern era.” Remember, there are good Jews too.
2. On that note: There are bad non-Jews also. I would not begin a sentence with “Christian vomit blah blah blahs like MacNamara and MacArthur blah blah blah blah blah blah.” This would be disparaging and biased towards Christians, which is wrong. Remember that these jerks are the problem, and some of them happen to be Jews. That’s not grounds for implying that they represent all Jews, which your language, accidentally or not, does say.
“It is anti-semitism if you are labeling an individual disparagingly and implying that he is whatever he is because he is Jewish.”
If Wolfie’s policies are motivated by his Jewishness I don’t see what’s wrong with pointing that out. Of course we don’t know anyone’s inner motives but when people believe there’s no difference between the interests of two countries, or when they have dual citizenship, we’re entitled to make a reasonable inference.
You are both raising some excellent points, and perhaps we are dancing on a very fine line. I’ll fall back on my love of Philip Roth and quote “Can’t Jews be bad people to?”
Plainly: “Jewish vomit” falls within language that can be taken as anti-semitic.
Paul Wolfowitz’s dual citizenship does influence his terrible foreign policy ideology. Bush’s Christian ideology could have influenced his terrible foreign policy decisions. Conversely, my jewishness could influence potentially good decisions, or bad ones. However, it remains debated where ‘jewishness’ falls on the identity spectrum, as an ethnicity (what are Israeli’s ethnicity?), or religion, or culture. This argument could go on and on.
So perhaps a better response would be, “Paul Wolfowitz’s dual-citizenship (US & Israeli) influenced his one-sided approach to foreign policy concerning Israel and Palestine.” I think the jury may be out whether he sees Israel’s cause as ethnic, national, religious, or plainly just for power.
hi Gojetz
all valid points. perhaps we’re talking past each other slightly, so I should point out that the genesis of my offending comment was a response to Witty, who seemed upset about insufficient Jewish representation in government, (a preposterous claim, on the face of it). I was attempting (albeit, inelegantly) to make the same point as you—that jews are people, some kind, brainy, upstanding…others, monstrous, a point I take as a truism but which the Wittys of the world have a hard time wrapping their minds around, imbued as they are with all sort’s of “God’s chosen” malarkey.
Happy you quoted Roth and I’d like to do likewise:
“”They may be able to instill in other Arabs who live under their evil occupation fear and respect for their ‘superiority,’ but I grew up with you people, I was educated with you people, by you people, I lived with real Jews, at Harvard, at Chicago, with truly superior people, whom I admired, whom I loved, to whom I did indeed feel inferior and rightly so the vitality in them, the irony in them, the human sympathy, the human tolerance, the goodness of heart that was simply instinctive in them, people with the Jewish sense of survival that was all human, elastic, adaptable, humorous, creative, and all this they have replaced here with a stick! The Golden Calf was more Jewish than Ariel Sharon, God of Samaria and Judea and the Holy Gaza Strip! The worst of the ghetto Jew combined with the worst of the bellicose, belligerent goy, and that is what these people call ‘authentic’! Jews have a reputation for being intelligent, and they are intelligent. The only place I have ever been where all the Jews are stupid is Israel. I spit on them! I spit on them!”
Interesting points, GoJetzoff. Scrutinizing my words for any possible implication of anti-Semitism is not my highest priority now. Maybe it’s that Foxman and crew have cried wolf too often. I’m interested in truth. For example, I’ve seen no evidence that Kissinger’s Vietnam policy was motivated by his Jewishness, and it’s hard to see the war as a Jewish project of the Jewish community since the vast majority of known Jews were against the war. OTOH, his Mideast policy was closer to that of American Jewry, and Nixon complained that he was supposed to be negotiating against Golda Meir but kept endorsing her escalating demands. Kissinger would no doubt argue that he had good pro-American reasons, but if I don’t find him credible, I have every right to explain things as I see them.
Nuances of Jewish identity are for people like Phil Weiss and Philip Roth to get into. Whether someone eats ham or believes in OT or NT don’t concern me. What concerns me is that whatever else the identity may mean, Jews in media and policy circles are emotionally invested in Zionism. They shouldn’t be making policy in that area, posing as objective experts. Maybe one answer to anti-Semitism is self-restraint. If Jews recused themselves and left it to people like Scowcroft, Mearsheimer and Walt, wouldn’t it be easier on everyone?
