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Chosen and Choosing

 

In an article of mine[i], I described a British Jewish scholar Mr Hiyam Maccoby, a ‘Jewish nationalist’. His daughter, Miss Deborah Maccoby, of London, a correspondent and a friend, rose to the challenge and objected to “the completely distorted picture of Dr Maccoby”.

“He cannot be described as a right wing Jewish nationalist. In the 1970s, he was one of the signatories of a letter to the Times advocating a federal solution to the Israel/Palestinian problem. He is now a supporter of the two-state solution. His views are very close to those of Amos Oz, who is hardly a right-wing Jewish nationalist”, she wrote.

Dear Deborah, it is nice to know that the important British Jewish scholar, Dr Maccoby, does not belong to the right wing of Jewish nationalism. Or is it? He would like the Gentiles of Palestine to have their separate state, permanently disarmed, broken into a few separate pieces, its borders permanently guarded by the Jewish state next door, its newspapers and TV programmes censored by the Jews, its holy places under Jewish control. He would not return the properties confiscated from the Gentiles in 1948 and 1967, probably not even the lands confiscated last year. In other words, Dr Maccoby stands for the creation of a ghetto for Goyiim spread over small slivers (often and appropriately called Bantustans) of their land.

Let us translate his position into British realities. What would you call a man who supports the creation of a separate Jewish state in [the London suburb of] Golders Green, transfer of all British Jews into this state, confiscation of all Jewish properties outside of Golders Green, and, of course, disenfranchisement of the Jews in Britain? Would he qualify as a right-winger? Oh yes. As a member of the lunatic fringe? Absolutely. As a mad Nazi? Probably. He would surely be well to the right of any British party, even to the right of the National Party and the National Front. But in Jewish politics, such a man would not be even a right winger, but a moderate.

Unwittingly, you touched the core problem of the Jewish community in England (and that of the US). If the opinions I described above are ‘moderate’ for the community, the community needs a psychoanalyst. Probably a programme of de-Nazification would do even better. Because, as you correctly say; these opinions are considered moderate among Jews. As I do not wish to hurt your filial feelings, I’ll tell you that my own mother considers your father’s opinions as left-wing and defeatist. She would have the Gentiles expelled or killed. Like many Israeli Jews, she is dreaming and hoping for a Jewish Hitler.

Apparently, the Jewish community nurtures dark thoughts. I do not know whether these thoughts are induced by the conflict in Palestine, or whether the conflict in Palestine just made these thoughts visible. If the desire for Palestine unhinges their minds, Jews should forget Palestine and save their souls. Let my right hand forget me, if I forget Jerusalem, said R. Judah ha-Levy, but it is better for you to lose one hand than for your whole body go into hell, replied the Gospel.

If the conflict in Palestine just made these thoughts apparent, the British society should limit the influence of the sick community until it heals. It is an illusion or self-deception to presume that Jewish opinions on Palestine/Israel do not influence their vision of the world. The prominence and influence of the sick Jewish community in your country is a major source of trouble in our troubled world. The elevation to be a peer of the realm of that man-eating ogre, the Pillar of the Tories, Conrad Black, friend of Pinochet, Sharon and Thatcher, husband of Barbara Amiel, the owner of the Telegraph and numerous other newspapers is a proof of the influence and infectious nature of the malady.

And what of Labour? Another freshly minted lord, Michael Levy a.k.a Viscount Reading, a friend of Sharon, is the grey eminence behind the New Labour leader, the Prime Minister of Great Britain and the US envoy plenipotentiary, Tony Blair.

A fervent Zionist, Levy was the man who made Tony Blair the Prime Minister of England. He found youthful Tony, managed his election campaign and brought him to power. (Levy learned a lot from Bronfman, who was instrumental in bringing Clinton into the White House.) Blair made Levy his special envoy to the Middle East, but the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook blocked Levy’s attempts to re-Zionize British policy. He even refused to give the freshly knighted Michael Levy a room with a secretary in the Foreign Office. It was short-sighted of Cook, who annoyed Israelis on previous occasions as well. After Blair’s re-election, Cook received the boot, and Levy was elevated.

You can see the consequences of it at work, in the BBC. The intrepid Robert Fisk of The Independent reported on August 4, 2001: “BBC officials have banned their staff from referring to Israel's policy of murdering its guerrilla opponents as "assassination". BBC reporters have been told that in future they are to use Israel's own euphemism for the murders, calling them "targeted killings". Robert Fisk concluded it was due to ‘Israel’s diplomatic pressure’. Probably that is how it looks from Beirut, but if Fisk would check the story with London, he would find another source of influence, the British Jewish community and its prominent members in both major parties.

We have a perfect witness of the racism inherent in the Jewish community, the well-known feminist writer and a good person Andrea Dworkin, who wrote:

“I realized only as a middle-aged adult that I was raised to have prejudice against Arabs and that the prejudice wasn't trivial. I was taught that Arabs were irredeemably evil. Over the years, I learned about Israeli torture of Palestinian prisoners; I knew Jewish journalists who purposefully suppressed the information so as not to "hurt" the Jewish state. My [liberal] opinions put me into constant friction with the Jewish community, including my family, many friends, and many Jewish feminists. I don't believe that American Jews raised as I was are free of this prejudice. We were taught it as children and it has helped the Israeli government justify in our eyes what they have done to the Palestinians. We've been blinded, not just by our need for Israel or our loyalty to Jews but by a deep and real prejudice against Palestinians that amounts to race-hate.”

Now, this race-hate produces the horrible fruits of genocidal war. Dave Edwards wrote last week in ZNet: “We live in a world where Tony Blair can insist that "nothing can justify the killing of civilians", even as B52s are doing just that in Afghanistan. Never has the deep, unconscious racism of Western society been more apparent. And at the heart of this belief, in turn, I fear, lies a truly lethal conceit: that our men, women and children really are more valuable, more precious, more fully human, than their men, women and children”.

Do you recognise the source of this lethal conceit? Could it be the idea of chosenness, rejected by Christ but upheld by our Jewish community? Does it remind you of the maxim, “the life of a hundred Gentiles is not worth one Jewish toenail”? It was proclaimed by Rabbi Yaakov Perrin, on Feb. 27, 1994 and quoted by the N.Y. Times, Feb. 28, 1994. It was repeated by Rabbi Yitzhak Greenburg, one of the leading Cabbalists, and implemented by ‘the reprisal tactics’ of Ariel Sharon.

Do you think the increased influence of the Jewish community is purely coincidental with this outburst of racism, with the bombing of Afghanistan, with continuing destruction of Iraq, and with Israel’s full-scope Nazi treatment of Palestinians?

Look at another coincidence. The Jewish state has the biggest gap in the developed world between the richest ten percent of income and the middle classes. Bank managers earn ten thousand dollars a month, after taxes; Jewish office and industrial workers earn up to about 1,250 dollars a month; native Gentiles earn about 1200 dollars a year. Do you think that the increased influence of the Jewish community is purely coincidental with steep rise of the social gap in England and in the US, the next two states on the ladder?

You are my friend, Deborah; you do not have to feel accused because I am not accusing you. We do not choose where to be born. You could have been born in the family of a Prussian Junker, a steadfast supporter of the Third Reich. I could have been born to the family of cannibals who ate Captain Cook.

Still, the children of Junkers and Cannibals whose eyes have been opened to alternative moralities have a choice: to stick to the family and community tradition or to reject the evil ways of their fathers and embrace humanity. We are not Chosen, we are choosing. That was the message of Jesus misunderstood by your respected father.

 

[i] Yuletide controversy
 

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