Kissinger: Jewish Persecution Not America's Problem

Bloomberg.

It is well-known that supporters of Israel are often shamelessly opportunistic about their decrying of antisemitism or alleged antisemitism.

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Even the most honest critics of Israel's policies in America are casually attacked and dismissed as Jew-haters. Zionists are either so indifferent about Israeli military brutality and occupation against the Palestinians (now the longest military occupation in modern history at over 63years), if not avid fans, and they have so dehumanized the Palestinians that it is not only that they do not see the humanity of Palestinians and do not care for them, but are befuddled that anyone else would. It is obscene for them that anyone would dare notice Israeli occupation, crimes and cold-blooded murders and protest the scene. Because they do not accept any criticism of Israel as having merit, it is easy for them to conclude that any critic must be a secret Jew-hater or self-hating Jew. Why else would any bother to defend the detested Palestinians?

So the throw the smear wantonly at any critic. But for all their easy-use of the word "anti Semite" to silence debate on Israeli policy, they show great restraint when real Jew-haters are exposed provided those individuals are pro-Israel.

There is no contradiction in terms between being pro-Zionist and anti-Semitic. Many of the most prominent Zionists have harbored dislike for Jews and Zionists, like first Israeli president Chaim Weizmann, even played to antisemitism by telling British officials that their support for a Jewish state in Palestine will mean less Jews in Britain.

And today America's biggest defenders of Israel are Evangelical Christians. Embraced by Israel and Zionists, many of these people are prejudicial against Jews and their end vision for the state of Israel is not a good deal for the Jewish people: 2/3 killed, 1/3 converted to Christianity.

But these people are still embraced by the Israeli state and its domestic lobby for purely opportunistic reasons: they could care less about the reason for support, provided that they at least offer facsimile devotion. And their antisemitism is simply whitewashed away.

So the charge of antisemitism is certainly politicized by supporters of Israel (and to their long-term determinate as the term losses any real meaning), but this is a new low:

What has caused many heads to swivel is a recording of Henry A. Kissinger, his national security adviser. Mr. Kissinger is heard telling Nixon in 1973 that helping Soviet Jews emigrate and thus escape oppression by a totalitarian regime — a huge issue at the time — was “not an objective of American foreign policy.”

“And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union,” he added, “it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern.”

Conspicuously, however, many groups and prominent individuals stayed silent. They include people who would have almost certainly spoken up had coldhearted talk of genocide come from the likes of Mel Gibson or Patrick J. Buchanan, neither a stranger to provocative comments about Jews.

Even some who deplored Mr. Kissinger’s remarks tempered their criticism. The Anti-Defamation League called the recorded statements “outrageous,” but said they did not undermine “the important contributions and ultimate legacy of Henry Kissinger,” including his support of Israel. The American Jewish Committee described the remarks as “truly chilling,” but suggested that anti-Semitism in the Nixon White House might have been at least partly to blame.

“Perhaps Kissinger felt that, as a Jew, he had to go the extra mile to prove to the president that there was no question as to where his loyalties lay,” the committee’s executive director, David Harris, said in a statement.

Kissinger's antisemitism, or this case a horrifically callous self-hating Jews, is to be understood, and contextualized and even forgiven because, after all, he helped Israel and was only responding to his surroundings.