The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State

by Benjamin Ginsberg

In this provocative book, Benjamin Ginsberg examines the cycle of Jewish success and anti-Semitic attack throughout the history of the Diaspora, with a concentrated focus on the "special case" of America. For Ginsberg, the essential issue is not anti-Jewish feeling, but the conditions under which such sentiment is likely to be used in the political arena. The Fatal Embrace identifies the political dynamics that, historically, have set the stage for the persecution of Jews.

Genres: History, Politics

293 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1993

About the author

Benjamin Ginsberg is the David Bernstein Professor of Political Science, Director of the Washington Center for the Study of American Government, and Chair of the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author or coauthor of 20 books including Presidential Power: Unchecked and Unbalanced, Downsizing Democracy: How America Sidelined Its Citizens and Privatized Its Public, Politics by Other Means, The Consequences of Consent, and The Captive Public. Before joining the Hopkins faculty in 1992, Ginsberg was Professor of Government at Cornell University. His most recent book is The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It Matters. Ginsberg’s published research focuses on political development, presidential politics, participation, and money in politics.

Reviews

[Clif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Benjamin Ginsberg has written a very good history book informed by his deep understanding of U.S. politics, with one major fault occurring toward the end.

Throughout history Jews, always being in a small minority within any state, have done what they could to prosper and protect themselves. This has been accomplished by serving the state in exchange for protection from the general public of that state.

Because of their respect for literacy and learning, Jews have often been the most educated people available to a ruler, making it very useful for him to call upon them to provide advice and management in both domestic and international affairs, in particular with handling the economy, Jews having been frequently restricted to money lending.

As Ginsberg so vividly relates, this arrangement is fraught with danger. Without any means of protection, Jews could be instantly repudiated by a ruler, allowing him to escape his own misdeeds by blaming them, almost a guarantee of popularity with a public that was then set free to take freely from the Jews, not only their money but their lives.

At first covering the history of these arrangements in Europe, Ginsberg follows with a comprehensive account of the history of Jews in and out of power in America, fully accepted at certain points only to be rejected at others according to the rise and fall of different interest groups who might be inherently anti-Semitic or the opposite. By throwing a new perspective on American history, this book is a must read for anyone who wants to better understand that history.

Ginsberg evenhandedly deals with Jews in America, not hesitating to point out how corrupt individuals invite criticism which could too easily be transformed into anti-Semitism by parties using it to gain power. Jews can be used or abused as needed with the consequences falling very lightly on non-Jews. Ginsberg masterfully describes various groups in American politics, their outlook and strategies. We see the elite of the eastern seaboard and the new industrial rich of the mid to late nineteenth century, the scheming of Richard Nixon and the zenith of government public service under LBJ as the Jews strive to stay afloat through it all.

The support of Jews for the civil rights movement is closely examined. How is it that the Jews who were so helpful in defending and extending the rights of American blacks in court, could end up being resented and rejected by later generations of blacks?

Then Ginsberg takes a wrong turn, but one that might be expected given the thesis that drives the book. After a single paragraph telling us that of course anti-Semitism must not be equated with anti-Zionism, he proceeds to conflate them. The last part of the book leaves no doubt that the author considers any American opinion against Israel as anti-Semitic and this is a let-down after all his careful work beforehand.

Israel was founded to create a state as a refuge for Jews, the basis of Zionism from the moment Theodore Herzl formalized it in the last years of the 19th century. The Fatal Embrace can be seen as a defense of this position since it proves through historical account that there is always risk in being a minority. Israel is, in this view, the solution to the problem of the book.

This leaves unsaid that to provide a seeming solution to one problem, a terrible wrong was done to innocent people that remains festering 70 years after Israel was born by means of dispossession and eviction of the Palestinian Arabs whose home was largely taken in 1948 and continues to be taken today. Ginsberg completely fails to acknowledge this. His convincing account supporting the idea that Jews, even in America, can never be secure, I accept. I must reject his implied view that bringing down cruelty on another small population of people is the solution, a small population that is only mentioned in passing in The Fatal Embrace.

It is unfortunate that this book was written so long ago, in 1993 just as Bill Clinton had taken office. Ginsberg's prediction for American Jews is dark and he gives plausible reasons for his view. In the event, things have improved for Jews in America well beyond their situation in 1993. Israel has been able to flout international law and world opinion as it openly continues ethnic cleansing while the United States protects the operation in both Congress and the UN. A large part of Israel's defense is the willingness to call any and all critics anti-Semitic.

Despite the activities of the neocons and the big bankers, both groups made up of a proportion of Jews far beyond that of Jews in the general population, there has been no anti-Semitic reaction as one might expect. Hillary Clinton proclaims that Israel's prime minister Netanyahu will be invited to the White House in the first month should she be elected president, an unprecedented action. Even so, there can never be a refutation of Ginsberg's warning message. For all the protection of Jews in America by government power, reaction can come at any time when power sees utility in it.

[Arthur Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deadly Enemy, Deadly Friend

Benjamin Ginsberg's The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State, which deals with the rise and fall of Jews in different societies, is an intellectual bombshell. A liberal American Jew who teaches political science at Johns Hopkins, Ginsberg makes observations about Jewish influence in government and society that would be deemed anti-Semitic if expressed by a Gentile. Ginsberg, however, does not criticize that Jewish power for being harmful to Gentiles; his only concern is the harm it can cause for Jews by provoking Gentiles to anti-Semitic actions.

***

Full review by Dr. Stephen Sniegoski continued here.

[Judy]

Ginsberg seems to assume that many if not most political stands taken by Jews or anyone else are done for personal gain. For example, Jews support equal rights for Blacks, mainly in order to achieve equal rights for themselves, political opinions thereby being self-serving. According to Ginsberg, "Jews have played major roles in building states- including the United States of America. In this embrace of the state, Jews have risen to great wealth and power. Time and again, however, the influence has proved to be temporary, as Jews become the touchstone of opposition to the regime they helped build. The embrace of state has proved to be fatal."

[Vagabond of Letters, DLitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10