Correspondence
Correspondence Dole Sets Back Regulatory Reform As one who has closely followed regulatory reform, I was surprised to see Matthew Rees's article ("Robb to the Rescue," Oct. 16) asserting that...
...The real issue here is intellectual honesty, which I dare say is the most important issue among scholars and intellectuals...
...Thus, his list of Jewish intellectuals to whom Zionism was "an abomination" and who "all rejected Zionism" includes none other than Martin Buber, who joined the Zionist movement in 1898, was appointed editor of its central weekly organ Die Welt in 1901, founded the so-called "Democratic Faction" of Zionism, and who remained a leading and influential Zionist for six decades- including brave and selfless service to the Zionist cause in Nazi Germany...
...This is demonstrably false-ADL has published eight reports detailing not only Farrakhan's anti-Semitism but his racism, anti-Christian bigotry, homophobia, and sexism...
...I think it would be safe to say there was essentially nothing concerning which Soloveitchik and the rebbes of Lubavitch and Satmar agreed with Cohen, Rosenzweig, and Buber...
...Every aristocracy that keeps itself entirely aloof from the people becomes impotent, a fact which is as true in literature as it is in politics...
...With the departure of Sen...
...He echoes Alexis de Tocqueville, who believed that such jargon was characteristic of aristocratic literary culture, and that it would not flourish under democratic systems of governance...
...That these ideals have yet to become a reality for most African-Americans is all the more reason to spurn Farrakhanism...
...In 1921, he proposed a joint Arab-Jewish "Near Eastern federation" in place of a Jewish state, and in the 1930s (and even after the Holocaust) he advocated a "binational" Palestine in which the Jews would accept the status of a minority...
...Administrative dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Margot Gill says, "There is no lower threshold for minority students...
...He is certainly correct, however, in citing the literary and political impotence of such modes of discourse...
...Despite the ecstatic press coverage of the march, we still believe that the ADL and other organizations were far too ginger in their treatment of the march because of their desire to support its purported goals while continuing to condemn Farrakhan...
...Right now, the NRA is significantly closer to the mood in the country than its critics are...
...Bob Packwood, Republicans need to find not two, but three Democratic votes to obtain cloture...
...Pete Skurkiss Chester Township, NJ ADL Spurns Farrakhanism Given that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has probably been the most outspoken critic of Louis Farrakhan in recent years, and that Farrakhan now describes the League as part of a secret conspiracy controlling America and oppressing blacks, your editorial's suggestion ("Farrakhan's Swamp of Hatred," Oct...
...Harvard inDenial Elena Neuman ("Harvard's Sins of Admission," Oct...
...For the most part, they are hard-core ideologues...
...In order to attack the recent peace agreement between Israel and the PLO, Hazony has produced a revisionist reading of the history of Zionism as grotesque in its misrepresentations as any of the anti-Zionist "New Historians...
...it's also intellectually and spiritually untenable...
...We have stated: "America is one country, not two...
...Haim Soloveitchik and the rebbes of Lubavitch and Satmar saw Zionism as a threat to the sacred Jewish belief system, leading ultimately to a complete rejection of all Jewish values...
...The separation of races flouts the nation's brilliant diverse culture and founding principles of tolerance and justice...
...Has Hazony ever read a page of Vladimir Jabotinsky, the brilliant founder and ideologue of Revisionist Zionism, or parsed a poem by Uri Zvi Greenberg, the bard of the Israeli right...
...Indeed, Hazony even distorts the history of the Israeli right: To claim that "Likud and its sister parties ha[ve] no tradition of intellectual discourse to speak of" is either totally ignorant or maliciously arrogant...
...16) asserting that comprehensive regulatory reform is likely to pass this year...
...J. Bennett Johnston...
...Buber's views were nearly identical to Rosenzweig's, except that he believed Jewish powerlessness could be fruitfully pursued not only in Germany, but in Palestine...
...Robert P. Kraynak Hamilton, NY Aristocratic Impotence Itremendously enjoyed Robert Weissberg's "The Joys of Gibberish" (Oct...
...The truth is, enthusiasm for Bob Dole's regulatory reform bill, at least among conservatives, dwindled after he gave away the store in a deal with Sen...
...But the bill got even worse during floor reconsideration: A series of weakening amendments was approved, including one raising the threshold for regulations subject to cost-benefit analysis from $50 million to $100 million, meaning it would provide little relief to small-business owners and individuals...
...Affirmative-action advocates are forced to live in a perpetual state of denial...
...The ADL knows only too well of Farrakhan's repulsive views and program, and of the dead end of paranoia and racial hatred he offers America...
