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¡Palo al Tiburón! Contra el Imperialismo en Defensa de la Soberanía |
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¡Palo al Tiburón! Contra el Imperialismo en Defensa de la Soberanía |
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(Se acabó la buena vida para los animalitos esos (aun fuera de su habitat) y ahora estarán fuera de su habitat y rebajados al nivel de lo que el estado provee, o sea miseria, a ver si no se terminan muriendo. Deberían hacerles un fideicomiso con lo que les decomisaron a los colombianos.)
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A partir de hoy, las parejas de leones, jaguares negros y tigres en peligro de extinción, así como el macaco cola de moñón se despedirán de lujos, comida abundante y atención personalizada y pasarán de la vida privada a la pública cuando comiencen a ser exhibidos en el zoológico de Guadalajara, como muchos otros animales en cautiverio.
Julián Sánchez
El Universal
Jueves 30 de octubre de 2008
julian.sanchez@eluniversal.com.mx
A partir de hoy, las parejas de leones, jaguares negros y tigres en peligro de extinción, así como el macaco cola de moñón se despedirán de lujos, comida abundante y atención personalizada y pasarán de la vida privada a la pública cuando comiencen a ser exhibidos en el zoológico de Guadalajara, como muchos otros animales en cautiverio.
El operativo policiaco del 17 de octubre en una residencia de Desierto de los Leones, que derivó en la captura de 15 presuntos integrantes de una célula dedicada a abastecer de cocaína colombiana al cártel de los Beltrán Leyva, les vino a cambiar la vida.
Según personal de la Unidad Canina de la Policía Federal Preventiva (PFP) y del veterinario independiente Miguel Peña, los mamíferos fueron encontrados en perfectas condiciones aunque sobrealimentados, por lo que se les cambió la dieta y su comida fue reducida.
Los especialistas calcularon que se erogaba en su alimentación más de 4 mil pesos diarios. Después del operativo el gasto se redujo a unos 3 mil.
Jaime López de López, uno de los elementos de la Unidad Canina de la PFP que atendió a los felinos aún sin experiencia en el area, comentó que éstos estaban bien tratados y eran óptimas las condiciones de las jaulas donde permanecían.
Procedentes de África y América, los siete animales seguirán con buena atención, pero no tan especial como la que tenían en el que desde hoy dejará de ser su hogar.
Empresarios violaron ley con spots en 2006: TEPJF
La resolución advierte que la campaña propagandística del CCE fue ilegal y los partidos beneficiados son también responsables, por lo que deberán ser sancionados por el IFEEl Consejo Coordinador Empresarial (CCE) sí violó disposiciones legales y benefició al PAN, PRI y Partido Verde en las elecciones presidenciales del 2006, resolvió el Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación.
La resolución advierte que la campaña propagandística del CCE fue ilegal y los partidos beneficiados son también responsables, por lo que deberán ser sancionados por el IFE, determinó dicho tribunal en respuesta a una queja presentada por el PRD.
"Con esta sentencia quedan en evidencia varios actores que tomaron parte en estos acontecimientos tanto en el 2006 como en fechas posteriores", resaltó el representante del PRD ante el IFE, Rafael Hernández Estrada.
Queda en evidencia, dijo, no sólo el propio CCE, "que se dedicó a denostar y calumniar al candidato de la izquierda", sino también el propio candidato del PAN, Felipe Calderón, que fue el beneficiario de esa campaña indebida.
También queda en evidencia el ex presidente del IFE, Luis Carlos Ugalde, quien fue "indolente" ante esta campaña, dijo Rafael Hernández, al expresar su beneplácito por la resolución del Tribunal.
Dijo que el veredicto pone en evidencia además a funcionarios de la Secretaría de Gobernación, concretamente de la Dirección de Radio, Televisión y Cinematografía, que mintieron en sus informes al IFE para ocultar la evidencia de esta multimillonaria campaña urdida por el Consejo Coordinador Empresarial.
Quedan también en evidencia las propias empresas televisoras, que fueron requeridas en las diligencias de este caso y que en algunos casos no respondieron a los requerimientos de la autoridad o respondieron con información vaga e imprecisa.
A final de cuenta, la Sala Superior hizo justicia en este caso y habrá de corresponder ahora al IFE, que ha visto revocada la resolución que había tomado, el acatar la sentencia del Tribunal e imponer las multas que procedan contra los partidos beneficiados.
El Código vigente en el 2006 no preveía la sanción a particulares y es el motivo por el cual el CCE no podrá ser multado o sancionado de alguna otra manera por el IFE, indicó.
Bajo la Lupa
Alfredo Jalife-Rahme
El Consejo de Relaciones Exteriores y Robert Pastor confiesan que existe el amero
El influyente Consejo de Relaciones Exteriores (CFR, por sus siglas en inglés) y su portavoz Robert Pastor no pueden esconder más lo inocultable (ver Bajo la Lupa, 19 y 22/10/08).
En una entrevista que ha causado revuelo en el ambiente hispano de Estados Unidos, Pastor confesó al muy solvente conductor Rubén Luengas, de Telemundo (filial de NBC, 23/10/08), la existencia a "largo (sic) plazo" del amero, la moneda tripartita común de Estados Unidos, Canadá y México.
Cabe destacar que Luengas exhibió con documentos a la mano la legendaria corrupción de Vicente Fox en la célebre entrevista que catapultó al conductor a las nubes de la credibilidad, mientras el ranchero panista estallaba en pública cólera (Telemundo, 16/10/07).
El perspicaz conductor expone que "Robert Pastor no niega que exista también la idea de una moneda común para los tres países, pero asegura que éste no es el mejor (sic) momento". Por su parte, Robert Pastor expresó que "la comunidad (sic) de América del Norte es una gran idea y la moneda amero es una gran idea (¡súper sic!), pero en verdad creo que no es la idea que ellos quieren en este momento".
¿Cuál será "el mejor momento", cuando Estados Unidos parece encaminarse a tirar su "viejo dólar" ante la emisión de un "nuevo dólar"? Se nota que Estados Unidos impone el cronograma del "mejor momento" a sus dos vecinos valetudinarios.
Luengas comenta que "la Internet revienta de información que asegura que el amero y la Unión de América del Norte entre Canadá, Estados Unidos y México podrían estar a la vuelta de la esquina", a lo que Pastor responde que "hay que caminar antes de correr" y abunda que "en el caso de América del Norte nosotros tenemos muchas etapas (¡súper sic!), muchas políticas (sic), antes de considerar una moneda, políticas sobre la economía, políticas sobre inmigración y transportación y energía" (¡súper sic!). El amero "camina" antes de ponerlo a "correr" bajo la batuta estadunidense.
Robert Pastor adujo que "el concepto de América del Norte es una idea muy importante (sic) para todos, los tres países de América del Norte, y el mundo". Para México, el TLCAN salinista ha sido catastrófico, como han demostrado la prestigiada Oficina Nacional de Investigación Económica de Estados Unidos (NBER, por sus siglas en inglés) y Dany Roderick, académico de Harvard.
Está bien que la integración tripartita favorezca a Estados Unidos al llevarse los hidrocarburos de Canadá (además de su agua) y México (con el agregado de su plata) como garantía fiduciaria para la divisa tripartita, pero, ¿cómo beneficia al "mundo"? Aquí se pasó de tueste Robert Pastor, el aliado de Jorge Castañeda Gutman.
