Albert Einstein
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Einstein on Israel and Zionism: His Provocative Ideas About the Middle East.

" . . . I am neither a German citizen nor do I believe in anything that might be described as "Jewish faith." But I am a Jew and am glad to belong to the Jewish people, though I do not regard it in any way as chosen."1a

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. . . Without honest cooperation with the Arabs there is no peace and no security."1b

Only direct cooperation with the Arabs can create a dignified and safe life. If the Jews don't comprehend this, the whole Jewish position in the complex of Arab countries will become step by step untenable. What saddens me is less the fact that the Jews are not smart enough to understand this, but rather, that they are not just enough to want it [emphasis in the original]."1c* LUTHER

I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state. . . [T]he essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power. . . I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain--especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks . . ."1d LUTHER

I am in favor of Palestine being developed as a Jewish Homeland but not as a separate state. It seems to me a matter of simple common sense that we cannot ask to be given the political rule over Palestine where two thirds of the population are not Jewish. What we can and should ask is a secured bi-national status in Palestine with free immigration."1e

I believe that even in America, we Jews are by no means safe. . .
The psychological situation of the Jews over here is quite similar to the one in Germany before Hitler.
"1f LUTHER

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 organization built up from our own ranks."1g

We had great hopes for Israel at first. We thought it might be better than other nations, but it is no better."1h


   

   
Ideas and Opinions.

"I do not at all believe in human freedom in the philosophical sense. Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity. . . " SPINOZA
"The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. . . "
"The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible."2a 

"Money only appeals to selfishness and irresistibly invites abuse."2b PLATO RAND

" . . . [T]he scientific method can teach us nothing else beyond how facts are related to, and conditioned by, each other."2c ARISTOTLE BOOLE PLANCK WIGNER CRICK BROMLEY WATSON SUZUKI

" . . . [S]cience can only ascertain what is, but not what should be . . . Religion . . . deals only with evaluations of human thought and action . . . [S]cience can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspirations toward truth and understanding. This source of feeling, however, springs from the sphere of religion. To this there also belongs the faith in the possibility that the regulations valid for the world of existence are rational, that is, comprehensible to reason. I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith. The situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."2d* ARISTOTLE

"A people that were to honor falsehood, defamation, fraud, and murder would be unable, indeed, to subsist for very long."2e BUDDHA


  
   
   
   
Interesting Links
  • Albert Einstein, Germany and Switzerland. The Nobel Prize in Physics 1921, "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect" http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1921/index.html
  • FBI files regarding Albert Einstein, available under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), January 28, 2000. Electronic Documents, 1427 pages, in PDF at http://vault.fbi.gov/search?SearchableText=einstein.
  • The Russell-Einstein Manifesto, issued in London July 9, 1955, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, http://pugwash.org/?s=einstein.
  • Einstein Archives Online, a joint project of the Albert Einstein Archives and the David and Fela Shapell Digitization Project at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Einstein Papers Project at the California Institute of Technology, http://www.alberteinstein.info/.
  

* Italics in the original.

1 Fred Jerome. Einstein on Israel and Zionism: His Provocative Ideas About the Middle East. Fred Jerome, 2009. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 2009. (Translations by Michael Schiffmann.)
a 1. Fighting Anti-Semitism 1919-1929, at 39.
b 2. Years of Crisis 1929-1939, at 78-82.
c Ibid., at 94.
d Ibid., at 112.
e 4. Struggle Over the State 1945-1948, at 176.
f Ibid., at 186.
g Ibid., at 187.
h 5. The Final Years 1948-1955, at 223.

2 Albert Einstein (1879-1955). Ideas and Opinions. Based on Mein Weltbild, edited by Carl Seelig, and other sources. New translations and revisions by Sonja Bargmann. New York, NY: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1954.
a The World as I See It., at 8-11. Originally published in Forum and Century, Vol. 84, pp. 193-194, the 13th in the Forum series, "Living Philosophies"; included also in Living Philosophies (pp. 3-7), New York: Simon and Schuster, 1931. 
b
On Wealth, at 12-13. Mein Weltbild, Amsterdam: Querido Verlag, 1934.
c
Science and Religion, Part I, at 41-44. From an address at Princeton Theological Seminary, May 19, 1939; published in Out of My Later Years, New York: Philosophical Library, 1950.
d
Science and Religion, Part II, at 44-49. From Science, Philosophy and Religion, A Symposium, published by the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, Inc., New York, 1941.
e Religion and Science: Irreconcilable?, at 49-52. A response to a greeting sent by the Liberal Ministers' Club of New York City; published in The Christian Register, June, 1948.

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