Read this interview of Abe Foxman, the outgoing director of the Anti-Defamation League, and it’s a good thing he’s leaving. He is out of a different world, one of Jewish self-involvement in the wake of the Holocaust, which the 75-year-old Foxman barely survived. Jews are smarter and richer, we win Nobel Prizes and don’t do physical labor; and other people are just jealous. I say these attitudes are not sustainable in an era of diversity and mutual respect.
Foxman was interviewed by Tuvia Tenenbom, an Israeli, in the Forward:
What’s the origin of anti-Semitism?
Jealousy.
Jealousy? When I look at Jews, I see a nation that has been persecuted for all its history —
Tuvia, bigots see what they want to see!
And what do they see?
They see Jewish success.
Where?
Everywhere!
Show me.
If you look at the issue of anti-Semitism, they believe that the Jews control: They control banks, they control finance, they control government.
I know what they say. But explain to me the “jealousy” part.
They see that Jews are rich, that Jews are smart…
Are Jews really smarter than other sects or groups?
I don’t know. Some people say, look at all the Nobel Prizes. I think that Jews are more driven; education is part of our culture, and it’s also part of our baggage. If you are a people who cannot work the soil and cannot be in carpentry, you study. You develop skills which are a lot different.
Foxman says that anti-Semitism is a disease, and he hints that Obama doesn’t like Israel, because he doesn’t seem to love Israel.
Do you think that he sincerely cares about Israel?
Listen, we have this need to be loved. Now, he doesn’t have to get up in the morning and say either “I love Israel”or “I hate Israel.” We are so obsessed with ourselves being loved.
Who’s “we”?
We the Jews, the American Jews. Tuvia, I believe that he believes that what he does is in the best interest of the United States of America.
But is it in the best interest of America?
He believes it is.
What do you think?
I disagree. I believe it’s in the best interest of the United States to keep Iran from having a bomb.
Then there’s this bit about how much anti-Semitism that Tenenbom — who by the way is the author of “I Sleep in Hitler’s Room” and, more recently, “Catch the Jew!” — is going to encounter as he travels around the country in the next six months. There’s a lot of other-ing in Foxman’s speech. Americans are secret Jew-haters:
You are going to find a lot more anti-Semitism than what we find by asking people in the normal manner than by asking people questions about how they feel about Jews. What will you find? I predict you will find twice as much. [20-24 percent of Americans] Why? Because you will, in your inimitable style, remove their inhibitions. You will release their innermost feelings, which are prejudiced. Americans are prejudiced, but they know not to express it and not to act on it. Now for me that’s good enough; I can live with that. If they don’t act on it, if they keep it underneath the carpet, if they keep it in the sewers, that’s fine with me. You’ll release them, Tuvia; there’s no question in my mind that you will release them. You’ll fool them, you’ll charm them… You’ll make them feel comfortable, and that’s when they’ll share with you the secrets, they’ll share with you the shame. There’s no question in my mind: It’s much worse out there.
Let’s say we are smarter and richer and value education and win all the Nobel Prizes and don’t have to do physical labor. Certainly these are attitudes I grew up with. That we are richer is inarguable; but smarter, better educated? These conditions are very fluid. Our love of education has now been shared by many other cultures in a global age; and as for a genetic intellectual advantage? That’s a dangerous and profitless area. Human beings are inordinately complex, our communities must be diverse, societies change all the time; and Foxman is being reductive. And in fact Jews are the stupidest people in America to the extent that we excuse apartheid and say that it isn’t apartheid.
This gets to the larger issue of responsibility. I agree with Foxman that we have enormous influence in the United States today. Michael Oren says the same thing: in his travels as the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., he says he often saw six Jews sitting in the White House talking about a Palestinian state. How does a group deal with this sort of power? One way is not to declare that any discussion of the Israel lobby is anti-Semitic. No; there is a tradition in our democracy of elites being scrutinized. Foxman says it’s jealousy, but how much of it comes down to accountability? How should America deal with the fact that six Jews are in the White House discussing a Palestinian state? I say, you try and open that conversation up as quickly as you can to others. And that’s what Obama has been trying in his way to do.
