Amitai Etzioni, ‘Godfather’ of Political Communitarianism

By Koen Jacobs, April 12, 2022

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At the age of 17, German-Israeli-American Amitai Etzioni, born Werner Falk, joined the Palmach, the commando forces of the Haganah in Palestine. The Haganah was the main zionist paramilitary organization at the time, which eventually would become part of the Israel Defense Forces in 1948.

As a member of the Palmach, Etzioni was involved in bombings of local police stations and bridges, and violent attacks on Arab people. People who lived in Palestine long before he and his parents arrived in Palestine in 1937.

After completing his sociology studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in 1956, Etzioni moved to the United States where he became a professor at the Columbia University in 1958. At the Hebrew university, Etzioni was influenced mainly by Martin Buber, a key newspaper editor in the zionist movement of the early 1900s. Buber shares a family tree with Karl Marx. Historical records suggest that Martin Luther King Jr. worked with Martin Buber during King’s South African anti-apartheid campaign.

By 1979-1980, Etzioni, now considered “the everything expert” by the mainstream media, had worked his way into the White House, where he served as a senior public policy advisor for the Carter administration.

In 1993, as the director of the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies at the George Washington University, Etzioni founded the Communitarian Network. An international organization that would eventually become the main promoter of the political religion known as communitarianism.

Although he has often stated otherwise, Etzioni’s communitarianism suggests that the rights of “the community” are more important than the rights of the individual, and that “the community”, in fact, has more rights than the individual. The latter is also reflected in, for instance, Etzioni’s view on gun control, in the US.

“The right to own guns is a communitarian right, not an individualized one.” – Amitai Etzioni, February 19, 2013

Since Jimmy Carter’s administration, most US presidents have been highly influenced by Etzioni and his international communitarian movement. Including “new world order” George H.W. Bush, who signed Agenda 21 in Rio, Brazil in 1992. A communitarian agenda that includes key documents and agreements that are part of the communitarian law system.

Bill Clinton, who personally requested Etzioni’s advice, implemented stricter gun control policies.

George W. Bush his inaugural address in 2001 was a “communitarian text”, according to Etzioni. The text was written also based on advice by Robert D. Putnam of Harvard University, another hardcore communitarian.

At the center of Barack Obama his policies was the communitarian belief that people individually do not thrive because of their own commitment and hard work, but rather because ‘the community’ helps to achieve individual goals. During his 2012 election campaign, Obama stated that “if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

“Amitai Etzioni, a student of Cabala, was raised on a kibbutz in the British Mandate for Palestine. He immigrated to the U.S. after he fought as a terrorist and Special Forces revolutionary soldier. Etzioni is very skilled in the Art of Deception.” (Niki Raapana, Nordica Friedrich, 2020: Our Common Destiny, 2008)

“Dr. Etzioni, our expert communitarian guru, says we can’t cope with our issues without additional layers of bureaucracy. His solution to all socio-economic-political ills is to end nation states and implement global governance. The transformation of America is right in step with the gradualist transformation of Europe. And Etzioni’s communitarian dream of an international Community Police force is as well advanced as the evolving law [communitarian law] the peacekeepers are trained to write and enforce.” (Niki Raapana, Nordica Friedrich, 2020: Our Common Destiny, 2008)