Tony Leah

Retired maintenance mechanic General Motors Oshawa. Unifor Local 222 activist. MA -School of Labour Studies - McMaster University.

[Prof. Eliot Jacobson @EliotJacobson]

Breaking News!
Code UFB!!!

Total fuckery is happening to the sea-surface temperatures in region Nino 3.4:

[Avi Lewis @avilewis]

The Israeli military has detained hundreds of activists who sailed to Gaza to break Israel’s blockade.

In the face of unending genocide and impunity, they continue to challenge Israel, to keep the spotlight on ongoing genocide.

At least 11 Canadians are among those taken.

We're calling on the federal government to drop its usual kid gloves treatment of Israel and exert real diplomatic pressure to secure their immediate release.

https://t.co/XP0ZmSf1Hp

[Asad🗽🍎 @AsadFromNYC]

For the first time in the history of the Great City of New York, its Mayor names and remembers the Nakba. And I get to be alive to see it.

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

Today marks Nakba Day, an annual day of remembrance to commemorate the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1949 during the creation of the State of Israel and the year that followed.

Inea is a New Yorker and a Nakba survivor. She shared her story with us — one of home, tradition and memory over generations.

[Tony Leah @tonyleah]

Question: What is your opinion about the establishment of a free National Jewish Palestine?
Einstein: Jewish National Home? Yes. Jewish National Palestine? No. I favor a free, bi-national Palestine at a later date after agreement with the Arabs.

[🅰pocalypsis 🅰pocalypseos 🇷🇺 🇨🇳 🅉 @apocalypseos]

Einstein opposed Zionist colonization in Palestine and predicted the current catastrophe

By Robin Philpot – Nov 5, 2024

His views on Israel and Zionism were concealed and distorted for decades

A few weeks before the creation of the State of Israel, Shepard Rifkin, a New York-based representative of the Stern Group, a Zionist paramilitary organization founded in Mandatory Palestine, requested that representatives of the group meet with Albert Einstein in the United States, “the greatest Jewish figure of the time,” according to journalist I.F. Stone. Einstein’s response was unequivocal:

“When a real and final catastrophe should befall us in Palestine the first responsible for it would be the British, and the second responsible for it the terrorist organizations built up from our own ranks. I am not willing to see anybody associated with those misled and criminal people.”

Einstein said that his “life was divided between equations and politics.” Yet, among his biographers—there are hundreds of them—and in the mainstream media, his extensive political writings on Israel and Zionism have been, at best, swept under the rug, or at worst, completely distorted, identifying him as a supporter of the State of Israel.

That is, until the late Fred Jerome sought them out, found them, had them translated (mostly from German), and published them in the book, Einstein on Israel and Zionism. Unfortunately, the first edition of this text, published by a New York publishing house, had a very small print run, was never promoted or made into an e-book, and sold out in no time. That is why Baraka Books has published a new edition with the agreement of Jocelyn Jerome, the author’s widow.

It was in Germany in the 1920s, a time of rampant antisemitism, when the theory of relativity was attacked as “Jewish science,” that Einstein was drawn to the Zionist movement. It was not until 1914, when he arrived in Germany, that he “discovered for the first time that he was a Jew,” a discovery he attributed more to “Gentiles than Jews.” Before that, he had seen himself as a member of the human species.

He called himself a “cultural Zionist,” but as early as 1921, Kurt Blumenfeld, a Zionist activist sent to recruit Einstein, warned Chaim Weizmann, the future president of Israel, about the great scientist:

“Einstein, as you know, is no Zionist, and I ask you not to try to make him a Zionist or to try to attach him to our organization. … Einstein, who leans to socialism, feels very involved with the cause of Jewish labor and Jewish workers… I heard… that you expect Einstein to give speeches. Please be quite careful with that. Einstein… often says things out of naïveté which are unwelcome by us.”

Apart from Einstein’s supposed “naivety,” Blumenfeld could not have said it better. Einstein would be a constant obstacle to the Zionist project of colonization of Palestine and the creation of the State of Israel until his death in 1955.

Here are some examples of the positions he took.

His exchanges with Chaim Weizmann, the future president of Israel, illustrate how important Einstein was to the Zionists, but more importantly, how his views differed from theirs. In a letter to Weizmann on November 25, 1929, he wrote:

“If we are not able to find a way to honest cooperation and honest pacts with the Arabs, then we have learned nothing during our two thousand years of suffering, and deserve the fate which will befall us."

