Olavo/2004/0322

A Message to the Jews

Olavo de Carvalho
O Globo (Rio de Janeiro), March 20, 2004

I have been studying the issue of anti-Semitism thoroughly and for a considerable length of time; some Jewish organizations in Brazil have heard me talk about it and thus know that I am not, on that subject matter, either a novice, or a naïve, and least of all, a thoughtless tipster. Whoever dedicates a long time and considerable effort minding a problem ends up by raising questions which would not have occurred to a newcomer to the subject's analysis - and the former sometimes even finds answers which seem incomprehensible and shocking to whom has not even intimately asked those questions.

In May, 2002, when the leftist media were talking up the anti-Semitic threat personified by Jean-Marie Le Pen, I wrote: "Why should the Jews trust those who warn them against an unarmed enemy at the same time those very same ones help an armed enemy?" Why would the worldwide left be so anxious to protect the Jews against a hypothetical and future danger in France while they make any effort to surrender them to the claws of a real and immediate danger in their own land?"

On the one hand, Le Pen's anti-Semitism, though unarmed, was at least explicit and undeniable. On the other hand, Mel Gibson proclaims Jews were no guiltier than himself for Christ's murder, and notwithstanding, according to the enlightened media, there are reasons to fear him as if he
were the revived Inquisition.

I shall analyze the film, which raised such uproar, on another occasion. For the time being, I would like to call your attention to a detail: have you noticed anything strange in this sudden surge of philo-Judaism that
took over the worldwide leftist intelligentzia? Those very same who have endorsed such a sham as the "Massacre of Jenin," the same who compared Ariel Sharon to Adolf Hitler, now appear with their hearts full of brotherly zeal and love, selling to the Jewish people protection against the fearsome genocidal Mel Gibson. Will you really buy that?

The Pope, your proven and very loyal friend, says there is no danger, that "The Passion of the Christ" does not instill anti-Semitic feelings in anyone (recent surveys performed by the Jewish Research show it does not indeed), yet, would you rather listen to those fellows who at the conference in Durban plotted to condemn Zionism as a "racist ideology"? Abraham Foxman has already admited that the film as such is not anti-semitic, pro-Zionist intellectuals such as David Horowitz assure us that Mel Gibson is innocent, and you are still willing to give more credit to those wonderful creatures who took New York's streets chanting against the war in Iraq, hand in hand with Louis Farrakhan and David Duke?

Will you take actions against a farfetched hypothesis while exposing yourselves to a well known danger of accepting the services of untrustworthy lawyers, amongst whom, in Brazil, some are closely linked to the Foro de São Paulo[1], and through this, to Islamic terrorism? Will you allow yourself to be manipulated, as were the Spanish electors, and thus swindled, turning against friends? Something in my heart tells me it will not happen, that such a fabricated tragedy will not take place as so hideously planned. But the leftist media knows how to match deliberate suppression of facts with factoids. The Pope's official remarks in favor of the film have been omitted from or downplayed in almost all Brazilian newspapers. Opinions by American-Jews in favor of Gibson have been completely excluded, giving a false picture of hostile unanimity. Not surprisingly, a long interview with an ultramontane fringe group leader in São Paulo, where he endorses the hereditary guilt "of the Jews" in Christ's murder, was published. You read that and then see the proof that the Conservative Catholics are indeed anti-Semitic. What nobody tells you is that the referred leader is an isolated character, detested equally by TFP (Family, Tradition and Property) and by the S. Pio X Society and by all the traditionalist communities and societies. The interview cunningly depicted him as their legitimate representative.

My message to the Jews is simple: no evil will come to you from the Christian side. The enemies of Israel are today the enemies of Christendom. If you really want to know where the danger comes from, read the book by Rabbi Marvin S. Antelman, To Eliminate the Opiate (Jerusalem, The Zionist Book Club, 2 Vols.). Of course, there is no need to endorse his diagnosis in detail; but you will see that in general lines, he is on the right track - and that track is many leagues away and apart from Mel Gibson.

Brazilian writer and philosopher, b. 1947, Olavo de Carvalho is the author of, among others, Os Gêneros Literários: Seus Fundamentos Metafísicos ("Literary Genres and Their Metaphysical Foundations", 1996), Aristóteles em Nova Perspectiva ("Aristotle in a New Perspective", 1997), O Jardim das Aflições: Ensaio sobre o Materialismo e a Religião Civil ("The Garden of Afflictions: An Essay on Materialism and Civil Religion", 1998), O Futuro do Pensamento Brasileiro ("The Future of Brazilian Thought", 1998), O Imbecil Coletivo, I e II ("The Collective Imbecile", I and II). Presently in charge of the Philosophical Seminar at the Centro Universitário da Cidade (City Unniversity Center of Rio de Janeiro). Columnist of O Globo (the top Rio de Janeiro newspaper), Jornal da Tarde (São Paulo), Folha de S. Paulo (São Paulo) and Zero Hora (Porto Alegre). Website:http://www.olavodecarvalho.org

[1] Foro de São Pauo is a Communist organization, founded in the early-90's, co-chaired by Fidel Castro and Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, currently Brazil's president. It encompasses several leftit parties in Latin America, including guerrilla-terrorist groups, such as the FARC and Chilean MIR.