Wesley Pruden, who used to be the editor in chief of The
Washington Times, wrote an article under the title: “The endless war against
the Jews” and had it published on August 25, 2016 in The Washington Times.
It looks like Pruden has not left the decade of the 70s when
the anti-hero was the craze of the day. Movies were made and songs were sung in
celebration of the “bad” guy because society was perceived to be even worse.
Thus, no matter how bad the bad guy was portrayed, he was thought to level the
playing field for the downtrodden, and this gave him a Robin Hood quality that
redeemed him in the end.
Likewise, there are those who insist that the uneasy
relationship between humanity and the Jews – lasting 35 centuries already – is
entirely the fault of the human race because the Jews have conducted themselves
impressively whereas everyone else have conducted themselves despicably. This
means – when all is said and done – that the Jews will not have to change their
behavior, whereas everyone else will have to alter their way of life to
harmonize with the ways of the Jews who must be accommodated one hundred
percent.
Does this make sense? Well, that's what Wesley Pruden wants
us to believe. In fact, he wrote an 800-word essay to explain his point. He
begins the explanation by reminding us of what Orwell once observed: “The man
who controls the language controls the conversation.” To Pruden, it comes down
to the definition of the word “genocide.” Hitler committed genocide, he says,
because he murdered a third of the Jewish population. By contrast, the Jews in
occupied Palestine
do not commit genocide, he adds, because the Palestinian population under their
control went from one million to four million in 50 years.
There are two questions to consider here. There is the
question as to how accurate the labeling of someone or something usually is.
And there is the question as to what might be the intent behind the labeling of
someone or something.
According to Pruden's numbers – which I will not dispute or
try to verify – there remained 12 million Jews on the planet at the end of
World War Two. According to the numbers floated by the various Jewish
organizations, there are today 20 million self-identified Jews in the world,
and perhaps another 25 or 30 million who converted to another religion. That’s
a total of 45 or 50 million Jews in the official and non-official categories.
So the question to ask is this: Does going from 12 million to 50 million
represent a population explosion?
Because conversion is something you can do with religion but
not with ethnic lineage, the 4 million Palestinians cited by Pruden is an
absolute number to which nothing can be added. Now, if quadrupling the
Palestinian population is not genocide but a population explosion – like says
Wesley Pruden – why is it that Hitler's act was labeled genocide when the
Jewish population has also quadrupled from 12 million to 50 million?
Yes, this is too simplistic a way to calculate such matters,
but the point I’m making is that playing the numbers game in a situation like
this is a silly undertaking. There has been large scale and small scale
genocides in Cambodia , Rwanda , Yugoslavia ,
the Levant, Palestine
and many other places, all of which have one thing in common. The intent behind
them was to suppress one population so as to make room for the “natural growth”
of another population. And the idea behind building settlements in non-Jewish Palestine is to make room
for the natural growth of the Jewish population, says Netanyahu. This is
genocide whatever the numbers, whichever way you do the counting.
We now address the purpose behind the labeling of someone or
something. There is truth in Orwell's saying about controlling the word to
control the conversation, but there is more to it than that. When an act is
labeled genocide, moral and legal ramifications are evoked. In fact, Hitler's
genocidal behavior led to the destruction of Germany , to his own death, and to
the death of millions who chose to stand with him.
So we ask, what might be the intent of those who call
“genocide” Israel 's
activities in occupied Palestine ?
According to Pruden, they are Protestant Churches, prominent academics and many
“self-hating” Jews. But are they asking for the destruction of Israel , for the
death of Netanyahu, or the death of the millions who choose to stand with him?
No. All they want is to tell the leadership in Israel that 50 years of occupation
has come to symbolize the 35 centuries of antagonistic relation the Jews have
had with humanity.
Humanity did not like it then, and does not like it now.
Those he calls self-hating Jews are tired of the self-appointed leaders who
keep severing them from the rest of humanity.
Humanity is where the rank-and-file Jews feel they belong,
and that's where they want to be. They wish to end the perpetual Jewish war
against humanity because they know that humanity wants them in its fold, and
will welcome them as it has done many times throughout the ages.