“Peace Studies” Founder and Anti-Semitism

Alana Goodman 

Via Haaretz, Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung, known as the “father of Peace and Conflict Studies” shares his thoughts on Jewish control of the media and academia. This guy will no doubt be written off as a nutjob who’s completely unrepresentative of the Peace Studies curriculum. And based on his lunatic theory that the Mossad and Freemasons had a hand in the Anders Breivik terror attack, and his paranoid calculation that Jews control “96 percent of the media,” he clearly is unhinged.

But his comments also underscore a major problem with Peace Studies. Some anti-Semitic ideas, like the one that “Auschwitz had two sides,” are a natural progression of the discipline:

He pointed out that one of the factors behind the anti-Semitic sentiment that led to Auschwitz was the fact that Jews held influential positions in German society.

Galtung also recommended reading “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” – one of the most popular anti-Semitic texts in the world. …

According to Galtung, “terrible Auschwitz,” had two sides as well. “[It was] not unproblematic that Jews had key niches in a society humiliated by defeat at Versailles,” wrote Galtung, referencing Germany following World War I. Galtung continued, “In no way, absolutely no way, does this justify the atrocities. But it created anti-Semitism that could have been predicted.”

Peace Studies is based on the premise that all conflicts can be resolved through peaceful, nonviolent means. It’s the height of moral relativism, holding that both sides have legitimate grievances and are rational, that both sides can and should make compromises, and that both sides have a responsibility to listen and consider each other’s arguments. Yes, even if the two sides are the Nazis and the Jews. Follow this argument to the end of its logical chain, and you get to Galtung’s repulsive idea that German anti-Semitism could have somehow been an understandable response to Jewish provocations.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/05/01/peace-studies-founder-and-anti-semitisc-ideas/