Phobic Fantasies of Exaggerated Jewish Power Distracts Attention from Vital Issues of National Interest and Brings Harm to Those Nations Who Indulge Them
Reader comment on item: Is Campus Watch Part of a Conspiracy? [On Mearsheimer-Walt and The "Israeli Lobby"]

Submitted by Sofa Sogood (United States), Feb 24, 2008 at 05:04

I wonder what exactly is the M & W definition of the anti-semitism they don't adhere to?

Could it be that they believe the old fear of fictitious, fabulous and over-reaching "Jewish Power" is not part of anti-semitism?

In their first paper they used the word "stranglehold" which they removed from the book (an editor's suggestion?)

I just started reading David Frumkin's, A Peace to End All Peace, Creating of the Modern Middle East 1914-1922. In Chapter 3 or thereabouts, among other foolish misjudgments, there's an interesting revelation of how the influence of anti-semitism and a preposterously overblown fear of a non-existent Jewish Power was extremely harmful to the British, and quite possibly to the rest of the world for a long time to come. What would the world look like today had the Turkish Empire sided with the British instead of the Germans in WW1? It's not a question that can be answered, but it evidently was a toss of the coin.

The following is from Frumkin's research

The party of the Young Turks, CUP, had gained power in the Turkish Parliament. They were seeking help and protection for their vulnerable and floundering Ottoman Empire. They approached the British first, but when they were rebuffed, and after a lot of complicated moves on all sides, they sided with the Germans.

They were rebuffed by the British Foreign Office largely because the staff of British Colonials, in particular, Ambassador Lowther and his Advisor, FitzMaurice, were just that. Colonial in the worst sense of the word. Spawned from the very narrow minded mentality of colonial representatives in those days, living like Pashas in sequestered British enclaves for many years in countries where they learned little about, and projected their prejudices and sense of superiority over, those they referred to as, the natives. The two sent a 5,000 word report to the British Foreign Office in London, wherein they came to the misinformed conclusion, that the party of the Young Turks, CUP, was [the following remarks are approximations of quotes, but quotation marks are left out because quotation marks don't transfer well from my computer to the blog] A Latin-influenced International Jewish Freemason Conspiracy. The Jew Committee of Union and Progress. The Oriental Jew is adept at manipulating occult forces, and thru it (CUP) has taken over control of the entire Ottoman Empire. Amongst the ringleaders of the Jewish Freemason Conspiracy is U.S. Ambassador Oscar Strauss [his family owned Macy's]. The Jew Hates the Russian government. England is now friendly to Russia. [Therefore] Jews are Anti-British.

They came to this conclusion because the Young Turks and their new party, CUP, which was originally formed by Turkish soldiers hiding out in Salonika (then a Macedonian port city with a large Jewish population), were given a space to meet at the Italian Freemason Lodge founded by a Jewish lawyer named Korasu.

The fact was that of 228 members of Parliament, there were a total of 4 Jews. That's right, 4 of 228 [certainly enough by M & W standards, to call it Jewish Controlled, but not by any normal way of thinking], and those Jews, including Korasu, never had any power or much influence as they were never included as part of the CUP Central Committee.

(Actually, more of what the British didn't know, was that, although prior to their empowerment, CUP had pledged Equal Rights, once they were in power, one of the main plans of The Young Turks was to implement a program of what they called, Domestic Reforms. These Domestic Reforms were to establish dominance of Turkish speaking Muslims over all others, including Arabic speakers, Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, and, of course, Jews. The Jews in Parliament, rather than Controlling anything, were very busy bending over backwards, as was and is often the case, having to prove that they were truly loyal to the State. To help prove this, they took a position against Zionism to Palestine.)

The report and other similar reports were widely accepted by British officials in London.

Because of these bigoted and ill-informed conclusions, it proved to be quite harmful to Britain. For instance

They also believed, one of two who controlled the Young Turks, was a man named Djavid, who they wrote was, A Cryptic Jew, and an, Official Manifestation of Occult Power. In fact, he was neither a Jew, nor was he in Control. Ironically, he belonged to the Pro-British faction in Parliament. But the British were so obsessed with the Jew thing, that they neglected to instead apply energy and resources to discovering what could have been very helpful to themselves.

Another fact their Judeo-centric phobias blinded them to, and from learning about, was that instead of Control by any group within CUP, much less Jewish Control, there were many factions, rivalries and intrigues. Had the British Colonials taken their heads out of those proverbial dark places, and been looking for other than Jewish conspiracies, they might have used this sort of information much to their own advantage.

As these types of ignorant beliefs in fantasized and exaggerated Jewish Power were ultimately harmful to the British and their aims, and possibly to the entire world at that WW1 period and the resulting future, and were also destructive to many other groups and nations that persisted in them, so this new infection into the U.S. dialogue of the idea of Jewish Control, The Israel lobby, accusations of Apartheid in Israel and the inevitable debates that naturallly arise as a result, etc. etc., are harmful, wasteful and distracting conversations to be having. It is they, these absurd conversations and the waste and misdirection they evoke, which is in so many ways, what is harmful to the Interests of the U.S.

Aside from the ethical and moral harm they cause, by evoking the worst elements in human nature,

First and foremost, as opposed to the M & W, and for that matter Jimmy Carter's, purported and disingenuous goals, they detract from true discussion and debate of the vitally important issues, and distract us from concentration on the discovery and dissemination of the facts necessary to come to realistic, sensible and moral conclusions which will lead us as a nation to take appropriate and necessary actions or choose to refrain from taking actions.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.