This letter was written to the Editors of the New York Times Dec. 2, 1948 – several months after the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel.

The letter was signed by Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, Sidney Hook, Jessurun Cardozo, Zellig Harris, Bruria Kaufman, Irma Lindheim, Seymour Melman, Fritz Rohrlich, Stefan Wolpe, and others.

TO THE EDITORS OF NEW YORK TIMES:

Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the “Freedom Party” (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine.

The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit. It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin’s political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents.

Before irreparable damage is done by way of financial contributions, public manifestations in Begin’s behalf, and the creation in Palestine of the impression that a large segment of America supports Fascist elements in Israel, the American public must be informed as to the record and objectives of Mr. Begin and his movement.

The public avowals of Begin’s party are no guide whatever to its actual character. Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.

Attack on Arab Village

A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (THE NEW YORK TIMES), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants (240 men, women, and children) and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Deir Yassin.

The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party.

Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority. Like other Fascist parties they have been used to break strikes, and have themselves pressed for the destruction of free trade unions. In their stead they have proposed corporate unions on the Italian Fascist model.

During the last years of sporadic anti-British violence, the IZL and Stern groups inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community. Teachers were beaten up for speaking against them, adults were shot for not letting their children join them. By gangster methods, beatings, window-smashing, and wide-spread robberies, the terrorists intimidated the population and exacted a heavy tribute.

The people of the Freedom Party have had no part in the constructive achievements in Palestine. They have reclaimed no land, built no settlements, and only detracted from the Jewish defense activity. Their much-publicized immigration endeavors were minute, and devoted mainly to bringing in Fascist compatriots.

Discrepancies Seen

The discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin and his party, and their record of past performance in Palestine bear the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a “Leader State” is the goal.

In the light of the foregoing considerations, it is imperative that the truth about Mr. Begin and his movement be made known in this country. It is all the more tragic that the top leadership of American Zionism has refused to campaign against Begin’s efforts, or even to expose to its own constituents the dangers to Israel from support to Begin.

The undersigned therefore take this means of publicly presenting a few salient facts concerning Begin and his party; and of urging all concerned not to support this latest manifestation of fascism.

ISIDORE ABRAMOWITZ, HANNAH ARENDT, ABRAHAM BRICK, RABBI JESSURUN CARDOZO, ALBERT EINSTEIN, HERMAN EISEN, M.D., HAYIM FINEMAN, M. GALLEN, M.D., H.H. HARRIS, ZELIG S. HARRIS, SIDNEY HOOK, FRED KARUSH, BRURIA KAUFMAN, IRMA L. LINDHEIM, NACHMAN MAISEL, SEYMOUR MELMAN, MYER D. MENDELSON, M.D., HARRY M. OSLINSKY, SAMUEL PITLICK, FRITZ ROHRLICH, LOUIS P. ROCKER, RUTH SAGIS, ITZHAK SANKOWSKY, I.J. SHOENBERG, SAMUEL SHUMAN, M. SINGER, IRMA WOLPE, STEFAN WOLPE.

New York, Dec. 2, 1948

      • chaogomu
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        556 months ago

        Likud isn’t just a continuation of Herut, they merged with the remnants of Lehi, a full on terrorist organization from before the 1949 war.

        A surviving member of Lehi then became the first leader of Likud, and his first act in power was to give all the surviving terrorists commendation medals.

        That terrorist turned prime minister was also Netenyahu’s mentor.

          • @captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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            66 months ago

            And what good would that achieve? A shared state is the only way forward. Shedding blood to shed blood serves none but the bloodthirsty.

            • @roofuskit@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              I think you’re missing that they’re parroting the prevailing Israeli attitude towards Palestinians. I doubt they were being serious, but instead as re pointing out how barbaric it is.

          • @yiliu@informis.land
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            6 months ago

            According to Zionist logic, the West would be justified in annihilating them to the last man, civilian or otherwise.

            Ah, this person is pointing out the irony of Israel defending a total war against an entire people, in the name of fighting ‘terrorism’. That’s certainly a reasonable point to–

            From the river to the sea.

