Tag Archives: Fascist

1948 Warning about fascist Israeli state sounds frighteningly relevant.

I am re-posting this letter that a friend posted on a Facebook discussion group. For the most part, if you replace the term Freedom Party with Tea Party, the warning is just as relevant to the coup taking place in the United States today as to the illegitimate seizure of Palestine by secular Zionist Jews in 1948.

Letters to the New York Times
December 4, 1948

New Palestine Party 
Visit of Menachem Begin and Aims of Political Movement Discussed

TO THE EDITORS OF THE NEW YORK TIMES:

Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the Freedom Party (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine.

The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit. It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin’s political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents.

Before irreparable damage is done by way of financial contributions, public manifestations in Begin’s behalf, and the creation in Palestine of the impression that a large segment of America supports Fascist elements in Israel, the American public must be informed as to the record and objectives of Mr. Begin and his movement.

The public avowals of Begin’s party are no guide whatever to its actual character. Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.

Attack on Arab Village

A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (THE NEW YORK TIMES), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants ; 240 men, women, and children, and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Deir Yassin.

The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party.

Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority. Like other Fascist parties they have been used to break strikes, and have themselves pressed for the destruction of free trade unions. In their stead they have proposed corporate unions on the Italian Fascist model.

During the last years of sporadic anti-British violence, the IZL and Stern groups inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community. Teachers were beaten up for speaking against them, adults were shot for not letting their children join them. By gangster methods, beatings, window-smashing, and wide-spread robberies, the terrorists intimidated the population and exacted a heavy tribute.

The people of the Freedom Party have had no part in the constructive achievements in Palestine. They have reclaimed no land, built no settlements, and only detracted from the Jewish defense activity. Their much-publicized immigration endeavors were minute, and devoted mainly to bringing in Fascist compatriots.

Discrepancies Seen

The discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin and his party, and their record of past performance in Palestine bear the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a Leader State is the goal.

In the light of the foregoing considerations, it is imperative that the truth about Mr. Begin and his movement be made known in this country. It is all the more tragic that the top leadership of American Zionism has refused to campaign against Begin’s efforts, or even to expose to its own constituents the dangers to Israel from support to Begin.

The undersigned therefore take this means of publicly presenting a few salient facts concerning Begin and his party; and of urging all concerned not to support this latest manifestation of fascism.

(signed)

ISIDORE ABRAMOWITZ, HANNAH ARENDT, ABRAHAM BRICK, RABBI JESSURUN CARDOZO, ALBERT EINSTEIN, HERMAN EISEN, M.D., HAYIM FINEMAN, M. GALLEN, M.D., H.H. HARRIS, ZELIG S. HARRIS, SIDNEY HOOK, FRED KARUSH, BRURIA KAUFMAN, IRMA L. LINDHEIM, NACHMAN MAISEL, SYMOUR MELMAN, MYER D. MENDELSON, M.D., HARRY M. ORLINSKY, SAMUEL PITLICK, FRITZ ROHRLICH, LOUIS P. ROCKER, RUTH SAGER, ITZHAK SANKOWSKY, I.J. SCHOENBERG, SAMUEL SHUMAN, M. ZNGER, IRMA WOLPE, STEFAN WOLPE

New York, Dec. 2, 1948

Christian Fascism and Its Threat to American Democracy

We must attend to growing social and economic inequities in order to stop the most dangerous mass movement in American history — or face a future of fascism under the guise of Christian values.

The stated goal of the Christian Right is to use the United States to create a global Christian empire. This call for fundamentalists and evangelicals to take political power is a radical and ominous mutation of traditional Christianity. It is hard to take such fantastic rhetoric seriously, especially given the buffoonish quality of those who support it.

The Nazis and Fascists are not coming to the United States with swastikas and brown shirts. Instead, they’ll be, as Sinclair Lewis warned, wrapped in the American flag and carrying a cross.

