Richard Cohen published an article: “A difference beyond
question” in the Washington Post on August 6, 2012. He argues that the Jews
have been a successful people because of something he cannot identify. He
mentions what he regards as being the most spectacular of the Jewish success
stories – their rise in Hungary in the 19th century, and their rise in Germany
in the 20th century -- and he asks the question: “What did it?” to which he
answers: “I don't know.”
And so, he begins a process of elimination from among two
possibilities. Either the Jews are smarter than non Jews -- which has an
undesirable racist connotation, or they have a superior culture. You eliminate
one and you are left with the correct answer. No contest here; he eliminates
the racist approach and chooses culture. But how did the Jews manage to put
together a superior culture? Well, it was not exactly their doing, he suggests;
it was the history of persecution they were made to endure that forced them to
get into the business of money lending. And this, in turn, prepared them for
the onset of capitalism in Europe , he
contends.
To document that theory, Cohen says: “Countless books have
been written to explain this phenomenon, which continues to this day … In his
new book, 'The future of the Jews,' Stuart E. Eizenstat provides an example:
'Between 1980 and 2000, 7,652 patents were registered by Israelis in the United States .'
The figure for the entire Arab world? 376.” And this is the backdrop against which
Cohen makes a contribution to the ongoing debate pertaining to Mitt Romney's
utterance “Culture makes all the difference” which he says has caused “the roof
[to] come down on him [Romney].”
Well, before we look at the Cohen arguments that follow, we first
need to parse his interpretation of history, and also what he claims “continues
to this day”. To a Christian who spent more than ten years in Catholic schools
where there was a chapel in the school, where catechism was taught first thing
in the morning and where mass was attended on Thursdays and Sundays, the idea that
the Jews were forced against their will into the business of lending money is
hard to swallow. My religion has taught me that Jesus lost his cool only once
in his life; it happened when the money lending Pharisees invaded the temple of
worship and engaged in their irreligious activities. In fact, from everything I
know, money lending is the DNA of the Jewish culture and has been since the
beginning of time. This was my dogma for many years, and Cohen's argument has
failed to shake it out of me. He'll have to try something else.
As to his assertion that the Jewish culture is superior to
all the others, and that the phenomenon continues to this day, I have a few
stories of my own to tell him. They are real stories that stack up mightily
against Stuart Eizenstat's example concerning the number of patents registered
in the United States .
The first story has to do with the fact that unlike Israel , the nations of the world believe in
their own sovereignty thus, they do not run to New York to get respect or unearned money.
They have their own stock markets and their own patent offices with which they
deal. For example, Egypt
has a main stock exchange (one of the oldest in the world) known as the Cairo
Alexandria Stock Exchange (CASE 30). It also has the newer Nile Exchange which
is the counterpart of the NASDAQ. This is where the honest Egyptian start-up
companies raise the money they need to expand. Thus, they do not do what the
Israelis do which is to run to New
York and Madoff the gullible Americans.
The second story I need to tell concerns the business of
patents. In fact, two things happened during the decade of the Nineteen
Nineties of the Twentieth Century. One story concerns the Israeli attempt to
con the Jordanians and the Moroccans who have deposits of tar sand petroleum on
their territories. The Israelis got their hands on documents pertaining to the
Canadian research that was done in this area, and convinced the two Arab
countries that they could turn them into oil giants. The Canadians got wind of
this and contacted someone who alerted the Jordanians. The latter then
contacted the Moroccans and told them to kick the bastards out of the country,
or they will be sued by the Canadians. They did the kicking and cleaned up
their house.
The other patent story is even more amusing. It happened
when an Israeli man went to see a Jewish lawyer who happened to be a close
friend of mine at a time when I owned and operated an electronic school in Montreal . The Israeli
said he had an invention that will save the world from the energy crisis it was
going through at the time. My friend wanted to know what I thought of it. I
studied the thing and expressed my true assessment of it, saying it was the
work of a charlatan. For ten years or so after that, I did not know what
happened to the idea. Then, one day lately, I learned that it was sent to
General Motors in the United
States where it is preserved as an example
of the screwball ideas they continually get from the charlatans of the world –
many of them Jews.
Curious, I did a little research in the sort of patents that
the Israelis register in the United
States of America . I found them to be more
of a joke than you can say about the Jewish comedians you find in Hollywood . The trouble is
that -- being the consummate con artists that they are -- they always find
someone with a good name such as Stuart Eizenstat, and they get him to
propagate a fallacy not knowing what he is perpetuating.
Now to the Cohen argument where he says: “The cultural
difference between Israel
and its Arab neighbors is … striking beyond question.” To explain it, he admits
that: “This is a complicated matter.” To show where the complication has
originated, he cites the military occupation of Palestine
by Israel , and the fact that
“Gaza has been
pounded into rubble.” He makes a few more observations which he neglects to
show how they tie-in with the main argument. He then hits the reader with this:
“Still, for all the caveats, Arabs themselves recognize that they have a
cultural problem.”
To explain this, he mentions the Arab Human Development
Report of 2002. It is a volume that was prepared more that ten years ago by
Arab academics in which they discuss the different problems they have encountered
in each of the Arab countries they discuss. When Cohen and the other Jews hide
behind this report while discussing Arab subjects, something comes out vividly.
It is that these authors probably never read any of the thousands of reports
that come out each year on similar subjects everywhere else in the world, most
notably the poor education, the inadequate health services, the violation of
human rights and the hunger that is widespread in America
and in Canada .
But we are discussing Israel , so let us stick with the
subject. It is clear that Richard Cohen lacks education in the areas of culture
and the economy. I suggest, therefore, that he begin by acquainting himself
with the reports put out by the Bank of Israel after each fiscal quarter, and by
the work of Daniel Doron, an Israeli who founded the Israel Center US charity to Israel reconsidered” published on
April 2, 2008.
Pay attention to the fact that Israel's economy is 82%
services and only 18% industry which consists of mining, transportation,
storage, utilities and manufacturing; the later being heavily weighted by the
sectors of diamond polishing, jewelry making and the fabrication of Judaical
artifacts. There is also a trace of what is sometimes referred to as technology
-- but it is only a trace.
Now, when you take into account the fact that the services
that gobble up most of the money are the famous trio HEW (Health, Education and
Welfare), you realize how decrepit the economy is when people in Israel set
themselves on fire protesting the state of health, education and welfare. And
guess what, these sectors are financed in large part by American charity
because the local economy could never support them. Take the American charity
away, and Israel
is reduced to the Sierra Leon that it is. If Richard Cohen wants to call this a
Jewish success, he has the right. But I also have the right to call it Jewish
charlatanism of the first order.
What the Jewish culture does is allow itself to be inflated
like a bubble by people such as Stuart Eizenstat who mean well but do not
realize what they are made to do. The culture then bursts every once in a while
and brings with it terrible consequences. This happens when enough people such
as Richard Cohen push their luck too far knowing exactly what they are doing,
but doing it regardless of the consequences.
Don't try to con the
public, Richard. First get the proper sort of education then write about the
subjects you know well instead of making a fool of yourself, and endangering
the people you call your own. They deserve better than that.