During his inaugural address on January 20, 2017, Donald Trump elicited significant pushback and raised many eyebrows when he proclaimed that: "From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this moment on, it's going to be 'America First.' " Analysts wondered out loud if he intended to roll out a new period of isolationism, non-interventionism or economic nationalism. Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote that Trump's inaugural "radically redefined the American national interest as understood since World War II." Instead of exercising global leadership, the United States was now opting for "insularity and smallness." Conservative journalist Bill Kristol, founder and Editor-at Large of the Weekly Standard, lamented: "I'll be embarrassedly old fashioned here: it is profoundly depressing and vulgar to hear an American president proclaim 'America First.' "
It is questionable whether President Trump really understood what he proclaimed on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol that afternoon. According to a corroborated report published by the Wall Street Journal, his speech was written by chief strategist Steve Bannon and senior advisor Stephen Miller, both of whom have long been associated with Breitbart and the white supremacist movement. They knew very well that "America First" historically stood for the "America First Committee," which was founded at Yale Law School in 1940. It was the foremost non-interventionist pressure group against American entry into WWII, and was characterized by anti-Semitic and pro-Fascist rhetoric. Membership peaked at 800,000 paying members in 450 chapters, and counted people like Charles Lindbergh, Walt Disney and Frank Lloyd Wright among its most prominent members. It was dissolved on December 10, 1941, three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor had brought the war to America. Professor Eric Rauchway of the history department at U.C. Davis summarized the "America First" concept as: A white America, living behind higher walls and screens, lashing out to prove its strength and then retreating again - not a government suspiciously tolerant of foreign threats." (Eric Rauchway, "President Trump's 'America First' slogan was popularized by Nazi sympathizers," Washington Post, Jan. 20, 2017.)
Many who considered the use of this slogan, including, I suspect, Trump himself, may have understood it to refer to some measure of isolationism, a policy or doctrine of trying to isolate one's country from the affairs of other nations by declining to enter into alliances, foreign economic commitments, international agreements, and generally attempting to make one's economy self reliant. In its purest form, isolationism is a nation's total retreat from the world stage, something we attempted at various time throughout our history, dating back to the Founders. Our Founding Fathers saw America's geographical separation from Europe as an ideal opportunity to cultivate the new nation in solitude. George Washington suggested that: "Our detached and distant situation [from Europe] invites and enables us to pursue a different course. Thomas Jefferson warned against "entangling alliances." ("A brief history of American isolationism," The Week, June 5, 2016.)
Following the explosion of the battleship USS Maine in the harbor of Havana on February 15, 1898, which killed 260 U.S. sailors, President McKinley ended isolationism by declaring war on Spain. It was revived after the U.S. suffered 116,516 deaths and 320,000 sick and wounded during WWI. Our Senate voted 49-35 against joining The League of Nations, the international organization, substantially conceived by President Woodrow Wilson after the end of WWI to provide a forum for resolving international disputes, and pursued economic issues throughout the 1930's, ignoring the ascend of militaristic dictatorships in Europe and Japan. When war broke out with the invasion of the Sudetenland in 1938 and Poland in 1939, the isolationist Congress kept us out, and the war gave rise to the previously discussed "America First Committee."
Non-interventionism and isolationism, even though distinct, are frequently conceptually confused, while economic nationalism, or protectionism, is often seen as a subset of isolationism. Mr. Trump's expressed proclivity to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel, under the guise of national security and "America First," seems to underscore his confusion as well. The last time this country pursued a significant protectionist policy was during the Hoover administration when the president signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, with tariffs on over 20,000 goods, which exacerbated the Great Depression, and led to retaliatory actions by other nations.
