[](/sites/default/files/uploads/2015/03/12028.jpg)Michael Lerner’s blog titled “No Mr. Netanyahu! We Won’t Let You Drag the U.S. into a War with Iran!” (February 23, 2015), is illustrative of the age-old struggle within the Jewish world between universalism and particularism, which is further sub-divided between those who advocate powerlessness, and those who argue that powerlessness would lead to annihilation…between assimilationists and those proud of their Jewish heritage…between Jews seeking self-reliance and those like Michael Lerner, who deplore Jewish power of any kind. Lerner may call himself a rabbi, but he is truly a leftist-universalist, who seeks powerlessness for Jews and Israel, but doesn’t mind power in the hands of Jewish oppressors and Israel’s enemies. And while Netanyahu speaks for most Israelis and informed American Jews, Lerner speaks for a fringe of radical leftist-universalists
We can begin to trace the divisions between Jewish particularists and universalists in the Second Century BCE. Earlier, in the Fourth Century BCE, Alexander the Great conquered the Middle East; his empire was divided among his Generals and their subsequent dynasties. Ptolemy landed Egypt and other North African provinces; Seleucus took possession of Asia Minor and Syria, and Antigonus claimed Greece. For 125 years, Seleucus and Ptolemy fought over control of Judea. Unlike his successors, Alexander the Great sought to spread Hellenic culture rather than establishing an empire. He succeeded in his endeavor, since Hellenistic culture at the time was as popular as American culture is today in vast parts of the world.
A priest named Mattathias or Mattatyahu, of the Hashmonaim (aka as Maccabees) house, led the Jewish particularistic revolt against the Hellenized universalists that emulated Greek life, and succumbed to Greek rather than Jewish interests. The Jewish elites at the time were content to be part of the Hellenic culture and business was good, therefore, Jewish culture and political self-determination was not a priority. The Hasidim, or the particularists, were willing to fight and die for their religious beliefs, and their political and cultural freedoms. After a quarter of a century of war against Seleucus emperors, the Jews of Judea gained their independence in 143 BCE. Jewish power, rather than submissive powerlessness, won the day. Jews celebrate Chanukah today because of the courage and conviction of particularists.
The Romans took over direct control of Judea following the death of Herod, and soon Roman governors trampled over Jewish religious sensibilities, while their cruelties forced the particularists to rally against them in an armed rebellion. The universalists formed the “peace” party while the particularists waged war. Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai slipped out of besieged Jerusalem to ensure Jewish continuity, but Roman destruction of Judea and the Temple in Jerusalem enraged the Jews. They tried once more to expel the Romans – the superpower of the time.
The Bar Kochva rebellion, 132-135 CE, sealed the fate of the Jewish struggle for independence. The rebellion was crashed, and Jews stopped resorting to military resistance. The desperate Bar Kochva rebellion ended in tragedy for the Jewish people, and subsequently Jewish powerlessness was enshrined. For over 1,800 years, Jews lived as despised and persecuted “guests” in foreign lands known as diaspora, their homeland occupied by Romans, Byzantines, Persians, Arabs, Ottomans, and finally, British. The Holocaust witnessed Six Million defenseless Jews being lead to the slaughterhouses of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Chelmno, Belzec, and hundreds of other camps.
Powerlessness during the Holocaust drove Jews to renew their struggle for Israel’s independence and Jewish assertion of self-determination. Europe and America in the 19th and early 20th centuries saw Jewish assimilation into the prevailing cultures, witnessing an almost desperate attempt by Jewish universalists to abandon Jewish particularism. Jews joined the political left in Europe and America. Jews led socialist parties in Europe, striving to be covered under a universalist umbrella. The Holocaust dispelled the notion of universalist ideologies as a protection from anti-Semitism, persecution, and death camps.
For the likes of Michael Lerner and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) joining with a Jew-hating movement such as BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) against the Jewish State, in cahoots with Israel’s enemies, brings us back to the Hellenists of yore. They are aiding and abetting those who seek Israel’s destruction.
Lerner writes: “While he (Netanyahu) is coming to align himself with American militarists in both parties with the aim of pressuring President Obama to make demands on the Iranians that will be impossible for them to meet, and then pushing the U.S. into military action against Iran, most American Jews support President Obama’s attempts to negotiate a peaceful path that would allow Iran to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes but would prohibit it from developing nuclear weapons.” Winston Churchill too, was accused of ‘warmongering” and “aligning himself with militarists,” when he warned against the Nazi threat, by the likes of Lerner.
It is clear that Lerner’s contempt for Netanyahu overrides everything else, including the intolerance of the Islamist Iranian regime, their nuclear deception as documented by the IAEA and western intelligence agencies, and the Islamic Republic’s repeated threat to destroy Israel. Like the Hellenists, Lerner too seeks acceptance into the wider leftist ideology, rather than considering the dangers that Israel and the free world face from a nuclearized Iran.
JVP hatred for Israel’s particularism is evident in their statement that “Israel’s ongoing Occupation endangers the security and well-being of the people of the region.” Mind you, Iran hangs lesbians and gays, denies religious freedom to its minorities, exports international terror, including the killing of 85 people at the Jewish Center in Buenos Aires, and seeks nuclear weapons to destroy Israel. For JVP however, Israel is worse than Iran and the Islamic State, which beheads innocent Coptic Christians, Yazidis, fellow Muslims and rapes and enslaves women and children. But, according to JVP, they are not endangering the security of the region – only Israel does.
Lerner’s citing of “militarists of both parties” is no doubt a reference to the Menendez (D-NJ)-Kirk (R-IL) amendment that seeks to impose tougher sanctions on Iran should it refrain from signing a verifiable agreement to not build nuclear weapons. Lerner is not only deeply biased against Netanyahu; he is an apologist for the intolerant mullahs of Iran.
Lerner writes: “Netanyahu’s strategy is clear and clever. If he can push the Obama policymakers to stick with demands that Iran will find impossible to accept, essentially asking of them to give up any form of nuclear power, a demand we do not make on most other countries in the region (not China, not India, not Pakistan, and certainly not Israel), Netanyahu will set the stage for the failure of those negotiations.” Lerner should know better than to compare Israel, India or even China with Iran. Iran, (a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty) unlike the other countries, threatened to use a nuclear device against Israel. Israel on the other hand, never threatened its enemies with destruction by a nuclear device or otherwise. Iran moreover, is the world largest sponsor of terrorism, and seeks hegemony in the region and beyond. In possession of nuclear weapons, Iran will be a danger not only to Israel, its Arab neighbors, the U.S. and Europe, but to the whole world.
Michael Lerner will do anything to achieve notoriety, including aligning himself with the worst enemies of Jews and the Jewish State. In his outrageous blog, he solicited money to place an ad in the New York Times denouncing Netanyahu’s efforts to reveal the truth about the Iranian nuclear works. Fortunately, he and his ilk represent no more than a lunatic fringe.
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