Toda la razón asiste a Robert Pastor cuando comenta que la Unión Tripartita de Norteamérica (NAU, por sus siglas en inglés) y la implementación del amero avanzan por "etapas". Hasta ahora van ocho "etapas" desde hace 20 años: 1) La imposición de Salinas en la presidencia espuria con bendición de Daddy Bush; 2) el TLCAN firmado por Salinas (que impulsó el libre comercio transfronterizo de estupefacientes y su venta de armas); 3) el ASPAN y sus acuerdos secretos firmados por Fox en el rancho privado de Baby Bush en Waco, Texas; 4) la imposición de Calderón con bendición de Baby Bush; 5) La Iniciativa Mérida; 6) La entreguista reforma energética calderonista-beltronista (que incluye los biocombustibles); 7) la incrustación de México en el Comando Norte; y 8) el proyecto de incorporación de México al Comando nuclear de Defensa Aéreo-Espacial de Norteamérica (NORAD, por sus siglas en inglés) que propuso en Washington Robert Gates, secretario bushiano del Pentágono, en presencia de Beltrones, líder del Senado "mexicano". A esa larga cadena de hechos, no teorías, que padecemos, se agrega el amero, proyecto que cuya existencia a "largo (sic) plazo" han confesado el locuaz Fox (a Larry King, de CNN, 8/10/07) y ahora Robert Pastor. ¿Constituye, entonces, el amero, la novena etapa de desintegración de México para el beneficio unilateral de Estados Unidos? A esta cadena de eventos inobjetables que desembocan en la NAU, Pastor la cataloga como una "conspiración (sic) de la ignorancia (¡súper sic!)" y se aferra al concepto de "comunidad" tripartita de la revista Foreign Affairs, portavoz del CRE, y que es traducida al español por el ITAM (obviously!) y el castañedista Rafael Fernández de Castro (ahora asesor de Calderón, además de la Ceci Romero en Migración).
La palabra "comunidad" no tiene el mismo significado, acepción y peso en Estados Unidos, Europa y México. En Europa, la palabra francesa communauté, en el contexto de la Comunidad Económica Europea, desembocó en su "Unión" política y monetaria. En español, "comunidad" representa laxa y vagamente un conglomerado de personas. En inglés, la carga afectiva y efectiva de community es muy fuerte: "propiedad común", "un acuerdo de identidad"; "unidad política, municipal y social de personas" (Oxford Universal Dictionary Illustrated). Es evidente que Robert Pastor y el CRE nos venden la palabra "comunidad", sinónimo de integración y unión, en inglés y no en español.
El proyecto de desaparición del peso mexicano no es nuevo y en la "etapa" zedillista tanto Guillermo Ortiz Martínez, quien ahora está consagrado a dilapidar en forma deliberada nuestras reservas (México se derrumbó al ranking 21, detrás de Argelia, Irán, Libia, Turquía, Polonia, Malasia y Tailandia, hasta ahora), como Francisco Gil Díaz (empleado de la trasnacional HSBC en la matriz londinense) impulsaron intensamente la adopción del dólar como moneda de curso en México (la "dolarización"), dizque para evitar devaluaciones y devoluciones del peso, mientras uno de los principales asesores del Banco de México, el salinista-zedillista y hoy calderonista Manuel Suárez Mier, aboga(ba) por la adopción y "adaptación" (sic) del amero, al unísono de Herbert Grubel, economista canadiense del Instituto Fraser: proyecto en el que colaboraron Luis Rubinsky (alias Rubio) Friedberg y su centro fantasmagórico CIDAC, que plantea la entrega de los hidrocarburos de México a Estados Unidos. Por cierto, Suárez Mier se degradó de banquero a policía judicial (¡en lo que acaban los jihadistas neoliberales piromaniacos!) y ahora funge de "delegado de la PGR" en Washington (¿para monitorear mejor los interesados embarques trasnacionales?).
En sincronía con el amero, las "etapas" de dilapidación de las reservas en el Banco de México (provenientes de nuestros hidrocarburos), en la "etapa" aciaga de Guillermo Ortiz, van viento en popa: de 90 mil millones de dólares en su pico van que vuelan a 60 mil millones de dólares (¡la tercera parte desvalijada!), como adelanta un reporte de la insolvente Banamex-Citigroup, destinados a "rescatar" a Cemex (de la que es publicista Enrique Krauze Kleinbort) y a otras más irresponsables y parasitarias empresas privadas mexicanas en la zozobra.
En la torre de siete dictámenes que conforman la reforma energética y que fue puesta en cada curul de los diputados federales, no se conocía de un cambio hecho al amparo del silencio a una de las propuestas “estrella” del gobierno federal: los contratos de incentivos.
Fue el priísta Carlos Rojas quien ubicó una modificación a los considerandos de la Ley de Petróleos Mexicanos, con respecto a lo aprobado en la Cámara de Senadores; lo habló con el PRD y paralelo a la toma de la tribuna, se dio una negociación por la que el PAN tuvo que reconocer que sí había cambios, pero que éstos no se llevarían a cabo.
Por ello, el presidente de la Comisión de Energía, David Maldonado, pidió en público aprobar el dictamen que venía del Senado, y no el que incluía entre otras cosas que: “El esquema de remuneraciones se basa en el buen desempeño de los proveedores y contratistas; se paga por la eficiencia y la efectividad del objeto que se contrata y, en ese sentido, puede pactarse el otorgamiento de compensaciones adicionales”.
Otro párrafo modificado señala que la “remuneración podría calcularse con base en la cantidad de hidrocarburos producida (siempre en efectivo), lo cual no viola la prohibición de pagar con un porcentaje de lo producido, ni con las ventas, ni con las utilidades de la contratante”.
En el pleno, los perredistas Antonio Soto y David Mendoza denunciaron la falta de ética y de legalidad en estas modificaciones; Soto pidió la renuncia de Maldonado, y le exigió revelar los nombres de quienes le ordenaron hacer los cambios sin pasarlos por el voto del resto de los legisladores.
Larios, en defensa, cuestionó a los perredistas sobre el proceso de aprobación de un dictamen, que en los hechos no fue modificado ni en una coma, en la sesión de la Comisión de Energía del pasado sábado.
La devaluación del peso no tiene nada que ver con la crisis financiera internacional
La devaluación del peso se debe a la irresponsabilidad de Felipe Calderón, el gordinflón ignorante de Carstens y Guillermo Ortiz del banco de México.
Tienen dos años de estar aumentando todos los energéticos; la gasolina, el gas, el diesel, la energía eléctrica, los alimentos, los impuestos, las cuotas en las carreteras. Todo eso ha provocado el deslizamiento del peso; que no le echen la culpa a la crisis internacional.
Este gobierno cometió el mismo error de Carlos Salinas de impedir el deslizamiento natural del peso por las causas ya mencionadas anteriormente para presumir Felipe Calderón de un súper peso que tarde o temprano tendría que caer por sus errores en las finanzas públicas y en la política económica. No hicieron nada por blindar al país como era priorizar el mercado interno e invertir inmediatamente en infraestructura, como la construcción inmediata de dos refinerías, por ejemplo, en vez de eso afectaron al mercado interno con todo los aumentos irresponsables. Todavía siguen torpemente aumentando las gasolinas, ¡no tienen capacidad de aprendizaje! La crisis internacional si está afectando al país y lo afectará aún más en los próximos meses, mucho más que un catarrito por la irresponsabilidad de este gobierno que no tomó medidas desde hace dos años que ya se veía venir esta calamidad. Nos aseguraban también torpemente que el país tendría cuando mucho una gripita y que lo estaban blindando. Nunca blindaron nada ni previeron nada. Son unos irresponsables y torpes en grado máximo. El país debería exigirles su renuncia porque no tienen ni idea de lo que se necesita, no tienen ningún proyecto de nación, solo siguen la inercia que les dejaron los neoliberales tecnócratas ignorantes foxistas, zedillistas y salinistas.