...After the '96 elections, perhaps the NRA can lay down its sword and go back to running shooting competitions...
...In Democracy in America he writes: "It will sometimes happen that the members of the literary class, always living amongst themselves, and writing for themselves alone, will entirely lose sight of the rest of the world, which will infect them with a false and labored style . . . Such are the natural perils of literature among aristocracies...
...9) would require an article as long as the original...
...Regrettably, Harvard officials have reacted by denying the facts, even though they were undisputedly documented by Professor Gary King two years ago...
...As the political environment changes, so will the NRA...
...These are not people wanting to engage in open debate...
...Michael Stanislawski New York, NY Ifound most interesting, though depressing, Hazony's article...
...Rather than debate those whose views of the peace accord or of Zionism are different from his, Hazony takes a different tack: He rewrites history, retroactively expelling from the Zionist movement all those who disagree with his extreme views...
...Perhaps they should ponder the words of Socrates, who said that the true lover of wisdom hates "the lie in the soul" more than anything else...
...23) that ADL does not adequately oppose the Nation of Islam leader is laughable...
...Both believed Zionism would replace the Jewish quest for perfect faith with a quest for worldly power-trading away God's eternal glory for "a Zionist Serbia or Bulgaria" (as Rosenzweig called the proposed Jewish state...
...Abraham H. Foxman New York, NY The editors respond : Our objection to the ADLs discussion of the Million Man March was that the ADL seemed to excuse the marchers for their responsibility in heeding a call from Farrakhan to march in solidarity with him...
...Both of Buber's schemes sought for Jews to live in Palestine free from having to wield Jewish power-making these ideas the real antecedents of today's "Post-Zionism...
...Yehuda Rostker Far Rockaway, NY Yoram Hazony responds : Strange as it may seem, Rosenzweig's belief in a Jewish mission to wander the world as God's powerless "suffering servant" was remarkably similar to that of the ultra-orthodox Satmar...
...Holding Ben-Gurion's pursuit of Jewish power to be "demonic," Buber became a notorious opponent of the establishment of the State of Israel...
...Government department chairman Kenneth Shepsle says, "We do not have separate admissions procedures or separate standards for minorities and non-minorities...
...Hazony may think he is being cute or clever by writing to an American conservative audience not familiar with the details of Israeli or Zionist history, but one should not allow such claims-and countless others in this utterly reckless article-to pass unopposed...
...For example, Dole agreed to allow regulations to be exempted from the cost-benefit analysis provisions of the bill if the agency with jurisdiction "finds that conducting cost-benefit analysis is impracticable due to an emergency that is likely to result in significant harm...
...These denials have put Shepsle and Gill at odds with King, who is candid enough to admit that his department did consider minority students separately...
...On several points, however, he is mistaken...
...David Ridenour Washington, DC Keep the Jack-Booted Thugs As an NRA member, I agree with Dave Shiflett ("Second Amendment Blues: The NRA Under the Gun," Oct...
...Hazony correctly points out that initially there was widespread opposition among Jewish intellectuals to the Zionist movement...
...Though the chances have improved somewhat, Senate approval of such legislation is still a long shot...
...Apparently, ADL's statement that we "understand and support" the goals of the Million Man March somehow indicated to your editorialist that we find Farrakhan "harmless," apart from his anti-Semitism...
...9) accurately revealed the Harvard government department's use of double standards and race-norming in its graduate admissions policies...
...Tocqueville could never have anticipated how distant the American professoriate would grow from the citizenry it is intended to serve...
...That impulse is understandable...
...Hazony's piece, ironically, would seem to validate their contention...
...But then writes: "Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Haim Soloveitchik, and the Hasidic rebbes of both Lubavitch and Satmar-all rejected Zionism for much the same reason: They believed the Jewish people essentially a thing of the spirit...
...Peter N. Warren Washington, DC Zionism Reconsidered To list all the blatant inaccuracies, distortions, and misreadings of history in Yoram Hazony's "The End of Zionism" (Oct...
...But as long as the enemies of the Republic roam the halls of power, the NRA has a solemn duty to maintain its present posture...
...This is an enormous loophole as the term "emergency" is never defined...
...Whether one agrees with Buber's vision of Zionism or not, to read him out of the history of that movement is an act of either utter ignorance or deliberate deceit...
...The NRA must be careful not to isolate itself from the larger society...
...Look at the NRA's enemies: Handgun Control, the media, the Democratic party, and the ACLU...
...But a strong case can be made for supporting present NRA policies...
Vol. 1 • November 1995 • No. 8
