This article was written 35 years ago. I heard the idea first directly from Eric Hoffer in New Orleans at a ZOA Convention in 1968. He spoke with great passion about the role of Israel, the Jewish People and the world. After his speech, I bought him several beers at the hotel bar. Being a longshoreman (Port of San Francisco) most of his life, he enjoyed relaxing and drinking after a hard days work. But his time he was different. He stared at me, his faces became red and flushed and with a quivering passionate voice, he told me that what he told the ZOA members was true and would come to pass if we didn't take decisive action. Read below the short article that expresses his views

Some truths never change. Eric Hoffer was a Non-Jewish American longeshoreman and social philosopher. He was born in 1902 and died in 1983, after writing nine books and winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His first book, The True Believer, published in 1951, was widely recognized as a classic......Bernard J. Shapiro

(LA Times 5/26/68)
ISRAEL'S PECULIAR POSITION
By Eric Hoffer

The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are
forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even
millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it, Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchman. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese - and no one says a word about refugees.

But in the case of Israel the displaced Arabs have become eternal
refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab.

Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater
than any committed by the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the
battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must
sue for peace. Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world.

Other nations when they are defeated survive and recover but should
Israel be defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews. No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on.

There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam
or when two Negroes are executed in Rhodesia. But when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one remonstrated with him. The Swedes, who are ready to break off diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to Norway.

The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely
because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources. Yet at this moment
Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more
on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what
would have happened last summer had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general.
I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so
will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us.

Eric Hoffer, 1968 June.