First of two parts.
Dateline Jerusalem –– Deja vu? Exactly four years and one week ago, I attended an international symposium at the International School for Holocaust Studies at the world’s most famous Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem. The topic was “The Bergson Group and America’s Response to The Final Solution.” Among the panel’s distinguished speakers were David S. Wyman and Dr. Rafael Medoff of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies in Washington, D. C., Moshe Arens, former Defense Minister and former Foreign Minister of Israel, and Mr. Bergson’s daughter Dr. Rebecca Kook. Hillel Kook was also known as Peter Bergson, after whom the Bergson Group was named. The information I gleaned from that conference, books, documents, and my further research on the topic immediately came to mind in relation to the recent Iran deal. The similarities between President Roosevelt and President Obama, the State Dept., and the Jewish community activists in the 1940s and today are striking. I c hope that history does not repeat itself.
After first claiming it was unaware of the plight of European Jews, the FDR administration contended the rescue of European Jews during the Holocaust was impossible. Not enough ships to bring refugees, they said. Yet the Allies found enough ships to take tens of thousands of non-Jewish Polish refugees to Iran, Uganda and Mexico. Rescue of art stolen by the Nazis was also more important. Mr. Roosevelt’s Mideast envoy, Harold Hoskins, advised that “Zionist propaganda” publicizing the Nazi genocide be censored. Mr. Roosevelt’s Secretary of State, Cordell Hull ,recommended tight immigration restrictions against allowing European Jews entry to the U.S. When the captain of the German ocean liner MS St Louis in 1939 tried to bring 915 Jewish refugees to safety, the U.S. denied their entry. They returned to Europe only to be slaughtered.
Although there were reports of genocide at the beginning of World War II, the Roosevelt administration contacted influential American Jews to downplay the information and discredit those reporting it, such as Peter Bergson. Some of FDR’s Jewish supporters, such as Reform Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and the American Jewish Committee, demanded Peter Bergson and the Bergson Group be jailed and/or be deported. FDR had them investigated by the FBI and the IRS. An internal FBI memo obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed that they were followed, their phone conversations eavesdropped on, their mail opened, documents stolen from their office, and their trash confiscated in an attempt prove criminal activity. Yet, no crimes or improprieties ever were found. Their only “crime” was to go against the FDR administration and bring the plight of the genocide of European Jews out in the open.
Deja vu? According to a recent Medoff article, President Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry warned in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations that Israel will be “blamed” if Congress votes against the Iran deal. He even hinted that the Obama administration would be doing the blaming. Hinting was unnecessary. Mr. Obama himself already blamed Israel supporters in the U.S. when he warned that “lobbyists” (AIPAC) and “money” were trying to block the Iran deal. Just as during the FDR era that he used Jews to go after Mr. Bergson, Mr. Obama’s staunch Jewish supporters and the administration’s mouthpiece, left-wing J Street, also goes after Jewish organizations and charities. J Street lobbied the Treasury Dept. to revoke the tax exempt status of some of these organizations and charities. J Street claims to be “pro-Israel, pro-peace.” It is anything but. J Street continually supports pro-Palestinian causes, opposes and lobbies against any sanctions against Iran even when they were first proposed, but supports U.N. sanctions against Israel, and echoes everything coming from the White House.
According to the Obama administration, the majority of American Jews are in favor of the Iran deal. The White House often cites J Street. It is interesting to note that J Street did not exist until a few months before Mr. Obama ran for President. Yet, the vast majority of the pro-Israel community, both Jews and gentiles, the mainstream of the Republican party, and AIPAC, the true representative of American Jews for over 50 years, see the danger in the Iran deal. Lberal Democrats such as Alan Dershowitz and Sen. Robert Menendez are against the deal. It is a bad move that endangers Israel and the world.
(To be continued)
L’hitraot, Shachar