Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Norman Geras finds a bit of Judenhass writing in the mainstream press of South Africa. Don't imagine I'm surprised at all. It's my perception that only in the United States are such obviously displayed sentiments slapped down with any sort of serious vigor. Abroad, some of the most overt displays of antisemitic canard-flogging appear regularly in the mainstream - not that I don't think it's easing its way in here bit by bit. This one's by a Philosophy professor, no less. Read Norm's take (and scroll around for other good stuff).
Update: Perhaps another word on this. One of the prominent threads in Holiday's (the author) Judenhass screed (among several), is the quality that is reminiscent of the words of Heykal Pasha, who, prior to the partition of Palestine, warned of an inevitable race-war should the vote go through. Thus he simultaneously set out the threat and transfered the blame for his own people's actions. The first in an attempt to influence the vote through threatened violence, and the second to wash his hands of the blame for same, while simultaneously making it more likely by providing an excuse, thus helping to fulfill his own prophesy. "Do as I say, or X will result, and that X will be your own fault, not the perpetrator's."
Holiday's nonsense is little different. The Zionists of South Africa could not possibly undermine their own patriotic position, as the concern of theirs that Holiday takes issue with is entirely concerned with Foreign Affairs - support for the State of Israel. Said state is no enemy of South Africa and poses no threat to it. Quite the contrary. Holiday's fears and tears are entirely crocodilian in nature. He isn't worried about the rise of bigotry against the Jews, he's polemicizing in its favor.
http://www.fundrace.org/
Heh. Already posted on that one.
Its nice to see that you are calling em' what they are...ie judenhass instead of anti-semitic. That is a meme I would love to see spread.
Holiday's article actually calls to mind the old Soviet Union - "those evil Zionists are encouraging Jews to take their valuable technical skills out of the country." If that's his beef, his real quarrel should be with Australia, New Zealand and Canada, or maybe with the Mbeki government.
I'm not sure how Holiday can characterize the Yassin assassination as a turning point, though, given that it has nothing to do with the national-loyalty concerns he cites in the rest of the article. Nor are South African Zionists the only ones in ZA who may support questionable policies - how many of Holiday's ANC colleagues are cheerleaders for Mugabe?
"Holiday's article actually calls to mind the old Soviet Union..."
Great observation. Yet another example of the extreme Left losing distinction from the extreme Right?
"I'm not sure how Holiday can characterize the Yassin assassination as a turning point, though,"
Sure, of course, as we know, this isn't a turning point so much as an opportunity for people like Holiday to say what's really been on their minds. One thing's for sure, the Yassin assassination has gotten a lot of people to lay their cards on the table.
"Yet another example of the extreme Left losing distinction from the extreme Right?"
More the new left borrowing from the old left; Holiday's political roots are with the ANC.
It's also important to keep in mind that the ANC has distinct Kemalist qualities; one of its prescriptions for ending ethnic conflict in ZA is to replace pre-existing ethnic identities with a created South African identity. This sort of ideology isn't uncommon in Africa, and it's what Holiday is referring to when he cites the "fragile patriotism of the white middle and wealthy classes" and argues that patriotism is "the indispensable nutriment of an African nation." To someone with Holiday's ideological outlook, Jews who insist on maintaining a separate identity, even to a limited degree, are the equivalent of Kurds in Kemalist Turkey.
Of course, if he wants to go after the group that's _really_ undermining the creation of a South African national identity, he should inveigh against Inkatha. Somehow, though, I don't think that's occurred to him.
Thanks for that explanation. I usually read stuff like this, see the radical ANC roots and figure it's typical Marxist-style anti-Nationalism (or "particularity"). Instead, it sounds like more of a Nationalist...Marxism *ahem*...or is that too broad? If that's not too broad then it sounds like it's still a form of Right meets Left - Socialism with a Nationalist component added...?
Instead, it sounds like more of a Nationalist... Marxism *ahem*
That's nothing unusual, especially in post-colonial countries; look how much of early Zionism was socialist in character. Even Soviet Communism could sometimes resemble Czarist Russian nationalism with the serial numbers filed off, as evidenced by the "russification" campaigns in minority areas.
In any event, the ANC's nation-building program is laid out here. Much of Holiday's rhetoric seems to come from his interpretation of Thesis Seven and the last paragraph of Thesis Six. As the rest of Thesis Six shows, the ANC isn't culturally Kemalist in the way Turkey is, but it's politically Kemalist; according to the ANC's conception, Jews are free to express themselves culturally, but expressing distinct political positions based on ethnicity crosses a red line. I get the feeling that this is where Holiday is coming from (which means, oddly enough, that he may not be an outright anti-semite).
(I fixed the spelling of "Judehass." Doh!)
"which means, oddly enough, that he may not be an outright anti-semite"
Interesting stuff, and it brings up a lot of thoughts and issues I'm a bit lazy to sort throught at the moment. Such as: He might not be intentionally so, but he's pushing a program that is in effect if not in intent, but then it's not specifically aimed at Jews, which mitigates the charge, but may impact them greatest anyway...also, I still like the Left/Right view of this, since the ANC is clearly a "Left" program, with a nation-building philosophy understandable for Africa, but the immediate "victims" of it are Jews, who history shows are some of the people most able to contribute to civil society without a forced loss of identity - with Jews being more of a European tribal import rather than the African sort the ANC's program is meant to mute...
See what I mean? Heap big logic train I don't have the patience at the moment to hit (got a mild case of food-poisoning today, too!). Thanks for the great replies, HH.
Thanks. I've been informed, BTW, that (1) Holiday was Communist rather than ANC, but (2) many ANC activists share his attitude toward Zionism including its alleged anti-patriotic aspects, albeit not his desire to take legal action against it. So I guess I'm kinda-sorta right as well as being indisputably wrong.
i think many of you are skirting the real issues here, especially as many mainstream, orthodox jews and strong supporters of the SA zionist federation were in turn were strong supporters of the previous nationalist party regime; going so far as to work in close connection with the feared SB's and BOSS - so much so that they shared much of their security information. just how many zionist federation members were in fact members of SB"s and BOSS?
how else can one explain the many left-wing jews (classified as socialists and communists) who were detained tortured and killed with the zionist federation supplying confidential information on the "fellow jews" who happend to step out of "the magic circle" ... and threw in their lot with those "schwartzas" .
even today we still hear grumblings and vitriolic attacks, from within SA jews against the slovos, kasrills, katzens, freunds and so forth - branding them as being traitors - not being worthy of being referred to as being jewish.
we are not talking about the 60's, 70's and 80's here but within the last five years, where we have seen a barrage of attacks in the SA media ...