The Enemy Within: Jewish Turncoats, Then And Now - Dr. IRVIN MOSKOWITZ

August 23, 1991 - Still very relevant today as it was then

ONE MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT – Dr. Irving Moskowitz

The Enemy Within: Jewish Turncoats, Then And Now

The tragedy of individual Jews siding with their people’s enemies is a phenomenon well known to anyone familiar with Jewish history. From the medieval Jewish converts to Christianity who became prominent anti-Semites, to the pro-PLO Jewish radicals of our own time, those renegades have caused untold damage to Jewish interests. It is no wonder that the verse in Isaiah, “Your destroyers shall come from among you,” is interpreted by most biblical commentators as refereeing to Jewish traitors who wreak havoc upon their people.”

Time after time throughout Jewish history, Jewish turncoats have joined forces with the enemies of the Jews and played important roles in the formulation of anti-Jewish policies. During the Spanish Inquisition, some of the fiercest Christian fanatics involved in the torture and murder of innocent Jews were former Jews who had converted to Christianity in order to escape their Jewishness and find material security in the Christian world.

In other European countries during the Middle Ages, individual “Court Jews” curried favor with the ruling authorities at the expense of the local Jewish community. In some instances, of course, Court Jews played a necessary and even valuable role as intermediary between the Jewish community and the local king. But all too often, Court Jews misused their positions to gain personal advantages, while the rest of the Jews suffered from poverty and oppressions.

Entire books have been written about the role of Jewish "Kapos," or collaborators, during the Holocaust. There can be no doubt that local Jewish leaders were in many cases forced into impossible situations by the demands of the Nazi occupiers: nobody should be quick to judge or condemn them. for in many cases they truly did their best to assist their fellow-Jews, despite the extreme circumstantiates in which they were trapped. Yet there can be no denying that some Jewish leaders went too far, becoming actual collaborators with the Nazi enemy in order to save their own skins. Ben Hecht's powerful book Perfidy (first published in 1962) told the horrifying tale of one such traitor. Rudolf Kastner, who deliberately  hid news of the gas chambers from the Hungarian Jewish community In exchange for a promise by the Nazis to spare him and a handful of his friends and relatives. After the war Kastner actually signed an affidavit on behalf of a Nazi war criminal with whom he had become friendly, resulting in the Nazi being set free by the Allies.

In this context, one cannot help but think of the role currently being played in the formulation of U.S. Middle East policy by President Bush’s handful of Jewish advisers. The Administration’s ferociously pro—Arab slant has been shaped to a large extent by Jewish turncoats like Dennis Ross, the Director of the Policy Planning for the State Department; Aaron David Miller, a senior member of the State Department’s Policy and Planning Staff, and Daniel Kurtzer, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near East and South Asian Affairs.

These Jewish Arabists operate almost entirely behind the scenes, so the Jewish community is generally unaware of the nature of their actions. But two years ago, the New York Times revealed that it was Kurtzer who, more than anyone else, had been the architect of the U.S. decision to recognize and negotiate with the terrorist PLO. This past April, a stunning expose of Bush’s Jewish henchmen, which was published in Moment magazine, detailed how Kurtzer and company have continued to push the pro-Arab line in U.S. foreign policy. The Moment article is must reading for every Jew who cares about Israel.

Kurtzer’s background will no doubt raise some eyebrows. He claims to be an Orthodox Jew, and at one time he actually served as a dean at Yeshiva University. One might think that in a view of Kurtzer’s anti-Israel activity, the Yeshiva University administration would forcefully criticize him. Instead, however, Y.U. president Norman Lamm has been quoted in the New York Times  as praising and defending Kurtzer.

Jewish turncoats who help plot the U.S. abandonment of Israel do not deserve to be praised or defended; they deserve to be condemned, forcefully and unequivocally, and made a persona non grata in the American Jewish community.

Dr. Irving Moskowitz is a Member of the Board of Governors of Americans For a Safe Israel.