[WCUSP] HumanRights] What is Zionism
yvonne simmons
roweenayvonne at yahoo.com
Sun Feb 4 08:15:07 CST 2007
.)
> -------> Ethnic Cleansing Continues: An entire
Palestinian
> village barred from its
> land
> hThe news that the latest Palestinian village was
> barred from its land (see
> http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/1389.shtml ) pegs
> the question if Zionism
> can be compatible with peace. Since many readers
> asked about Zionism, I
> thought I would share with you this chapter from my
> 2004 book "Sharing the
> Land of Canaan". The chapter delves deeper into
> Zionism. In my next
> message I will post the chapter on whether Israel is
> a democracy or not
> (analyzing Israeli laws etc).
> http://qumsiyeh.org/chapter6
>
> Chapter 6: Zionism
>
> PROMISED LAND
> PROMISED LAND
> by Ahlam Shalhout
>
> I was taken to a foreign land.
> A land believed to be full of promise.
> I was told it bore fruits with the sweetest of
> nectar.
> Its soil so rich with olive branches of peace.
> Where the streets were paved with golden orange
> groves.
>
> The nectar though sweet to my tongue
> Brought tears to my bowels.
> The peace bearing olives were pressed
> To make oil of bullfights. Ole!
>
>
> Zionism is variously looked at as a salvation or as
> a catastrophic power.
> Yet all agree that Zionism was and is at the center
> of the conflict that now
> raged for over 100 years in the Land of Canaan. No
> lasting solution can be
> approached without an honest examination of origin
> and consequences of this
> phenomenon that still shapes events, not only
> locally in Palestine/Israel,
> but in the region and the world. The origin of
> Zionism is often described
> as initiated in the 19th century by
> European/Ashkenazi Jews. But this
> political movement had an earlier and more dramatic
> history, some of it
> distinctly un-Jewish origin. In dealing with the
> problems plaguing the Land
> of Canaan today, we must have clear handle on
> Zionist history and the forces
> that challenged or promoted it.
>
> Christian Zionism and Colonialism
>
> Napoleon first attempted to construct a network of
> Jews loyal to the French
> Empire throughout Europe. More concrete planning
> and action from the
> British Empire quickly replaced this initial gesture
> from the French empire
> (ref 1). It should be noted that during this time
> very few Jews lived in
> Britain or France. With the loss of the American
> Colonies, British
> colonialism focused on India as “the Jewel of the
> Crown” and perhaps as
> importantly on the road to India (ref 2). In the
> words of a London Times’
> correspondent in 1840 “the proposition to plant the
> Jewish people in the
> land of their fathers, under the protection of the
> five Powers, is no longer
> a mere matter of speculation, but a serious
> political consideration” (ref
> 3). This quote from the Quarterly Review of 1838
> shows that British,
> non-Jewish Zionist plans were instituted primarily
> for the benefit of the
> British Empire:
>
> "The growing interest manifested for these regions,
> the larger investment of
> British capital, and the confluence of British
> travelers and strangers from
> all parts of the world, have recently induced the
> Secretary of State for
> Foreign Affairs to station there a representative of
> our Sovereign, in the
> person of a Vice-Consul. This gentleman set sail for
> Alexandria at the end
> of last September—his residence will be fixed at
> Jerusalem, but his
> jurisdiction will extend to the whole country within
> the ancient limits of
> the Holy Land; he is thus accredited, as it were, to
> the former kingdom of
> David and the Twelve Tribes. The soil and climate
> of Palestine are
> singularly adapted to the growth of produce required
> for the exigencies of
> Great Britain; the finest cotton may be obtained in
> almost unlimited
> abundance; silk and madder are the staple of the
> country, and oil-olive is
> now, as it ever was, the very fatness of the land.
