Eric Hoffer on the Jews and refugees

I just came across this 1968 quote by Eric Hoffer, a formerly leading social thinker known as the Longshoreman Philosopher:

Eric Hoffer

The Jews are a peculiar people.  Things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchman.

Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese and no one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel , the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single one.

Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious, it must sue for peace.

Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world. We Since Hoffer wrote this millions more people have been driven out of their homelands.  And Israel is still the world’s favorite villain.  

I don’t know why Eric Hoffer has fallen off the public radar.  When I was in college 50 years ago everybody read him and his insights are still pertinent today.  He had little formal education but had a thirst for knowledge.  He was a wide reader and a profound thinker — a rare kind of self-made man in his time, a type even rarer today.  Wikipedia says of him:

He was the author of ten books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983. His first book, The True Believer, published in 1951, was widely recognized as a classic, receiving critical acclaim from both scholars and laymen, although Hoffer believed that his book The Ordeal of Change was his finest work.

I think I’ll improve myself by rereading a couple of his books.  As I recall, he’s an enjoyable read.  He wrote so that ordinary people would understand him — that is, clearly.  In fact, many of his statements turn up as short quotes here and there.  Here’s a website full of them for your entertainment and enlightenment.

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