The Humanity-Jewry Treaty
“What is the solution to the Jewish Question?“
I propose a treaty. A peace treaty between Humanity and Jewry.
Each side will give something, and each side will receive something.
Jewry will give Humanity a promise of introspection – to admit that antisemitism is at least in significant part a natural reaction to the intolerant scriptures of Judaism and the patterns of behavior by Jewry towards other nations; and to allow dialogue about what Judaism is, and what Judaism has done to the world. Not only to allow such dialogue, but to participate in it. To show up. To face the people Jews have hurt, and hear their stories out, and practice empathy.
And in return, Humanity will give Jewry a promise of safety: to never persecute any Jewish person solely on account of their heritage or their practicing of ethnic and religious customs, as long as those customs don’t violate the rights of anyone else.
Jewry will give up its hubris, and obtain safety in return.
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There is no reason whatsoever to disagree with this treaty. Rejection can only be motivated by hubris and religious supremacism. Something along the lines of:
“My god, the big Tetragrammaton, is the biggest and the best and the greatest, and all other gods ain’t shit, and we have the right to destroy all other gods and any nation or person that worships them! Our god says so!”
That’s the only rationale for rejecting this treaty.
And anyone who uses that rationale, who actually thinks that way, is quite clearly asking for war and conflict, and therefore doesn’t deserve safety, and has no one to blame but themselves if antisemitism ends up pogroming them. Because they endorsed the pogroming of others, solely on account of their religion. If a Jew believes that a Buddhist should be killed, just for being a Buddhist, as Deuteronomy 13 commands, then why do they deserve more rights and protection and safety than the Buddhist they want to kill? They don’t. And so they don’t deserve this treaty, or the safety that comes from it. They’re on their own.
But if the rest of Jewry isn’t violent like that – and those extremists don’t represent Jewry – then every other Jewish person can agree to the treaty, and marginalize the extremists who won’t. The rest of Jewry should deal with these maniacs, and take their power away, and make sure they can no longer represent the rest of the community.
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More Details
Let’s explain the treaty in a little bit more detail. What specific things are required of each side, in order to fulfill their end of the bargain?
Here is a list:
- Individual Agency
Humanity agrees to respect the individual agency of each person who is Jewish, and judge them only on their actions, and not any other’s actions.
Each and every individual human being is responsible for his or her own choices and actions – no one else’s. Not the collective activities of his or her nation, race, or ethnicity, and not the individual choices of any individual besides himself or herself.
An individual Jewish person, therefore, is not responsible for the acts of other individual Jews, and is only responsible for the collective actions of international Jewry to the extent that he or she identifies with the collective and supports or excuses the actions in question.
If a man is to be judged, then it should be by his own behavior, and not the identity group(s) to which he belongs. Individuals are not responsible for the collective behavior or consciousness of their group – except, of course, to the degree to which they themselves willingly participate in that behavior and contribute to the character of that consciousness.
To illustrate this principle, let’s use an example of a non-jewish group: The USA. Many Americans participated in the atrocity known as the Iraq Invasion of 2003, and cheered it on. Those individuals share in the culpability for it. But many others did not. Many even protested, and marched against the war. They are not culpable. Even though the collective group with which they identify did a horrible thing, they themselves as individuals did not. Individual choice is what matters, morally. Not group membership.
Thus, identifying as Jewish is not a crime, and Jews should never be persecuted on account of their identity.
2. Equal Moral Evaluation
Everyone agrees that the rules of morality apply equally to everyone. And this includes both Rights and Responsibilities. People of Jewish heritage have not only the same rights as everyone else, but the same responsibilities as everyone else.
If a non-Jew travels to a Jewish nation (i.e. Israel), buys a major Israeli newspaper, and starts using it to print material that undermines Jewish values and frays the cultural fabric of the Israeli nation, Israelis will rightly become suspicious of him, and wonder why a non-Jew is holding so much influence over their people, and using that influence to erode their culture and society. Jews would be suspicious. And rightfully so.
And likewise, Jews should expect the same suspicion in reverse, if they do the same thing to non-Jewish nations.
This does not single Jews out. It simply holds Jews to the same standards that all of humanity is held to.
3. Non-Interference
Jewish consciousness should stop trying to change the consciousness of other peoples, and should renounce whatever entitlement it has historically claimed on being “the light unto the nations.”
Nations don’t need light from Judea. They have plenty of light already. They don’t need tikkun-olam. Every society might need repairing, but Judea is no more qualified to perform this work than anyone else is. Judea must “get off its high horse,” and stop trying to impose its view of the world upon the rest of the world.
