By Israel Shamir

In my Yuletide Controversy, I wrote: “If Christ existed, he surely did not
care about Goyiim, non-Jews, some Jewish scholars say. Why would a good
Jewish Rabbi care about the rest of mankind? This is the underlying idea of
the book of Hiyam Maccobi where the Jewish nationalist writer claims Christ
was a Jewish extreme nationalist, a Rabbi Kahane of his days”.

This challenge was well met by Miss Deborah Maccoby, of London, a
correspondent and a friend. She wrote:
 
 

Dear Shamir,

I've been meaning for some time to write to you about the completely
distorted picture of my father you present in the Yuletide Controversy.

I have some disagreements with him, as I am more to the left than he is. But
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. My father was recently one of the
signatories to a British Friends of Peace Now advertisement of support for a
recent joint Israeli/Palestinian peace declaration - the advertisement was
published in the Jewish Chronicle on Rosh Hashonah, if you would like to
check up on this.

As for your statement that my father claims that Jesus "was an extreme
Jewish nationalist, the Rabbi Kahane of his day", I can't see how you can
possibly say this.  It is an utter travesty. Have you actually read my
father's book, "Revolution in Judaea?" My father argues that Jesus was a
charismatic Pharisee rabbi who was a rebel against Rome and believed he was
the Messiah - in the sense of the non-divine liberator who would bring about
the Messianic Age, freeing the Jews from Roman occupation and the whole
world from oppression.  How does this make him a Rabbi Kahane figure?

I suspect you are so much against my father because he points out in all his
writings the appalling Christian historical record of persecution of the
Jews.

It makes no sense to say that the struggle against Christianity is the
raison d'etre of Judaism, since Judaism existed long before Christianity -
it makes a good deal of sense to say that the raison d'etre of
Christianity - or at least of one form of Christianity - is the struggle
against Judaism.

I would be very grateful if you would publish this reply in your next
article, because I would like the record to be set straight.

With best wishes,

Deborah Maccoby
 
 
 
 

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, their 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
creation of a ghetto for Goyiim on a small sliver of their land.

Let us translate his position into British realities. How would you call a
man who supports creation of a separate Jewish state in [the London suburb
of] Golders Green, transfer of all the Jews into this state, confiscation of
Jewish properties outside of Golders Green, disenfranchisement of the Jews
in Britain? Would he qualify for a right-winger? Oh yes. For a lunatic
fringe? Absolutely. For a mad Nazi? Probably. He would surely be well to the
right of any British party, to the right of the National Party or the
National Front. But in the 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 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. You are right; 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.
As 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 soul. 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 hales. It
is an illusion or self-deception to presume the opinions on Palestine/Israel
do not influence their vision of the world. Prominence and influence of the
sick Jewish community in your country is a major source of trouble in our
troubled world. Rise of the man-eating ogre, Conrad Black, this friend of
Pinochet, Sharon and Thatcher, husband of Barbara Amiel, owner of Telegraph
and numerous other newspapers to the peers of the realm is a proof of
influence and infectious nature of the malady. He is the pillar of the
Tories, but what about Labour? Another freshly minted lord, Michael Levy aka
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 once annoyed Israelis. After Blair’s re-election,
Cook received the boot, Levy was elevated.

You can see the consequences at work. 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 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. I was fine for my
kind. My 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 pr
ejudice against Palestinians that amounts to race-hate.”

Now, this race-hate produces 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 community? Does it remind
you of the maxim, “life of hundred Gentiles is not worth one Jewish toenail”
? Do you think the increased influence of the Jewish community is purely
coincidental with this outburst of racism, with bombing of Afghanistan, with
approaching destruction of Iraq, with the 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 - up to about 1,250 dollars a month,
native Gentiles earn 1200 dollars a year. Do you think that increased
influence of the Jewish community is purely coincidental with steep rise of
the social gap in England and the US, the next two states on the ladder?

You are my friend, Deborah; you do not have to feel accused because you aren
’t. We do not choose where to be born. You could be born in a family of a
Prussian Junker, a steadfast supporter of the Third Reich. I could be born
to a family of cannibals who ate Captain Cook. Still, children of Junkers
and Cannibals 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 choose. That was the message of Jesus misunderstood by your
respected father.

Yours truly,

Israel Shamir

Jaffa
 
 

Israel Shamir is an Israeli writer and journalist. He lives in Jaffa. His
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