What would you say if the notorious racist and anti-semite prime minister of Hungary Victor Orban accused Einstein of … anti-semitism? And Hanna Arendt as well? Together with the most iconic author of Holocaust literature Primo Levi? Unimaginable and unrealistic? Not at all. On the contrary, that is exactly what is happening today, and – what is more – it is happening on a global scale. Moreover, such attacks do not come only from people like Orban, but from a host of distinguished racists and anti-semites who, with the blessings of a variety of political establishments, use that label to destroy their political opponents – usually left-wing anti-fascists and anti-racists !…

This is not a marginal or topical phenomenon. It is part of a real war machinery set up over the last 3-4 years by the political structures of the right, the extreme right and even of social democracy to wipe out their progressive present or future rivals. Among them Jeremy Corbyn in the UK (who in the end was exterminated), Jean-Luc Mélenchon in France (who survived but was severely ‘injured’) or Jewish American Berni Sanders in the US (who fought back and managed to scare them off thanks to the mobilization of radicalized young American Jews).

In all these cases, even the slightest criticism of Israel’s policies or the slightest support for the rights of the Palestinian people led to an all-out political and media attack on the ‘culprit’, getting close to a public lynching, accusing him of being … anti-semite! And as if that were not enough, several of the many right-wing governments of the European Union or in the United States have recently taken a further step: they have passed laws that – in the name of fighting anti-semitism – forbid or criminalize any criticism of the brutal policies of (far right) governments of Israel… Jews won’t be free until Palestinians are

And so, the fact that the only criterion for the definition of modern anti-semitism turns out to be the attitude towards Israel and its governments has led to the following tragicomic situation: We witness the various Netanyahu’s and their supporters to honour as “partners of Israel” and “strategic allies” notorious racists and anti-semites of the far right, such as the leaders of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, such as the former president of the United States Donald Trump, European politicians belonging to the far right like Salvini, Wilders and De Winter or American Evangelists and so many others, while at the same time famous anti-racists and anti-fascists – many of whom are actually … Jewish (!) – are denounced as “anti-semites”, even though they have spent most of their lifetime fighting against anti-semites such as the present “friends of Israel”.

That is why the “strategic ally” and great friend of Netanyahu and of his political descendants, the prime minister of Hungary Victor Orban, could very well accuse and bring to trial today the Jew Alberto Einstein on charges of anti-semitismm because he had dared to send the following “scandalous” open letter to the New York Times, 73 years ago:

However, the most important thing about this letter is not in the first place that public figures like Einstein (1) and Hanna Arendt call Begin and his party “fascist” – in other words they did something that would today be more than sufficient for the media to stigmatize them as … anti-semites and for the authorities of many member states of the European Union to bring them to court. The most significant and essential fact is that the dramatic warnings contained in this open letter have been fully confirmed over the last 40 years. Indeed, they continue to be confirmed every day in Israel and in the entire Middle East, with the tragic consequences we all know.

In fact, Menachem Begin, labeled in 1948 as “fascist” and “terrorist”, became prime minister of Israel 29 years later (1977!). And he managed to do so at the head of the new Likud Party, founded by him as the continuation of his earlier Herut (Freedom) Party, which Einstein and Arendt also denounced as “fascist”. But the main thing is that since then (1977) Israel is ruled by this very same Likud Party, effectively monopolizing power. After about a century (!) of permanent and often extremely violent and bloody civil conflicts among Zionists, today Likud has gained full control over the country, while the formerly powerful Labour Party, supported by the founding fathers of the State of Israel, has almost completely disappeared …

However, this does not concern only Begin, the founder and leader of the “terrorist” organization Irgun. Yitzhak Shamir, his successor as prime minister of Israel and leader of the Likud Party, had headed an even more extreme right-wing terrorist split faction of Irgun, known as the Stern Gang. This group, according to Einstein’s and Arendt’s open letter… “inaugurated”, together with Irgun, “a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community”! A “reign of terror” which cost the lives of thousands of Palestinian Arabs, but also Jews.”…

And what about the longest-serving prime minister of Israel and leader of the Likud Party, Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu ? Is he too a genuine offspring of the “fascist” womb that gave birth to Begin, Shamir and the other far-right political leaders of Israel? Although much younger, Netanyahu has a direct, and even family relationship with the most extreme and pure-blooded fascist wings – and later splits – of far-right “Revisionist” Zionism, inspired, created and led by Ze’ev Jabotinsky [1] a century ago. In fact, “Bibi”’s father, who had served as Jabotinsky’s secretary, followed Abba Ahimeir when he disagreed with Jabotinsky’s rejection of his proposal to become something like… a Jewish Mussolini, at the head of a purely fascist Zionist party [2]. A close ally of this fascist ideologue and theorist, “Bibi”’s father ran the publications of Ahimeir’s fascist organization. At that time, Ahimeir developed quite close ties with Mussolini’s fascist Italy, but never managed to do the same with Nazi Germany, although he did not hesitate to praise Hitler in 1933!

