Isn’t that wonderful? Or are you some kind of anti-Semite? You like being French or German or Swiss? You must be an anti-Semite. Apparently, according to New York Times columnist Roger Cohen, Jews know that national boundaries, except for the Jewish state, are a bad idea.
Yes, there was often a sense of otherness, a self-imposed discretion, but there was also reassurance in being part of a great European convergence that over many decades dissolved the borders across which countless wars had been fought and affirmed the right of every European of whatever faith or ethnicity to equal rights, free expression, and the free practice of their beliefs.
The strongest criticism of Jews by non-Jews is that Jews push to create multi-culturalism and multi-racialism in their host countries, diminishing the importance of borders, while they seek the benefits of group unity for themselves. Roger Cohen is arguing here that Jews have “dissolved the borders.” I would expect European nationalists to take great exception to the Jews if this is true. Incidentally, are Jews seeking this same dissolving of borders when it comes to the Jewish state of Israel? Or when it comes to converting to Judaism? I think not because such behavior would be insane, just as it is insane for European countries to dissolve their borders.
That bit about Jews pushing for free expression in Europe must be a dark joke. Jewish organization in France in particular have pushed for racial vilification laws limiting free speech. Jewish groups have done this throughout the West.
“Europe, without the Jews, had lost part of itself. It had lost the very right to a conscience. It had been defeated in its essence.”
The essence of Europe is Jews? Surely you jest.
“Jewishness had lost one of its constituent elements, the European Jew of the diaspora. As for humanity, it had lost all hope. Humankind had succumbed to the tribal nightmare, to the darkest of tides. Tribal war loomed.”
Almost all wars since the beginning of time have been tribal.
“Israel is indeed the home of every Jew, and that is important, a guarantee of sorts. It is equally important, however, that not every Jew choose this home. That is another kind of guarantee, of Europe’s liberal order, of the liberal idea itself.”
Jews guarantee the liberal order? The liberal idea? No wonder many nationalists hate Jews.
“Many of the liberal Jews of Europe, long strangers in strange lands, knowing statelessness in their bones, mindful of Hillel’s summation of the Torah — “What is hateful to yourself, do not to your fellow man” — refused to be part of the spreading settlements in the West Bank, Israeli rule over another people.”
I like the idea of Jews never asking for themselves what they would not wish for others and vice versa. I’m starting an organization on this line — Jews for Consistency.