> Capital and skill are
> alone required: the presence of a British officer,
> and the increased
> security of property which his presence will confer,
> may invite them the
> Jews from these islands to the cultivation of
> Palestine; and the Jews, who
> will betake themselves to agriculture in no other
> land, having found, in the
> English Consul, a mediator between their people and
> the Pasha, will probably
> return in yet greater numbers, and become once more
> the husbandmen of Judæa
> and Galilee
Napoleon knew well the value of an
> Hebrew alliance; and
> endeavoured to reproduce, in the capital of France,
> the spectacle of the
> ancient Sanhedrim, which, basking in the might of
> imperial favour, might
> give laws to the whole body of the Jews throughout
> the habitable world, and
> aid him, no doubt, in his audacious plans against
> Poland and the East That
> which Napoleon designed in his violence and
> ambition, thinking ‘to destroy
> nations not a few,’ we may wisely and legitimately
> undertake for the
> maintenance of our Empire" (ref 4)
>
> British diplomacy with the Ottoman Sultan starting
> in the 1830s included
> explicit requests to encourage and facilitate the
> settlements of Jews in
> Palestine. Many Jews were rightly weary of these
> schemes by European
> gentiles. Zionism failed to convince large segments
> of European Jews in the
> 19th century. The few Jews who were interested in
> living in Palestine
> arrived for various reasons: religious individuals
> relocating near Safed and
> other centers of religious Judaism in Palestine,
> some enticed by financed
> relocation, and some idealistic socialist Zionists
> who felt assimilation
> failed and enlightenment was best developed alone
> until the rest of the
> world catches up. These early converts to Zionism
> were vastly outnumbered
> by non-Zionist and anti-Zionist Jews. Many were
> even fearful that Zionism
> was merely another scheme by gentiles to remove them
> from their countries.
> Yet, Zionism as a colonial venture could not really
> succeed without Jews
> taking it up as a cause in much larger numbers. The
> first attempt was the
> formation early in 1809 of a new organization by the
> name of The London
> Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews.
> Its aims included
> educating Jews on their own history and promote
> Eastern European immigration
> to Palestine as a fulfillment of Christian theology.
> These early attempts
> were the true antecedents of the Christian Zionists
> movement, which remains
> influential both in Britain and the United States to
> this day. Colonel
> Charles Henry Churchill, the British Consul in
> Syria, stated in 1841 that
> success of Zionism depended on, “Firstly that the
> Jews themselves will take
> up the matter, universally and unanimously.
> Secondly that the European
> powers will aid them in their views” (ref 5).
>
> To achieve such goals, the British Empire employed
> the services of one
> Lieutenant Colonel George Gawler (1796-1869).
> Gawler was a colonization
> expert who successfully founded a penal colony in
> Australia and after whom a
> major city and state in Australia are named. In
> 1845, Gawler published his
> vision for how this might be accomplished. His
> treaty was titled:
> "Tranquilization of Syria and the East: Observations
> and Practical
> Suggestions, in Furtherance of the Establishment of
> Jewish Colonies in
> Palestine, the Most Sober and Sensible Remedy for
> the Miseries of Asiatic
> Turkey" (ref 6). In 1852, the Association for
> Promoting Jewish Settlement
> in Palestine was founded by Gawler and other British
> officials and later
> evolved it into the Palestine Fund (ref 7). Winston
> Churchill wrote in 1920
> immediately following his assertion that Bolshevism
> is led and initiated
> mostly by Jews:
>
> "But if, as may well happen, there should be created
> in our life time by the
> banks of the Jordan a Jewish State under the
> protection of the British
> Crown, which might comprise three or four millions
> of Jews, an event would
> have occurred in the history of the world which
> would, from every point of
> view be beneficial, and would be especially in
> harmony with the truest
> interests of the British Empire" (ref 8)
>
> Zionism Taking Root among European Jewish
> Communities
>
> There is much to be learned about the transition in
> the 19th century from a
> movement sponsored and promoted by non-Jews to a
> Jewish led movement that
> then took strong initiative to change the course of
> history. The number of
> Jews who looked with favor to Zionism fluctuated
> depending on circumstances
> of their residence and the political and economic
> situation. 19th century
> nationalism gave Zionism a more race and
> nationalistic tone. Yet, Jewish
> advocates of Zionism remained in the minority
> throughout the 19th century
> and early in the 20th century. And the movement
> clearly continued to depend
> on imperial interests for its very survival and this
> need for better
> cooperation with British colonial interests grew.
> The movement's strength
> in the Ashkenazi communities was largely related to
> levels of anti-Ashkenazi
> feelings. Thus, Moses Hess (1812-1875) argued that
> there is no cure for the
> "illness" of this Jewish hatred other than to
> establish their own state in
> Palestine. A man with similar views, Judah Leib
> (Leon) Pinsker (1821-1891),
> became a co-founder (with Moses Lilienblum) of
> Hibbat Zion, an early Zionist
> movement. In 1882, he wrote anonymously a pamphlet
> titled:
> "Auto-Emancipation: An appeal to his people by a
> Russian Jew." In it he
> argued that anti-Ashkenazim (known in Europe as
> anti-Semitism) was a
> pathological phenomenon beyond the reach of any
> future triumphs of "humanity
> and enlightenment." Here are relevant quotes of why
> he believed in Zionism:
>
> "This is the kernel of the problem, as we see it:
> the Jews comprise a
> distinctive element among the nations under which
> they dwell, and as such
> can neither assimilate nor be readily digested by
> any nation. Hence the
> solution lies in finding a means of so readjusting
> this exclusive element to
> the family of nations, that the basis of the Jewish
> question will be
> permanently removed.
