May 01, 2009 “Jews Are Disproportionately Involved In Every Kind Of Insanity”—Stephen Steinlight On Immigration And The Jews
On
Thursday I quoted Stephen Steinlight, the
redoubtable but
lonely patriot who is trying to persuade his fellow
Jews that mass immigration—specifically
Muslim immigration—is bad for them, Steinlight said:
“What’s happened here is that the entire conservative
side of the cultural divide has been demonized as
potential extremist terrorists…I’m thinking that one day a group of FBI agents will come to CIS [Center
for Immigration Studies, where Steinlight is a
senior policy analyst]
and want to go through our files.”
These comments were part of two very long and rather
discursive interviews on
LukeFord.Net.
This website is run by an Australian immigrant of
Seventh Day Adventist heritage (and with an
unusual
career history) who has converted to Orthodox Judaism.
Part One is
here and Part Two
here.
Steinlight was still seething with rage over the
HIAS [Hebrew
Immigrant Aid Society] attempt to
repress him through a secret letter-writing
campaign. He had some memorably caustic moments.
There is a very
strong case to be made that the
attitude of the Jewish community is the single most
important element in determining US
immigration policy. So a selection of the remarks of
this dedicated immigration patriot is prime
Steinlight says:
"I spend a lot of time in shuls because I speak about
immigration to Jews. I spend a lot of Shabboses in
shuls. It ended up being part of the job…I find myself
amused when I go speak at synagogues, particularly
Reform synagogues, when my worst antagonist is
invariably the rabbi who will often interrupt what I’m
saying and will jump on me and who has only three things
to say — we were immigrants, he will tear
Leviticus 19:33 totally out of context, and then say
that anyone who disagrees with him is a
nativist. And then he’s finished because he has
nothing else to say.
“Leviticus 19:33: ‘You shall love the stranger.’… What’s
really being said here? What’s the translation? What
else does the Torah say? That wasn’t a charter of
independence for people dwelling among them. One law for
everybody. You better conform to our laws. If you put up
idols, we will stone you. If you want to become one of
us, you have to undergo circumcision. It’s saying that
if you dwell among us, you have to obey our laws….”
(This is a great contribution by Steinlight. As The
Kvetcher
has noted, this cliché seems to be central in the
Jewish thinking—or more properly emoting—about
immigration. Like the Statue of Liberty
doggerel for Americans generally.)
Steinlight continues:
“I would love to speak to Orthodox congregations. I’ve never had an
invitation to one. We’ve had ads in Jewish newspapers…
“African-Americans have fallen off
[leftist Jews']
moral radar screen. They don’t exist anymore. The new
fashion is Hispanics. Jews and blacks didn’t work out
very well. So Jews ran on. Jews are always dying to
dialogue and to be loved by everyone. Now they’ve gone
running off to the next multicultural context….”
“I was …AJC’s [American
Jewish Committee] representative at the
National
Immigration Forum, the chief body in this country
pushing for open borders and amnesty. It’s a really bad
group of people. I rarely use the word unAmerican. I was
brought up in a home where that was associated with
Joseph McCarthy, but I will use ‘unAmerican’ to
describe these people.
“The constituents of this body are mostly ethnic
identity groups that are all separatists. They don’t
believe there is any such thing as America or Americans
or American cultures. It’s merely a bunch of aggrieved
diaspora communities and sometimes they fall out with
each other because they argue about who is more
aggrieved. The only white people who were members of
this were Jews…
“…These are the kind of Jews who want to be citizens of
the world. They want to be cosmopolitan, and we know how
cosmopolitanism ended up for Jews under Stalin. I wish
these Jews would understand that even if you want to be
that, they’re not going to buy it. They’re not going to
take you. They’re not interested in you anymore. They
hate your guts."
“They don’t understand that this country is pretty much
the only place we’ve got apart from Israel where we are
not tolerated guests in somebody else’s house. Where we
are home and we are equal.
“Showing love to this country is appropriate and not
doing it is blind ingratitude and incredibly stupid and
endangering Jewish interests."
“My views on immigration evolved. I didn’t start out
believing in lower levels of immigration or change in
criteria for immigration. Jews are pathetically ignorant
of their own immigration history. Jews for the most part
were refugees, not immigrants.
“I started out thinking that immigration is the great
American story. It was all very emotional. Then going to
those meetings at the National Immigration Forum and
seeing who those people were pushing for open borders… I
would become sickened going to those meetings and I
would leave trembling with rage. That’s rare for me.”
In Part Two,
Steinlight goes on:
“The general coverage of this subject is appalling.
