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Is Immigration Really A “Jewish Value”?

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 Also posted at VDARE.com

GOP House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s ominous squishiness in the face of the Amnesty/ Immigration Surge drive, which has provoked a primary challenge from Economics professor Dave Brat, may be due to personal greed, but Jewish organizations clearly think he can be motivated by ethnic appeals. A friend recently forwarded me this email (links in original except where noted):

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, March 24, 2014

CONTACT: Emma Stieglitz, emmaS@berlinrosen.com, (646) 200-5307

BEND THE ARC MARSHALS JEWISH VOTERS TO PRESSURE ERIC CANTOR ON IMMIGRATION REFORM

Jewish voters are ratcheting up the pressure on Majority Leader Eric Cantor to move comprehensive immigration reform [VDARE.com note: a.k.a. amnesty/ Immigration Surge] through the House. On Monday, Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice launched a petition calling on Rep. Cantor to bring immigration reform to a vote. The effort, spearheaded by Bend the Arc, is a collaboration of many of the nation’s leading Jewish organizations.

The petition (at www.entrydenied.org) makes clear that immigration reform is a priority issue for the Jewish community:

“As American Jews, we believe in a nation that grants today’s immigrants access to the same basic freedoms and opportunities that drew our ancestors and yours.”

Jewish organizations are unanimous in support of the Amnesty/ Immigration Surge drive. This support for liberal immigration laws has a long history—the granddaddy of them all being the 40-year campaign to enact the 1965 immigration law that opened the doorto heavy immigration of all the peoples of the world.

But what is striking is that Jewish immigration enthusiasts have portrayed themselves as motivated entirely by a set of ethical values that are unique and central to Judaism. Thus Bend the Arc proclaims:

We are building a national movement that pursues justice as a core expression of Jewish tradition….Jewish tradition is about liberation and love for humankind. We believe in the dignity and inherent right of all people to live in a just, fair and compassionate society. As Jews immigrated to America, this belief was stowed in their luggage. Throughout American history, courageous Jews have worked with others to hold the nation to its promise, whether in the abolitionist movement, the anti-sweatshop movement, the movement against child labor, the modern labor movement, the civil rights movement or the movement for LGBT inclusion (just to name a few).

And it boasts:

Over the past year, Bend the Arc has organized around the issue of immigration, arranging meetings between Jewish leaders and congressional staff, hosting immigration-themed Shabbats, organizing petitions and participating in marches, vigils and town halls to deliver the message that immigration reform is a top priority for Jewish voters. In October, Bend the Arc’s rabbi-in-residence was arrested at a national demonstration for immigration reform alongside members of Congress during an act of civil disobedience on the National Mall. Read more

“Normal People”: British White Nationalists in Recent Academic Studies

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“People are really rather afraid that this country might be swamped by people of a different culture. The British character has done so much for democracy, for law, and done so much throughout the world that if there is any fear that it might be swamped, then people are going to be rather hostile to those coming in.”
Margaret Thatcher, February 1978.

An acquaintance recently forwarded me an interesting news item from England. It would appear that the background of one Duncan Weldon, the new economics correspondent for the BBC’s flagship current affairs show Newsnight, has been sending shivers down the spine of those who stalk the halls of power. Weldon’s unforgivable error seems to be that he “flirted” with the “far Right” in his college days, and participated in a leafleting campaign in 2000 organized by the British National Party (BNP), Britain’s largest movement that explicitly advocates for the interests of the White majority.

Weldon, to my eyes at least, appears to be a political opportunist. He describes his brief “flirtation” with the BNP as “misguided” and points out that he went on to carve out a career for himself as a dedicated Leftist, attacking conservative policies with all the fabled zeal of the convert. While some have pointed out that Weldon might be unsuitable for the position because of his current role at the Trades Union Congress as well as a marked lack of journalistic experience, the heaviest criticism has been laced with insinuations that links to White Nationalism, and in particular to the BNP, render Weldon permanently unsuitable for any position of public prominence. An article at Breitbart.com accuses “the former fascist,” of having a “flirtation with the works of Oswald Mosley” because Weldon once blogged that he read Robert Skidelsky’s biography of the war-time leader of the British Union of Fascists. (It would appear that the author of that particular piece needs reminding that reading a biography of someone is not the same thing as reading their works and that reading the works of someone is not the same as endorsing them. Else, God forbid, I would be accused of endorsing the ethnocentric ravings of Anthony Julius.)