4. Respect for Host Nations
Jews should respect the customs, traditions, and cultures of their host nations. They don’t need to participate in those customs themselves, but they need to honor their host nation’s right to do so, and to continue doing so, and to pass its traditions down to its youth, and to retain its fundamental cultural and ethnic character. Jews must respect their host nation’s right to set its own path, choose its own destiny, and preserve its culture and demographic makeup.
This includes limitations both on immigration and on the accumulation of power within its key political, economic, and cultural institutions by Jews.
Jews know this principle. You’ve been practicing it, with Israel, for decades. You made Israel an ethnostate – a state with an openly declared mission of preserving its ethnic and cultural demography as Jewish, to serve as a homeland and refuge for Jews. So you know this principle. It’s not alien.
If the Knesset had the right to restrict immigration to almost exclusively Jews, and to deny immigration to non-Jews in order to preserve the Jewish demography of its population as Jewish, then Sweden has the right to do the same to preserve its own character as a Swedish nation – and the same goes for every other nation: England for the English, Germany for the Germans, France for the French, Japan for the Japanese, Egypt for the Egyptians, and so forth. It’s not racism. It’s not bigotry. You know it’s not, because you did it with Israel.
Since Jews did the same thing, with Israel, regarding non-Jews, you therefore should not object to non-Jews doing the same thing, in their nations, regarding Jews. Remember the principle of Equal Moral Evaluation.
5. Open Communication
Jews must allow discussion about their actions, both individual and collective, both contemporary and historical, without trying to shut it down as “antisemitism.”
Discussion of actions and their moral natures is not antisemitism, bigotry, harassment, or hatred.
Jews do not need to be banished from a society in order to protect that society – as long as that society is able to openly debate the actions of the Jews and the proper boundaries and limits to set to restrain their institutional influence. If people are able to openly discuss the risks of hiring a Jew to a position of power – such as a newspaper editor, for instance – then the preservation of native national predominance in these fields will likely be assured by simple Reason, and community loyalty – and will not require the crudeness of a blanket exclusion enacted through hard legislation.
Legislating against Jews isn’t necessary if individuals are free to make informed decisions about giving Jews power and influence. And the only way to ensure that such decisions are informed is to allow the free flow of information and communication. Humanity must retain an absolute commitment to free speech and open dialogue, and must not allow this foundation of liberty to be eroded at the behest of Jewry.
6. No More Child Genital Mutilation
Child circumcision is a grotesque criminal violation of human rights and bodily sovereignty. It is unlawful, everywhere, always. It must not occur on this planet.
This applies to everyone, including Jews, and Jews must accept it. You have the right to choose your own religion, and to teach it to your children – but you do not have the right to carve your religion permanently into their genitalia with a knife. That’s child sexual abuse, and will be treated accordingly. This is not negotiable. If your religion cannot perpetuate itself without attacking the genitals of children, then your religion deserves to fade into history. If it deserves to continue, then you can find a way to do so, without committing sex crimes against children.
This universal ban on knifing children doubtless triggers indignation among some Jews, but this is another example of Equal Moral Evaluation, because every religion – not just Judaism, but every religion – is already required to give up some of its traditions and forego some of its commandments, in the name of getting along with other religions. Muslims, for instance, are asked to give up:
-the jizya (tax on non-believers)
- -the ability to prohibit construction of non-Islamic houses of worship (churches, synagogues, temples)
- armed conquest of non-Islamic nations
- oppressive clothing rules for women
- calls to prayer that violate local noise ordinances
- genital mutilation of little girls (and boys)
In pluralistic societies, Muslims are (or should be) required to give up these things, and more.
Meanwhile, Hindus are required to give up:
- the caste system
- widows jumping on burning funeral pyres
- and those “festivals” where they dress up as demons and bite a live goat until it bleeds to death.
Meanwhile, Buddhists are required to give up buying children from their parents because they think they’re the reincarnation of a Lama.
All religions are required to make concessions, in the modern world, to accommodate diversity and get along with their neighbors. That’s the requirement for all religions, and Judaism should not be an exception.
Jews are required to stop knife-attacking children. Also, the chicken-swinging ritual (kaporos) has to stop. Genocide will also have to be renounced, even though it’s commanded in the Torah – which means, yes, portions of the Torah will have to be renounced. Deal with it. If you want to live in a tolerant society, then you have to reject your own religion’s intolerance first.
So the medicine prescribed here is not that the Jews be singled out for special restrictions, but rather, simply held to the same standards as everybody else. This cannot be called “antisemitic” by any honest person.
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Signing the Treaty
Where is this treaty to be signed, and who is to sign it?
Everywhere. Anyone can sign it. Simply make a decision that you agree with its terms. And then share it with others, and explain why they should sign it too – even if it’s without a pen or a keyboard.