Subject: JEWISH UNIVERSALISM, ARAB PARTICULARISM

by David Basch

Forwarded by the Freeman Center

By David Basch

"The policies the Jewish leftist universalists [will lead to]

... the vanishing of the nation of the Jews -- the only

nationalism at risk by their efforts."

No. The Arab will not be won over by the religion of the shallow, utopian universalism of many Jews. The most meaningful thing to the Arab is his precious particularism, a particularism that is antithetical to the existence of a Jewish state. As passionate and obsessed as some Jews are for their universalism, so are the Arabs for their particularism. And just as these Jews of the secular religion of universalism -- it is truly a religion -- cannot abandon this religion of universalism, so cannot the Arabs abandon their particularism and its goals, especially when those goals appear on the verge of success.

The grave problem for Israel is that the obsession of too many of her people for utopian universalism will enable the Arab enemy to achieve his particularism. The Jewish secular-religion is built on the lie that it is somehow the highest morality for the Jew to surrender the fact of Israel's just right to her heritage in the land of Israel.

This lie would have the Jewish people see the highest morality to be the swearing to mirmah -- falsehood -- the falsehood that the Arabs have a legitimate sovereign claim to the land of Israel. The idea of embracing falsehood is actually a violation of even the universality that these Jews preach. For what should be chief among the universals of universalism is justice. But justice here is on the side of the Jewish people. But, apparently, justice is not what impels Jewish universalists. Their desire is to erase all national boundaries between mankind -- remember Peres's Israel without borders. In pursuit of this, they would annul the existence of a Jewish nationhood which they despise -- hear it in the expressions of the leftist leadership. Truly this brand of Jewish universalism is a religion of hate, self-hate, since it is only Jewish nationalism that is the target of Jewish universalistic strivings. It is only the Jewish nationalism that would disappear if the goals of these universalists are achieved. If their goal was truly a rigorous justice and universalism that erased all nationalistic, surely the Arab particularism would likewise become their target. But the Jewish universalists work mightily, gladly strive, so that Arab particularism, nationalistic and religious, will triumph. Unfortunately, that happens to be the dirty secret of the essence of the Jewish brand of universalism.

We can read the character of this Jewish universalism by what it does. The universalists would violate their own precepts by accepting the fraudulent nationalistic claims of the Arabs that wish to replace a legitimate Israel. Giving in to the fraud of these claims, as Israeli governments have done, will not slake the Arab desire to achieve its full goals but will only strengthen the Arab determination. This is a determination rooted in Islamic religious ideology that demands it achieve its goals to expand the domain of Islam through Muslim-Arab conquest if necessary. Isn't it odd that dyed in the wool Jewish secular universalists are willing to die so that one of the worst religious particularisms on this planet will be affirmed?

The prospect of an Israeli election process in which leaders compete in ceding lands to the enemy and in feeding voracious Arab desires is not pretty at all. It bespeaks a people that knows not its left hand from its right. There can be no doubt that the Arabs -- true to their leaders' Islamic word to their people, something different than giving their word to infidels -- will soon proclaim a new Arab nation with Jerusalem as its capital. This will come whether Israel gives them 1% more land or 70% more land and thought should be about preparation for that day.

Those foolish Israelis who really believe Israel is on the road to peace when she surrenders lands but withholds Jerusalem will be in for a rude awakening. I am sure the leftists know the illogic of this position and, were they to gain the reins of the Israeli government, they are certainly planning the surrender of Jerusalem down the road, the way they surrendered some Israel's heartland. The only other certainty is that with this there will be no peace. For it is only the strength of Israel that deters war with the Arabs. If these universalists value life, Jewish as well as Arab, they would see to it that both are spared war by creating an Israel against which Arab war would be ruinous folly for the attackers.

The leftist program will not accomplish that since it is aimed at destroying a Jewish Israel, the only nationalism marked to disappear in the utopia of the Jewish universalism. Leftists are a group with a serious aberration that prevents them from seeing a reality different from their imagined utopia. (Hitler too had his utopia that defied reality and many armies could not convince him of his error but had to stop him through physical force.) The policies the leftist universalists pursue can only strengthen a determined irredentist Arab enemy on its march to gain Jerusalem and whatever lands are left of the rump Israeli state that these Israelis are determined to create in the name of the "highest ideals," which apparently include the vanishing of the nationalism of the Jews -- the only nationalism at risk by their efforts.

There is no choice but for rational Israelis to turn away from a misguided universalism based on a pathological self-hate and to support a valid security party that recognizes the true nature of the Arab challenge and the importance of the Jewish ethos of the Israel in strengthening the nation at home as it unites its people everywhere with Jewry and lovers of Zion, Jewish and Gentile.