|
|
|
The
Culture of Deceit
Edmund Connelly
August
18, 2009
Two
weeks ago, I showed
that deceiving non-Jews was normative behavior for the Jewish community
historically. As I wrote, “illegal activities involving deception and deceit are
tolerated within the Jewish community. . . . The only ethical principle involved
here is the age old ‘Is it good for the Jews?’"
I
focused on financial crimes because they have been in the news for so long now
and have involved Jews to a degree that most astute people can’t miss. Of course
no human group is entirely free of deception or financial misdeeds but, as I
argued, there seems to be a greater likelihood of financial crime among Jews
(again, see here
for an academic treatment that tiptoes around the issue). More
importantly, I continued, Jewish white collar criminals do not face censure
within their own communities.” For instance Moshe
Rosenberg, an Orthodox rabbi, lamented that “Unfortunately,
unethical and even illegal behavior too often does not face serious censure in
our communities.”
From
financial fraud and manipulation, I moved on to literary deceit, pointing to
specific instances of Jewish deception by some of the most esteemed authors of
our time. I did this because I hoped to show that it is not merely the desire
for money that motivates Jewish deception. Rather, as I seek to illustrate,
deceit is a normative aspect of Jewish culture. That is, it is not censured as
it commonly is among, say, Christians. Instead, it is sanctioned as long as it
is directed toward outgroups.
Today
I would like to focus on another area in which American Jews have attempted to
hoodwink their fellow Americans into believing that Jews have made more
sacrifices than in fact they have — military bravery and
sacrifice.
Valor
on the battlefield and recognition of that valor are central to many cultures,
including most Western cultures. As our last “Good War,” World War II occupies
an important place not only in American history but in American mythology as
well. In that war, the story goes, we reluctantly set out to smite forces of
pure evil that threatened the entire world, from the Pacific theater to
Europe.
Perhaps
more remarkable is the fact that the question of Jewish valor in that war still
makes the headlines. For instance, during the Clinton Administration, Larry
Lawrence, U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland, died and was buried in Arlington
National Cemetery.
One
of America’s richest men, Lawrence owned the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego,
where his friend President Bill Clinton vacationed. Lawrence’s claim to the
right to be buried in Arlington hinged on his assertion that he had had served
in the Merchant Marine during WWII and had been injured. In fact, he had avoided
the draft and never served.
The Hotel Del
Coronado in San Diego
The
U.S. Army is in charge of Arlington Cemetery, so Army personnel carefully
checked Lawrence’s story but found nothing to support it. Richard Holbrooke, who
also happens to be Jewish, was Assistant Secretary of State at the time and
appealed to the White House on Lawrence’s behalf. His request was granted, and
Clinton presided over the 1996 burial.
As the New York Times reported, however, “Confronted with mounting evidence that M. Larry Lawrence, the late Ambassador to Switzerland, had fabricated a heroic World War II record, his widow decided today to have his remains exhumed from Arlington National Cemetery, where he was granted burial under an unusual waiver."
Another
Jewish WWII soldier, Sgt. David Rubitsky, claims to have accomplished superhuman
feats. He was serving in New Guinea in 1942 when the Japanese attacked. As Joseph
Farah reported in 2001:
Rubitsky
watched the Japanese soldiers move small artillery pieces, heavy machine guns,
mortars and anti-aircraft armaments into the area. He watched as more and more
soldiers gathered. Anticipating a surprise attack by the Japanese on his 2nd
Battalion, Rubitsky decided to lead his own surprise
attack.
He
opened fire. As Japanese soldiers advanced toward his bunker, Rubitsky used
every weapon in his arsenal for nine grueling hours of intense fighting. He
alternated between firing his .30-caliber water-cooled machine gun with 3,000
rounds of ammunition, a Browning automatic rifle with close to 600 rounds, his
M-1 rifle, a pistol and tossing some of his 35 hand
grenades.
Rubitsky
spent a total of 21 hours in the bunker —
including nine under heavy siege. The Japanese army attacked from three
different directions – the north, south and west. . . . When Lt. Col. Herbert
Smith came up to the bunker the next day, he estimated that Rubitsky had
single-handedly killed 500 to 600 Japanese soldiers, thereby saving his own
battalion from being decimated in a surprise attack.
Rubitsky
made
strenuous efforts to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor but insists it was
denied because of anti-Semitism. The Anti-Defamation League initially aided
Rubitsky’s campaign, as did the media generally. For example, as one
researcher noted, “Newspaper and magazine articles,
with references to ‘anti-Semitism’ [related to the Rubitsky campaign], appeared
in such prestige publications as TIME and the New York Times.”
This researcher then added that “Because of the lobbying efforts of the ADL, including a resolution signed by 92 members of Congress, in 1987 the U.S. Army undertook a two-year review of David Rubitsky's story. On December 8, 1989, after obtaining evidence from forensic specialists and taking statements from Rubitsky and 20 others who served alongside him, the U.S. Army concluded that Rubitsky's claim was unfounded.”
To
date, it is not known if Hollywood plans a bio-pic of Sgt. David
Rubitsky.
As
you can see, there are varying levels of spin used in these accounts. Of note is
the support given by the (heavily Jewish) media and by Jewish activist
organizations to validate these accounts. They create a narrative where Jews
have allegedly performed valiantly, yet anti-Semitism, blatant or otherwise, has
once again dogged these deserving Jews.
