Looking at the American Jewish attitudes toward the domestic issues and at the foreign policy of this nation, it is impossible to miss a consistent pattern of adopting an unabashedly liberal stance in the former and an aggressively conservative, pro-Israel, stance in the latter. Some observers see this combination as a sort of anomaly when it is exhibited in a single politician such as the late Barry Goldwater, for instance, but there is no mystery here. What is often believed to be an exception, is in reality the rule, characteristic of the Jewish experience in Gentile politics. No wonder that there is a clear Jewish connection between the familiar terms “neoconservatism” and “neoliberalism.”
A hundred years before Goldwater in America, there was another senior Jewish politician, in Britain, no less ambitious and controversial, but far more successful, who exhibited the same disposition. He was Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s and Britain’s Prime Minister, first in 1868 and then again, from 1874 to 1880.
Born in 1804, his whole family converted to Christianity in 1817, after his father quarreled with the elders of his synagogue, and thus opened the door for his son to enter British politics.
A very unsympathetic character, an arrogant opportunist, who married a much older woman for her money and dabbed in less than mediocre penmanship, he was, nevertheless, an extraordinary man, and his rise to statesmanship in Britain symbolizes the high point of Jewish acceptance by the Gentile world. He was one of the savviest political operatives on the world stage, manipulating events, and the political process itself, in his favor. He won a special admiration from the Queen, which was perhaps justly attributed to unabashed “Oriental flattery” on his part. But his political opponents were not that charitable. Early on in his career, this is what his detractor Daniel O’Connell said about him, in an 1835 speech: “He is a liar in actions and words. His life is a living lie. He is a disgrace to his species. England is degraded in tolerating or having upon the face of her society a miscreant of his abominable, foul, and atrocious nature. If there be harsher terms in the English language, I should use them.” Pretty strong sparks are flying around here, but perhaps, this is exactly the kind of passion, which a capable politician ought to be arousing in his opponents.
A hundred years before Goldwater in America, there was another senior Jewish politician, in Britain, no less ambitious and controversial, but far more successful, who exhibited the same disposition. He was Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s and Britain’s Prime Minister, first in 1868 and then again, from 1874 to 1880.
Born in 1804, his whole family converted to Christianity in 1817, after his father quarreled with the elders of his synagogue, and thus opened the door for his son to enter British politics.
A very unsympathetic character, an arrogant opportunist, who married a much older woman for her money and dabbed in less than mediocre penmanship, he was, nevertheless, an extraordinary man, and his rise to statesmanship in Britain symbolizes the high point of Jewish acceptance by the Gentile world. He was one of the savviest political operatives on the world stage, manipulating events, and the political process itself, in his favor. He won a special admiration from the Queen, which was perhaps justly attributed to unabashed “Oriental flattery” on his part. But his political opponents were not that charitable. Early on in his career, this is what his detractor Daniel O’Connell said about him, in an 1835 speech: “He is a liar in actions and words. His life is a living lie. He is a disgrace to his species. England is degraded in tolerating or having upon the face of her society a miscreant of his abominable, foul, and atrocious nature. If there be harsher terms in the English language, I should use them.” Pretty strong sparks are flying around here, but perhaps, this is exactly the kind of passion, which a capable politician ought to be arousing in his opponents.
Despite his family’s conversion to Christianity, Disraeli did not go the way of all those little Torquemadas, in whom such conversions would inspire a holier than thou zeal, as if they were overly anxious to validate their Christian bona fides by becoming vicious attackers of the heritage they had left behind. To his credit, Disraeli was never ashamed of his Jewish roots, but sought, with a lifetime consistency, to use his prominent position and rhetorical talent to act as a vociferous advocate for Res Judaica. Here is just one excerpt from his Speech in the House of Commons on May 25, 1854: “They are an ancient people, a famous people, an enduring people, and a people who, in the end, have generally attained their objects. I hope the Parliament may endure forever --- and sometimes I think it will;--- but I cannot help remembering that the Jews have outlived Assyrian kings, Egyptian Pharaohs, Roman Caesars, and Arabian Caliphs…”
To sum it all up, I am never impressed by any person’s political genius alone. I have no liking for political salesmen, brainwashers, and manipulators, even if they are geniuses at doing it. But if there was one admirable quality in that “abominable miscreant,” as he was called, it had to be his unswerving and undisguised loyalty to his roots. A man who is capable of such kind of loyalty to his own race, cannot be altogether lost to the human race at large.
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