As King Solomon said:
"There is nothing new under the sun"...
Some things never change
Hoffer's words of more than 40 years ago pertains to today.
WRITTEN IN 1968 (40 years ago) - Astonishing
Do you remember Eric Hoffer?
He was a longshoreman who turned into a philosopher, wrote columns for
newspapers and some books. He was a non-Jewish American social
philosopher. He was born in 1902 and died in 1983, after writing nine
books and winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His first book,
The True Believer, published in 1951, was widely recognized as a
classic.
Here is one of his columns *_from 1968_*. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?
This article was written 40 years ago!!! Some things never change.
*_ISRAEL'S PECULIAR POSITION by Eric Hoffer (LA Times 5/26/68)
_* The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations
are forbidden to the Jews.
Other nations drive out thous
ands, even millions of people and there is
no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it.
Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchman.
Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese and no one says a
word about refugees. But in the case of Israel , the displaced Arabs
have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take
back every single one.
Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater
than any committed by the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the
battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious, it must
sue for peace.
Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world.
Other nations, when they are defeated, survive and recover but should
Israel be defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last
June [1967], he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would
have lifted a finger to save the Jews.
No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is
worth the paper it is written on. There is a cry of outrage all over
the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Blacks are executed in
Rhodesia . But, when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one remonstrated with
him.
The Swedes, who are ready to break off diplomatic relations with
America because of what we do in Vietnam , did not let out a peep when
Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore, and
ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to Norway .
The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely
because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources. Yet at this moment,
Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more on
Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what
would have happened last summer [1967] had the Arabs their Russian
backers won the war, to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to
America and the West in general.
I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so
will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the Holocaust will be
upon us all.
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