Thanks LovelyIsraelis and Anon, all great points and I’m happy to have fleshed these things out. And sorry that we talked back and over each other. I’m definitely one of the last people to cry out “Anti-Semite”–I am chiefly sensitive to uses of language. I think when we all stop crying it (“self-restraint”), then things will change for the better. I was trying to make too much of a distinction.
And yes, lovely lovely Philip Roth. Check out “Operation Shylock” if you haven’t. Perhaps ironically there was an op-ed in the NY Times today where an Israeli said that Obama has made a mistake thinking that American Jews and Israelis were the same. Thank you, op-ed contributor, for giving me back my freedom. Everything they told me on Birthright Israel runs counter. “Welcome home,” they say in Tel Aviv, and all I can think, like Philip Roth, is, “but I left New Jersey!”
Witty: “There’s NEVER been a Jewish presidential candidate, nor in my lifetime vice presidential. ”
Anon: “Lieberman in 2000, how old are you Richard? ”
Witty writes idiocy like this all the time. On another thread he said that refugees can’t be colonists/settlers ignoring numerous historical examples. On another thread he says that radicalization can’t lead to peace but liberalism can (uh, check out liberalism and empire). Ahistorical, rationalizing bullshit.
Also, man I hadn’t checked out the site in a while and the anti-semites and the white-supremacist zionists sure are all out in force now (with resulting suspicions of agent provocateurs and false flags :).
“Theodor Herzl is a saint of the Jewish right.”
Only because he started as Philip weiss and then became sane.
don’t scare me like that
Yes, a sane Philip Weiss is a rather ridiculous notion.
“Herzl built Zionism out of his own frustrated aspirations to be a political leader. Europeans wouldn’t let him have such a role in their councils. Herzl seized it as the leader of the Jewish people. I admire that.”
He used the troubles and persecutions of the Jews so he could bamboozle them into an impossible situation, all on the back of the Jewish religion, which he is obviously contemptuous of. I bet he told his kids they couldn’t have a Menorah because it would light the Christmas tree on fire.
Plus, isn’t it obvious Hertl is trying to economise, avoiding the eight-days of present-giving, trying to bamboozle his own offspring into accepting a dead tree instead of a full week of presents. That reminds me: Is the Beatles song “Eight Days a Week” about Hannukah? It could be. Well, never mind. The point is: you admire such a man? Not me.
My alma mater has the Herzl diaries (not having to pay for books is so keen). From p. 121 of vol. I, Herzl narrows down the solution to the J? for Bismarck:
Just try to rescind the legal equality of the Jews. (Only their legal equality exists, anyway. What a misunderstood doctrine for the men from the beerhall!) What would be the consequences of that? Immediately all Jews, not only the poor ones as hitherto, but the rich ones as well, would join the Socialist Party with all their resources. They would plunge to their moneybags the way a Roman plunged unto his sword.
—
Is it any wonder Zionists are so fucked in the head? They believe this garbage about themselves and they’re trying to become something else.
We have a black president, a president with some Muslim descent. We’ve had a prominent woman presidential candidate, two women vice-presidential candidates.
There’s NEVER been a Jewish presidential candidate, nor in my lifetime vice presidential
I deon’t quite get it, Witty. Why aren’y you, like me, celebrating Obama’s election as the first time a non-white person is elected President. Just like you and me, and all other Jews, Obama is not white.
Witty, don’t tell me you think you are a white man? That’s pathetic.
Jews are not white, Witty. Ask anyone. We are not white, and we have not accepted Jesus, and therefore we cannot be trusted and will not go to heaven. In fact, we will, as Tom Sawyer said, go to the “bad place”.
There is nothing more pathetic than a Jew who runs around saying “Lookit me, I’m white. I really am! Hey, white guys, it’s you and me agin the colored.
Please tell us why you think Jews are white, Witty.
lovely,
i am beginning to think you are brilliant…
p
maybe a little too brilliant, peters…my posts are being removed!
i don’t know man. many of the ashkenazim look awfully white to me … red or blond hair with pinkish skin that burns easily in the sun. besides there is that genetic thing , a slavic contribution to the jewish gene pool if you will. perhaps this is one of examples why many biological anthropologists consider race to be an obsolete idea.