The only Zionist leaders I’m aware of having any deal with the Nazis except trying to bribe them to let Jews go are the leadership of the Lehi, an extremist movement that was very much minor, and violent, fringe. Their deal was with Rommel to the tune of “we help you by subotaging the Brits in Palestine after you conquer Egypt and you leave the Jews in Palestine alone”- it was of course rendered moot after Al Alamein, and was pretty secret because the people who made it knew that if word got out their careers(and probably they) would be dead.

The mainstream Zionist leaders tried to smuggle people from Europe by any means possible, AFAIK.

Also, if we can return to the main issue of the post: you were my favorite GOH to date. Including Neil Gaiman:)

You see there are currently two main streams of zionism, the political-secular one and the religious one. Secular Zionism as initiated by Theodore Herzl uses the idea of a jewish state as a tool to end the “Jewish problem” – the problem of jews not being accepted in Europe as equals despite attempts to fit in in the later part of the 19th century. This stream decided that the best solution was to have a jewish state, but notice this is a *solution* to a problem, not an end in itself. the end was taking care of the interests of Jews, and although later the idea of self rule became more important it was always a basically secular-humanist stream with some socialist leanings.

The second stream is religious Zionism. These are the people for whom creating a Jewish state is the beginning of a process that will ultimately bring the messiah. These are the people who pushed and spearheaded the west bank settlements, and for whom the idea of a Jewish state with as much land as possible is the fulfillment of a divine promise and an end for which human lives can be sacrificed here and there. But at the time we’re talking about – WWII or thereabouts – this type of Zionism was a small minority lacking any influence.

I’m not going to try to convince you that the leaders of mid 20th century Zionism were angles. But they were also not mad. What you are claiming here (if you agree with Cynthia) is that Zionist leaders decided to sacrifice Jewish lives to advance a cause whose very aim was to save Jewish lives. That’s not just accusing those people (yet unnamed) of being thoroughly evil – this is accusing them of going against their own interests. It sounds like the kind of conspiracy theory in which president bush devised 9/11 or one of David Irving’s revisionist theories about WWII.

And yes, accusing zionist leaders of this partly redeems the leaders of the US and the UK. Not totally but it DOES remove some of the blame, which I suppose is the entire point.

Look more closely. My sister, and I are very much aware of disgusting and barbaric refusal of Roosevelt and Churchill to receive Jewish refugees; my parents actively campaigned against that policy at the time.

To conflate, as you do, the history of the collaboration of Zionist leaders with Nazis on the one hand with antisemitic filth concerning the “elders of Zion” on the other is disingenuous at best.

I don’t see you attributing any blame to the heads of the USA, UK, etc who closed their borders. Oh no – they were under the hypnotic influence of those evil elders of Zion, right?

I pity you for your deluded beliefs.

Steve, I hope you don’t believe this is true. seeing this kind of anti-semitic screed on your blog and coming from your sister is alarming.

Anyway…Ed was enraged when the stories from Nazi Europe began to come through to the US;
enraged because the Zionist leaders preferred to allow the ghettos rather than mobilize the Jews to self-defense; enraged because the US and the Zionists worked together to leave the flight to Palestine as the only option by closing immigration to the US; enraged because even the children were shepherded away to their deaths. The collusion between the Zionist leadership and the Nazis is well-documented… it served these people well to become America’s outpost in the Mideast and leave the ghettos to be moved to the death camps.

For his part, Grandpa’s solutions were personal, not political or religious. He begged by Grandma Esther to please let him bring over some Jewish children to adopt. Esther, who raised 3 sisters, a brother, and 5 children of her own (starting when her mother died when Esther was about 13)…she just said no. (Smart lady).

To my knowledge, my grandpa supported the temple, the charities, but never sent money to Israel except for once when Grandma demanded that he “plant trees in the desert.”

If I can denounce the Vatican for collaborating with Hitler, so too can I denounce the Zionists and their US puppeteers for their collaboration.

So let’s get back to the class struggle and stop confusing governments and sectarian leaders whose very aim is to split us into fragments with people living in different lands, or different neighborhoods, who are more like us than they are different.

You may have your blog back!.

Very Well Said, Scott!
Bravo…