“It is essential that the sufferings of Jews.. . become worse. . . this will assist in realization of our plans. . .I have an excellent idea. . . I shall induce anti-Semites to liquidate Jewish wealth. . . The anti-Semites will assist us thereby in that they will strengthen the persecution and oppression of Jews. The anti-Semites shall be our best friends”. (From his Diary, Part I, pp. 16)

This quote has spread like a wildfire on the internet, among antisemites and uncritical haters of Israel, but it is fake. It is a falsification.

The problem is that this quote has been used by “respectable” scholars too. Like in my homecountry, Sweden the former diplomat Ingmar Karlsson.

Lets dissect the quote

Lets look at the original text.

The incomplete 1922 edition of the diaries in german can be found on the internet. If you look at it you will find that the quote has been heavy edited, compared to the german text. But antisemites usually claim that the german edition 1922 has been edited and is a falsification, so lets stick to an english edition instead.

http://liberology.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/fake-zionist-quotes-2-herzl-the-anti-semites-shall-be-our-best-friend/

I had to stretch my mind a little to understand what he was saying there, the notion of "respectable, accredited anti-Semites", for example, fantasizing about dying in a duel, or shaping history with a speech in criminal court. My. People were so romantic back then.

But he's clearly trying to be nice, to be good.

Would you know who "Alois Lichtenstein, Schönerer or Lueger" are? I was wondering why he wanted to fight a duel with them? Were they antisemites or something else?

Schönerer developed a political philosophy that featured elements of a violent racial opposition to Jews which disregarded religious affiliations. His campaigning became especially vocal upon the arrival of Jewish refugees during the Russian Empire's pogroms, starting in 1881. He fiercely denounced the influence of "exploitative international Jews", and in 1885 had an Aryan paragraph added to the Linz program, which led to the ultimate breach between him on the one hand, and on the other hand Adler and Friedjung.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Ritter_von_Sch%C3%B6nerer

Karl Lueger

Lueger was known for his anti-Semitic rhetoric and referred to himself as an admirer of Edouard Drumont, who founded the Antisemitic League of France in 1889. Decades later, Adolf Hitler, a Vienna citizen from 1907 to 1913, saw him as an inspiration for his own view on Jews. Though not an explicit pan-Germanist, Lueger advocated racist policies against non-German speaking minorities in Austria-Hungary and in 1887 voted for a bill proposed by his long-time opponent Georg von Schönerer to restrict the immigration of Russian and Romanian Jews.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Lueger#Anti-Semitism

I find them largely unreadable, bigoted hand-wavers, they are ubiquitous back in the nineteenth century. Constructors of systems of pigeonholes into which all of humanity may be safely stuffed, with them at the top.

I do wish that people who demonize Herzl and other early leaders of the Zionist movement would do more contextual research to get a sense of where they were coming from. Primary source documents (when not forgeries) can go a long way towards accomplishing a higher degree of understanding. Especially when taken within their historical context (i.e. read alongside other similar documents) so that our own worldview is not superimposed unfairly.

I feel very strongly (as evidenced from my comments on a different thread) that Zionism has been manipulated (the term itself) so as to pervert its meaning by those who have an agenda that is hostile towards the existence of Israel for a variety of potential reasons.

"There is an answer for every question, neat, simple, and wrong."

Historical movements like Zionism or any other isms or political processes.

I don't deny that people manipulate to pursue their own agendas, but I think we greatly overestimate the effect of our own efforts to control what happens, because we can't run around freaking out all the time over what might happen next. There are enough Chicken Littles as it is.