Nahum Goldmann's reflections on the issues he was most concerned about and about certain international personalities he had met in his attempt to save Jews from oppression and fort the creation of the Jewish state were first published in France in 1976 (Le Paradoxe Juif). The English version followed only two years later. It's worthwhile reading this book, written by one of the most influential Jewish and Zionist leaders even after so many years.
Goldmann defines himself as a revolutionary, a man of the Left, someone who wants to abolish states altogether, including the Israeli state he helped to establish (his first most important achievement). He sees as his second major achievement to have helped to make the German government under the first Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, to agree on reparations to the Jewish people, which altogether amounted to 80 billion deutsch marks. That was an extraordinary sum for the time, considering that Germany was still poor after WWII. 80 billion DM was about 50 billion dollars at the time. Since then 40 years passed by and today this sum would be equal to about a quarter trillion. The money went to persons who individually suffered from the Nazis as pensions and to the Jewish state. Goldmann states that Israel financed half its infrastructure with that money, all the trains, the electrical installations, and a great deal of Israel's industry. Austria paid about 90 million, East Germany nothing.
With regard to the creation of Israel Goldmann is very blunt. He describes how important it was that President Truman had to be convinced to support the partition of Palestine (under Roosevelt it would not have happened) and to overcome the obstacles in his own administration, in particular coming from the State Department, but he also states matter of factly that "without Russia the State of Israel would not exist today". All of Israel's arms were of Communist origin. Goldmann cites Ben Gurion who told reporters "it is a lot more thanks to the USSR than to the United States" that he can receive them in a Jewish state and he continued: "We didn't get a single rifle from America during our war of independence."
Goldmann describes a lot of the people he encountered during his official role as representative of World Jewry and of the Zionists. For example, President Johnson was according to him "a neurotic", Nixon "a crook". He also reveals his philosophy towards democracy. Masses are "stupid" he thinks, following in this respect the French sociologist Gustave Le Bon (The Psychology of Crowds). He rather believes in the responsibilities of individuals.
Interestingly enough Goldmann referred to an idea Moshe Dayan had propagated, not to grant citizenship to people under Israel's jurisdiction in occupied territories. Goldmann associates this method with "South Africa as a model". He doesn't use the word apartheid but obviously he meant it. Other controversial statements relate to the establishment of Israel. For example he cites Ben Gurion with the remark about the Arabs that "we have taken their country" and Goldmann himself thinks so as well. However he disagrees with Ben Gurion's description of the Arabs as "barbarians" who cannot be dealt with except by force.
Two important subjects are missing in Goldmann's account: Women and jihad. The only woman he mentions is Golda Meir, who was, according to Ben Gurion "the only man in my cabinet", and the religious aspect in the Arab's policies he does not discuss at all. That's a contradiction in his own approach. On hand he rejects Marxism as an ideology too much focused on economic affairs and disregarding cultural and ideological aspects, on the other hand he treats Israel's Arab adversaries as if they were acting the same way as any other people. It still has to be seen whether his judgement will hold.
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- Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2015
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- A.V.T.Reviewed in Spain on October 30, 2016
Excellent must read, behind the curtains of the first half of the 20th century's Jewish World
