Recently Wall Street Journal re-printed an article of Eric Hoffer originally published by LA Times in May 1968. Nearly fifty years later Hoffers words ring as true as it did when he first put them down on paper and sent it to LA Times. Those who do not know, or have never heard of Eric Hoffer might want to take a little time and check him out by googling him. He was a working-mans philosopher, a man who did hard labour work in construction and then moved to the West coast in the U.S. and worked as a longshoreman in the docks of San Francisco. He was born in 1902, of German descent, and died in 1983. As a working mans philosopher he understood well the meaning of freedom and work, unlike many academic philosophers and Marx who never worked a day in his life as he was financially taken care of by his friend Engels with money earned as a capitalist. Eric Hoffer deservingly was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom and very fittingly this honour was presented to him by the great President Ronald Reagan. I have now a personal affinity with Eric Hoffer, as my book -- Delectable Lie: a liberal repudiation of multiculturalism -- was given the Montaigne Medal for the most thought-provoking book of 2012 awarded by the Eric Hoffer Book Award in the U.S., an award given out to books published by independent publishers as was mine. Here is the relevant column by Eric Hoffer. I have copied it below. Please take a moment and read it. It is short, brief and to the point, and like a laser cuts through all the fraudulent comments and hypocrisy in print of the past several weeks to the nugget of what Israel represents and has come to mean in our time. ______________________ Israel’s Peculiar Position In 1968 the LA times ran this article, written by Eric Hoffer, a former longshoreman and non-Jewish American social philosopher. Born in 1902, Hoffer died in 1983, after writing nine books and winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Although written 34 years ago, the following is as timely and applicable today as then. by Eric Hoffer May 26, 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 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 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 Negroes 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 did 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 had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to American 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.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 02:07:59 +0000
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