Useless Geniuses
The term “useful idiots” frequently misattributed to Vladimir Lenin, refers to be people of limited intelligence who unwittingly support the communist cause. I propose the term “useless geniuses” for people who are undoubtedly very intelligent but quite wittingly support unwise causes. The following gentlemen are geniuses in their chosen fields, all of them Jewish intellectuals with impeccable educational credentials, yet all of them dedicate their brilliance to undermining the very state that ensures their protection. This veritable rogue's gallery consists of Ed Witten, Robert Sapolsky, Gabor Maté, Norman Finkelstein, and Noam Chomsky.
Ed Witten, known as the father of string theory, is perhaps the most brilliant physicist alive, often considered the heir to Stephen Hawking. People have described his intelligence as frightening. He is not only Jewish but has lived in Israel. Yet, he feels the need to send out a tweet bashing Israel every month. He can dissect the mysteries of the universe and propose the dominant theory of everything but is clueless when it comes to grasping the importance of Israel in guaranteeing Jewish survival. He can imagine hidden dimensions of the universe but not the effects of rockets launched into Israeli cities. Witten lives in the safety of America’s ivory towers while criticizing the one nation whose very existence is under constant threat. The contrast between his intellectual accomplishments and idiotic bashing of the lone Jewish state is staggering.
Robert Sapolsky, the celebrated neuroscientist and chronicler of stress, knows all too well how organisms respond to threats, except, it seems, when the organism is the Jewish people. He lectures on biology, on survival strategies, on the corrosive effects of chronic threat. Yet when Israelis live under the constant threat of terrorism, rockets, and delegitimization, Sapolsky spends his moral energy condemning them rather than their attackers. Raised by orthodox Jewish parents in Brooklyn, Sapolsky sides with those who would leave Jews perpetually vulnerable. He has even described Israel as a “European colony,” though he does not disclose which European country is the colonizer, or why over half the Jews in Israel immigrated from non-European countries.
Gabor Maté, a psychiatrist and trauma expert who specializes in treating addiction, is perhaps the most painfully ironic case. A Holocaust survivor who narrowly escaped death as an infant in Hungary, he owes his very existence to survival against genocidal hatred. Yet he travels the world denouncing Israel, likening its defense to oppression, and even lending sympathy to those committed to its destruction. One would think a man who saw what happens when Jews have no state would be the first to defend its necessity. Instead, Maté weaponizes his survival story against the promise that history will not repeat itself. It is painful to see a Holocaust survivor turn his tragic experience into a cudgel against the Jewish state. In fact, his treacherous attacks against Israel are downright obscene.
Norman Finkelstein has built an entire career sneering at the “Holocaust industry,” accusing Jews of exploiting their own tragedy. His intellectual obsession has metastasized into an almost personal vendetta against Israel, where every defensive measure is painted as aggression, every act of survival framed as criminal. Finkelstein claims moral authority as the child of Holocaust survivors, but instead of honoring their suffering by defending Jewish security, he spends his life attacking the only nation that rose from the ashes of Auschwitz to say, “never again.” His heritage becomes a mask for his hostility, his identity a license for betrayal. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by his moral insanity when we consider that Finkelstein himself reports that he was severely depressed when Mao Zedong, often referred to as the biggest mass murderer of the 20th century, died in 1976.
Noam Chomsky, the elder statesman of leftist critique, is perhaps the most influential of all. He has made a career out of dismantling power structures, exposing imperial hypocrisy, and championing the oppressed. But when it comes to Israel, his double standard is astonishing. He reserves his fiercest words not for dictators, not for regimes that butcher and enslave, but for the tiny democracy that happens to be Jewish. The child of Jewish immigrants, raised in the soil of Jewish learning, Chomsky instead chose to become the world’s most famous Jewish accuser of Israel, a man whose prestige lends legitimacy to those who seek its destruction.
Taken together, these men embody the cruelest irony of Jewish history: the brilliance of Jewish minds bent on destroying the only state dedicated to their survival. They brandish their Jewishness like a shield, proclaiming, “As Jews, we condemn Israel,” as though this absolves them of responsibility for the hatred their words fuel. The truth is simpler: without Israel, there is no safe refuge from another potential Holocaust. That some Jews themselves have become the most prominent voices against this truth is not merely paradoxical; It is betrayal dressed up as moral courage. No other ethnic groups routinely bash their ancestral homeland as this cadre of Jewish intellectuals. They may be small in number, but they wield influence far beyond their numbers due to their prominence in intellectual circles. They give voice to the old adage, “With friends like these we don’t need enemies.”