Todavía el incompetente Guillermo Ortiz del banco de México tiene las reservas del país en una sola moneda, el dólar, cuando la elemental prudencia aconseja diversificarlas en diversas monedas internacionales. Ignoran la sabiduría que aconseja no poner todos los huevos en una misma canasta. Por lo tanto, todo lo que le pase al dólar en los próximos meses lo va a sufrir México. Eso no le importa a Guillermo Ortiz, ¿Cuándo les ha importado México a esta banda de incompetentes apátridas?
El cambio de gobierno izquierdista de Ecuador descubrió que la mitad de la deuda externa era falsa y que si no hubiera habido cambio de gobierno nunca se hubiera sabido y el pueblo hubiera tenido que seguir pagando deudas falsas. Me pregunto y pregúntense ustedes también; ¿será la deuda internacional de México verdadera o una parte será también fraudulenta como en Ecuador? Nunca lo sabremos a menos que cambiemos de gobiernos derechistas que han asolado a este país desde hace dos décadas; desde Miguel de la Madrid. La derecha nunca va a reconocer el triunfo moderado de la izquierda a menos que el pueblo vote masivamente en contra y no tengan más remedio que reconocerlo como sucedió en Bolivia, Venezuela o Ecuador. Cuando el pueblo de México se decida a deshacerse de la derecha corrupta sabremos quienes nos han estado robando masivamente y si la deuda internacional es verdadera.
WWII And The Theft Of
German Intellectual Property
By Claus Nordbruch
Translated by Dagmar Brenne
10-25-8
Time and time again, one encounters the statement in regards to the German Third Reich, that the German Intellectual Elite had left Germany shortly after the establishment of the National Socialist Government in January 1933 and went into exile. But this appears questionable in the face of the undeniable fact that the Allies just before, and especially after the Capitulation of the German Wehrmacht (Army) in May 1945 abducted thousands of German scientists, skilled tradesmen and intellectuals. And tens of thousands of inventions, discoveries, trades symbols, patents, research findings and other intellectual property was stolen and in the light of this, one wonders if the above statement has any basis and reality of the true situation.
In 1945, immediately behind the Allied fighting troops the task force of Anglo/American units called CIOS followed hard at heel. These were under the command of the American officer Ted Beets and the British officer of supplies R.F. Sinsteed. These units had been given the task to view the intellectual property of the German Reich and to appropriate it if needed. Apart from this, the CIOS task force had orders to prevent the German Intellectuals from fleeing abroad. (1)
These CIOS task forces constituted 10,000 technicians and scientists, which were formed into 3,000 units and who forced their way into 33,000 German factories, laboratories, libraries and offices, confiscated documents, samples of materials, trade symbols, patent documentations and engines. They also interrogated top scientist and abducted the same (2).
In the Reich's patent office alone 186,000 files were stolen (3).
Basically everything was confiscated, stolen and plundered in all areas and endeavours that Germans had researched, developed and worked on, by the Allies, on fundamental principle - everywhere. The British "News Chronicles" gave the first review on 21 February 1946. Under the Title "Germany had to disclose its military riches" many of the German intellectual treasures looted by the British were listed here, whereby it is striking, that these riches were far less of a military nature than in the realm of medicine, technical developments and natural science.
Among these listed looted items were Eg. inventions and information for the production of synthetic fuel, synthetic rubber, synthetic lubrication oils, for synthetic fiber- and textile production, diesel motors, optical inventions, heavy printing presses, wind channels, in which speeds of up to 8.000 km/hr were achieved, infra red target instruments, cassette players, electric condensation machinery, durable fruit juices, machines for wrapping chocolates, sugar made from wood, synthetic sapphires for watches, synthetic glimmer, non-running durable stockings for ladies, machines for the production of butter, which produced 1,500 pounds of butter per hour, quartz watches, cellulose products, a multitude of pharmaceutical products, insecticides, cyanides for rust protection and as a substitute for zinc chrome, artificial leather, plastics, colour photography, sewing needles, an innumerable profusion of precision instruments, protective remedies for frost and thousands of other inventions in the area of chemistry, physics, technology and electronics, in which the Germans were streaks ahead of others nations, that is, by five, ten or more years advanced in development.
It was an almost unbelievable, fascinating magical world, that opened up to the Allied task force in these interrogations and conversations with the German intellectuals. The Germans spoke of travel into space, about inter-continental ballistic Rockets, artificial satellites, and other no less fantastical plans, such as the establishment of an "island in space", which would be fitted out with a gigantic mirror to catch the sun rays and beam them back to earth in bundled rays. (4)
But especially in the sphere of weapons- and rocket technology, the German Reich was unbelievably advanced in comparison to their allied enemies. Remote control for rockets and torpedoes, Infrared rays, Ultra sound, all methods of Jet-propulsion, Helicopters and rockets were known to them. The Germans had developed airplanes, March flying craft and the so-called flying disks, which reached speeds that were generally thought impossible, top speeds of an unbelievable 8,000 km/ hour were reached. Even in the most unlikely fields, which nowadays not only draw enthusiasts from the sphere of homeopathy and esoteric knowledge, the Germany of National Socialism was far advanced in regards to that kind of research.
In connection with this there are for instance examinations, done by the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Biophysics in Frankfurt/Main: "These concerned the relationship that electronically charged air has on health. Positive charged air is seen as dangerous to human health, because it causes discomfort and depressions, as for example caused by falling air pressure. Some people, so [it] was found, reacted to positive charged air with Asthma, Hayfever and nervousness. Blood pressure rose to the danger point. I caused all the symptoms of sicknesses known to mountain climbers: laboured and rapid breathing, dizziness, fatigue, insomnia and the like.
Negative charged air achieved the opposite. It had a cheering effect, gave a sense of mental freedom and well being. Emotional depressions could be removed in this manner. In pathological cases it was calming the breathing, and achieved the extinguishing of Allergies and Asthma. The importance of negative charged air comes into play, wherever human beings live and work or seek to recover from illness. The creation of these air ambiances will represent one day our main occupation." (5) The Germans achieved nothing other than to imbue the very air we breathe with added supplements, to manipulate in the person calmness, fear, irritation or cheerfulness, joy or depression according to requirement. (6)
In April 1945 soldiers of the 1st US Infantry division found in Volkenröde near Braunschweig at the air travel Research Institute Herman Göring, the most modern institute of its kind in the world . The Americans were dumb-founded:
"Alone the amount and excellent quality of the instruments, tools and testing equipment was overwhelming. In the aero dynamic Section were wind channels for low speeds, for under sonic, supersonic and the trans sonic divisions. The division for jet propulsion was equipped with a camera, which was able to take a thousand pictures per second, to determine how a flame builds up. In the low pressure chamber it was possible to create conditions as exist at a height of 15 km. In the weapons division were two shooting tunnels, to test the effects on flying rockets if subjected to side winds of up to eight hundred km/ hour ."(7)
These and innumerable other overwhelming evidences of the superiority of German research were gathered up to be taken over by the Americans and who were thus in the position to save inestimable money and untold man hours in research. What the Americans left over was plundered by the English in 1946, dismantled and carted off to Britain. In this way the island was able to establish four ultra modern centres for aeronautic research in Farnborough, Bedford and Fort Halstead.
