The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.
Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it.
Turkey threw out a million Greeks and Algeria a million Frenchman.
Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese and no one says a word about refugees.
But in the case of Israel , the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single one.
Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious, it must sue for peace.
Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world. Other nations, when they are defeated, survive and recover but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed.
Had Nasser triumphed in June [1967], he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews. No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on.
There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Blacks are executed in Rhodesia.
But, when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one demonstrated against him.
The Swedes, who were ready to break off diplomatic relations with America because of what we did in Vietnam , did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troops in Norway.
The Jews are alone in the world.
If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources.
Yet at this moment, Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally.
We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us.
And one has only to imagine what would have happened in the six day war [1967] had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war, to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general.
I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us.
Should Israel perish, the Holocaust will be upon us all.
This was written by Eric Hoffer in the LA Times in 1968 -- 42 years ago! Some things never change!
Eric Hoffer was one of the most influential American philosophers and free thinkers of the 20th Century. His books are still widely read and quoted today. Acclaimed for his thoughts on mass movements and fanaticism, Hoffer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983. Hopewell Publications awards the best in independent publishing across a wide range of categories, singling out the most thought provoking titles in books and short prose, on a yearly basis in honor of Eric Hoffer.
1 comment:
As usual Walid engages in extreme hyperbole and exaggeration. No one, not even the Palestinians, are insisting that "Israel must take back every single one" of the 750,000 refugees that were driven out of their homes in '47. All they are asking is that the Palestinians, who have, like Native Americans, been driven into smaller and smaller parcels of land, have a state of their own with contiguous borders to Israel. The demographics alone argue for this, as Israel can not sustain the occupation much longer.
The answer is simple and has been for some time - Israel retreats to the '67 borders, dismantling the illegal settlements on the West Bank, builds their wall along that border, offer to pay reparations for the land and homes they took in exchange for reparations from Arab states who drove Jews out of their countries in retaliation for the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes, and the way is paved toward a settlement of a conflict that has gone on far too long with too many lives lost.
Unfortunately people like Walid are encouraging an eternal conflict with their demand that Israel be given the right to take as much land as they choose to take and perpetuate the occupation.
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