Russian version
When Jews is news
- Информация о материале
- Автор: Suzanne Fields
Jewish World Review
Oct. 30, 2006 / 8 Mar-Cheshvan, 5767
"Jewcentricity" is a word that sounds like it was coined by an embittered
anti-Semite. But it's actually the inspiration of Adam Garfinkle, a Jew,
writing in The American Interest magazine to call attention to a phenomenon
that has roots in anti-Semitism and runs from the silly to the sublime:
" . . . the idea, or the intimation, or the subconscious presumption .
. . that Jews are somehow necessarily to be found at the very center of
global-historical events."
"Jewcentricity" is most evident in the recycling of "The Protocols
of the Learned Elders of Zion," a fictitious text commissioned by the czar's
secret police for a Russian audience at the end of the 19th century, describing
a fanciful cabal of Jews who plan to take over the world. Some critics
of the neoconservatives, some of whom are Jewish, cite the protocols, so
called, in their accusations that Jews have hijacked American foreign policy.
Others, critical of Israel, hyperventilate over the power of the "Israel
lobby."
"The Protocols" have naturally become a best seller in several Muslim
countries, including Turkey and Egypt, where they were turned into a television
series. ("Semitic Sex in the City," however, it was not.) "The Protocols"
were featured on the Iranian stands at last year's book fair in Frankfurt
"to expose the real visage of this Satanic-enemy," along with an abridged
edition of Henry Ford's literary thriller, "The International Jew: The
World's Foremost Problem" (which never made it to the screen). "The grip
of the Jewish parasitic influence," asserts the preface of the new edition,
"has been growing stronger and stronger ever since [Henry Ford's time]."
Serious examples of "Jewcentricity" are reflected in the media obsession
with Sen. George Allen's Jewish mother, who was born in Tunisia and barely
escaped the Holocaust, and before that, with former Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright's Jewish roots in Czechoslovakia. The national newspapers
and television networks spent considerably more time investigating the
senator's "blood" parentage and its likely effect on his re-election campaign
than the blood being spilled in Darfur. "Why?" asks Adam Garfinkle. "Because
. . . Jews is news and there are no Jews in Darfur." That doesn't slow
down the conspiracy theorists in other countries, with or without Jews,
from obsessing over the myth of sinister Jewish power.
Germany's Jewcentricity is of a completely different order. No negative
slur against Jews goes unanswered in the law courts or in the court of
public opinion. This has hardly eliminated prejudice against Jews. In an
anti-Semitic prank with echoes of the Third Reich, a high-school student
in eastern Germany was forced by bullies not long ago to wear a sign around
his neck in the school yard: "In this town I'm the biggest swine because
of the Jewish friends of mine." The teacher reported it, the chief of police
was firm in his outrage, and the state minister of the interior promised
an investigation. Germany does not tolerate public exhibition of Nazi symbols.
But the strain of anti-Semitism that many thought would vanish after
the horror of the Holocaust has again risen again in the Middle East and
among European fellow travelers of the Islamists, whose rhetoric targets
Israel in a way that Hitler would readily recognize. Israel is the euphemism
for the demonized Jew. The Jews become, as Jonathan Rosen observed in The
New York Times, "interchangeable emblems of cosmic evil."
It's not simply an empty gesture that maps available in Middle Eastern
countries show Israel erased. Hezbollah demonstrated its capacity to send
rockets into Israel, and the Iranian nuclear threat is aimed first at Israel.
Jews remain convenient scapegoats as they continue to haunt the fantasies
of rationalizers and haters who want to avoid responsibility for their
own culpability. In the 1930s, Jews were blamed for everything that went
wrong in Germany (and later in Eastern Europe). Today they're perceived
as the seminal cause of Islamic terrorism, subject to the same old media
stereotypes that thrived in Nazi newspapers. Getting rid of the Jews in
Europe wasn't enough.
"Jewcentricity" serves a specific purpose both in the Middle East and
in Europe. It unites the Muslims against a common enemy and conceals their
own divisions and discontents, which would be there even if there were
not an Israel to hate. Increasing Muslim populations in Europe threaten
the peace in ways that absent Jews do not. But we can blame the Jews, anyway.
The Nobel Prize-winning Hungarian novelist Imre Kertesz observes that
Europeans mask their criticism of Israel in mournful tones about the Holocaust
but use the language that led to Auschwitz. "Because Auschwitz really happened,
it has permeated our imagination, become a permanent part of us," he says.
"What we are able to imagine — because it really happened — can happen
again."
© 2006, Creators Syndicate, Suzanne Fields
Russian version
Russian version
An introduction to MAOF
Haim Goldman
Haim Goldman
Dear Friends,
Would you believe that the undersigned has anything in common with
-- Professor Victor Davis Hanson (Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University),
-- Dr Charles Krauthammer, (Washington Post, Time, The Weekly Standard),
-- Caroline Glick (Deputy Managing Editor of the Jerusalem Post),
-- Jonathan Tobin (Executive Editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent).
Amazingly, the editors of the MAOF website decided that the missives of the undersigned are worthy of translation and posting along the articles written by these distinguished authors.
The first letter was published without the consent of the undersigned.
However, after thorough examination of the laudable attitude of MAOF and of the excellent contents of the website, the undersigned had most graciously granted his permission for publication of his missives in both English and Russian.
“Analytical Group MAOF” [1] is an organisation founded about ten years ago by Russian-speaking Jewish intellectuals. The attitude of MAOF is definitely pro-Zionist -- unambiguously and unapologetically.
One of MAOF’s primary purposes is providing information and analysis about Middle-Eastern and world affairs as well as about Israel’s history, values and dilemmas. In addition to extensive publication activity in various media, MAOF also organises excursions and seminars. While the vast majority of the contents of the MAOF website is in Russian, texts originally written in English are provided in the original [2] as well as in Russian.
There are arguably about 250 millions of Russian-speakers worldwide and many of them do not read English. The indisputable motivation for the author’s permission was to grant those millions of disadvantaged people the grand benefit of reading the author’s ruminations. If the author is ever maliciously accused that his tacit motivation for authorising the publication was his craving to be listed along with the above-mentioned distinguished writers, his plea will definitely be “nolo contendere”.
The editors of MAOF expressed their gratitude by granting the undersigned a privilege that no other author got – the opportunity to review and correct the Russian translation before publication. The original letters of the undersigned are at [3] and their Russian version is at [4]. At of today, only two letters are posted but several other letters are pending translation.
You are kindly ENCOURAGED TO RECOMMEND the MAOF website to your friends and colleagues worldwide, particularly those who speak Russian. Those who do not enjoy the benefit of proficiency in the exquisite Russian language can find many thought-provoking and inspiring articles about Middle-Eastern and world affairs in the English section [2].
Sincerely,
Haim Goldman
28.10.2006
REFERENCES:
[1] http://maof.rjews.net
[2] section.php3? sid=37&num=25
[3] authorg.php3? id=2107&type=a
[4] authorg.php3? id=2166&type=a