The jury is still out on Trump's protectionist inclinations - the Washington Post calls him a "novice protectionist" - however, it would be a stretch, and it would give the administration too much credit, to connect the president's I augural proclamation to significant policy prescriptions. " Ordering punitive strikes against a regime that murders its own citizens while posing no threat to the United States, as Trump did it Syria, is not isolationism." Nor is it non-interventionism. His intent to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, his threats against North Korea, and his views on the viability of NATO do not suggest disengagement. (Andrew Bacevich, "Saving 'America First,' What Responsible Nationalism Looks Like," Foreign Affairs, Sept/Oct, 2017). "Policy" refers to a set of ideas or plans that is used as basis for making decisions. Mr. Trump displays a chaotic mindset, unfocused on recognizable policy principles, which has already negatively affected our global leadership position. Given the administration's behavior during the past 14 months, "America First" appears to simply have been an ill-informed impulse, a slogan co-opted by speech writers expressing their personal political agenda.
Friday, March 23, 2018
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
ANTI SEMITISM PROLIFERATES AS NATIVISM FLOURISHES
A few months ago I reread Leon Uris' harrowing tale "Mila 18," a historical
novel set in German occupied Warsaw, Poland, before and during World War II. This impressive work covered the Nazi Occupation of Poland, and the atrocity of systematically dehumanizing and eliminating the Jewish population of Poland.
The story concentrates on Jewish resistance fighters in the Warsaw ghetto, and, in graphic detail, describes the gradual decimation of a cultural force which once encompassed the largest concentration of Jews in Europe. Prior to the Holocaust, Poland boasted 3.3. million Polish Jews - about 10% of the population. During World War II 20% of the Polish population perished - half of them were 3 million Polish Jews. Many were killed during the ghetto uprising and ongoing pogroms executed by Nazis and Polish collaborators. (Some historians estimated that as many as 200,000 Polish Jews were killed by fellow Poles.) Most were murdered in any of the 6 German extermination camps the Nazis built in Poland. These included the notorious Auschwitz, Birkenau an Treblinka facilities designed and built exclusively to kill prisoners on a massive scale immediately upon arrival. Slightly more than 300,000 Polish Jew survived the war. Most of these fled the country afterwards, many to Israel. Today the Jewish community in Poland has shrunk to 10,000.
Given this horrific history, which effectively continued during the immediate post WWII Soviet occupation, and which, to be fair, also affected much of the gentile population, one would expect the remaining population to minimize its expressions of intolerance and bias. As in several other affected countries, Nazi ideologies and symbols did become illegal. However, recently, after newly arisen right-wing populist and nativist parties began filling the political void created by the growing unpopularity of traditional, mostly centrist, organizations, the strength of these regulations diminished. In Poland this trend started with the arrival of the "Law and Justice Party," found in 2001, and gaining political dominance in 2005. Led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski and supported by President Andrzej Duda , "Law an Justice," claiming absolute majorities in the Polish Parliament, seized control of public media and the courts, and gradually began assuming authoritarian rule. Fueled by Europe's migration crisis and economic problems, and endorsed by growing numbers of the, often young, unemployed or underemployed of an increasingly disaffected segment of the population. Like what happened in much of Europe, Poland's traditional, moderating, center-left labor parties lost public supports and influence. Many of its positions were co-opted and tweaked by the dominant party. The result has been that we now begin to see "Charleston-like" white supremacist led marches and demonstrations in support of the current government, ostensibly showing anti-immigrant, and increasingly anti-Semitic content. While the initial focus of this nativist noise centered on hatred of mostly Muslim migrants, an expression of Islamophobia, anti-Semitic Muslim migrants paradoxically, in an ideological sense, joined forces with anti-Jewish nativist groups, thereby intensifying the impact on the Jewish population. To Polish youth groups clamoring for a "return" to a white-Catholic Poland, this incongruity has grown into an uncomfortable marriage of convenience, ultimately making Jews susceptible to attacks from an even larger segment of the population.
Anti-Jewish sentiment in Poland and other European countries gradually proliferated. As the European migration crisis escalated, right-wing nativist movements grew in popularity and influence, facilitating sympathetic governments' ability to enact policies supporting their political slant. Poland's "Law and Justice Party" recently adopted a new anti-defamation law, which makes it a crime for anyone , in any part of the world, to accuse the "Polish nation" of complicity in Nazi war crimes. In other words, it asserted that, by law, Poland was not complicit in the Holocaust, a denial which had no impact on popular attitudes towards its Jewish population. A study produced by the University of Warsaw reported a sharp increase in negative attitudes and acceptance of hate speech towards Jews. Approximately 56% of people interviewed said they di not want a Jewish person in their family, 32% did not want Jewish neighbors, and 24% of younger Poles admitted to making anti-Semitic remarks.