The heaviest condemnation has come from the Conservative party politician, Andrew Bridgen, who has said: “Given the revelations about his secret BNP past, it is clear Mr Weldon is unsuitable for a position in our national broadcaster.”

Those wishing to ensure that a wolf does not penetrate the fold need not be so alarmist. It is likely that Weldon never held a single conviction during his dabble with White Nationalism, and it should put more than a few minds at rest that Weldon has the approval of the Newsnight editor Ian Katz, a South African Jew, as well as that of the BBC Creative Director, Alan Yentob, a British Jew.

Needless to say, the Beeb is in no danger of any enthusiasm for the interests of the  indigenous population of the UK. The “Guardian trained”  Katz has previously been the subject of criticism for being an unabashed and relentless promoter of “diversity.” The ire-provoking incident in question was Katz’s choice of two women, one Black and one Sri Lankan, to discuss what one Daily Mail columnist described as a “report about (White, male) American scientists who’ve detected the origins of the universe.”

Maggie

Sky at Night presenter Maggie Aderin-Pocock discusses the origins of the universe as revealed by White males on Newsnight.

A former deputy-editor of the Guardian, Katz was once a graduate trainee at the Sunday Correspondent along with fellow Jewish journalist Jonathan Freedland. Freedland is also keen on diversity. Responding to the 2011 British census, Freedland pointed out that “the country is now less white and less Christian. In 2001, white people accounted for 91% of the total population. In the latest census, that figure is down five points to 86%.” Freedland reported gleefully that “White Britons have become a minority in London, accounting for only 45% of the city’s population,” and ended with the astonishing remark that “the main story is surely that this country has undergone a radical transformation in this last decade and the ones before — and it has done so with relative peace and relative calm. No one will hand out any gold medals for that, but it’s a kind of triumph all the same.” A triumph for whom, Mr. Freedland?

Read more

Republicans Grovel before Sheldon’s Billions

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Usually the media downplays any hint that strongly identified Jews acting out of Jewish motives are able to influence American politics or anything else. But Sheldon Adelson’s conference of Republican hopefuls apparently was too obvious, especially in the wake of his donating around $100 million to Republicans in the 2012 election cycle (and “much more in 2016“).

So the LATimes made it official: Republicans who are serious about being nominated for president had better genuflect before Jewish money: “2016 Republican hopefuls hope to woo Jewish donors.”

The occasion was a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition in which Adelson was only one of many politically active Jewish billionaires. And what do Jewish billionaires care about?

During speeches Saturday, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie all addressed the key concerns of Adelson and many group members — the threat of a nuclear Iran, their desire to strengthen U.S. ties with Israel, and what they view as the waning prestige of the U.S. abroad. With varying degrees of deftness, the candidates each touched on their own ties to Israel and Jewish tradition.

Ah yes, the real issues facing America. I guess we are supposed to believe that, like every neocon who ever graced the op-ed pages of our elite media, these rich Jewish Republicans are absolutely certain that American interests are being served with their obsession about Israel. Read more

Ethnic Changes in the Anglophone World

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For better and for worse, the United States has maintained special international relationships with two foreign countries, Britain and Israel, the former for a century and a half and the latter for more than half a century. The alliance among these three powers has created a worldwide Anglophone Empire, which over time has evolved into what is presumptuously and prematurely called the “New World Order,” the common social and geopolitical interests of which have come to differ from those of Europe, where “Old World” values still persist and constantly reassert themselves. Developments in the past decade now suggest that not only is the relationship between Europe, a continental land power, and the English-speaking world, a sea and air power, loosening, but that those internal links between the three countries comprising the Anglophone empire are diverging as well.