But no, Foxman wants love on top of the influence. That’s emotional blackmail, and a way of seeking to insulate an elite from any type of scrutiny.
And maybe the next time the Forward publishes this kind of conversation they could talk about philo-Semitism. This incredible Jewish success in the U.S., is it only the achievement of Jews, or is it not evidence of America opening its arms to us? And if it opened its arms, how do we pass that forward?
I always found Tuvia amusing. He is a guy who went to Europe on his own volition and has basically dedicated his career to slandering it, yet he keeps staying there. It’s like: This place is so horrible(which is why I can’t move anywhere else!). It doesn’t make sense, of course, unless you understand him as an Ashkenazi who doesn’t want to be around too many brown people(Jewish brown people and non-Jewish brown people alike) in Israel.
As for Foxman, I really laugh at his opinions. He reminds me of the people in the Bund who argued the same thing re: physical labour. And then Zionism happened and all of the sudden the Jews were farmers! Foxman isn’t just an ordinary racist, his racism is so antiquated as to be hilarious, an added bonus.
(Oh, and speaking of Jews and working the soil, isn’t he glued in to the fact that Israel has the best cows in the world? Even Bibi brags about them. Onward, the Kosher Cow!)
“that’s what Obama has been trying in his way to do.”
Really? If so, his way is a strange way. So strange that it seems like something else entirely.
Methinks you kid yourself.
But nothing better is on the horizon, as far as 1600 Penn. is concerned.
By the way, I had to sign in twice to prove I wasn’t a bot. Maybe my math is not so good. But it’s worth it if it keeps out the ziobots.
“Listen, we have this need to be loved. Now, he doesn’t have to get up in the morning and say either “I love Israel”or “I hate Israel.” We are so obsessed with ourselves being loved.
Who’s “we”?
We the Jews, the American Jews. Tuvia, I believe that he believes that what he does is in the best interest of the United States of America.”
What is this~ collective narcissistic personality disorder? Followed by chagrin that this President might actually be putting US interests first! He needs a long couch for a long time.
“If you are a people who cannot work the soil and cannot be in carpentry, you study.”
There’s something so wrong in that statement… It smacks/reeks of something, but I still haven’t figured it out.
There is something fundamentally wrong in viewing Jews as a coherent collective of people. In reality it is each to his/her own and there is nothing like a Jewish agenda, which Jews subscribe to, or coordination and masterminding of some overall plan. It` s true that there are organizations whose members are Jews, as they are all kinds of organizations based on all kinds of commonalities (e.g. stamps collecting), but in these organizations it is once more each to his/her own in terms of what they do in their private life.
At the same time though human collectives may indeed differ in regard to some general attributes, e.g. South Italians are considered more spontaneous that Scandinavians, and it is likely that Jewish learning traditions (after all the Jewish nation is called the people of the book) manifest themselves in a conspicuous manner in an era viewed as the age of knowledge.
Now, there used to be one exception to all of that , which is the coherent support of Israel by Jews when Israel was established and going through big difficulties in a hostile environment (although that is partly a myth too because there were not few Jews who were indifferent to Israel). But that is now weakening and we see Jews for BDS of Israel and even the views of the so called Liberal Zionist are anathema to very many Israelis (despite the sugarcoating they use in presenting themselves as wishing to make the country more moral/democratic/enlightened/peace-loving and alike superlatives).
Well, it could also be genocide. The Jewish nation has slaughtered a lot of people, including 100% of Amalekites. Credit where credit is due, Abe.
The homosexual nation has been persecuted for all of its history. And yet the homosexual people have never used terrorism and ethnic cleansing to establish an oppressive, colonialist, expansionist and supremacist state.
What makes Jewish people unable to work the soil and be in carpentry?