Moral v. Numerical

"Some of my best friends are Jews," said Historian Arnold Toynbee, speaking at Montreal's McGill University, but he also said other things that involved him in one of his periodic conflicts with some of his best friends' friends. At a time when many Jews, including ex-Prime Minister Ben-Gurion, are wondering about the role of world Jewry in relation to Israel (TIME, Jan. 6), Toynbee reiterated two statements made in his monumental work, A Study of History: 1) the Israeli treatment of Arabs during the war of 1948 is morally comparable to the Nazi treatment of the Jews; 2) the Jewish claim to Israel as a historic homeland is highly questionable, somewhat as if the Indians demanded the return of Canada.

Incensed, Israeli Ambassador to Canada Jacob Herzog challenged Toynbee to a public debate, which took place at McGill's Hillel House before a crush of students, newsmen and TV cameras. The right to Palestine, argued Herzog, has always been the central theme of Judaism, and three international actions* have up held it. But Herzog's main argument concerned the Israel-Nazi comparison. The Nazis deliberately killed 6,000,000 Jews ("For my people our mourning is endless, a mourning of eternity"), while the un fortunate uprooting of Arab communities was simply not a comparable event. Asked Herzog: "How can the two be mentioned in the same breath?"

Replied Toynbee: His original comparison between Nazis and Israelis had been moral, not numerical. "It is impossible to be wicked more than 100%. For example, I don't have to kill more than one man to be a murderer." Toynbee expressed surprise at the vehement reaction to his remarks. "To borrow a psychiatric phrase, I feel I have given the Jewish people a bit of a shock treatment. I have said something each of your consciences is saying to you. I would listen to your inner voice. I don't believe any person of Jewish faith can ever escape from his conscience, or indeed wishes to ... I leave you with your own consciences, and with these Arab refugees, who now number 800,000.

Jewish people have suffered murder, rob bery, expulsion from their homes for 2,500 years. The more experience one has of these things, the more moral duty there is to resist the temptation to work it off." Commented Protestant Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr: "As I wrote three or four years ago, I can't escape the feeling that, in spite of his best efforts at objectivity, Toynbee has a deep-set prejudice against the Jews."

* The 1917 Balfour Declaration, the 1923 League of Nations Mandate to Britain, the 1947 U.N. decision to establish the Israeli state.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.