No other nation in the world has so consistently and successfully directed all its efforts towards conquest, as has England. Her colonial empire encircled the globe and involved most of the races, languages, and climes of the world. Those major components of the Empire (Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand) were settled and developed quite peacefully by the native English, Irish, Scots, and Welsh sons of the motherland with only sporadic opposition from hostile indigenous tribes.  These settlers remained loyal to England’s mores, language, law, traditions and values, even serving as England’s allies in her wars. Read more

The Ukraine as a Model of a European Spring

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The role of geopolitics and the interests of powerful nations and groups — especially where they coincide or enter into a kind of equilibrium — are constantly underestimated in self-determination, nationalistic, and other political struggles.

The Kurds, for example, despite an overwhelming need and just cause for their  own state, and the apparent divisions of their neighbours, are going to find it extremely difficult to achieve statehood as long as the three dominant groups surrounding them — Turkey, the Arabs, and Iran (along with their superpower backers) — stand to lose equally by this process.

We see something similar in the Ukraine. Despite all the leadership posturing by those involved, it is clear that we are heading to a new consensus, in which (1) the new borders – i.e. Crimea as part of Russia – are tacitly accepted, (2) the Russians hold back the more threatening breakaway movements in Eastern and Southern Ukraine, (3) the West favours liberals and moderates in Kiev at the expense of the Ukrainian nationalists, and (4) the gas continues to flow.

This is a pity as 2014 has the potential to see a European version of an “Arab Spring.” But then, neither the Russians, the EU (which essentially means the dominant EU countries), nor, of course, the US wants this. Read more

Forward Study of the Jewish Charity Industry

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A theme at TOO, most recently the early days of the Israel Lobby,  is that Jewish wealth and willingness to contribute to ethnic causes is a cornerstone of Jewish influence. Simply put, Jewish causes are lavishly funded and provide ample career opportunities. Now the Forward is beginning a series of articles on “the Jewish charity industry”: “26 billion: the Jewish Charity Industry Uncovered.” 

The $26 billion dollar figure in the title refers to the net assets of the network of explicitly Jewish charitable organizations, which puts it in the same league as a major corporation. Annual revenue is around $12-14 billion. Assuming an American Jewish population of around 6.4 million, this implies assets per capita  of over $4000 and per capita annual giving of around half that. Based on an older survey indicating 2.3 persons per Jewish household, annual giving per household would be around $4600.

These numbers are certainly not earth shaking, but, when broken down to particular categories, they indicate that Jewish activist organizations are indeed well funded, especially when compared to the financial resources of organizations that oppose Jewish interests (probably well under $1 million for organizations explicitly dedicated to advancing the interests of White Americans).

For example, 6% of the $3.7 billion in  annual donations for “functional charities” is allocated for “General Advocacy” ($222,000,000 annually), and 38% goes to Israel-related causes  ($1.4 billion annually). Advocacy presumably includes the ADL which reported revenue of over $53 million in 2012—enough to fund over $31 million in employee salaries (including Abe Foxman at $688,188 ) and 28 regional offices. Read more

David Cameron in the Knesset: Links with Israeli Espionage in the UK and the US

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It was in front of a packed parliamentary chamber that the British Prime Minister David Cameron finally felt able to express his devotion to the people who had stood by him.  In a voice shaking with emotion he spoke of the real connection he felt with them, how he admired their thousand years of history, how it had shaped him personally and finally how he would always defend their right to exist. His commitment to their security would always be “rock solid”

There was only one problem.  He was not in the House of Commons standing up for the rights of the native British. He was in the Knesset and the people he was speaking of defending were the Jewish — and only the Jewish — population of Israel.

And he had one surprise. “My Jewish ancestry is relatively limited but I do feel just some sense of connection. From the lexicon of my great, great grandfather Emile Levita, a Jewish man who came from Germany to Britain 150 years ago to the story of my forefather Elijah Levita who wrote what is thought to have been the first ever Yiddish novel.”

It was all par for the course for Britain’s shape-shifting prime minister. In recent months he has donned a turban to placate the Sikh community, he has tried to stave off the Scottish campaign for independence with stories of his Scottish forebears. But the Jewish angle caught many by surprise.

Cameron’s Knesset speech came in brief trip a fortnight ago to cement relations between the UK and Israel. It is a considerable relationship that is often overlooked because of Israel’s links with the USA. Bi-lateral trade between the two countries has soared to £5.1 billion and Britain’s unstinting support helps Israel to side-step trade restrictions issued by the European Union from Brussels. Read more