An inconspicuous witness was the American journalist C. Lester Walkers, who, half year after the sensational list published in Britain, wrote an exhaustive report for the American monthly magazine: "Harpers's Bazaar" under the title "Secrets by the Thousands", in which he listed further details. In his article he describes the manifold work and duties of a special American task force in search of German patents and manufacturing secrets. These commando units found and appropriated no less than 150,000 tones of secret files, which were transported to the USA to be evaluated. A new dictionary with 40,000 special scientific words had to be worked out. The greatest part of these files had nothing whatsoever to do weapons and war efforts. (All quotes in italics in the following article are from Walkers' writing)
The production of Nylon stockings goes back to the synthesis of the Polyamid-fibres of the US company DuPont in the year 1932. The production and machines for the manufacture of cheaper manufacture are an invention of the Germans.
The Germans, commonly labelled as "The Nazis", had discovered one coloured artificial fibres with the characteristics of wool, artificial glimmer, high achieving butter churners and bread baking machines, artificial blood plasma and record turntables, to turn ten records automatically. The Infrared night vision equipment which was discovered with a sense of wonder, was immediately utilised against the Japanese, as well the method of cooling, which resuscitated those who were otherwise doomed to death.
They discovered rolls of plastic-like materials (tape for megaphones), which had an emulsion of Iron-oxide on one side, and on which could be filed the radio programs of an entire day - without gramophone needle and irritating external noises. At IG Farben they found 50,000 recipes for colours, which had been unattainable hitherto by the Americans. Another novelty was yeast, which could be produced in unlimited amounts and able to endure higher temperatures and which contained more protein and calories than beef.
There were revolutionary machines for the production of needles and of lady's stockings which would not ladder. In the whole world existed no method as the German one to mass produce cheese. They discovered the smallest and virtually indestructible condensation apparatus, as well the method of pasteurising milk, which had been tried in vain by the Americans.
Here we need to mention too the sensational German invention of the Infra red equipment, with the help of which it was made possible to see at night. German cars were able to drive at any speed even in total darkness and could make out objects at about a distance of two hundred meters as clearly as in daytime.
Tanks with this equipment were able to see signs at a distance of two miles. A German rifleman was able to use the Infra red long distance target range to shoot an enemy in total darkness. (8) The Americans utilised this plundered secret for the first time in Okinawa (April- June 1945) with amazing success.
But as well in the sphere of medicine the Germans had entered into revolutionary realms. For instance had Germans found a way of producing synthetic blood plasma. This was called "Capain" and the end result was equal to natural plasma. An other discovery was "Periston", a substitute for the thinning of blood. Another product of oxidisation of Adrenalin "adrenichtome" was produced by the Germans (called Nazis) in great quantities for combatting high blood pressure. "In the USA annually 700,000 die from this condition, so the population can be served with this discovery" as Walker proudly announced.
Of course at first there were rumours that "Nazi Scientists" had frozen trial persons to death, in order to resuscitate them afterwards. Finally, the American/Jewish Alpine Expert (Michael Bar-Zonat) found four "Nazi physicians" in a laboratory of the institute of aeronautic medicine on the Estate Hirschau in Bavaria. An American Medicine-Corps-Major, Leo Alexander, interrogated these physicians in June 1945, to establish, if experiments were conducted with human victims.
The true circumstances remained unresolved, especially since all laboratory equipment for small animals was carefully preserved, yet all equipment for larger animals was destroyed. Reports and files in regards to human experiments were nowhere to be found. But just then the allied Radio brought a terrible announcement about the concentration camp Dachau, where examinations were conducted on prisoners who had been in these freezing experiments. The wireless named the SS physician Dr. Siegmund Rascher as there responsible officer. Alexander travelled to the 7th American Army, who was in charge of the area in question and who had the reputation of having confiscated an amount of secret documents from the offices of the German protection units (Schutzstaffel).
And indeed , Alexander found a complete final report personally addressed to the SS Reichs leader Heinrich Himmler. In this, there is reported of seven individuals, who were dipped naked into ice water, until they lost consciousness. In this time they were continually monitored and readings recorded. Eg, the reactions of the skin, the inner temperature of the stomach, the pulse, blood sugar readings, reactions of blood corpuscles, bone marrow viscosity etc. In about 53 to 106 minutes the trial persons had died. The allies saw it as an admission of murder on seven persons. Yet this declaration is erroneous, since the German scientists succeeded to revive these clinically dead persons (total ceasing of heart function and breathing), by immediate dipping into hot water (122 degree Fahrenheit/ 50 degree Celsius). (In every one of the dread cases of this experiment the subjects were successfully revived, both temporarily and permanently, by immediate application of water.)
Even this, for the army important research resul,t was immediately transferred to the troops still fighting against Japan, to save fliers who could still be saved after lethal freezing experiences after being shot down. Exactly these cold exposure experiments saved Americans years of experimentation and research, according to a military surgeon of the American Army. The Germans technique for treatment after prolonged and usually fatal exposure to cold was regarded as revolutionary.
Nowadays this method of treatment after cold exposure has been adopted by all American air- and sea rescue services and is generally recognised by modern science branches. (9)
To add further to these explanations is only to say that it was no secret that there have been experiments done with humans. But in regards to these it is to necessary to stress that for these experiments were chosen volunteers. In the case of inmates of concentration camps these were informed of the risks involved before the examinations and experiments. They were lured with better prison conditions, shorter sentences or even immediate release from prison. The experiments with cold exposure have had trial runs with small animals before they were tried on humans. If is really came to cases of death has never been scientifically proved to date.
Also in the area of the textile branch had the search for German scientific and industrial secrets revealed hitherto unknown facts. For instance had the process of the German company of Rayon-knitting machines been able to save space and yet increase the production by 150%. Their left-by-left method in woven products resulted in non-laddering, durable Lady's stockings. A new German- developed machine for the manufacture of needles, would, according to Walker, revolutionise business in the USA as well as in the UK. In this case the skin or fibre had to be manipulated, and with the addition of the enzyme aspergil paracitius not only resulted in better wool but also in a 10% higher yield.
In the branch of food production, medicine and military technology were the secrets thus discovered no less impressive. One of the secrets of the food and nutrition industry was to sterilise fruit juices without the use of heat. The pasteurising process of milk by means of ultra violet rays always resulted in failure in other countries, yet the Germans found by way of extending the range of vision tubes considerably it was possible while at the same time enriching the milk with vitamin D. In a factory in Kiel British researchers of "the joint intelligence committee" found that cheeses of the "Holländer" and "Tilsit" kind were being produced by a new method at an unbelievable speed.
The cheese industry worldwide was not capable of anything coming remotely close. A dairy near Hamburg produced butter of a kind and quality highly prized by Americans, by means of a un-interrupted churning butter machine, the invention by the dairy machine factory in Stuttgart. This machine required less space than American machine and produced 1500 pounds of butter per hour. The machine was promptly shipped to the USA. Another novelty was to produce yeast in un-limited amounts, which besides that, was capable to be used at considerably higher temperatures and had double the amount of protein and several times higher than beef. Also the Germans had developed a method of preserving food by certain freezing techniques or conserve bread by means of a covering emulsion to lengthen its life to about eight months.