Totalitarian movements are built on deep personal and economic despair. There is currently an assault on the middle class that is unparalleled in the history of the United States. Following World War II, as a result of Government programs that spurred economic growth, the ranks of the middle class grew as never before. The children of these wartime couples, through little effort of their own, became the most prosperous generation the United States has ever produced. These Baby Boomers, like many groups who have been handed opportunity on a silver platter, also became the most selfish and self-centered generation the United States has ever produced. They have consistently voted against any government spending that did not directly benefit them. They have denied to future generations the very advantages they were so freely given. As a result, Their children and their children’s children now live in a world in which anything can be outsourced; the only consideration being profit for those at the top. Competition for a piece of the ever shrinking economic pie has led most to the conclusion that, apart from a radical change in the structure of society, the American Dream is at best a distant memory.

This despair empowers dangerous dreamers — those who today bombard the airwaves with idealistic and religious propaganda that promises, through apocalyptic purification, to eradicate the old, sinful world that has failed Americans.

These Christian propagandists promise to replace this internal and external emptiness with a mythical world where time stops and all problems are solved while the mounting despair across the United States remains unaddressed. The Christian right has lured tens of millions of Americans, who feel abandoned and betrayed by the political system, from the reality-based world to one of magic, angels and miracles; a childlike belief that God will take care of everything as long as they believe as they’re told and vote as their masters dictate.

They possess a worldview that has no use for science or honest intellectual inquiry, one that promises that the loss of jobs and health insurance does not matter, as long their god is on their side. It plays on the emotions of desperate followers at the expense of reality. It creates a world where facts become interchangeable with opinions, where lies become true — the very essence of the totalitarian state. It includes a dark license to kill, to destroy  those who do not conform to this vision, from Muslims in the Middle East to those at home who refuse to submit to the movement. And it conveniently empowers its corporate supporters whose only motivation is maximum profit at the expense of ordinary citizens.

We now live in a nation where the top 1 percent control more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined, where we have legalized torture and can lock up citizens without trial.

“The great religious ages were notable for their indifference to human rights in the contemporary sense — not only for their acquiescence in poverty, inequality and oppression, but for their enthusiastic justification of slavery, persecution, torture and genocide.”

Arthur Schlesinger, “The Cycles of American History”.

The Christian Right displays disturbing similarities with the German Christian Church and the Nazi Party, similarities that will, in the event of prolonged social instability or a national crisis, see American fascists rise under the guise of religion to dismantle our open society. The leaders of the Christian right have moved from the fringes of society to the floor of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Forty-five senators and 186 members of the House before the last elections earned approval ratings of 80 to 100 percent from three of the most influential Christian right advocacy groups — the Christian Coalition, Eagle Forum, and Family Resource Council.

During his unfortunate administration, President Bush handed hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid to these groups to help dismantle federal programs in science and research and to pay homage to the pseudo-science and quackery of the Christian right.

In terms of history, Bush will probably be seen as a weak transition figure, our version of Otto von Bismarck — who also used “values” to energize his base at the end of the 19th century and launched “Kulturkampf,” the word from which we get culture wars, against Catholics and Jews. Bismarck’s attacks, which split Germany and made the discrediting of whole segments of the society an acceptable part of the civil discourse, paved the way for Nazi racism, repression and the Holocaust.

The radical Christian right, calling for a “Christian state” — where whole segments of American society, from liberals to immigrants to artists to intellectuals, will have no legitimacy and be reduced, at best, to second-class citizens — awaits a crisis, an economic meltdown, or another catastrophic terrorist strike, either inflicted or manufactured, to usher in a period of instability that will permit them to push through their radical agenda; one that will be sold to a frightened American public as a return to security and law and order, as well as moral purity and prosperity.

This movement — the most dangerous mass movement in American history — will continue to grow until the overwhelming social and economic inequities now crippling this nation are addressed; until tens of millions of Americans, now locked in low wage jobs with no reasonable hope for improvement  are reincorporated into an American society that offers a future of hope, adequate wages and job security; the ability to live as residents of the wealthiest nation in the world should, and not as residents of the third world do.

Accomplishing this will require a radical redistribution of the nation’s wealth. What remains to be seen is whether this will be accomplished voluntarily or involuntarily. I suspect the latter will be necessary. The unchecked rape of America by the super rich and corporations, interested only in thier own prosperity, which continues with the blessing of both political parties, invites not only the empowerment of the christian right, but the eventual death of the democratic process and the birth of American fascism.