Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Remember The Warsaw Ghetto

I just got an e-mail from one of my friends at Jewcy repeating in full and providing the url for this article trashing Thanksgiving because of the destruction of the Native Americans. Let me quote a bit of this noxious screed.

After years of being constantly annoyed and often angry about the historical denial built into Thanksgiving Day, I published an essay in November 2005 suggesting we replace the feasting with fasting and create a National Day of Atonement to acknowledge the genocide of indigenous people that is central to the creation of the United States.
That is the first paragraph and you know where this is going. Let me get a little deeper in the muck and see if there is a particularly Jewish angle.
Imagine that Germany won World War II and that a Nazi regime endured for some decades, eventually giving way to a more liberal state with a softer version of German-supremacist ideology. Imagine that a century later, Germans celebrated a holiday offering a whitewashed version of German/Jewish history that ignored that holocaust and the deep anti-Semitism of the culture. Imagine that the holiday provided a welcomed time for families and friends to gather and enjoy food and conversation. Imagine that businesses, schools and government offices closed on this day.

What would we say about such a holiday? Would we not question the distortions woven into such a celebration? Would we not demand a more accurate historical account? Would we not, in fact, denounce such a holiday as grotesque?
The thing is - it was not some round up and mass slaughter of the Indians. There was fighting all the way. Initiated by both sides. It is why we used to like giving our sports teams Indian names. Fierce Warriors. Even famous American Generals. William T. Sherman. You can look up what the T stands for.

Funny thing is when the Indians stopped making war the war stopped. Indians joined the American culture. They fought in our wars. They have even written operas. Surprisingly it was about the attempted extermination of the Jews by the Germans.

In any case it looks like the Hate America Holiday Season is in full force. Columbus Day was just a start. Here is the gist of what I had to say on Columbus Day about the myth of the white man's genocide.
You know "the evil white man destroyed the noble Indians and we therefor wish to atone for the sins of our ancestors" types. Have I got news for them.

The Indians fought wars with each other all the time for territory.

The white man was just a better Indian.


So let us bring this back to the Jews. Here was my response to the person who sent the e-mail.
You know the Indians regularly fought each other for control of territory.

The Euros were just better Indians.

If only the Jews had been better Indians. Remember the Warsaw Ghetto. That is how Jews should die. Expensive, not cheap.
And I might add that had more Jews done that we might have some sports teams (besides the Maccabees) named after us. Which brought up thoughts of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership which is always good.

Then it seemed like a good idea to see if Bad Eagle had something to say on the subject. And yes he does.
I want to see change in Indian country. I'm not talking about new cars, dental work, or even Nikes. I'm talking about attitude. I'm talking about our view of ourselves in American history, and especially in our modern day.

But old AIM (Angry Indian Men) still holds the dominant and destructive image over many Indians today. Casting blame on America's past is still the easiest self-starting motivation for many Indians. They learned to protest in college, and this is still an important part of their lives. But it is a deceptive self-start. It sets forth before our young people that the media is the only goal in life. To hold a protest, to be seen, to be heard, to be in the papers, to be in TV--this is all there is to live for. This is the meaning of being Indian. What is the cost? Psychological disconnect. Negativity, a crippling outlook on life, and a penchant for strife and corruption.
I think that shows there is a big difference between the defeated like Bad Eagle and the demoralized. Note that term de-moralized. Without morals.

So let me see if I can bring this back on topic. Bad Eagle refers to a piece by I. Ahron Katz. Which made me think of a lot of things in a new light.
It started when I noticed that in the escape from Egypt, a strange thing happened. At least it seemed strange to me when I read it. Especially in the context of what I’d learned. When the Hebrews came to the Red Sea, they were confronted with a dangerous and seemingly overwhelming dilemma. The sea in front of them, and the Egyptian army coming up behind. What were they to do?

The Hebrews cried out to Moses saying that they should have stayed in Egypt, rather than dying here like this. Moses told them to stand fast and God would help them. Then something very strange happened. God said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me”?

My first thought was, “Let’s see now. God took them out with miracles. Why shouldn’t they look to Him for help now. That’s a very strange question that He was asking. What’s going on here?” I know that the accepted opinion is that God meant that they should show faith in him and plunge into the water of the sea. Of course, He did split the waters and you know what happened then. It does say “Speak to the children of Israel and tell them to journey forth. And you lift up your staff, etc.”

If we go back a few pages, we see that the children of israel left Egypt “armed”. They built cities. They were construction workers. Did you ever see a weak construction worker?

