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Why Ken Livingstone has it so wrong over Hitler and Zionism Why Ken Livingstone has it so wrong over Hitler and Zionism
(about 2 hours later)
So … Ken … A lot of people – predominantly the good people, of course, of the British left – have been tweeting to tell me that Ken just “stated a fact”. Here is the problem with what Livingstone said. Because Ken Livingstone did not state a fact.So … Ken … A lot of people – predominantly the good people, of course, of the British left – have been tweeting to tell me that Ken just “stated a fact”. Here is the problem with what Livingstone said. Because Ken Livingstone did not state a fact.
The statement “Hitler supported Zionism” is not a fact. It’s an interpretation. An interpretation of a particular historical moment, in the 1930s, when the forced emigration of Jews from Germany was pushed further along by various Nazi economic incentives allowing those who fled to Palestine to get some of their stolen assets back.The statement “Hitler supported Zionism” is not a fact. It’s an interpretation. An interpretation of a particular historical moment, in the 1930s, when the forced emigration of Jews from Germany was pushed further along by various Nazi economic incentives allowing those who fled to Palestine to get some of their stolen assets back.
That is not Adolf Hitler supporting the idea of a Jewish state (even writing that sentence looks ridiculous). It is the Nazis taking advantage of the terror and despair of fleeing refugees to get more of them to leave the country. It is just the thin edge of the wedge of Nazi horror.That is not Adolf Hitler supporting the idea of a Jewish state (even writing that sentence looks ridiculous). It is the Nazis taking advantage of the terror and despair of fleeing refugees to get more of them to leave the country. It is just the thin edge of the wedge of Nazi horror.
The real problem, in a way, is the tone of Livingstone when giving this interpretation. There’s no sympathy. No compassion – no sense of the tragedy behind this. It’s just complacently presented as a deal that Hitler made with German Zionists, and therefore – and this, of course, is the point, the banal, shit point – a way of confirming that Zionism is bad. Through an association with the top bad thing, Hitler.The real problem, in a way, is the tone of Livingstone when giving this interpretation. There’s no sympathy. No compassion – no sense of the tragedy behind this. It’s just complacently presented as a deal that Hitler made with German Zionists, and therefore – and this, of course, is the point, the banal, shit point – a way of confirming that Zionism is bad. Through an association with the top bad thing, Hitler.
What’s weird here is I am not, as some of you may know, a Zionist. I’m an atheist and I don’t hold with religion being the basis for statehood. And obviously – as all Jews have to say now when talking about this subject – I do not support the appalling actions of the present Israeli government.What’s weird here is I am not, as some of you may know, a Zionist. I’m an atheist and I don’t hold with religion being the basis for statehood. And obviously – as all Jews have to say now when talking about this subject – I do not support the appalling actions of the present Israeli government.
Mainly, though, I don’t care that much about Israel. I think, in fact, that it is antisemitic to assume that I have to care, or think about, or have a position on Israel – a country that, in the words of Morrissey, says nothing to me about my life. I don’t even think it’s a very Jewish place. In my film The Infidel, a character describing various types of Jews says: “And then Israelis – Jews without angst, without guilt – so not really Jews at all.”Mainly, though, I don’t care that much about Israel. I think, in fact, that it is antisemitic to assume that I have to care, or think about, or have a position on Israel – a country that, in the words of Morrissey, says nothing to me about my life. I don’t even think it’s a very Jewish place. In my film The Infidel, a character describing various types of Jews says: “And then Israelis – Jews without angst, without guilt – so not really Jews at all.”
But: I do care about antisemitism. And the problem is that an awful lot of antisemites – often unconsciously – do conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism. Indeed, they often just conflate Israelis with Jews. Yesterday on Twitter, a chap called Kenard told me: “Ken is an irrelevance with little influence, unlike a large number of Israeli’s [sic] who dominate the media and have done for decades.”But: I do care about antisemitism. And the problem is that an awful lot of antisemites – often unconsciously – do conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism. Indeed, they often just conflate Israelis with Jews. Yesterday on Twitter, a chap called Kenard told me: “Ken is an irrelevance with little influence, unlike a large number of Israeli’s [sic] who dominate the media and have done for decades.”
It seems clear what Kenard really wants to say: Jews. But because he has a vague awareness that isn’t allowed any more, he just substitutes the word Israelis. Or Israeli’s, because he doesn’t understand grammar as well as racism.It seems clear what Kenard really wants to say: Jews. But because he has a vague awareness that isn’t allowed any more, he just substitutes the word Israelis. Or Israeli’s, because he doesn’t understand grammar as well as racism.
So that’s the problem with Livingstone’s statement. The interchangeability of Zionist with the word Jew means that in saying “Zionism is bad”, which is what Livingstone wants to do, he emboldens Kenard, and all those like him. And, of course, he also – as I have said many times – reveals that sense that runs deep in the left, that the Jews don’t quite fit into the category of The Oppressed, and so therefore don’t deserve the same protections and sympathy as other minorities in the face of racism against them. Livingstone himself has said this in the creepingly insinuating comment that antisemitism and racism are “not exactly the same thing”.So that’s the problem with Livingstone’s statement. The interchangeability of Zionist with the word Jew means that in saying “Zionism is bad”, which is what Livingstone wants to do, he emboldens Kenard, and all those like him. And, of course, he also – as I have said many times – reveals that sense that runs deep in the left, that the Jews don’t quite fit into the category of The Oppressed, and so therefore don’t deserve the same protections and sympathy as other minorities in the face of racism against them. Livingstone himself has said this in the creepingly insinuating comment that antisemitism and racism are “not exactly the same thing”.
I’ll leave with the words of Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf, before he went mad, according to Livingstone. So exactly in that period when he was, as we know, supporting Zionism. I may have as much of a tin ear for meaning as Livingstone has for antisemitism, but I can’t, for the life of me, make this out to be as pro the idea of the creation of a Jewish state as Livingstone insists it is: “While the Zionists try to make the rest of the World believe that the national consciousness of the Jew finds its satisfaction in the creation of a Palestinian state, the Jews again slyly dupe the dumb Goyim. It doesn’t even enter their heads to build up a Jewish state in Palestine for the purpose of living there; all they want is a central organisation for their international world swindler, endowed with its own sovereign rights and removed from the intervention of other states: a haven for convicted scoundrels and a university for budding crooks.”I’ll leave with the words of Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf, before he went mad, according to Livingstone. So exactly in that period when he was, as we know, supporting Zionism. I may have as much of a tin ear for meaning as Livingstone has for antisemitism, but I can’t, for the life of me, make this out to be as pro the idea of the creation of a Jewish state as Livingstone insists it is: “While the Zionists try to make the rest of the World believe that the national consciousness of the Jew finds its satisfaction in the creation of a Palestinian state, the Jews again slyly dupe the dumb Goyim. It doesn’t even enter their heads to build up a Jewish state in Palestine for the purpose of living there; all they want is a central organisation for their international world swindler, endowed with its own sovereign rights and removed from the intervention of other states: a haven for convicted scoundrels and a university for budding crooks.”
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