Discussion thread for preface & chapter one

Chapter 1

The Thesis of this Book

The Jews are an alien body within the society they inhabit—hence irritation and friction—a problem is presented by the strains thus set up—the solution of that problem is urgently necessary.

An alien body in any organism is disposed of in one of two ways: elimination and segregation.

Elimination may be by destruction, by excretion or by absorption—in the case of the Jews the first is abominable and, further, has failed—the second means exile: it has also failed—the third, absorption, the most probable and most moral, has failed throughout the past, though having everything in its favour.

There remains segregation, which may be of two forms: hostile to, or careless of, the alien body, or friendly to it and careful of its good—in this latter form it may best be called Recognition. The first kind of segregation has often been attempted in history—it has been partially successful over long periods—but has always left behind it a sense of injustice and has not really solved the problem—also it has always failed in the end.

The true solution is in the second kind of segregation, that is, recognition on both sides of a separate Jewish nationality.

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As I said, I wish to promote discussion here, not just blog my own thoughts, so while I intend to contribute, I'm going to wait until a couple of other people comment first, then post my own thoughts.

Thanks for joining us. God be with you.

Update: I assumed this would be obvious, but realized I should probably make it explicit: Next Saturday I will post the discussion thread for chapter two. If you haven't read it, do so and think of what you'd like to say relevant to the topic.