The idea of “the fate which will befall us” recurs often. In 1929, he seems to have already foreseen that the nation state that the Zionists dreamed of creating without “honest cooperation and honest pacts” with their Palestinian neighbors would become what it is today, namely the most dangerous place in the world for Jews to live.

A few weeks later, on December 14, 1929, he wrote to Selig Brodetsky of the Zionist Organization in London, “I’m happy that we have no power. If national pigheadedness proves strong enough, then we will knock our brains out as we deserve.”

Furthermore, Leon Simon, one of his early editors and translators, wrote:

“There is in Professor Einstein’s nationalism no room for any kind of aggressiveness or chauvinism. For him, the domination of Jew over Arab in Palestine, or the perpetuation, or a state of mutual hostility between the two peoples, would mean the failure of Zionism.”

Unlike the vast majority of Zionists, Einstein’s support for a possible “Jewish homeland”—not a state—was not limited to Palestine. There was nothing religious in his commitment. Some Zionists advocated the establishment of such a homeland in China, Peru or Birobidzhan in the Soviet Union, but in full agreement with the state authorities and the populations in each case.

Einstein supported these steps. For example, on the Jewish homeland of Birobidzhan in the Soviet Union, after the Second World War, he wrote:

“We must not forget that in those years of atrocious persecution of the Jewish people, Soviet Russia has been the only great nation who has saved hundreds of thousands of Jewish lives. The enterprise to settle 30,000 Jewish war orphans in Birobidjan and secure for them in this way a satisfying and happy future is new proof for the humane attitude of Russia towards our Jewish people. In helping this cause, we will contribute in a very effective way to the salvation of the remnants of European Jewry.”

In the pivotal years between the end of the war and his death in 1955, Einstein was outspoken about the Jewish state project. Invited to testify before the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine in Washington, DC, in January 1946, Einstein answered unequivocally when asked about the possible State of Israel versus a cultural homeland: “I have never been in favor of a state.”

In March 1947, I.Z. David, a member of the Irgun terrorist group led by Menachem Begin, sent him a questionnaire to which he responded sharply and clearly:

Question: What is your opinion about the establishment of a free National Jewish Palestine?

Einstein: Jewish National Home? Yes. Jewish National Palestine? No. I favor a free, bi-national Palestine at a later date after agreement with the Arabs.

Question: Opinion about partition of Palestine and Chaim Weizmann’s proposals re partition??

Einstein: I am against partition.

On the question of the alliance between British and American imperialism, Einstein harboured no illusions:

“It seems to me that our beloved Americans are now patterning their foreign policy on the model of the Germans, since they appear to have inherited the latter’s inflatedness and arrogance. Apparently, they also want to take on the role England has played up to now. They refuse to learn from each other; and learn little even from their own harsh experience. What has been implanted into the heads from early youth is rooted more firmly than experience and reasoning. The English are yet another good example of this. Their old-fashioned methods of suppressing the masses by using indigenous unscrupulous elements from the economic upper class will soon cost them their whole empire, but they are incapable to bring themselves to change their methods; no matter whether it’s the Tories or the Socialists. With the Germans, it was exactly the same. All of this would be good and well, except for the fact that it’s so sad for the better elements and the oppressed.”

As for the political ancestors of the current Netanyahu government, Einstein tore into them and their political parties, particularly in the New York Times. When Menachem Begin came to New York in late 1948, Einstein, Hannah Arendt, and other Jewish intellectual figures in the United States published a letter denouncing his visit and the organization he led, calling it “a political party very close in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and fascist parties.” One example they cited was the massacre of 240 men, women, and children in the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin.

Einstein would repeat this accusation until his death in 1955: “These people are Nazis in their thoughts and actions.” Anyone who says this today in the mainstream media is immediately labeled an antisemite and blacklisted.

It is common knowledge that when Chaim Weizmann died in 1952, the prime minister of Israel offered the presidency of Israel to Albert Einstein. Less well known, however, is the reason Einstein gave for this refusal: “I would have to say to the Israeli people things they would not like to hear.” Even less well known is Ben Gurion’s statement: “Tell me what to do if he says yes! I’ve had to offer him the post because it was impossible not to, but if he accepts, we are in for trouble.”