            Oh wait they’re actually calling for genocide, they just disagree with the radical Israeli Right over who ought to be genocided…

    • @library_napperOP
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      6 months ago

      Right, it’s not Israel that’s terrorist – it’s just their entire military.

      Edit: oh, and most of their settlers.

      • @stevehobbes@lemmy.world
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        406 months ago

        You’re entitled to that opinion. You’re not entitled to misrepresent 70 year old letters to say something they didn’t say.

        • @library_napperOP
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          226 months ago

          The party that he was criticizing ended up megrimg into the current party that is in control of the Israeli government today (which is widely recognized as the furthest-right government of all of Israeli history)

          So I think it’s fair to say that if Einstein were alive today, he would compare the current government of Israel with the Nazi party, as he did to them in 1948

          • southsamurai
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            176 months ago

            Then make posts that say that instead of posting things with shitty clickbait titles that aren’t accurate.

            Go ahead, lemmy allows you to edit titles, so you can fix this.

            • @blazeknave@lemmy.world
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              -166 months ago

              Come on… you know that’s not the point. The point is all Jew bad and all Israelis for all of history are represented by current leader. You know, like how every American was a Trumper bc he scammed his way into power. Don’t expect good faith dialogue here.

              • @library_napperOP
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                116 months ago

                This has nothing to do with the population of Israel. Einstein was condemning the party now controlling the State of Israel.

                This has nothing to do with religion.

        • @MooseLad@lemmy.world
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          96 months ago

          They’re referring to a political party in Israel not Israel itself.

          You mean the nationalist political party focused on revisionist Zionism that merged to create Likud? The party that was and is led by Netanyahu?

          You’re not entitled to misrepresent 70 year old letters to say something they didn’t say.

          Yes, Einstein was referring to that political party. But it was a nationalist zionist party that merged with a few other nationalist zionist parties, and they are currently in power and control the military and government.

          I don’t think OP is really misconstruing here, because the party still exists and is in control of the government. If I said that the United Russian Party is fascist, I’m effectively calling Russia fascist, because they currently rule Russia in a defacto one party system.

          • TunaCowboy
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            76 months ago

            nationalist zionist parties

            Zionism is by definition a nationalist ideology.

  • zout
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    816 months ago

    Just to be factual; This letter was signed by Einstein among others, and not written by him. Also, yes Einstein was a smart guy, and a famous physicist who publicized some grand theories. He was not however a political expert. So while you may agree with his views on the state of Israel, don’t proclaim it as the absolute truth because Einstein said it. Because he was a layman in these matters. A well informed and smart layman, but still a layman.

    The reason for this rant is that you can find way too much doctors and Phd’s today wo will give opinions on things like climate change or Corona vaccins, while their field of expertise is something like ancient history or oil drilling. And people are swallowing it because someone really smart said it, and it gives them a way to ignore the real experts.

    Back to the letter above, the alphabetically second person to sign the letter was Hannah Arendt, and she was a philosopher and an expert on the works of totalitarian governments. So if you want to give weight to this letters by using the name if one of the signees, I’d advise to use her name. And mention Einstein as an aside just to get the clicks.

    • Zagorath
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      316 months ago

      I think this is noteworthy not just because Einstein was smart, but because he was a smart, prominent, Jewish figure. It’s a way of highlighting the fact that Israel ≠ Judaism or the Jewish people.

  • @vexikron@lemmy.zip
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    6 months ago

    Are people now just becoming aware that the modern state of Israel was founded by a bunch of literal terrorists, who quite publicly justified their terrorism, were proud of it, because the ends justify the means?

    Haganah was the paramilitary wing of the Jewish Agency for Palestine (formerly World Zionist Organization and many other names), and was responsible for numerous terrorist attacks.

    Fast forward to today, and Haganah has evolved into the IDF, and the Jewish Agency for Palestine changed its name to the Jewish Agency for Israel, and is now a parastatal non profit that takes in donations from around the world and uses them to promote Zionism and the importance of, and connection to Israel that every Jew should feel.

