Jews and Wasps

By Walter Russell Mead
New York Sun, November 16, 2007

Edited by Andy Ross

Osama bin Laden sees two sides in the struggle: "One side is the global Crusader alliance with the Zionist Jews, led by America, Britain and Israel, and the other side is the Islamic world."

A common hatred of Britain, America, Jews, and liberal capitalist modernity emerged in the 19th century and played a major role in the history and culture of the last 100 years. Today's anti-Americans, anti-Semites, and anti-Zionists have embraced a set of images and beliefs that haunted the European imagination for hundreds of years.

This hatred is the product of the great story of modern world history: the rise of a global system of power, commerce, finance, culture, and ideology resting first on the power of Britain and now on that of America. Since 1688, the British have been on the winning side in every great power conflict in which they have fought — with the single exception of the American Revolution. In other words, the two great English speaking powers have either separately or together won every major war since the 17th century.

Where the Anglophones considered themselves to be fighting for freedom and tolerance, their enemies saw an economic and social system based on exploitation, greed, and a ruthless will to power. European suspicion of the allegedly harsh and inhuman character of the dreaded "Anglo-Saxon" model of capitalism echoes these concerns.

Jews and Wasps have their differences, but the rest of the world saw us as fighting on the same side long before America's support of Israel became a major world issue. Both Britain and America have long histories of tolerance and more than tolerance for Jews. From the time of Oliver Cromwell, Jewish immigrants played a growing role in the commercial and cultural life of the English speaking world.

Both Judaism and Protestantism provide a solid foundation for success at capitalist enterprise. Jewish society encountered capitalist modernity with the ability to maintain a sense of identity and continuity in the face of change. Wasps, with cultural roots in a form of Protestant Christianity that is individualistic and future-oriented, have also managed to negotiate the challenges of liberal modernity.

The Anglo-Judaic synthesis remains the despair of our enemies.

Walter Russell Mead, Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, is the author of
God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World