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by Lev Tsitrin (New English Review)
At a prospect of 100 percent profit, a capitalist will “trample on all human laws; 300 percent, and there is not a crime at which [he] will scruple” runs a quote from an English trade unionist Thomas Dunning made famous by Karl Marx in his Das Kapital — a profound bit of wisdom that every ex-Soviet like me knows by heart.
But as I read a New York Times’ “guest essay” titled “Team Biden Needs a Reset on Israel” by one “Daniel Levy [who] is the president of the U.S./Middle East Project and [who] served as an Israeli peace negotiator at the Oslo-B talks under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the Taba negotiations under Prime Minister Ehud Barak,” — in which he describes the Gaza war as “the collective punishment of the Palestinian civilian population” and appeals to the Biden administration “to embrace the need for a full cease-fire now” and to that end “condition the transfer of further military supplies on Israel ending the war” I wondered whether it is only a capitalist that would greedily commit any crime to fill his pocket. Mr. Levy made me wonder whether a former “Israeli peace negotiator” would do the same if an adequate stack of dollars is placed into the open palm of his hand. After all, it is very hard to believe that Mr. Levy is so naive as not to realize that that “a full cease-fire now” means survival of Hamas, and the survival of Hamas means the future in which “not a crime at which [Hamas] will scruple” — and it “scruples” at none, as October 7, 2023 demonstrate — will continue to be perpetrated in order to destroy Israel.
And yet, Mr. Levy is pushing for “a full cease-fire now.” And yet, the New York Times is publishing his screed. The question is, why?
To try to find an answer, I asked a Marxist question of “who funds the US / Middle East Project?” (Or may be I was just unconsciously following the American dictum of “follow the money.”) The all-knowing google gave an answer — if not of “who?” (though it mentioned something called “Open Societies Foundations”), then at least of “how much?” The “US / Middle East Project” apparently has three salaried staffers, Daniel Levy, President, compensated at $316,715 in 2023, Gail Israelson, Secretary and Treasurer who got a paltry $68,121 in 2022, and Henry Siegman, Director, who netted $300,000 in 2020. In 2022, “the total grants, contributions, etc” to it amounted to $1,115,333.
Which is a decent pile of cash — some of it coming from (if you check “Open Societies Foundations” on Wikipedia) — “business magnate George Soros.” And — as Karl Marx may have said in his great wisdom (though — while I dread to utter such blasphemy — the great Karl Marx did not have the monopoly on all wisdom — just on the wisdomest part of it — so someone else may have said it before him), “he who pays the piper, orders the tune.” If Mr. Soros wants a “ceasefire now” — and who knows what that guy wants — from him, you can expect anything, then Mr. Levy better pens a New York Times “guest essay” accordingly — whatever Mr. Levy’s own better judgement is (if he still has any, of course).
And the New York Times of course hurries to publish it — after all, the “U.S./Middle East Project’s” combined salaries amount to only $700,000 while it has $1,100,000 on hand — so it likely gave $400,000 to the New York Times to publish this drivel, counting that if New York Times is to tarnish its reputation, it should do so for a fee — for as we know from Mr. Marx, “for 100 percent profit it will trample on all human laws; for 300 percent, there is not a crime at which it will scruple” — and for that much money, it doesn’t “scruple.” Nor does Mr. Levy, who is being so amply compensated that to him no crime is a crime — whether his own crime of urging the US to betray Israelis to further Hamas butchery, or Hamas’ crimes which Mr. Soros’ money washes clean in Mr. Levy’s eye.
“Money makes the world go round,” goes the refrain of the Cabaret‘s classic number. So it does — but not always in the right direction, as Mr. Levy’ “guest essay” in the New York Times yet again reminds us. Luckily, not everyone listens to Mr. Levy, or Mr. Soros — or for that matter, the New York Times.
