Judah Benjamin: Jewish Statesman and Civil War "Scapegoat"

During the Civil War era in America, Judah Benjamin played a substantial role in politics. He was a U.S. senator, Confederate attorney general, Secretary of War, and Secretary of State. He was the scapegoat for President Jefferson Davis when Davis intentionally allowed the island of Roanoke to fall to the Union army. For his loyalty Jefferson made him Secretary of State. He was accused of plotting with Davis in the Lincoln assassination and with involvement in a Canadian spy ring against the Union. More information about Judah Benjamin can be found here: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-109741388.html http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Benjamin.html http://www.civilwarhome.com/benjaminbio.htm http://www.fau.edu/library/brody26.htm http://www.peanut.org/mike/text/Gamble.htm http://findingaids.cjh.org/?fnm=JudahPBenjamin&pnm=AJHS Information about the Dreyfus Affair mentioned in this video: The Dreyfus Affair was purported to be the catalyzing event that started the Zionist movement. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Dreyfus.html Excerpt From http://zadehamin.blogspot.com/2006/12/protocols-in-perspective.html "...In France, the Dreyfus Affair, far from epitomizing French anti-Judaism, demonstrates the sway of Jewish influence over the French government; the charges of treason against an obscure French artillery captain would have been of no international significance had he not been Jewish. Thus, it was precisely because he was Jewish that this incident attracted international prominence and was ultimately brought about the transformation of France from a Catholic Christian State into a secular state. The secularisation of France was a seismic political event that repercussions are still felt today, the European Union is very much moulded on French secularism; it is also a significant factor in the birth of fascism and communism, as well being a contributory factor in the Russian revolution. Therefore it a measure of Jewish influence in France that secularisation (the biggest constitutional change in French history since the 1789 revolution) arose out the protestations of Jews and Jewish sympathisers. In France, as elsewhere in Europe, secularisation of the state was strongly advocated by prominent Jews, who wished to decapitate the influence of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, organisations which diametrically opposed to Judaism and the influence and socio-political integration of Jewry. The Dreyfus Affair, rather than being the catalysis for political Judaism and secularisation was a pretext for it. Dreyfus' innocence or guilt was never significant to either side; it was a straight forward power struggle between the Catholic Church and the French army on one side and Jews and secularism on the other: Jews and secularism clearly won. In 1893, Alfred Dreyfus, a Captain in the French artillery, assigned to the general staff in Paris, was charged with treason. He was accused of having been the author of an anonymous bordereau containing a list of secret French military documents that were scheduled for delivery to the German Embassy in Paris. In 1894 Dreyfus was found guilty by a court-martial, reduced in rank, and transported to Devil's Island, where he was to be imprisoned for the rest of his life..." (Years later, Dreyfus was found innocent of any wrongdoing. He was the scapegoat in a larger plan.) "...The Dreyfus Affair was not the impetus or raison d'être for Theodor Herzl's 1896 Zionist pamphlet "The Jewish State", as is suggested in Zionist mythology, the French Emperor Napoleon had advocated the idea of Jewish homeland in Palestine in 1799; as had Benjamin Disraeli in his Zionist novel "Tancred" in 1847 before becoming British Prime Minister; Moses Hess, a friend and co-worker of Karl Marx, in "Rome and Jerusalem: A Study in Jewish Nationalism" (1862); Leo Pinsker in the 1881 pamphlet "Auto-Emanzipation". Moreover, the Dreyfus affair was never pivotal in the history of Zionism: the Rothschilds, in particular, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, had been financing Zionist settlements ten years earlier in the 1880's. In fact, most Jewish immigrants to Palestine were of Eastern European origin, and the USA remained the preferred destination. Certainly, there was no Jewish mass exodus from France, if anything France was a more attractive nation for Jews to live in after the Dreyfus Affair: they enjoyed disproportionate political influence, with a de facto Jewish government..." Comments are moderated, and they may not post immediately.