15A017 Bibi the Tiller by Jim Davies, 3/6/2015    

The big mistake Jews made was to set themselves up with a State.

After WW-II they had the world's deep sympathy, for the horrors inflicted on several million of them in the death camps of the German government. I read that one of the survivors, Elie Wiesel, was in the gallery of Congress on March 3rd, when "Bibi" Netanyahu spoke to the critters there gathered; I think he too made a mistake. Hunting down the Nazi exterminators and bringing them to justice is one thing; trying to influence one State to act in favor of another is quite different, and it was that to which Bibi was up.

So what ought they to have done, given that the Holocaust was only the latest of centuries of anti-Jewish pogroms, perpetrated by governments and people in the nominally Christian states of Europe? The idea of having their own stronghold where once they had lived for centuries must of course have been appealing. But why not simply continue the migration already in progress, of individual Jews into Palestine? - they could have served the existing Arab population, in due course prospered, and created a largely Jewish homestead without the burden of government.

Why not? - because the world's other states commissioned the British one to keep them out, reducing that flow to a trickle. Instead, those other states did their debating and eventually changed their minds and established the State of Israel, in the teeth of opposition from neighboring Arab states. It has been on war alert ever since 1948, and its Prime Minister squealed on March 3rd for more US Government help. He is eager to ensure that the Iranian government shall not aquire nukes.

During his speech Mr Netenyahu didn't mention his own, Israeli nuclear arsenal, but it is estimated to have about 100 bombs, perhaps several times that. Push come to shove, therefore, that state would be well able to defeat every potential enemy in the region, and for sure the arsenal will deter any of them from attacking with their own. It therefore hardly matters whether Iran gets any or not. The Iranian government has been and may well continue to be hostile towards the Israeli one, but has not been hostile to individual Jews in its country; hence the hostility relates only to the State of Israel, as above. Bibi's shrill warning is therefore a gross overstatement of any danger. And yet his appearance before Congress was treated as a major news item, for at least a week prior.

Jews make up around 2% of the US population, numbering about 6 million. They are talented and successful, but if this government pretends to be a democracy they should not alter its policy any more than any other 2% subset does. Meanwhile there are another 6 million in Israel, a foreign state that ought to influence this one not at all, any more than the other 200 states do. That Bibi's visit and presentation should be thought so important is a disquieting indicator that they have all become far too influential; it is terrible that we have a government, whose policies can be twisted by any of various domestic interests to the detriment of free individuals, but worse yet that it is being steered by a foreign state whose population is less than, say, Sweden or Austria.

Mind, the whole concept of a "ship of state" that needs "steering" is utterly collectivist, no matter who is on the tiller. "Head to port" by raising the minimum wage so as to throw the least skilled out of work and increase the amount of dependency. "A few degrees to starboard, Mister Christian", to avoid the shoals of Roe v Wade and create a class of unwanted children, likewise to raise the level of poverty, misery and crime. All of it is diametrically opposed to a free society, with every individual choosing his or her own course, in glorious chaos - which alone can bring true order. Many of those who want to keep Bibi's hands off the helm have wholly failed to understand this.

When government vanishes in America, to what extent will Bibi or his successors be able to turn the tiller* of the ship of state? - none at all, for there will be no state and no tiller. If the Israeli State still exists at that time (it won't, for long) it will have to arrange its own foreign relations, so will very likely become a great deal more accommodating. In any event, such conflict as does take place will not affect us here in the Former USA.

* An alternative allegory shows Netenyahu not as Congress' steersman but as its choreographer. Hilarious video!