    For the sake of clarity I must also add the following:

    Israel and Zionists do not represent all Jews around the world, many of whom vehemently disagree with Israeli policies and have done this publicly through various organizations for quite a long time.

    This is not an Antisemitic opinion, it is basically history that no one bothers to look in to. Even more ironic, the people living in Palestine when the Zionists established Israel… are themselves Semitic.

    • ExIsraeliAnarchist
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      6 months ago

      You’re slightly and conveniently ignoring the actual colonisers of the region at that time - the British and French, and the parts they played in all of that (you can look to the partition of India or their other colonial “projects” for similar tactics on a bigger scale).

      I am not justifying or defending the actions of the state of Israel against Palestine, but don’t say people don’t bother looking at the history and then only deliver a partial version of it.

      Israelis and Palestinians both have a rightful place in the region, and have existed side by side continuously for thousands and thousands of years, the deep division that exists today is the product of colonial intervention dividing the locals and setting them against each other to make them all easier to conquer.

      Edit to add that things haven’t changed much today, the British may no longer colonise the land, but all of the large superpowers are contributing financially and politically to continue to divide the local population rather than promote a peaceful solution, still because of vested financial interest - not only weapons R&D but also the massive gas reserves off the coast of Gaza their trying to get their hands on. Ignoring the bigger picture of this conflict doesn’t help anyone.

      • @vexikron@lemmy.zip
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        6 months ago

        I am of course aware that the whole region was fucked by colonial powers first.

        The whole history of the region is exceedingly vast and complex.

        In my personal experience, most people do not know the thing I pointed out, whereas many, nowadays, understand that imperialism and colonialism have wrought devastating consequences all across the world, thus I assumed it would be taken as already understood.

        All that being said, its good your comment is here to provide more context, in case some readers did not know, so thank you for a very good summary of colonialism in the Israel/Palestine region!

      • @library_napperOP
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        6 months ago

        The Palestinians have a right to live there, not the Israelis. The Israelis stole the land. Folks who are now Israeli who lived in the region of course have a right to live there, in Palestine. As Palestinians. But not as Israelis.

        And, yes, Israel learned how to commit massacres and steal land (colonialism) from the British. I’m not playing whataboutism. Both should be condemned.

          • @library_napperOP
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            6 months ago

            This issue with Israel has nothing to do with Jews. Stop spreading antisemitism

        • Quokka
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          06 months ago

          You’re talking to an ex-Israeli “anarchist” that believes in Zionism.

          They’re trying to muddy the waters and take blame off Israel

          • ExIsraeliAnarchist
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            6 months ago

            Show me where I support zionism?
            Knowing and acknowledging history doesn’t equal support for its results.
            Whereas you literally just attach non-existent motives to a comment that challenges your narrow and wilfully ignorant world view so you can outright dismiss it because that’s easier than thinking a little more in depth about the reality and complexity of a situation you clearly know little about (and clearly aren’t interested in understanding)…
            It’s not as if someone with relevant lived experience might actually know more than your sheltered ass… /s

            • Quokka
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              6 months ago

              Your post history shows you support Jews having the right to go to their “ancestral land”. Not only that, you also support the existence of Israel itself.

              That’s Zionism champ.

        • @vexikron@lemmy.zip
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          16 months ago

          Apologies for editing and adding more words right after I made the post, I should probably stop doing that as a bad habit.

          • @library_napperOP
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            06 months ago

            No that’s fine. Lemmy just needs to be able to view edit history. Is there any feature request for that?

  • @unreasonabro@lemmy.world
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    136 months ago

    just as obvious then as it is now, and yet here we are like 80 years later just doubling down again and again like twats

  • key
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    76 months ago

    They compared a specific Israeli political party to the nazi party, not the state itself.

    • @VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf
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      56 months ago

      A specific Israeli political party and a terrorist organization, both of which are the spiritual as well as literal ancestry of the current fascist government of Israel.

  • Dulce Maria
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    36 months ago

    I hate it when I read Einstein and I see Epstein. Confusion abounds.

  • Decoy321M
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    -16 months ago

    Sorry, op. I’m locking this one up to prevent this discussion from getting out of hand. Rule 5.