|  Noting this, Shahak asks: "Now, what does one do with such a passage in a most important and necessary work of Judaism? Face the truth and its consequences? God forbid! Admit (as so many Christian scholars, for example, have done in similar circumstances) that a very important Jewish authority held also rabid anti-Black views, and by this admission make an attempt at self-education in real humanity? Perish the thought." Commenting on the inflammatory nature of these writings from the pen of an esteemed Talmudic scholar, Shahak added:
I can almost imagine Jewish scholars in the USA consulting among themselves, 'What is to be done?' -- for the book had to be translated, due to the decline in the knowledge of Hebrew among American Jews. Whether by consultation or by individual inspiration, a happy "solution" was found: in the popular American translation of the Guide by one Friedlander, first published as far back as 1925 and since then reprinted in many editions, including several in paperback, the Hebrew word kushim, which means blacks, was simply transliterated and appears as "Kushites," a word which means nothing to those who have no knowledge of Hebrew, or to whom an obliging rabbi will not give an oral explanation. Shahak also noted the irony, as he put it, that "There is yet another misconception about Judaism which is particularly common among Christians or people heavily influenced by Christian tradition and culture. This is the misleading idea that Judaism is a 'biblical religion'; that the Old Testament has in Judaism the same central place and legal authority which the Bible has for Protestant or even Catholic Christianity."
Nothing, he said, could be further from the truth, and this, he understood, would come as a great surprise to many Christians who have lent their support to Israel, believing Judaism (and Israel) to have risen from the same principles of the Christian faith predominant in America today.
Shahak underscored the nature of Talmudic teachings vis-a-vis non-Jews, pointing out that the Talmud declares: "A Jew who murders a Gentile is guilty only of a sin against the laws of Heaven, not punishable by a court. To cause indirectly the death of a Gentile is no sin at all."
Should anyone doubt this is the philosophy of Israel, as a state, Shahak pointed out that the chief chaplain of the Central Region Command of the Israeli Army wrote in a religious booklet for distribution to Israeli soldiers that:
When our forces come across civilians during a war or in hot pursuit or in a raid, so long as there is no certainty that those civilians are incapable of harming our
forces, then according to the Halakhah they may and even should be killed ... Under no circumstances should an Arab be trusted, even if he makes an impression of being civilized.
In war, when our forces storm the enemy, they are allowed and even enjoined by the Halakhah to kill even good civilians, that is, civilians who are ostensibly good. [Emphasis added.]
(The Halakha-referenced above -- is the legal system of classical Judaism, based primarily on the Babylonian Talmud, and is maintained to this day in the form of Orthodox Judaism which is a powerful force in Israel. The earliest code of Talmudic law is the Mishneh Torah, written by the aforementioned Moses Maimonides in the late 12th century.)
Shahak noted that classical Jewish teaching links Satan with non-Jews and that Jewish women were warned to beware meeting any of these Satanic creatures: "Gentile, pig, dog or monkey." If meeting such a creature after taking her monthly ritual bath of purification, a Jewish woman is told she must bathe again. This warning appeared in Shevat Musar -- a book on Jewish moral conduct -- that, Shahak noted is "still widely read in some Orthodox circles." In contrast, Jewish teachings regarding non-Jewish women is quite different:
Every gentile woman is regarded as N.Sh.G.Z. -- acronym for the Hebrew words niddah, shifhah, goyah, zonah (unpurified from menses, slave, gentile, prostitute). Upon conversion to Judaism, she ceases indeed to be niddah, shifhah, goyah but is still considered zonah (prostitute) for the rest of her life, simply by virtue of having been born of a gentile mother.
In light of all of this -- and much more -- Shahak recognized that organized Jewish groups and Jewish leaders, particularly in the United States and the West, understand -- as they should -- that non-Jews might find offense in such teachings and that "Under present circumstances they cannot openly express these attitudes toward non-Jews in the USA where non-Jews constitute more than 97 percent of the population." Shahak said Jews (and Israelis) must recognize the underlying racism of their ethnic and Israeli national psyche: "Although the struggle against antisemitism (and of all other forms of racism) should never cease, the struggle against Jewish chauvinism and exclusivism, which must include a critique of classical Judaism, is now of equal or greater importance ... Without fear or favor, we must speak out against what belongs to our own past .... "
There have been many informative critiques of Israel's foreign policy gyrations and manipulations written from a variety of perspectives, but Shahak's work will stand as a decisive analysis of what Israel's real aims and motivations are really all about.
Dr. Shahak's candid discussion of Jewish religious teachings are enlightening indeed, especially when one considers the power of Israel over United States policy making today. Then, when pondering how that religious ideology impacts upon Israel's geopolitical strategy -- particularly as it is based upon that nation's pivotal arsenal of nuclear weapons of mass destruction -- the entire picture is one that points toward a possible future for the world too horrible to imagine.
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