Of greatest importance for the future were "the Nazi secrets" in the sphere of aeronautics and of the different types of remote-control projectiles. The V2-rocket, which bombarded London, as commented on by an army-air force publication was a mere toy in comparison to what was envisaged by the Germans. When the war ended, the Americans knew that the Germans (the Nazis!) had 138 types of remote-controlled projectiles and -ignitions using: "Radio waves, radar systems, continual waves, Infrared, ultra sound, light trees and magnetism, just to mention a few."
For the propulsion were used all methods of jet drive, as also for lower, as well as supersonic speeds. Jet propulsion was even used for helicopters. The fuel used was lead to the fuel chambers in the points of the rotor blades and ignited, which caused them to rotate like the knives of a lawnmower. The German A4 Rocket, which was just then taken into production in great numbers, when the war ended, was 64 feet long, weighed more than 24,000 pounds and flew up to 230 miles distance. It rose about 100 miles above the earth and had a top speed of 3735 miles per hour, which is three times as fast as the rotation of the Earth, as it rotates around its own axle at the Equator. The secret of its top speed was the rocket motor, that burnt a mixture of liquid oxygen and alcohol.
This rocket was either radio controlled or self-guided by gyroscopic means to its target. Since the rocket was several times faster than sound, it could not be heard before it hit.
Another German rocket, which was still being developed, received the demarcation "A9". This rocket was bigger still, 29,000 pounds, and had wide wingspans, which enabled it to fly a distance of 3000 miles. It was produced in the famous Peenemünde army-trial station and achieved the unbelievable speed of 5670 miles per hour (about 8000 km/hr).
One long distance bomber, which, as the documents proclaim, had not yet been able to be produced, because the war had finished too soon, would have been capable of reaching New York from Germany within 40 minutes. Guided by just one pilot in an high pressure cabin it reached a height of about 154 miles. It was catapulted at 500 miles per hour, in order to reach its height in just 4 minutes. From there it would be gliding through the outer atmosphere, using up its fuel and then push down its target. With a hundred bombers of this kind the Germans estimated to be able to destroy every city on Earth in military actions lasting only a few days.
The Germans had also put inventions in place, which concerned themselves with the pilots, who would have to leave the plane at super speeds. Normally the head would be severed and the parachute would be riddled with holes upon opening. In order to prevent these unhappy events, an apparatus was invented, which would catapult the pilot instantly outside. The parachute was already full of holes, which was formed from bands, in criss-cross fashion, which slowed his fall until the decreasing pressure automatically freed the normal parachute.
A Nazi variation to radio piloted projectiles was the underwater torpedo, which would unerringly pursue its target, attracted by the noise of the propeller of the ship under attack. It functioned at about 40 miles per hour and left no vapor trail. As soon as it was underneath the target the explosion followed.
In the light of these fabulous inventions of the German Reich and the production of such futuristic weapons, the oft repeated slogans to urge the people to continue their war efforts by the ministry of propaganda of the German Reich appeared therefore quite feasible and by no means only nonsensical talk. In fact, had the war lasted just a few months longer or had the invasion been postponed by only half a year the war could have been won by Berlin. Some of these weapons were only in the trial stages or in the beginning of production and could have been ready for use, given more time. Alone the effect of radio directed weapons with their great accuracy would have created some horror. But not only these remote controlled projectiles, but also the jet aircrafts would have destroyed the allied bombing units, because the radio controlled torpedoes would have eliminated the enemy troop transports and warships.
According to the American clergy man Ludwig A. Fritsch the Americans stole from the Germans, those "giants of science, who had discovered the Tuberculosis-, Typhoid- and Diphtheria- Bacillus, as well as its antidotes, to free mankind from these plagues, who were able to split the atom and who found the x-rays, who were able to make fat from coal and who constructed the finest instruments on Earth," (10) Patents by the hundreds of tons, thefts whose value is not to be estimated, well into the billions in those days, which in our days would be worth well into the trillions of dollars, or, as the "Westfälische Nachrichten" newspaper so soberly exclaimed in January 1947 in these words: "With the removal of its patents and inventions, the German people have in fact paid reparations of such an extent, as no other nation in history has ever done before. These facts are being more or less conveniently overlooked abroad." And to this may be added, by post-war Germany as well!
The total quantity and value of patents stolen by the Allies can only be a rough estimate. The US-American professor for history (California and Düsseldorf), John Gimel, draws our attention to examples, in which the intellectual labour of a single German scientist or technician alone brought profits of X-million Dollars to the American companies(11). According to the disclosures of this historian the Allied forces stole German intellectual property and patents valued in the vivinity of 4,8 Billion to 12 Billion dollars.
According to the protocol of the Conference of representatives of companies and experts on 16. June 1948 in Königsstein the total value of the stolen drawings, patents and trademarks fluctuates between 12 to 30 Billion DM (Mark), of which the last figure seems most likely the more accurate. In the way of German intellectual property the "victors" confiscated about 346,000 German patents as war plunder, of which were 200,000 German patents, registered in foreign countries. Furthermore to be included in the count, there were 20,870 German trademarks and as many as 50,000 new colour shades, that had been developed in the IG Farben research centres. All in all the confiscations meant a loss for Germany of about 30 Billion DM according to Herbert Grabert. (As of 1952) (13).
For the necessary estimation of the value for the total quantity of the stolen patents alone, there exists, not surprisingly, no final and checkable number anywhere, not even in government departments where they could be expected to be held. So for instance, could the DIHT (Deutsche Industrie und Handelstag) only confess, that "unfortunately such knowledge is not available" (14)
And the DPMA (Deutsches Patent und Markenamt) found "it not possible to quantify the value of reparations incurred, due to the time-honoured confiscation by way of protective rights of German patents" (15) , while the Austrian Patent Office declares, that "examinations in regards to the mentioned stolen patents are entirely unknown." (16)
According to what guidelines could the losses and damages to the German Reich and the German nation be evaluated? The value of the stolen patents and products and the time spent and the costs necessary for the development of the products have to be added. The loss of profit for the German economy has to be worked out. Just in case such a cost-evaluation is at all possible- for at the end of the Nineteen Forties and the beginning of the Fifties such an endeavour on part of the West German Industry and Handelskammer (chamber of commerce) failed, for reasons of un-equal back-wash of companies, who feared taxation consequences if they gave the true values of their losses (17), even if this approximate valuation would be an estimation of astronomical proportions.
For C. Lester Walker the unbelievable multitude of volume appears as follows: "In 1945, the greatest theft of intellectual material took place. The discovered and stolen scientific, industrial and military secrets of National Socialist Germany were, Walker quotes with view of Washington, the greatest of this kind of robbery in the world, the first common and total exploitation of the intellectual material of an entire nation". In fact, it represents the greatest haul of intellectual property in human history.
Footnotes:
1 For details view Claus Nordbruch's book: ""Der deutsche Aderlaß. Wiedergutmachung an Deutschland und Entschädigung für Deutschland", Tübingen 2003, p 329 ff
2 Hans Dollinger (Hg) "Deutschland unter Besatzungsnächten 1945 1949, Seine Geschichte in Texten, Bildern und Dokumenten 1945-1949. München 1967 P. 282.