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people are being accused of antisemitism or fired from their jobs because they dare to criticize the State of Israel, call it an apartheid state, and denounce the genocide of the Palestinians. May they rest assured: they are in good company, because if Einstein were alive today, he would be on the front lines demonstrating with them.

Robin Philpot is the publisher of Baraka Books. All quotes are from the new enriched edition of Einstein on Israel and Zionism (September 2024) by Fred Jerome.

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

Cubans giving the Lego video a shot

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

When we came into office, we uncovered a $12 billion budget deficit.

Today, I’m proud to say we brought it down to zero.

We didn’t close the gap on the backs of working people.

We closed it while funding parks, libraries, safer streets and making historic investments in public housing.

Call it Pothole Politics. Call it Democratic Socialism. It's government that delivers for the people who make this city run.

That’s what New Yorkers deserve. And that’s what we will keep fighting for every single day.

[Ali Abunimah @AliAbunimah]

Too bad that @NickKristof can't give space to Palestinian victims of systematic Israeli rapes without first regurgitating the Oct 7 hoax in which @nytimes is deeply complicit. To this date, not a single victim of an alleged October 7 rape, living or dead, has been identified.

[dr. mohammed hamad - Gaza @Medo198518]

🔴🔴🔴The detainees of the Freedom Flotilla, who were kidnapped and taken to the Greek island of Crete, have been released...

After being subjected to brutal beatings and severe abuse, resulting in deep wounds and serious fractures at the hands of the oppressive entity...

📌📌Share this and tell the world about the brutality of this occupation

[Avi Lewis @avilewis]

Look out, #TOpoli - @chipadovani is one of the best organizers in the country.

She works night and day, building people power where she lives.

Her 28 nominators are not political props: they're workers and neighbours who have her back, as she has theirs.

This is what an organized community looks like.

This is how we win!

[David Doel @daviddoel]

CTV: What if [a windfall profits tax on big oil] deflates them?

Avi Lewis: Tell the family where 1 in 4 Canadians is skipping a meal .. to feed their kids, that an industry making $90B in profits this year can’t afford to pay a little bit more. I’m sorry I just don’t accept it.

[Power to the People ☭🕊 @ProudSocialist]

This takes courage…

The Strokes closed their Coachella set flashing images of the governments the CIA has overthrown, the leaders the US has assassinated including MLK 👀, the war crimes the US is committing in Iran, and the genocide Israel is committing in occupied Palestine.

[Tony Leah @tonyleah]

This also applies in Canada - instead of spending 5% of GDP on military and weapons we should be increasing spending on healthcare and education, publicly-owned renewable energy, public transportation, postal banking, and a public grocery option.

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

We are spending at least $500 million a day to bomb Iran.

Imagine how many teachers we could hire, how many public housing units we could build, how many bridges and roads we could fix, if we spent that kind of money on improving life for working people?

[Harry Eccles @Heccles94]

The UK governments guide to terrorism:

Left: Terrorism

Right: Not Terrorism

[Emma Jackson @EmmaJackson57]

The Liberal Party warmly welcoming Marilyn Gladu into their caucus just goes to show how far to the right the party has moved. The door is open for xenophobes and transphobes as long as you're committed to the project of corporate welfare.

[Tony Leah @tonyleah]

Exactly

[Nora Loreto @NoLore]

The NDP is also way less dangerous to the establishment than Labour is.

However, the attacks are going to be furious and Lewis and his people need to come out swinging, relent nothing and give no way.

[Samira Mohyeddin سمیرا @SMohyeddin]

During his illness, Stephen Lewis spent what little energy he had, protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza. This fact will most likely be missing from most remembrances of him today. Canada lost a giant of humanity and social justice. Sending love to @avilewis & entire family.

[Emma Jackson @EmmaJackson57]

One of my biggest highlights of working on the @avilewis campaign was hosting regular Solidarity Sessions to amplify the work of movements, do political education, and provide a small taste for what a truly movement-oriented @NDP could look like.

ICYMI, here they are 👇

[Jason Smith - 上官杰文 @ShangguanJiewen]

🇨🇳91% of all Chinese people:
"My government serves the people."

Source: Democracy Perceptions Index, 2024
BTW: this polling agency was founded and chaired by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former NATO Secretary General (2009–2014).

Facts matter.✔️

[Luke Savage @LukewSavage]

An important point that should not get lost