History Repeating Itself

This is a cross post by Matt of the The Brothers of Judea
I’m taking my own turn reading “Why the Jews?” by Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin, and it’s pretty interesting. This particular section that I felt is worthy of your attention is a section about “non-Jewish Jews”. Non-Jewish Jews are, according to Prager and Telushkin’s definition, Jews who are Jews in heritage alone, they don’t practice religious ceremonies, believe in God, or follow Jewish laws. What is remarkable about these Jews is that in their pursuit of acceptance outside Jewish circles, they often bring disaster on their fellow practicing Jews.
Prager and Telushkin point out that a lot of revolutionaries turn out to be Jewish (at least in Europe). Not a lot of Jews are revolutionaries, but a lot of revolutionaries are Jews. They’re not totally sure why this is the case, they think it has something to do with the belief that non-Jewish Jews keep looking for a community to replace the Jewish one they abandoned, and when they can’t find it, they seek to make everyone else just as community-less as they are. In any case, they give two examples of revolutionary non-Jewish Jews whose actions bring up pain and suffering for Jewish Jews.
First is the Bolshevik Jews of revolutionary Russia. Because so many of the Bolsheviks were Jews (i.e, Trotsky and Lenin), their enemies associated Judaism in general with Communism. So the anti-Communist Ukrainians considered all Jews their enemies and took steps accordingly, culminated in the deaths of 50,000 Jews in the 1918-20 civil war. On the other side, even though the Bolsheviks were led by Jews, those Jews didn’t like the practicing Jews either, as they were religious, something Communism rejected. The Russian Jews were stuck between a rock and a hard place because of these non-Jewish Jewish revolutionaries. The second example Prager and Telushkin cite is 1920s and 30s Germany. At the same time the Nazis were rising to power, non-Jewish Jew intellectuals were virulently criticizing the government. Many of them were part of the extremist revolutionary Left, and the Nazis used their disloyal speech and action to turn the German people more solidly against Jews in general. Once again, non-Jewish Jews bring down suffering on their estranged relatives.
I couldn’t help but think after reading this section that it’s happening again today with the I/P conflict. We see far-Left non-practicing Jews fiercely condemning Israel (and the United States), trying to overthrow the Israeli government/create a one-state solution, and believe so strongly in their own political ideals they are willing to ally with people who disagree with everything the Jews are. Such non-Jewish Jews include Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein and MJ Rosenberg. These people were willing to put their own beliefs, ambitions, and lust for attention before everything else, and they are (deliberately or not) putting their fellow Jews in danger. If MJ Rosenberg gets his wish and AIPAC is dissolved as a US lobby, and the Arabs invade Israel and destroy it because Israel can no longer prevent UN sanctions (a doomsday scenario to be sure), Rosenberg will be able to disappear into the US, shrugging his shoulders and saying “Oops”, while his fellow Jews have to pay the price.
We have to be on guard against these people. They claim they have our best interests in mind, but they’ve internalized their own ambitions so much they refuse to accept the possibility that what’s best for them isn’t necessarily what’s best for Israel.

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