I wrote a long essay analyzing coverage of immigration
as a literary genre… The mainstream media is on the
other side… There’s a monolithic mindset. Of all the
aspects of the politically correct mindset, this seems
to be the holy of holies…”
At this point,
Luke Ford commented:
"It seems to me
that the primary reason for the near unanimity opinion
on this issue is that elites are so conditioned that
anything that has the slightest smack of racism is to be
fled from and abjured." (This, of course, is what
Peter
Brimelow has called
“Hitler’s Revenge”.)
Steinlight’s response:
“Yes. Also, they’re post-Americans. That is the great
dividing line between people who take my side, we
believe in the rule of law…but a lot of folks in the
elite…they tend to think of themselves as
multilateralists, universalists. They regard the
nation-state as old-fashioned and done with. I don’t
think they see themselves as American. One’s fundamental
sense of civic identity, how one sees oneself in
relation to the polity, is the driving force in this
debate.
“I am an American. My first identity is as an American.
My primary identity is as an American. My first concern
is the well being of my fellow citizens.
“Immigration is a zero-sum game. You have to pick sides.
For me, it is simple. I pick first my countrymen. I
think that those on the other side don’t care…there is
an animus against this country. Their over-sympathizing
with Mexicans or Central Americans is an expression of
their disdain for America even though that disdain is
impacting the least among us.
“God spare us all from
tikkun olam Jews. The rural white poor in this
country, they despise. They no longer particularly like
blacks because their self-loathing love was not
requited. Right now they think they can patronize
hispanics.
“Jews are disproportionately involved in every kind of
insanity.”
Luke Ford asked:
“What, if anything, has surprised you in this attempt to
silence you?”
Steinlight:
"A lot of things have
surprised me and been extraordinarily painful and
disappointing. It reveals something deplorable in the
heart of the Jewish establishment. That someone could
come out and conduct a surreptitious poison-pen campaign
based on lies supplied by the Southern Poverty Law
Center [VDARE.com: $PLC to us!],
a whole tapestry
woven together of quarter-truths and happenstance, to
describe me as a white supremacist. Where was David
Harris of the American Jewish Committee where I worked
for eight years? Why didn’t he stand up and say, ‘That’s
outrageous! I’ve known this man. This guy has stood
against bias and bigotry and racism all of his life.’
Where were the voices of outrage in the Jewish
community? They’ve run along like sheep.”
“Gideon
Aronoff
[HIAS President]
can’t debate an idea because he can’t write a sentence
and he can’t speak a sentence. He’s hopeless. He’s an
idiot. I’ve made mincemeat of him before congressional
committees on one occasion and I’ve made mincemeat of
him on other occasions. He’s a horse’s ass. I’m sure he
dislikes me intensely.
“HIAS — the Hebrew
Immigrant Aid Society — is Jewish in name only.
Basically it is involved in immigration and supporting
illegal immigrants. It has no particular Jewish focus.
“We were testifying to a Congressional panel bringing
faith perspectives. It was one of those typically
unbalanced (nine witnesses on their side and only two on
ours, Jim Edwards and me)…under
John Conyers,
who’s basically senile, and
Zoe Lofgren,
who’s got an IQ of 60, and
Luis Gutierrez,
who’s absolutely monstrous. One of the worst things
you can ever do is testify before Congress… Aronoff
ended up quoting Leviticus 19:33: ‘You shall love the
stranger.’… There was a really disgusting moment at the
end when we watched a Cardinal and a member of the
National Council of La Raza and someone from a
meat packing company go out the door together for
lunch.”
Luke Ford:
“What are the chances Gideon Aronoff wins this battle
with you?”
Steinlight:
“No. He’s picked the wrong person. I am not going to go
away. I’ve gotten speaking invitations as a result of
this….
“I like going to places that are hostile and I end up
converting people. That’s why Aronoff wants to shut me
up.
“If comprehensive immigration reform were ever to pass,
Heaven help us, it would have the most enduring and
palpable impact on this country of any piece of
legislation since the Emancipation proclamation.
“The heart of that legislation is not amnesty. That’s a
weapon of mass distraction. The heart of that is
doubling legal immigration. Given the way the system
works, the engine of extended family reunification,
chain immigration, it will mean 60 million to 100
million more Mexicans here in 20 years.
“You don’t want to be thinking about your bubbe and
zede’s immigration. You
want to be thinking about how immigration is going to
affect your grandchildren.”
Generally, we at VDARE.com regard CIS as another
herbivorous
ruminant on the immigration restraint slope.
Our liking for the helpful wonkery it produces is
qualified because of its unsporting habit of
triangulation against us.
Steven Steinlight however, is a different matter. He has
definitely put himself at the sharp end of this war.
Congratulate
him: and thank
Luke Ford for giving him a platform. |