Ed Witten, known as the father of string theory, is perhaps the most brilliant physicist alive, often considered the heir to Stephen Hawking. People have described his intelligence as frightening. He is not only Jewish but has lived in Israel. Yet, he feels the need to send out a tweet bashing Israel every month. He can dissect the mysteries of the universe and propose the dominant theory of everything but is clueless when it comes to grasping the importance of Israel in guaranteeing Jewish survival. He can imagine hidden dimensions of the universe but not the effects of rockets launched into Israeli cities. Witten lives in the safety of America’s ivory towers while criticizing the one nation whose very existence is under constant threat. The contrast between his intellectual accomplishments and idiotic bashing of the lone Jewish state is staggering.
Robert Sapolsky, the celebrated neuroscientist and chronicler of stress, knows all too well how organisms respond to threats, except, it seems, when the organism is the Jewish people. He lectures on biology, on survival strategies, on the corrosive effects of chronic threat. Yet when Israelis live under the constant threat of terrorism, rockets, and delegitimization, Sapolsky spends his moral energy condemning them rather than their attackers. Raised by orthodox Jewish parents in Brooklyn, Sapolsky sides with those who would leave Jews perpetually vulnerable. He has even described Israel as a “European colony,” though he does not disclose which European country is the colonizer, or why over half the Jews in Israel immigrated from non-European countries.
Gabor Maté, a psychiatrist and trauma expert who specializes in treating addiction, is perhaps the most painfully ironic case. A Holocaust survivor who narrowly escaped death as an infant in Hungary, he owes his very existence to survival against genocidal hatred. Yet he travels the world denouncing Israel, likening its defense to oppression, and even lending sympathy to those committed to its destruction. One would think a man who saw what happens when Jews have no state would be the first to defend its necessity. Instead, Maté weaponizes his survival story against the promise that history will not repeat itself. It is painful to see a Holocaust survivor turn his tragic experience into a cudgel against the Jewish state. In fact, his treacherous attacks against Israel are downright obscene.
Norman Finkelstein has built an entire career sneering at the “Holocaust industry,” accusing Jews of exploiting their own tragedy. His intellectual obsession has metastasized into an almost personal vendetta against Israel, where every defensive measure is painted as aggression, every act of survival framed as criminal. Finkelstein claims moral authority as the child of Holocaust survivors, but instead of honoring their suffering by defending Jewish security, he spends his life attacking the only nation that rose from the ashes of Auschwitz to say, “never again.” His heritage becomes a mask for his hostility, his identity a license for betrayal. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by his moral insanity when we consider that Finkelstein himself reports that he was severely depressed when Mao Zedong, often referred to as the biggest mass murderer of the 20th century, died in 1976.
Noam Chomsky, the elder statesman of leftist critique, is perhaps the most influential of all. He has made a career out of dismantling power structures, exposing imperial hypocrisy, and championing the oppressed. But when it comes to Israel, his double standard is astonishing. He reserves his fiercest words not for dictators, not for regimes that butcher and enslave, but for the tiny democracy that happens to be Jewish. The child of Jewish immigrants, raised in the soil of Jewish learning, Chomsky instead chose to become the world’s most famous Jewish accuser of Israel, a man whose prestige lends legitimacy to those who seek its destruction.
Taken together, these men embody the cruelest irony of Jewish history: the brilliance of Jewish minds bent on destroying the only state dedicated to their survival. They brandish their Jewishness like a shield, proclaiming, “As Jews, we condemn Israel,” as though this absolves them of responsibility for the hatred their words fuel. The truth is simpler: without Israel, there is no safe refuge from another potential Holocaust. That some Jews themselves have become the most prominent voices against this truth is not merely paradoxical; It is betrayal dressed up as moral courage. No other ethnic groups routinely bash their ancestral homeland as this cadre of Jewish intellectuals. They may be small in number, but they wield influence far beyond their numbers due to their prominence in intellectual circles. They give voice to the old adage, “With friends like these we don’t need enemies.”
Very informative
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