Although he never gained significant popular support, Ahimeir had a direct or indirect impact on those who shaped present-day Israel. It was not just that his cult of the most brutal violence, his irredentism and his racist theories pervaded organizations such as Menachem Begin’s Irgun. Equally important is the fact that the founder of the Stern Gang was his “spiritual child”. The same goes for its main military leader, the later prime minister of Israel, Yitzhak Shamir. And, finally, that Benzion Netanyahu was his “disciple” and close collaborator, who in turn had a profound political influence on his son, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And maybe not just on his son, but also on the son of his son, his notorious grandson Yair, known for his scandals, the anti-semitic sketches he publishes and his neo-fascist sympathies, reciprocated by German and American neo-fascists who admire him as their … “brother” and “idol”!

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For all these reasons, the warnings about the evil consequences of the ‘fascism’ and ‘terrorism’ of Begin and his party, contained in Einstein and Arendt’s open letter, remain extremely relevant 73 years after their publication. And precisely because Begin’s successors in the Likud Party and in Israel are his flesh and blood, followers of his work, disciples of his teachers and custodians of the same ideological, political but also organizational heritage, what they are doing today in Israel, the Middle East and in the entire world, as scandalous as it is, is neither the product of improvisation nor an invention of the moment. These are political choices that obey and are governed by the “logic” of a particularly dangerous political current, that of the far-right Revisionism of the Zionist movement, that originated already a century ago…

Do we have to consider then as surprising and “abnormal” these “strategical alliances” and the flirting of Netanyahu and his friends with the international riff-raff of sworn anti-communists and racists, who “by chance” are also sworn anti-semites? Not at all. Their first teacher was none other than the father and theorist of Zionist Revisionism, Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Motivated by his pathological hatred of the Russian Revolution, Jabotinsky even allied himself in 1922 with the Ukranian anti-communist and nationalist war-lord Symon Petliura, whose army carried out between 1917 and 1922… 897 anti-Jewish progroms, in which at least 30,000 Ukrainian Jews were massacred! After all, the same pathological brand of anti-communism pushed Jabotinsky’s followers and successors to flirt, or even at times to ally with Mussolini, or even with Hitler. Their motivations are updated today by Yair Netanyahu, the notorious prime minister’s son, when he stated “I prefer a thousand times Neo-Nazis over the leftwing Antifa’s or the activists of Black Lives Matter”…

The same goes obviously for the glorification of the most brutal violence or the deeply racist hatred for the Palestinians, nurtured by Israeli leaders over the last decades. Again, they do not “invent” something new. Let’s just remember that these lessons were first preached by the organizations where they came from and in which they continue to take pride: the terrorist and fascist-like organizations Betar, Irgun and Stern. There is, however, an important difference between yesterday and today: Back then, Jabotinsky, Ahimeir, Begin and Shamir were not at all “presentable” and the international political establishment avoided their company, if it did not openly disavow them. In other words, they were disreputable…

Today, the situation is completely different. The disreputable “fascists” and “terrorists” of 1948 have been converted not only into entirely presentable “friends” and allies, but – increasingly so – into privileged strategical partners of those who rule the world, into the pillars of their empires! And worst of all, yesterday’s “fascists” and “terrorists” are today able to impose their authoritarian and undemocratic choices on the majority of western governments and countries!

We will end this text as it began: with Einstein and his warnings. A few days after the massacre of Deir Yassin, those who represented in the US the organizations that perpetrated the massacre, had the brilliant idea to ask Einstein for his support. The answer given by the famous Jewish scientist, which remains – unfortunately – almost unknown, was rather laconic, barely 50 words:

Unfortunately, it seems clear that Einstein was right again. With the British now a remote memory, it is indeed true that the descendants of the “terrorist organizations” of 1948 are leading Israel, which is ruled by them, with mathematical precision towards the “final destruction”. A country that may today seem more powerful and arrogant than ever but is in fact living through the worst existential crisis of its history, as it is rotting and disintegrating from the inside. The countdown has already begun and the hour of truth is approaching…