In Germany where, only four years after its founding, the anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, "Alternative for Germany" (AFD) party, recently became the third largest political party in parliament, 62% of Jewish survey respondents reported that they experienced anti-Semitism in their everyday life. A Berlin Imam, Abu Bilal Ismail, reportedly called on Allah to "destroy the Zionist Jews - count them and kill them all," and a segment of AFD party members is actively pushing to have Nazi soldiers remembered as patriots. (Austin Davis, "Germany's rising anti-Semitism haunts Jews," USA Today, Dec. 22, 2017). In France, which houses 475,000 Jews and around 5 million, pro-Palestinian, Muslims, synagogues are being attacked, kosher supermarkets smashed and looted, and crowds are chanting "death to Jews,' and "slit Jews throats." (Marie Brenner, "The troubling question in the Jewish community: Is it time to leave?" Vanity Fair, July 8, 2015). In Italy racist and anti-Semitic incidents increased more than ten-fold between 2012 and 2016. This activity played an unprecedented role in its most recent lection during which hard-right populists won better than 50% of the vote.
Last year, in the U.S., the Anti-Defamation League reported a 57% surge in anti-Semitic incidents, totaling 1,986, up from 1,267 in 2016. his was the single largest one year spike since 1979. according to ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt "this alarming increase appears to be fueled by emboldened far-right extremists, as well as the divisive state of our national discourse." According to Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, Executive Vice President of the New York Board of Rabbis: "It is not a big deal to hate Jews. The first group that gets attacked is the Jews."
As far-right nativists and populists increasingly assume political control in country after country, as they already have in Poland, Hungary, Austria, and potentially in Germany and Italy, anti-Semitic rhetoric is bound to proliferate. Eric Goldstein, CEO of the UJA Federation of New York, in an interview with The Times o Israel, sent us a succinct warning: "The world is witnessing an alarming rise in acts of anti-Semitism, and we must do all we can to respond to this growing threat. History has shown us the ramifications of silence." We all need to remember what happened when another populist movement gradually replaced the Weimar Republic in Germany.
Yes, it can happen again!
novel set in German occupied Warsaw, Poland, before and during World War II. This impressive work covered the Nazi Occupation of Poland, and the atrocity of systematically dehumanizing and eliminating the Jewish population of Poland.
The story concentrates on Jewish resistance fighters in the Warsaw ghetto, and, in graphic detail, describes the gradual decimation of a cultural force which once encompassed the largest concentration of Jews in Europe. Prior to the Holocaust, Poland boasted 3.3. million Polish Jews - about 10% of the population. During World War II 20% of the Polish population perished - half of them were 3 million Polish Jews. Many were killed during the ghetto uprising and ongoing pogroms executed by Nazis and Polish collaborators. (Some historians estimated that as many as 200,000 Polish Jews were killed by fellow Poles.) Most were murdered in any of the 6 German extermination camps the Nazis built in Poland. These included the notorious Auschwitz, Birkenau an Treblinka facilities designed and built exclusively to kill prisoners on a massive scale immediately upon arrival. Slightly more than 300,000 Polish Jew survived the war. Most of these fled the country afterwards, many to Israel. Today the Jewish community in Poland has shrunk to 10,000.