>
> Having analyzed Judeophobia as a hereditary form of
> demonopathy, peculiar to
> the human race, and having represented Anti-Semitism
> as proceeding from an
> inherited aberration of the human mind, we must draw
> the important
> conclusion that we must give up contending against
> these hostile impulses as
> we must against every other inherited
> predisposition.
>
> Our future will remain insecure and precarious
> unless a radical change in
> our position is made. This change cannot be brought
> about by the civil
> emancipation of the Jews in this or that state, but
> only by the
> auto-emancipation of the Jewish people as a nation,
> the foundation of a
> colonial community belonging to the Jews, which is
> some day to become our
> inalienable home, our country.
>
> The international Jewish question must have a
> national solution. Of course,
> our national regeneration can only proceed slowly.
> We must take the first
> step. Our descendants must follow us at a measured
> and not over-precipitant
> speed" (ref 9)
>
> Pinsker became a leader of the movement and with
> funds from the wealthy
> British philanthropist, Baron Edmond de Rothschild
> developed the first
> Jewish agricultural settlements in Palestine at
> Rishon LeZiyyon south of Tel
> Aviv, and Zikhron Yaaqov, south of Haifa. By 1891,
> about 10,000 Jews had
> relocated to these settlements in Palestine (then
> part of the Ottoman
> Empire). Yet, in the period of Jewish emigration
> from Europe 1882-1903, a
> tiny fraction left for Palestine, most went to North
> and South America.
>
> Nathan Birnbaum (alias Mathias Ascher) coined the
> term "Zionism" based on
> the ideas of Hess and Pinsker as a political
> movement for Jewish
> "self-emancipation" and nationalism. In 1893, he
> published a brochure
> entitled "Die Nationale Wiedergeburtder Juedischen
> Volkes in seinem Lande
> als Mittel zur Loesung der Judenfrage" ("The
> National Rebirth of the Jewish
> People in Its Homeland as a Means of Solving the
> Jewish Problem"). Later,
> Theodore Herzl's work formed further ideological
> underpinnings for the
> movement. Similar to his intellectual fathers, he
> also "recognized that
> anti-Semitism would be harnessed to his own
> -Zionist- purposes" (ref 10).
> Thus, proponents of Zionism, non-Jews and Jews
> alike, built their popularity
> on Jewish fears of anti-Jewish sentiments and
> actions. Zionism, they were
> told is the best solution to the "Jewish problem".
>
> Zionism after 1948
>
> While Zionism as a political program was thus
> supposed to "emancipate the
> Jewish people" by having their own state, once the
> state was established and
> native people largely removed, new roles and
> arguments were to be resented
> to sustain and reinvent Zionism. The "protection"
> of the "Jewish people "
> from the "outside" remained essential philosophical
> and political
> underpinning to Zionism. But a bit more was needed.
> The Jerusalem Program
> for Zionism adopted in 1951 and revised by the World
> Zionist Congress in
> 1968 adopted this as a definition of the goals of
> Zionism:
>
> The aims of Zionism are:
> -The Unity of the Jewish people and the centrality
> of Israel in Jewish life;
> - The ingathering of the Jewish people in the
> historic homeland, Eretz
> Israel, through aliyah from
> all countries;
> -The strengthening of the State of Israel, which is
> based on the prophetic
> vision of justice and peace;
> - The preservation of the identity of the Jewish
> people through the
> fostering of Jewish, Hebrew and Zionist education
> and of Jewish spiritual
> and cultural values;
> - The protection of Jewish rights everywhere.
>
>
> In June 1968, the Zionist Congress, held in
> Jerusalem, redefined the aims of
> Zionism in the "Jerusalem Program" rather broadly:
>
> 1. Unity of the Jewish People and the Centrality of
> Israel in Jewish life;
>
> 2. The ingathering of the Jewish people in its
> historic homeland Eretz
> Yisrael through Aliyah from all countries.