3 Compare Thomas STAMM ''"Zwischen Staat und Selbstverwaltung. Die deutsche Forschung in Wiederaufbau 1945 - 165" , Cologne 1981. p. 45
4 Michael Bar-Zohar, "Die Jagd auf die deutschen Wissenschaftler 1944 - 1960", Berlin 1966, page 48.
5C.Lester Walker, "translated edition, from Hans Werner Woltersdorf, "Die größte Geistbeute der Weltgeschichte", typed Manuscript o.O.u.o. J., S. 6
6 Michael Bar-Zohar, aaO. /(add. 4) P 152
7 Tom Bower, "Verschwörung Paperclip, NS-Wissenschaftler" München 1988, P 111f.
8 "German cars could drive at any speed in total blackout, seeing objects clear as day two hundred meters a head. Tanks with this device could spot targets two miles away. As sniper's cockpit enabled German riflemen to pick off a man on total blackness".
9 C. Lester Walker, "Secrets by the thousands", in Harper's Magazune, October 1946, p. 329ff., quoted http://www.histropgraphyproject.com/documents/ 19461000german_secrets.html
10 Ludwig A. Frisch, "Amerikas Verantwortung für die Verbrechung am deutschen Volk", Grabert, Tübingen 1969, P. 63
11 ebeda P. 100 f
12 ebeda P 100 f industrial disarmament 1945 - 1948", New Brunswick, 1946 P. 142
12 Nicholas Balabkins, "Germany under direct control. Economic aspects of industrial disarmament 1945 - 1948", New Brunswick, 1946 S 142
13 Herbert Grabert, "Hochschullehrer klagen as. Vom der Demontage deutscher Wissenschaft", Göttingen 1952, P. 25
14 From the letter by the German Industrie and Handelstag written to the Author on 20. July 2000.
15 Written to the author by the Deutschen Patenten- und Markenamtes, 31 August 2000.
16 Written to the author by the Österreichischen Patentamts von 3. August 2000.
17 Comp. John Gimbel, "Science Technology, and Reparations, Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany", Stanford 1990, P. 158
From the series 'Corrections To Moden History, The Treat Wendig' Book 2 Published by Grabert Publishers, 72006 Tübingen, PO. Box 169
Mito nacionalista sionista de exilio forzoso
Israel deliberadamente se olvida de su historia
Un historiador israelí sugiere que la diáspora fue la consecuencia, no de la expulsión de los hebreos de Palestina, sino de hacer proselitismo en el norte de África, el sur de Europa y el Oriente Medio
Por Schlomo Sand
Cada israelí sabe que él o ella es el descendiente directo y exclusivo de un pueblo judío que ha existido desde que recibió la Torá (1) en el Sinaí. Según este mito, los Judios se escapó de Egipto y se establecieron en la Tierra Prometida, donde se construyó el glorioso reino de David y Salomón, que posteriormente se dividió en los reinos de Judá y de Israel. Ellos experimentaron dos exiliados: después de la destrucción del primer templo, en el siglo 6 aC, y del segundo templo, en el año 70.
Dos mil años de vagar trajo la Judios a Yemen, Marruecos, España, Alemania, Polonia y profundo de Rusia. Pero, la historia, siempre se las arregló para mantener los vínculos de sangre entre sus comunidades dispersas. Su singularidad nunca se vio comprometida.
Al final de las condiciones siglo 19 comenzó a favor de su retorno a su antigua patria. Si no hubiera sido por el genocidio nazi, millones de Judios habría cumplido el sueño de 20 siglos y repoblado Eretz Israel, la tierra bíblica de Israel. Palestina, una tierra virgen, había estado esperando por sus habitantes originales a regresar y despertarlo. Perteneció a los Judios, y no a una minoría árabe que no tenía antecedentes y había llegado allí por casualidad. Las guerras en las que el pueblo errante reconquistado sus tierras eran sólo, la violenta oposición de la población local era penal.
Esta interpretación de la historia judía se desarrolló como talento, los historiadores imaginativa basada en los fragmentos supervivientes de la memoria religiosa judía y cristiana para construir una genealogía continua para el pueblo judío. Historiografía abundante judaísmo abarca muchos enfoques diferentes.
Pero ninguno ha cuestionado los conceptos básicos desarrollados a finales de los siglos 20 19 y principios. Los descubrimientos que pudieran amenazar esta imagen de un pasado lineal fueron marginados. El imperativo nacional rechazó cualquier contradicción o desviación de la historia dominante. Departamentos universitarios dedicados exclusivamente a "la historia del pueblo judío", a diferencia de aquellos que enseñan lo que es conocido en Israel como la historia general, hizo una contribución importante a esta visión selectiva. El debate sobre qué constituye la judeidad tiene evidentes consecuencias jurídicas, pero los historiadores ignorado: en la medida en que les corresponda, cualquier descendiente de las personas obligadas al exilio hace 2.000 años es un Judio.
Tampoco los investigadores oficiales de los últimos unirse a la controversia provocada por los "nuevos historiadores" de la década de 1980. La mayoría de los número limitado de participantes en este debate público eran de otras disciplinas o no, los círculos académicos: sociólogos, orientalistas, lingüistas, geógrafos, politólogos, académicos literarios y arqueólogos desarrollado nuevas perspectivas sobre el pasado judío y sionista. Departamentos de la historia judía se mantuvo a la defensiva y conservadora, basándose en las ideas recibidas. Si bien ha habido algunos avances importantes en la historia nacional en los últimos 60 años (una situación poco probable que cambie en el corto plazo), los hechos que han surgido frente a cualquier historiador honesto con cuestiones fundamentales.
Los mitos fundadores sacudido
¿Es la Biblia un texto histórico? Por escrito durante la primera mitad del siglo 19, el primero de los modernos historiadores judíos, como Isaak Markus Jost (1793-1860) y Leopold Zunz (1794-1886), no lo creo. Consideraban que el Antiguo Testamento como una obra teológica que reflejan las creencias de las comunidades religiosas judías después de la destrucción del Primer Templo. No fue sino hasta la segunda mitad del siglo que (1817-91 Heinrich Graetz) y otros desarrollaron un "nacional" visión de la Biblia y transformado viaje de Abraham a Canaán, la salida de Egipto y el reino unido de David y de Salomón en un pasado nacional auténtica. Por la repetición constante, posteriormente, los historiadores sionistas han convertido a estos bíblica "verdades" en la base de la educación nacional.
Sin embargo, durante la década de 1980 un terremoto sacudió estos mitos fundadores. Los descubrimientos realizados por la arqueología de la "nueva" desacreditado un gran éxodo en el siglo 13 antes de Cristo. Moisés no pudo haber llevado a los hebreos de Egipto a la Tierra Prometida, por la sencilla razón de que el territorio de este último fue de Egipto en el tiempo. Y no hay rastro de la revuelta ya sea un esclavo contra el imperio faraónico o de una repentina conquista de Canaán por los forasteros.
Tampoco existe ningún rastro o la memoria del magnífico reino de David y Salomón. Recientes descubrimientos señalan la existencia, a la vez, de dos pequeños reinos: Israel, el más poderoso, y de Judá, la Judea futuro. La población en general de Judá, no entró en el exilio siglo 6 aC: sólo sus élites políticas e intelectuales se vieron obligados a establecerse en Babilonia. Este encuentro decisivo con la religión persa dio a luz al monoteísmo judío.
