34 years ago

My friend sent me this article from the Los Angeles Times 34 years ago. I'd like to share this with you. Funny it still rings true today.

ISRAEL'S PECULIAR POSITION by Eric Hoffer (LA
Times 5/26/68)



Look when this was written ......1968!
The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted
to other nations are
forbidden to the Jews.

Other nations drive out thousands, 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 Arab. 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 and 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.