>
> 3. The strengthening of the State of Israel, which
> is based on the prophetic
> vision of justice and peace;
>
> 4. The preservation of the identity of the Jewish
> people through the
> fostering of Jewish, Zionist and Hebrew education
> and of Jewish spiritual
> and cultural values;
>
> 5. The protection of Jewish rights everywhere.
>
> Note the wide mandate dictated by key words of
> power, strength, and
> protection against any perceived threat to Jews. One
> need only substitute
> Jew/Jewish with Christian or "White" to see the
> inherent unfairness and
> racism in both the program of 1951 and 1968. After
> all, what is this idea
> of ingathering of Jewish "people" mean? What does
> it mean when many Jews
> have converted to Christianity and many to Islam?
> What does it mean for the
> majority of Jews who are converts over the ages from
> Christianity, Paganism
> etc.? How is he "ingathering" and taking land from
> natives via the
> "strengthening" of the State of Israel in the name
> of the "Unity of the
> Jewish people" help in the "protection of Jewish
> rights everywhere"?
>
> The government of Israel still mindlessly talks
> about Zionism as a solution
> to "anti-Semitic" (anti-Jewish) hatred instead of
> working to advance
> equality for Jews and non-Jews everywhere:
>
> The Zionist movement aimed to solve the 'Jewish
> problem,' the problem of a
> perennial minority, a people subjected to repeated
> pogroms and persecution,
> a homeless community whose alienism was underscored
> by discrimination
> wherever Jews settled. Zionism aspired to deal with
> this situation by
> affecting a return to the historical homeland of the
> Jews - Land of
> Israel.... The Zionist national solution was the
> establishment of a Jewish
> national state with a Jewish majority in the
> historical homeland, thus
> realizing the Jewish people's right to
> self-determination (ref 11).
>
> Note the sweeping generalizations and sense of
> perpetual victimization that
> reflects the theology of Hess, Pinsker, and Herzl
> that discrimination
> against Jews is pathological and has no cure other
> than a powerful state
> with a majority Jewish population. Amnon Rubinstein
> wrote in Haaretz on
> March 13, 2002:
>
> "
the new secular Jewish nationalism, which was the
> foundation on which
> Israel was built, is a nationalism of no choice. It
> is true that on the
> basis of the lack of choice were piled on additional
> traditional national
> elements: the memory of the biblical past, the
> impact of the revival of
> Hebrew, the concept of a return to Zion, and the
> characteristic
> accoutrements of other national movements. But the
> major strength of
> Zionism stemmed from its sense that there was no
> other choice, from this
> inability to be like everyone else. Without the
> locked gate, the Zionist
> gate would not have opened very wide and the longing
> for Zion would have
> stayed in the prayer book "
> (ref 12)
>
> So do Jews really have no choice other than Zionism
> to prosper in this
> world? Did Zionism help or hinder the case for
> tolerance in the world (Jews
> towards non-Jews and vice versa)? Jews grabbled
> with such questions for
> decades and arrived at different conclusions with
> anti-Zionist Jews arriving
> at completely opposite conclusions to those reached
> by Herzl, Pinskery, Hess
> and their followers. As history would prove, the
> critics were right.
> Today, after over 150 years of Zionism, there is
> only one place where Jews
> are threatened with annihilation and that is this
> self-declared "Jewish
> state". In Israel, one finds a government that is
> preparing public parks as
> sites for possible mass graves in case of biological
> or chemical attacks.
> In Israel, one finds unrealistic attempts at
> assuring the public that they
> can survive such attacks. Why are Jews safer in
> America or France than in
> Israel? Are anti-Jewish sentiments around the world
> stoked or diminished by
> the Zionist program and its effect on the native
> Palestinians?
>
> The answers to these questions make many Jews now
> rethink the deceptions of
> the militaristic Zionist program. Political Zionism
> was far more
> catastrophic for the indigenous Palestinians
> (Christians and Muslims alike).
> In public articles and books, Herzl was careful in
> describing what Zionism
> meant in practice and how it was to be implemented
> in an already inhabited
> Palestine. But, as we discussed in Chapter 4 on
> refugees, Herzl's diaries
> and diaries of other early Zionists are now
> available and shed light about
> the colonial nature of Zionism and its true
> intentions.
