banking services chronicle subscription

 banking services chronicle subscription

banking services chronicle subscription  The AntiSemite Argument number six  Jews are selfish narcissistic haughty doublefaced dissemblers. Zionism is an extension of this pathological narcissism as a colonial movement Judaism is not missionary. It is elitist. But Zionism has always regarded itself as both a 19th century national movement and a colonial civilizing force. Nationalist narcissism transformed Zionism into a mission of acculturation White Mans Burden. In Altneuland translated to Hebrew as Tel Aviv the feverish tome composed by Theodore Herzl Judaisms improbable visionary  Herzl refers to the Arabs as pliant and compliant butlers replete with gloves and tarbushes. In the book a German Jewish family prophetically lands at Jaffa the only port in erstwhile Palestine. They are welcomed and escorted by Briticized Arab gentlemens gentlemen who are only too happy to assist their future masters and colonizers to disembark. This ageold narcissistic defence  the Jewish superiority complex  was only exacerbated by the Holocaust. Nazism posed as a rebellion against the old ways  against the hegemonic culture the upper classes the established religions the superpowers the European order. The Nazis borrowed the Leninist vocabulary and assimilated it effectively. Hitler and the Nazis were an adolescent movement a reaction to narcissistic injuries inflicted upon a narcissistic and rather psychopathic toddler nationstate. Hitler himself was a malignant narcissist as Fromm correctly noted. The Jews constituted a perfect easily identifiable embodiment of all that was wrong with Europe. They were an old nation they were eerily disembodied without a territory they were cosmopolitan they were part of the establishment they were decadent they were hated on religious and socioeconomic grounds see Goldhagens Hitlers Willing Executioners they were different they were narcissistic felt and acted as morally superior they were everywhere they were defenseless they were credulous they were adaptable and thus could be coopted to collaborate in their own destruction. They were the perfect hated father figure and parricide was in fashion. The Holocaust was a massive trauma not because of its dimensions  but because Germans the epitome of Western civilization have turned on the Jews the selfproclaimed missionaries of Western civilization in the Levant and Arabia. It was the betrayal that mattered. Rejected by East as colonial stooges and West as agents of racial contamination alike  the Jews resorted to a series of narcissistic responses reified by the State of Israel. The long term occupation of territories metaphorical or physical is a classic narcissistic behavior of annexation of the other. The Six Days War was a war of self defence  but the swift victory only exacerbated the grandiose fantasies of the Jews. Mastery over the Palestinians became an important component in the psychological makeup of the nation especially the more rightwing and religious elements because it constitutes Narcissistic Supply. The Jewish Response Happily sooner or later most antiSemitic arguments descend into incoherent diatribe. This dialog is no exception. Zionism was not conceived out of time. It was born in an age of colonialism Kiplings white mans burden and Western narcissism. Regrettably Herzl did not transcend the political discourse of his period. But Zionism is far more than Altneuland. Herzl died in 1904 having actually been deposed by Zionists from Russia who espoused ideals of equality for all Jews and nonJews alike. The Holocaust was an enormous trauma and a clarion call. It taught the Jews that they cannot continue with their historically abnormal existence and that all the formulas for accommodation and coexistence failed. There remained only one viable solution a Jewish state as a member of the international community of nations. The Six Days War was indeed a classic example of preemptive selfdefense. Its outcomes however deeply divide Jewish communities everywhere especially in Israel. Many of us believe that occupation corrupts and reject the Messianic and millennial delusions of some Jews as dangerous and nefarious. Perhaps this is the most important thing to remember Like every other group of humans though molded by common experience Jews are not a monolith. There are liberal Jews and orthodox Jews narcissists and altruists unscrupulous and moral educated and ignorant criminals and lawabiding citizens. Jews in other words are like everyone else. Can we say the same about antiSemites I wonder. The AntiIsraeli The State of Israel is likely to end as did the seven previous stabs at Jewish statehood  in total annihilation. And for the same reasons conflicts between secular and religious Jews and a racistcolonialist pattern of deplorable