Let’s review the scenario. Six hundred thousand armed construction workers being chased by the Egyptian army. How many in the army chasing them? Let’s see what the Torah says about it. It says, “He took six hundred elite chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt with officers on them all”. It seems to me that the tenth plague, killing all of the first-born males of Egypt, must have created a significant shrinkage of the men in the army. No matter how I calculate it, I can’t imagine the Egyptians outnumbering the Hebrews. I believe that it’s probable that when God asked “Why are you crying to me?”, he was really asking why don’t you defend yourselves. For goodness sakes, I set you up with weapons and superior numbers, why don’t you stand up and fight for yourselves? But they didn’t. So He had to do it for them. But He was forced to do something to correct the problem of the slave and victim mentality that the Hebrews were afflicted
with.

I believe that forty years in the desert happened in order to accomplish the purpose of having a complete recycling of the nation of Israel. Remember that the census showed six hundred thousand men between twenty and sixty years of age. Those are the fighters that are needed to win wars. Forty years completely eliminated all of the original fighting force and replaced them with a new generation of experienced warriors, that were capable of invading and defeating the Canaanites, with God’s help, of course.

Now let’s look at the stories of Purim and Chanukah. Did you realize that when Haman was exposed to the king, the remedy was to simply decree that the Jews would be allowed to arm and defend themselves? Interesting. I also notice that most people think that the main miracle of Chanukah was that the oil lasted for eight days. But to me, the main miracle was that a small band of courageous Jews fought against overwhelming odds and numbers, and were victorious, with God’s help. That’s the real miracle.

I believe that these experiences show that God wants us to fight our own battles, and He helps us with his might and benevolence. Conversely, I believe that when we don’t do anything to help ourselves, and keep praying for, and expecting miracles, He won’t lift a finger to save us. The holocaust is an example of this.
It is not about might makes right, but right makes might. If you are willing to fight.

So how about a rousing cheer this Thanksgiving for the Indian Warriors. The Comanche, The Arapaho, The Sioux, The Cheyenne. And their great war leaders like Geronimo and Tecumseh. And the white men who brought a better civilization by eliminating all the warring over property by providing a system of secure property rights (excepting for Kelo).

Cross Posted at Classical Values

6 comments:

Pax Federatica said...

The thing is - it was not some round up and mass slaughter of the Indians. There was fighting all the way. Initiated by both sides.

Remember that it's the Left we're talking about here, and as far as they're concerned the bottom line is always the body count on the non-white/Western/Christian side. (See also the Vietnam and Iraq wars.) By this metric, "round up and mass slaughter" vs. "fighting all the way" is a distinction without a difference.

(also cross-posted at Classical Values ;)

Ron Simpson said...

I have always believed that God helps those that work hard to help themselves. Praying for God to help you attain your goal is laziness. Praying for the strength and wisdom to attain those goals yourself is the right way.

Anonymous said...

There was no genocide against the North American "natives". The plain fact is that most Indians died from exposure to European viral illnesses long before there was any military conflict. And unlike those who died of disease in Nazi camps, most Indians were infected with smallpox etc. without ever seeing a European. Where the early explorers reported fairly dense populations of native villages, by the time of Lewis & Clark, vast regions of North America were pretty much depopulated. And no, there weren't any infected blankets given out by the US Military. The Europeans raised livestock so they had viral diseases like smallpox and anthrax. The North American natives for the most part did not domesticate animals so there were no vectors for human infection.

As a Jew I have no great affection for European culture, but reality is reality and on this continent, the Europeans acted no worse than the natives.

I put "natives" in quotes because, of course, the "indigenous" people here when the Europeans arrived had themselves came in ancient times from Asia over the land bridge in the Bering Strait. Before we condemn the Europeans for their behavior with the North American natives, it should be noted that while DNA analysis of remains show that while originally North America was populated by people from a large area of Asia, the "natives" present in 1492 were all descended from Siberians. Why Siberians? Most likely because they had superior arrow and spear points.

Unknown said...

I believe that when we don’t do anything to help ourselves, and keep praying for, and expecting miracles, He won’t lift a finger to save us. The holocaust is an example of this.

no it's not. You can't reduce an enormous multinational years-long effort to exterminate a people with a much smaller population, already living in and citizens of those countries, with 2 distinct groups on a war-footing.

Anyone who can say that is doing the rightwing equivalent of Bush=Hitler. It's an equally clueless moral equivalence.

There is a reason the Warsaw Ghetto Fighters lost. They were vastly vastly outnumbered, and so would have been every Jewish community in Europe.

Unknown said...

I would also like to point out that every single concentration camp, including the women's, had uprisings and the slave labor factories had active sabotage of munitions they were making.

these were people who were starving and grossly overworked, but they rose up and did a bit of damage to the Nazi war machine.

M. Simon said...

Nothing wrong with losing.

It makes the other side think twice before starting the next fight.

What is wrong is going down without a fight.

I'm with the JPFO on this one. Acquire arms. Train with them.

The German's could not have fought even 20 Warsaw ghettos. As it was they held out longer than Poland with fewer arms and fighting men.

How many such victories as the Warsaw ghetto could the German's have afforded?