Luego está la cuestión del exilio de 70 DC. No ha habido ninguna investigación real en este punto de inflexión en la historia judía, la causa de la diáspora. Y por una razón simple: los romanos nunca desterrado cualquier nación desde cualquier punto de la costa oriental del Mediterráneo. Aparte de los prisioneros esclavizados, la población de Judea siguió viviendo en sus tierras, incluso después de la destrucción del segundo templo. Algunos convertidos al cristianismo en el siglo 4 º, mientras que la mayoría abrazó el Islam en el siglo 7 conquista árabe.
La mayoría de los pensadores sionistas eran conscientes de ello: Yitzhak Ben Zvi, más tarde presidente de Israel, David Ben Gurión, el Primer Ministro, lo aceptó en fecha tan tardía como 1929, el año de la gran revuelta palestina. Ambos declararon en varias ocasiones que los campesinos de Palestina eran los descendientes de los habitantes de la antigua Judea (2).
Proselitismo celo
Pero si no hubo exilio después de 70 DC, donde hicieron todos los Judios que han poblado el Mediterráneo desde la antigüedad vienen? La cortina de humo que esconde la historiografía nacional de una realidad asombrosa. Desde la revuelta de los Macabeos de la 2 ª mitad de siglo aC hasta la revuelta de Bar Kojba del 2do siglo AD, el judaísmo era la religión más activamente proselitista. El judeo-Asmoneos Helénica convertidos a la fuerza de la Idumeos de Judea y el sur de la Itureans de Galilea y los integre en el pueblo de Israel. Judaísmo propagación en todo el Oriente Medio y alrededor del Mediterráneo. El 1r siglo AD vio la aparición en el Kurdistán moderno del reino judío de Adiabene, sólo uno de muchos que convirtió.
Los escritos de Flavio Josefo, no son la única prueba del celo proselitista de los Judios. Horacio, Séneca, Juvenal y Tácito estaban entre los escritores romanos que temían. La Mishná y el Talmud (3) autorizó la conversión, incluso si los sabios de la tradición talmúdica expresó sus reservas frente a la creciente presión de la cristiandad.
Aunque el triunfo de principios de siglo 4 º de la cristiandad no marca el final de la expansión judía, el proselitismo judío relegado a los márgenes del mundo de la cultura cristiana. Durante el siglo 5, en el Yemen moderna, un reino judío vigoroso surgió en Himyar, cuyos descendientes conservan su fe a través de la conquista islámica y hasta el día de hoy. Las crónicas árabes hablan de la existencia, durante el siglo 7, de judaizado tribus bereberes, y al final del siglo, la legendaria reina judía Dihya impugnó el avance árabe en el noroeste de África. Bereberes judíos participaron en la conquista de la Península Ibérica y ayudó a establecer la simbiosis única entre los Judios y musulmanes que caracteriza la cultura hispano árabe.
La conversión en masa más importante se produjo en el siglo 8, en el reino Khazar masiva entre los mares Negro y Caspio. La expansión del judaísmo desde el Cáucaso en la actual Ucrania creó una multiplicidad de comunidades, muchas de las cuales se retiraron de las invasiones mongolas del siglo 13 en Europa oriental. Allí, con Judios de las tierras eslavas del sur de Alemania y lo que hoy es moderno, que formaron la base de la cultura yiddish (4).
Prisma del sionismo
Hasta aproximadamente 1960, los complejos orígenes del pueblo judío, fueron más o menos a regañadientes reconocido por la historiografía sionista. Pero a partir de entonces fueron marginados y finalmente borrado de la memoria pública israelí. Las fuerzas israelíes que capturaron Jerusalén en 1967 creían ser los descendientes directos del mítico reino de David en lugar de - Dios no lo permita - de guerreros bereberes o de caballeros jázaros. Los Judios presuntamente de un grupo étnico específico que habían regresado a Jerusalén, su capital, de 2.000 años de exilio y errante.
Esta monolítico, edificio lineal se supone que es apoyado por la biología, así como la historia. Desde la década de 1970, supuestamente la investigación científica llevada a cabo en Israel, ha luchado desesperadamente para demostrar que Judios en todo el mundo están estrechamente relacionados genéticamente.
La investigación sobre los orígenes de las poblaciones constituye ahora un ámbito legítimo y popular de la biología molecular y el cromosoma masculino Y se ha otorgado la condición de honor en la frenética búsqueda del origen único del "pueblo elegido". El problema es que esta fantasía histórica ha venido a apoyar la política de la identidad de la Estado de Israel. Al validar un esencialista, la definición etnocéntrica del judaísmo alienta a una segregación que separa de los no-Judios Judios - sean árabes, los inmigrantes de Rusia o de los trabajadores extranjeros.
Sesenta años después de su fundación, Israel se niega a aceptar que existen para el bien de sus ciudadanos. Durante casi un cuarto de la población, que no son considerados como Judios, esto no es su estado legal. Al mismo tiempo, Israel se presenta como la patria de los Judios en todo el mundo, aun cuando estos ya no son perseguidos los refugiados, pero los ciudadanos plenos e iguales de otros países.
A etnocracia mundial invoca el mito de la nación eterna, reconstituido en la tierra de sus ancestros, para justificar la discriminación interna contra sus propios ciudadanos. Seguirá siendo difícil de imaginar una nueva historia de los judíos, mientras que el prisma del sionismo sigue fragmento de todo dentro de un espectro etnocéntrico. Pero Judios en todo el mundo han tendido siempre a formar comunidades religiosas, en general, por la conversión; que no se puede decir que comparten un origen étnico es de origen único y el desplazamiento de más de 20 siglos de vagar.
El desarrollo de la historiografía y la evolución de la modernidad fueron las consecuencias de la invención del Estado-nación, lo que preocupa a millones durante los siglos 19 y 20. El nuevo milenio ha sido testigo de esos sueños comienzan a hacerse añicos.
Y los académicos más y más análisis, disección y la deconstrucción de las grandes historias nacionales, especialmente en los mitos de origen común tan querido por los cronistas del pasado.
Shlomo Sand es profesor de historia en la Universidad de Tel Aviv y el autor del comentario le fut pueblo Judío inventé (Fayard, París, 2008)
Zionist nationalist myth of enforced exile
Israel deliberately forgets its history
An Israeli historian suggests the diaspora was the consequence, not of the expulsion of the Hebrews from Palestine, but of proselytising across north Africa, southern Europe and the Middle East
By Schlomo Sand
Every Israeli knows that he or she is the direct and exclusive descendant of a Jewish people which has existed since it received the Torah (1) in Sinai. According to this myth, the Jews escaped from Egypt and settled in the Promised Land, where they built the glorious kingdom of David and Solomon, which subsequently split into the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. They experienced two exiles: after the destruction of the first temple, in the 6th century BC, and of the second temple, in 70 AD.
Two thousand years of wandering brought the Jews to Yemen, Morocco, Spain, Germany, Poland and deep into Russia. But, the story goes, they always managed to preserve blood links between their scattered communities. Their uniqueness was never compromised.
At the end of the 19th century conditions began to favour their return to their ancient homeland. If it had not been for the Nazi genocide, millions of Jews would have fulfilled the dream of 20 centuries and repopulated Eretz Israel, the biblical land of Israel. Palestine, a virgin land, had been waiting for its original inhabitants to return and awaken it. It belonged to the Jews, rather than to an Arab minority that had no history and had arrived there by chance. The wars in which the wandering people reconquered their land were just; the violent opposition of the local population was criminal.