behavior. The UN has noted this recidivist misconduct in numerous resolutions and when it justly compared Zionism to racism. The Jewish Response Zionism is undoubtedly a typical 19th century national movement promoting the interests of an ethnicallyhomogeneous  nation. But it is not and never has been a racist movement. Zionists of all stripes never believed in the inherent inferiority or malevolence or impurity of any group of people however arbitrarily defined or capriciously delimited just because of their common origin or habitation. The State of Israel is not exclusionary. There are a million Israelis who are Arabs both Christians and Muslims. It is true though that Jews have a special standing in Israel. The Law of Return grants them immediate citizenship. Because of obvious conflicts of interest Arabs cannot serve in the Israel Defense Forces IDF. Consequently they dont enjoy the special benefits conferred on war veterans and exsoldiers. Regrettably it is also true that Arabs are discriminated against and hated by many Israelis though rarely as a matter of official policy. These are the bitter fruits of the ongoing conflict. Budget priorities are also heavily skewed in favor of schools and infrastructure in Jewish municipalities. A lot remains to be done. The AntiIsraeli Zionism started off as a counterrevolution. It presented itself as an alternative to both orthodox religion and to assimilation in the age of European Enlightenment. But it was soon hijacked by East European Jews who espoused a pernicious type of Stalinism and virulent antiArab racism. The Jewish Response East European Jews were no doubt more nationalistic and etatist than the West European visionaries who gave birth to Zionism. But again they were not racist. On the very contrary. Their socialist roots called for close collaboration and integration of all the ethnicities and nationalities in IsraelPalestine. The AntiIsraeli The Status Quo promulgated by Israels first Prime Minister David BenGurion confined institutionalized religion to matters of civil law and to communal issues. All affairs of state became the exclusive domain of the secularleftist nomenclature and its attendant bureaucratic apparatus. All this changed after the Six Days War in 1967 and even more so after the Yom Kippur War. Militant Messianic Jews with radical fundamentalist religious ideologies sought to eradicate the distinction between state and synagogue. They propounded a political agenda thus invading the traditionally secular turf to the great consternation of their compatriots. This schism is unlikely to heal and will be further exacerbated by the inevitable need to confront harsh demographic and geopolitical realities. No matter how much occupied territory Israel gives up and how many ersatz Jews it imports from East Europe the Palestinians are likely to become a majority within the next 50 years. Israel will sooner or later face the need to choose whether to institute a policy of strict and racist apartheid  or shrink into an indefensible though majority Jewish enclave. The fanatics of the religious right are likely to enthusiastically opt for the first alternative. All the rest of the Jews in Israel are bound to recoil. Civil war will then become unavoidable and with it the demise of yet another shortlived Jewish polity. The Jewish Response Israel is indeed faced with the unpalatable choice and demographic realities described above. But dont bet on civil war and total annihilation just yet. There are numerous other political solutions  for instance a confederacy of two national states or one state with two nations. But I agree this is a serious problem further compounded by Palestinian demands for the right to return to their ancestral territories now firmly within the Jewish State even in its pre1967 borders. With regards to the hijacking of the national agenda by rightwing religious fundamentalist Jewish militants  as the recent pullout from Gaza and some of the West Bank proves conclusively Israelis are pragmatists. The influence of Messianic groups on Israeli decisionmaking is blown out of proportion. They are an increasingly isolated  though vocal and sometimes violent  minority. The AntiIsraeli Israel could perhaps have survived had it not committed a second mortal sin by transforming itself into an outpost and beacon of Western first BritishFrench then American neocolonialism. As the representative of the oppressors it was forced to resort to an official policy of unceasing war crimes and repeated grave violations of human and civil rights. The Jewish Response Israel aligned itself with successive colonial powers in the region because it felt it had no choice surrounded and outnumbered as it was by hostile triggerhappy and heavily armed neighbors. banking services chronicle subscription

 banking services chronicle subscription