Japan and the Conflict in Western Asia

Texte d’une conférence donnée à l’Université Meiji, Tokyo, à l’occasion du lancement de l’édition japonaise du livre Au nom de la Torah : une opposition juive au sionisme de Yakov Rabkin.

Introduction :
The panel of scholars who deliberated in the first part of this event put the relationship between memories of the Holocaust and attitudes towards Israel in a broad comparative framework. They showed that the issue extends well beyond the limits of Jewish history and the ongoing crisis in Western Asia. Mass massacres in the 20th century constitute a stark reminder that progress in technology and science does not correlate with progress in morality and compassion. Moreover, the mass massacres in Nazi-occupied Europe became possible precisely because of advances- and a strong belief- in science. It was the alleged genetic inferiority of certain races that was invoked as the reason for the murder of millions of men, women and children.

This belief betrays the human propensity to worship a state, an ideology, or a nation, all of which makes us forget the humanity of the other. This is why Torah, the Jewish Bible, mentions 36 times the prohibition of exploiting and oppressing a weak person (a stranger, a widow and an orphan). The prohibition is usually formulated in this way : “Do not oppress the stranger because you yourself were a slave”. In other words, the memory of being weak and oppressed should lead one to compassion rather than to revenge and self-righteousness. Yet, many feel and act otherwise. They misuse past suffering as a license to make others suffer. This is why the Torah warns its followers of this human frailty, admonishes and, ultimately, threatens them with Divine punishments.

Pour lire cette intervention de Yakov Rabkin.