Steven
Spielberg has contributed to this perception. In his film Saving
Private Ryan, for instance, from the very
beginning he visually insinuates that Jewish G.I.s made sacrifices comparable to
that of their non-Jewish fellow soldiers. As the now-aged Mr. Ryan walks into
the American cemetery in Normandy, his all-White family trailing him, director
Spielberg fills the screen with a white cross, followed immediately by a grave
with a Star of David (see the 1:50 mark on this
YouTube outtake). That is a rather transparent bias
when we next observe Ryan walking among a sea of Crosses over the graves of dead
non-Jews. Spielberg repeats the scene at the film’s close (0:25 and 1:37 from
this
clip).
A Spielbergian View of the American Cemetery at Coleville-sur-Mer, Normandy
This
brings to mind the story of former Congressman and now White House Chief of
Staff Rahm Emanuel. Unlike, say, Larry Lawrence, who did not serve during WWII,
Emanuel did serve his country during the first Gulf War — as an Israeli soldier in Israel. In his book
Rulers
and Ruled in the US Empire: Bankers, Zionists and
Militants, scholar
James Petras notes that "less than 2/10 of one percent (0.2 percent) of the US
soldiers in Iraq were Jewish and probably very few of those were on the front
lines. More young American Jews volunteer to serve in the Israeli Defense
Forces." Of course this recalls Pat
Buchanan’s 1990 claim that should America prosecute
the first war on Iraq in favor of Israeli interests, the fighting would be done
by kids “with names like McAllister, Murphy, Gonzales, and Leroy Brown.”
In
any case, let me return to my central argument that deception is central to
Jewish behavior —
and it is not something they are ashamed of. As evidence of this, look at one of
the founding myths Jews have of themselves, the biblical story of Jacob and
Esau:
And
the Lord said unto Rebecca, "Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of
people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger
than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger." And when her days to be delivered were
fulfilled...the first came out all red, all over like a hairy garment; and they
called his name Esau. And after
that came his brother out, and his hand took ahold of Esau's heel; and his name
was called Jacob. (Gen. 25:23-26)
Historian
Albert Lindemann unpacks the meaning of this story in Esau’s Tears: Modern
Anti-Semitism and the Rise of the Jews:
Indeed,
the division between Jew and Gentile goes to the very origins and structures of
western civilization. It predates the advent of Christianity and may be found in
the earliest texts of the Old Testament . . . In those texts of the Hebrew Bible
the mythical origins of the division between Jews and others are described, and
a thought-provoking explanation for the antagonism of the two groups is offered.
The account in Genesis of Esau and Jacob, twin brothers born to Rebecca and
Isaac, has evoked a seemingly endless cycle of interpretations. Already in the
earliest Jewish commentaries on the text in Genesis one encounters not only the
rich layers of meaning but also the elusiveness, the profound ambiguity in the
relationship between Jew (in archetype, Jacob) and Gentile (in archetype,
Esau).
What
is the archetype of the Jew in the Jews’ own founding myth? It is that of the
liar or trickster. Recall what happened in Genesis 27:5-45. Nearing death, the
elderly Isaac sent Esau out to trap game in order to prepare a meal appropriate
to the blessing Isaac was to bestow upon his first son. With Rebecca’s
participation, Jacob deceived his father into believing that he was in fact
Esau. Numerous times Isaac suspected a ruse, finally asking, "Are you really my
son Esau?" "I am," Jacob lied. Jacob was ultimately successful in deceiving his
father and received his blessing.
This
passage is a stark instance in which we see one origin for the still-common
Jewish belief that others (goyim) are to serve them. “Let peoples serve you, and
nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers.”
Also of note is Isaac’s ambivalent blessing to his deceived son Esau: "Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, but your brother you shall serve.” About the only hopeful note comes when Isaac concludes: “But when you break loose you shall break his [Jacob’s] yoke from your neck.”
If
one prefers to put a positive spin on the value of deceit, turn to Yuri
Slezkine’s exposition of the Mercurian archetype in his book The Jewish
Century. He explains that the Mercurians, including
Jews, “possess a quality that the Greeks called metis, or ‘cunning intelligence.’” Thus
Jews, as descendants of “tricksters,” are proud to possess such a trait, one
that non-Jews (“Apollonians” in Slezkine’s dualism) deplore. Host cultures see
Jews and other Mercurians as “devious, acquisitive, greedy, crafty, pushy, and
crude.” Sounds familiar.
The bottom line is that non-Jews need to be realistic about this Jewish trait and not entertain notions that Jews can be shamed out of such belief and behavior. For example, the biblical story of Esther, which I related last week, captures Jewish pride in defeating their non-Jewish enemies by using deception. As with other Jewish biblical stories, Esther begins with deception and ends with the Israelites slaughtering their enemies and achieving high status and power.
Again,
these messages appear repeatedly in the Old Testament. In the Book of Genesis,
for example, God promises his Chosen People: “May God give you of the dew of
heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let
peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you.” Later, in Deuteronomy
6:10–11,
God promises to give great and goodly cities “which you did not build, and
houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, and cisterns hewn out,
which you did not hew, and vineyards and olive trees, which you did not
plant.“
In Joshua 24:12–13, God tells the Jews: “I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you had not built, and you dwell therein; you eat the fruit of vineyards and oliveyards which you did not plant.”
How
do you think they accomplished this? People do not simply hand over their cities
to invaders. If in fact God did intervene and perform a miracle, well, that’s
one thing. Still, it suggests something we keep seeing throughout history — Jews
becoming a dominant elite over native populations.
I
hope readers will accept that part of this success indeed stems from Jewish use
of deception, a practice that is not going to go away. In closing, I’ll turn to
Canadian poet David Solway, who mockingly
wrote recently, “We Jews are a sly and surreptitious
people. It pains me to admit this, but candor compels.” But here, of course,
Solway is using deception, for in fact he is simply telling the truth. Do not be
fooled by the trickster’s resort to mockery to veil the truth.