Given this horrific history, which effectively continued during the immediate post WWII Soviet occupation, and which, to be fair, also affected much of the gentile population, one would expect the remaining population to minimize its expressions of intolerance and bias. As in several other affected countries, Nazi ideologies and symbols did become illegal. However, recently, after newly arisen right-wing populist and nativist parties began filling the political void created by the growing unpopularity of traditional, mostly centrist, organizations, the strength of these regulations diminished. In Poland this trend started with the arrival of the "Law and Justice Party," found in 2001, and gaining political dominance in 2005. Led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski and supported by President Andrzej Duda , "Law an Justice," claiming absolute majorities in the Polish Parliament, seized control of public media and the courts, and gradually began assuming authoritarian rule. Fueled by Europe's migration crisis and economic problems, and endorsed by growing numbers of the, often young, unemployed or underemployed of an increasingly disaffected segment of the population. Like what happened in much of Europe, Poland's traditional, moderating, center-left labor parties lost public supports and influence. Many of its positions were co-opted and tweaked by the dominant party. The result has been that we now begin to see "Charleston-like" white supremacist led marches and demonstrations in support of the current government, ostensibly showing anti-immigrant, and increasingly anti-Semitic content. While the initial focus of this nativist noise centered on hatred of mostly Muslim migrants, an expression of Islamophobia, anti-Semitic Muslim migrants paradoxically, in an ideological sense, joined forces with anti-Jewish nativist groups, thereby intensifying the impact on the Jewish population. To Polish youth groups clamoring for a "return" to a white-Catholic Poland, this incongruity has grown into an uncomfortable marriage of convenience, ultimately making Jews susceptible to attacks from an even larger segment of the population.
Anti-Jewish sentiment in Poland and other European countries gradually proliferated. As the European migration crisis escalated, right-wing nativist movements grew in popularity and influence, facilitating sympathetic governments' ability to enact policies supporting their political slant. Poland's "Law and Justice Party" recently adopted a new anti-defamation law, which makes it a crime for anyone , in any part of the world, to accuse the "Polish nation" of complicity in Nazi war crimes. In other words, it asserted that, by law, Poland was not complicit in the Holocaust, a denial which had no impact on popular attitudes towards its Jewish population. A study produced by the University of Warsaw reported a sharp increase in negative attitudes and acceptance of hate speech towards Jews. Approximately 56% of people interviewed said they di not want a Jewish person in their family, 32% did not want Jewish neighbors, and 24% of younger Poles admitted to making anti-Semitic remarks.
In Germany where, only four years after its founding, the anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, "Alternative for Germany" (AFD) party, recently became the third largest political party in parliament, 62% of Jewish survey respondents reported that they experienced anti-Semitism in their everyday life. A Berlin Imam, Abu Bilal Ismail, reportedly called on Allah to "destroy the Zionist Jews - count them and kill them all," and a segment of AFD party members is actively pushing to have Nazi soldiers remembered as patriots. (Austin Davis, "Germany's rising anti-Semitism haunts Jews," USA Today, Dec. 22, 2017). In France, which houses 475,000 Jews and around 5 million, pro-Palestinian, Muslims, synagogues are being attacked, kosher supermarkets smashed and looted, and crowds are chanting "death to Jews,' and "slit Jews throats." (Marie Brenner, "The troubling question in the Jewish community: Is it time to leave?" Vanity Fair, July 8, 2015). In Italy racist and anti-Semitic incidents increased more than ten-fold between 2012 and 2016. This activity played an unprecedented role in its most recent lection during which hard-right populists won better than 50% of the vote.
Last year, in the U.S., the Anti-Defamation League reported a 57% surge in anti-Semitic incidents, totaling 1,986, up from 1,267 in 2016. his was the single largest one year spike since 1979. according to ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt "this alarming increase appears to be fueled by emboldened far-right extremists, as well as the divisive state of our national discourse." According to Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, Executive Vice President of the New York Board of Rabbis: "It is not a big deal to hate Jews. The first group that gets attacked is the Jews."
As far-right nativists and populists increasingly assume political control in country after country, as they already have in Poland, Hungary, Austria, and potentially in Germany and Italy, anti-Semitic rhetoric is bound to proliferate. Eric Goldstein, CEO of the UJA Federation of New York, in an interview with The Times o Israel, sent us a succinct warning: "The world is witnessing an alarming rise in acts of anti-Semitism, and we must do all we can to respond to this growing threat. History has shown us the ramifications of silence." We all need to remember what happened when another populist movement gradually replaced the Weimar Republic in Germany.
Yes, it can happen again!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)