This interpretation of Jewish history was developed as talented, imaginative historians built on surviving fragments of Jewish and Christian religious memory to construct a continuous genealogy for the Jewish people. Judaism’s abundant historiography encompasses many different approaches.
But none have ever questioned the basic concepts developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Discoveries that might threaten this picture of a linear past were marginalised. The national imperative rejected any contradiction of or deviation from the dominant story. University departments exclusively devoted to “the history of the Jewish people”, as distinct from those teaching what is known in Israel as general history, made a significant contribution to this selective vision. The debate on what constitutes Jewishness has obvious legal implications, but historians ignored it: as far as they are concerned, any descendant of the people forced into exile 2,000 years ago is a Jew.
Nor did these official investigators of the past join the controversy provoked by the “new historians” from the late 1980s. Most of the limited number of participants in this public debate were from other disciplines or non-academic circles: sociologists, orientalists, linguists, geographers, political scientists, literary academics and archaeologists developed new perspectives on the Jewish and Zionist past. Departments of Jewish history remained defensive and conservative, basing themselves on received ideas. While there have been few significant developments in national history over the past 60 years (a situation unlikely to change in the short term), the facts that have emerged face any honest historian with fundamental questions.
Founding myths shaken
Is the Bible a historical text? Writing during the early half of the 19th century, the first modern Jewish historians, such as Isaak Markus Jost (1793-1860) and Leopold Zunz (1794-1886), did not think so. They regarded the Old Testament as a theological work reflecting the beliefs of Jewish religious communities after the destruction of the first temple. It was not until the second half of the century that Heinrich Graetz (1817-91) and others developed a “national” vision of the Bible and transformed Abraham’s journey to Canaan, the flight from Egypt and the united kingdom of David and Solomon into an authentic national past. By constant repetition, Zionist historians have subsequently turned these Biblical “truths” into the basis of national education.
But during the 1980s an earthquake shook these founding myths. The discoveries made by the “new archaeology” discredited a great exodus in the 13th century BC. Moses could not have led the Hebrews out of Egypt into the Promised Land, for the good reason that the latter was Egyptian territory at the time. And there is no trace of either a slave revolt against the pharaonic empire or of a sudden conquest of Canaan by outsiders.
Nor is there any trace or memory of the magnificent kingdom of David and Solomon. Recent discoveries point to the existence, at the time, of two small kingdoms: Israel, the more powerful, and Judah, the future Judea. The general population of Judah did not go into 6th century BC exile: only its political and intellectual elite were forced to settle in Babylon. This decisive encounter with Persian religion gave birth to Jewish monotheism.
Then there is the question of the exile of 70 AD. There has been no real research into this turning point in Jewish history, the cause of the diaspora. And for a simple reason: the Romans never exiled any nation from anywhere on the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean. Apart from enslaved prisoners, the population of Judea continued to live on their lands, even after the destruction of the second temple. Some converted to Christianity in the 4th century, while the majority embraced Islam during the 7th century Arab conquest.
Most Zionist thinkers were aware of this: Yitzhak Ben Zvi, later president of Israel, and David Ben Gurion, its first prime minister, accepted it as late as 1929, the year of the great Palestinian revolt. Both stated on several occasions that the peasants of Palestine were the descendants of the inhabitants of ancient Judea (2).
Proselytising zeal
But if there was no exile after 70 AD, where did all the Jews who have populated the Mediterranean since antiquity come from? The smokescreen of national historiography hides an astonishing reality. From the Maccabean revolt of the mid-2nd century BC to the Bar Kokhba revolt of the 2nd century AD, Judaism was the most actively proselytising religion. The Judeo-Hellenic Hasmoneans forcibly converted the Idumeans of southern Judea and the Itureans of Galilee and incorporated them into the people of Israel. Judaism spread across the Middle East and round the Mediterranean. The 1st century AD saw the emergence in modern Kurdistan of the Jewish kingdom of Adiabene, just one of many that converted.
The writings of Flavius Josephus are not the only evidence of the proselytising zeal of the Jews. Horace, Seneca, Juvenal and Tacitus were among the Roman writers who feared it. The Mishnah and the Talmud (3) authorised conversion, even if the wise men of the Talmudic tradition expressed reservations in the face of the mounting pressure from Christianity.
Although the early 4th century triumph of Christianity did not mark the end of Jewish expansion, it relegated Jewish proselytism to the margins of the Christian cultural world. During the 5th century, in modern Yemen, a vigorous Jewish kingdom emerged in Himyar, whose descendants preserved their faith through the Islamic conquest and down to the present day. Arab chronicles tell of the existence, during the 7th century, of Judaised Berber tribes; and at the end of the century the legendary Jewish queen Dihya contested the Arab advance into northwest Africa. Jewish Berbers participated in the conquest of the Iberian peninsula and helped establish the unique symbiosis between Jews and Muslims that characterised Hispano-Arabic culture.
The most significant mass conversion occurred in the 8th century, in the massive Khazar kingdom between the Black and Caspian seas. The expansion of Judaism from the Caucasus into modern Ukraine created a multiplicity of communities, many of which retreated from the 13th century Mongol invasions into eastern Europe. There, with Jews from the Slavic lands to the south and from what is now modern Germany, they formed the basis of Yiddish culture (4).
Prism of Zionism
Until about 1960 the complex origins of the Jewish people were more or less reluctantly acknowledged by Zionist historiography. But thereafter they were marginalised and finally erased from Israeli public memory. The Israeli forces who seized Jerusalem in 1967 believed themselves to be the direct descendents of the mythic kingdom of David rather than – God forbid – of Berber warriors or Khazar horsemen. The Jews claimed to constitute a specific ethnic group that had returned to Jerusalem, its capital, from 2,000 years of exile and wandering.
This monolithic, linear edifice is supposed to be supported by biology as well as history. Since the 1970s supposedly scientific research, carried out in Israel, has desperately striven to demonstrate that Jews throughout the world are closely genetically related.
Research into the origins of populations now constitutes a legitimate and popular field in molecular biology and the male Y chromosome has been accorded honoured status in the frenzied search for the unique origin of the “chosen people”. The problem is that this historical fantasy has come to underpin the politics of identity of the state of Israel. By validating an essentialist, ethnocentric definition of Judaism it encourages a segregation that separates Jews from non-Jews – whether Arabs, Russian immigrants or foreign workers.
Sixty years after its foundation, Israel refuses to accept that it should exist for the sake of its citizens. For almost a quarter of the population, who are not regarded as Jews, this is not their state legally. At the same time, Israel presents itself as the homeland of Jews throughout the world, even if these are no longer persecuted refugees, but the full and equal citizens of other countries.
A global ethnocracy invokes the myth of the eternal nation, reconstituted on the land of its ancestors, to justify internal discrimination against its own citizens. It will remain difficult to imagine a new Jewish history while the prism of Zionism continues to fragment everything into an ethnocentric spectrum. But Jews worldwide have always tended to form religious communities, usually by conversion; they cannot be said to share an ethnicity derived from a unique origin and displaced over 20 centuries of wandering.
The development of historiography and the evolution of modernity were consequences of the invention of the nation state, which preoccupied millions during the 19th and 20th centuries. The new millennium has seen these dreams begin to shatter.
And more and more academics are analysing, dissecting and deconstructing the great national stories, especially the myths of common origin so dear to chroniclers of the past.
Shlomo Sand is professor of history at Tel Aviv university and the author of Comment le people juif fut inventé (Fayard, Paris, 2008)