Artillery shells containing “HD” (distilled sulfur mustard agent) at U.S. Pueblo Depot Activity (PUDA) chemical weapons storage facility According to Hegel, Reason realizes itself in History through the action of “great men.” However, Hegel argues that Reason does not act in a manner that seems “reasonable” on the surface. Men acting—as Freud would say unconsciously of ultimate results—bring Reason’s purposes to fruition. My starting point here is the assumption that members of the human rights community, including especially friends of Israel, have a strong interest in curbing WMD use, no matter what they think about Barack Obama. This goal has been embraced by internationalists and humanitarians at least since the League of Nations endorsed it in 1925. Has Obama—like an Hegelian “hero”—acted to further the cause of Reason, though maybe with only a limited grasp of the Cunning of History? Defenders of President Obama’s vertiginous twists and turns about curbing the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons use against its own people are making two arguments—the second, but not the first of which, may have some merit. (more…)
In a recent article written for The Tablet, Kenneth R. Timmerman said that when he traveled to Gaza, Amman, and Damascus in 1994, he kept asking Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood leaders whether they thought the Jews had a plan to dominate the world. Timmerman recounted the enthusiastic answer one Hamas leader: “Yes, indeed. I have a copy right here.” The man then pulled down from a shelf his copy of an Arabic version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Says Timmerman: “It was a response I heard again and again.” Why did that happen? How did a horrible anti-Semitic tract spread though the Muslim world? Once again, this was not a natural development; anti-Semitic hatred was cultivated by the Soviet government’s disinformation experts. In 1948, when the state of Israel was re-established, Stalin hoped to fill it with Russian Jewish agents. His plan was to use them to transform Israel into a springboard from which he would launch Soviet expansion into the Middle East. In 1948, however, Golda Meir visited Moscow, and she was enthusiastically greeted by huge groups of Russian Jews. Soon, many of these Jews were promoting the idea of a mass emigration to Israel. (more…)