The Fascist – Nazi grievances against Jews have at last been stated in a comprehensive formula. Representing, as it does, a compromise between mild Jew-haters of the Italian model and rabid Jew-haters of the German ilk, it may be accepted as the highest common denominator of political anti-Semitism.
That is the only contribution to clarity made by an international. Fascist conclave in Montreux, Switzerland, otherwise distinguished for its muddy thinking and grotesque pretensions.
The discussions which preceded the acceptance of a united-front formula on the Jewish question by all Fascist rulers and pretenders were significant. They revealed a unanimity of emotion, but a curious divergency of reasons for such emotion. From the Rumanian fire-eaters at one end to the Irish and Italian at the other, they agreed in their cordial dislike of the Jews. But they could not agree how much they disliked us, or why they disliked us; and, of course, what to do about it.
FOCUS ON LEFT WING
Indeed, there was some hesitancy whether to concentrate on the menace of Jewish bankers and big capitalists, or the menace of Jewish radicals and Communists. The compromise formula includes both, with the emphasis on the Left threat, since it is more vulnerable than the financially well-heeled Right menace.
The sum total of those discussions, as reflected in the splendid dispatches of John T. Whitaker of the New York Herald Tribune and other unbiased correspondents, was that there were approximately as many views on the Jewish question as there were delegates. The logical deduction from the hectic demands and hysterical accusations is that anti-Semitism for those men of tinted shirts is neither a conviction nor a faith. It is a phobia.
Whatever the reasons and the charges and the statistics shouted by Nazi or Fascist, they are no more than afterthoughts. First came the madness, racing through their blood and raving through their tongues, then came the gibberish of chaotic rationalization.
MUST BE RESTRAINED
Arguing with madmen is futile. Appealing to the sense of justice or the sense of logic of maniacs like Jan Motza is a waste of breath. They must be somehow forcibly restrained by the portion of the world that is still sane. Whatever the straitjacket may be, a world commercial boycott or anything else, a straitjacket is the only possible reply.
The formula on which the Nazi conference agreed reads thus:
“Considering that in many places certain groups of Jews are installed in conquered countries, exercising in an open and occult manner an influence injurious to the material and moral interests of the country which harbors them, constituting a sort of state within a state, profiting by all benefits and refusing all duties; considering that they have furnished, and are inclined to furnish, elements conducive to international revolution which would be destructive to the idea of patriotism and Christian civilization, the conference denounces the nefarious action of
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
