Heidegger

On 26/05/2006, at 9:19 AM, Anthony Crifasi wrote:

> I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone
> has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth
> and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once
> despised I now praise unreservedly.
> (Albert Einstein, quoted in Time Magazine, December 23, 1940, p. 38)

Yes, the history of the Catholic Church during WW2 is a tangled one
and its elders trod a very delicate path. But since you quote Albert
I’d be interested to know what you make of his and Arendt’s, amongst
others, complete denunciation of Menachem Begin’s Freedom Party and
fascist Zionism at the beginnings of the state of Israel. They were
very clear that this was a nationalist movement with an ideology akin
to Nazism and in an open letter to the New York Times in 1948 state:

“Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the
emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the ‘Freedom
Party’ (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its
organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the
Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and
following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing,
chauvinist organization in Palestine”.

They specifically singled out the Deir Yassin massacre, which is part
of current day Palestinian lore concerning the ethnic cleansing that
accompanied the war, and their conclusions were damning:

“The discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin
and his party, and their record of past performance in Palestine bear
the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable
stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and
British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a ‘Leader State’
is the goal.”

The letter was signed by:

Isidore Abramowitz, Hannah Arendt, Abraham Brick, Rabbi Jessurun
Cardozo, Albert Einstein, Herman Eisen, M.D., Hayim Fineman, M.
Gallen, M.D., H.H. Harris, Zelig S. Harris, Sidney Hook, Fred Karush,
Bruria Kaufman, Irma L. Lindheim, Nachman Maisel, Symour Melman, Myer
D. Mendelson, M.D., Harry M. Orlinsky, Samuel Pitlick, Fritz
Rohrlich, Louis P. Rocker, Ruth Sager, Itzhak Sankowsky, I.J.
Schoenberg, Samuel Shuman, M. Znger, Irma Wolpe, Stefan Wolpe

 http://phys4.harvard.edu/~wilson/NYTimes…

Have you read for instance any of Benny Morris’ histories of the
conflict? While he is an avowed Zionist historian his surgical
dismemberment of his nation’s mythology makes for very interesting
reading. Be advised I’m not interested in making blanket moral
judgements on Israel today, my own nation has an imperial colonial
history of displacement, nor am I interested in reducing this to a
question of ethnicity, but I am interested in following through the
modern relations of power that seem to cross ethnic/cultural/
political differences and in particular with regards to the question
concerning Nazism/machination.

Cheers,

Malcolm

***************************
Dr Malcolm Riddoch
Electronic Arts
School of Communications and Contemporary Arts
Faculty of Communications and Creative Industries
Edith Cowan University, 2 Bradford St, Mount Lawley
Perth Western Australia
+61 08 9370 6034

Posted on Friday, May 26th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
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Tags: fascism» terror» Zionism»