Kevin MacDonald
September 25, 2013
Eugene Girin (with whom I had an exchange on VDARE over my review of Yuri Slezkine’s The Jewish Century) has a nice column on “The Evil Hypocrisy of the Jewish Establishment” in Australia. It’s a theme that we have explored often at TOO—the gap between Jewish attitudes on immigration and multiculturalism in the Diaspora and Israel. A new government policy aimed at combating illegal immigration resulted in anguished cries of public Jews on the sufferings of illegal immigrants who would be barred from Australia. Girin highlights comments of Mark Leibler, a Zionist leader who has nothing but heartfelt sympathy for non-Whites who want to come to Australia:
Down this path lie vulnerable refugees fleeing persecution and, while deserving of our empathy, they are instead left degraded and dehumanized. As a person of Jewish faith, I have long understood what racism does to people.” sobbed Mark Leibler, the chairman of Australia’s pro-Israel lobbying group “Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council”
But what about Israel’s hardline policies on illegal immigrants, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa? The Netanyahu government, on whose behalf Leibler’s outfit so vociferously lobbies, banned remittances, sealed Israel’s border with Egypt, and started deporting the troublesome migrants.
Why aren’t the same Jewish leftists who wring their hands and go into hysterics about the policies of gentile leaders are either silent about or openly sympathetic to Bibi’s policies? Why can Israel adopt admirably strict measures against mass immigration, but predominantly gentile western societies have to swing open their doors and allow their nations to be flooded by Third World invaders?
The answer is that Jews do not have a universalist, principled sense of morality—another perennial topic at TOO. It’s about what is good for the Jews. Freed from a need for moral consistency, Jews simply adopt moral postures that suit their interests, conveyed with truly breathtaking displays of empathic concern for all immigrants — except non-Jews who want to go to Israel.
Mark served for ten years as President of the Zionist Federation of Australia and for six years as the President of the United Israel Appeal of Australia. Internationally, Mark recently completed his term as Chairman of the World Board of Trustees of Keren Hayesod – United Israel Appeal, serves on the executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, and holds office as a Governor of both Tel Aviv University and the University of Haifa in Israel.