>
> Herzl, understood the need for a concrete program to
> realize his the goals
> he articulated. For this a new group of people
> participated in the practical
> application of Zionism. This included people like
> Nachman Syrkin and Ber
> Borochov who developed the labor Zionism as a
> dominant force in Zionist
> quarters. This brand of practical Zionism exists in
> a form represented by
> the labor party and some other minor parties in
> Israel today. Labor
> Zionists criticized the Rothschild-supported
> settlements on purely
> capitalist terms (e.g. hiring Arab labor). They
> called for Jewish
> settlement based on socialist modes of organization:
> the accumulation of
> capital managed by a central Jewish organization and
> employment of Jewish
> laborers only. A key pillar of this was the need
> for a "Jewish power"
> (physical, material) which can then translate into
> state and political power
> without dilution by non-Jews.
>
> Labor Zionists knew that power is needed, but they
> also knew that to achieve
> their goals required skillful political maneuvering
> around existing powers
> in the region of their settlement. For many ardent
> Zionists, this somehow
> smacked of compromise that they were not willing to
> accept. This set the
> stage for the evolution of other methods to achieve
> the goals of Zionism.
> Some argued that strong economic and military power
> is all that mattered to
> realization of the Zionist dreams. Jabotinsky was
> the founder of this
> ideology of "revisionist Zionism" that Begin,
> Netanyahu, Sharon and other
> Israeli leaders identify as their ideological
> underpinning (now represented
> by the Likud party and other Right Wing parties in
> Israel). A reading from
> one of Jabotinsky's 1923 writings clearly
> demonstrates his mode of thinking:
>
> "Every reader has some idea of the early history of
> other countries which
> have been settled. I suggest that he recall all
> known instances. If he
> should attempt to seek but one instance of a country
> settled with the
> consent of those born there he will not succeed.
> The inhabitants (no matter
> whether they are civilized or savages) have always
> put up a stubborn fight.
> Furthermore, how the settler acted had no effect
> whatsoever. The Spaniards
> who conquered Mexico and Peru, or our own ancestors
> in the days of Joshua
> ben Nun behaved, one might say, like plunderers.
>
> ... Compromisers in our midst attempt to convince us
> that the Arabs are some
> kind of fools who can be tricked by a softened
> formulation of our goals, or
> a tribe of money grubbers who will abandon their
> birth right to Palestine
> for cultural and economic gains. I flatly reject
> this assessment of the
> Palestinian Arabs. Culturally they are 500 years
> behind us, spiritually
> they do not have our endurance or our strength of
> will, but this exhausts
> all of the internal differences. We can talk as
> much as we want about our
> good intentions; but they understand as well as we
> what is not good for
> them. They look upon Palestine with the same
> instinctive love and true
> fervor that any Aztec looked upon his Mexico or any
> Sioux looked upon his
> prairie.
>
> ... It is of no importance whether we quote Herzl or
> Herbert Samuel to
> justify our activities. Colonization itself has its
> own explanation,
> integral and inescapable, and understood by every
> Arab and every Jew with
> his wits about him. Colonization can have only one
> goal. For the
> Palestinian Arabs this goal is inadmissible. This
> is in the nature of
> things. To change that nature is impossible.
>
> ... Zionist colonization, even the most restricted,
> must either be
> terminated or carried out in defiance of the will of
> the native population.
> This colonization can, therefore, continue and
> develop only under the
> protection of a force independent of the local
> population – an iron wall
> which the native population cannot break through.
> This is, in toto, our
> policy towards the Arabs. To formulate it any other
> way would only be
> hypocrisy. Not only must this be so, it is so
> whether we admit it or not.
> What does the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate
> mean for us? It is the
> fact that a disinterested power committed itself to
> create such security
> conditions that the local population would be
> deterred from interfering with
> our efforts.
>
> All of us, without exception, are constantly
> demanding that this power
> strictly fulfill its obligations. In this sense,
> there are no meaningful
> differences between our “militarists” and our
> “vegetarians”. One prefers an
> iron wall of Jewish bayonets, the other proposes an
> iron wall of British
> bayonets, the third proposes an agreement with
> Baghdad, and appears to be
> satisfied with Baghdad's bayonets – a strange and
> somewhat risky taste – but
> we all applaud, day and night, the iron wall. We
> would destroy our cause if
> we proclaimed the necessity of an agreement, and
> fill the minds of the
> Mandatory with the belief that we do not need an
> iron wall, but rather
> endless talks. Such a proclamation can only harm
> us. Therefore it is our
> sacred duty to expose such talk and prove that it is
> a snare and a
> delusion." (ref 13)
>
> This is a must reading for those who really want to
> understand the nature of
> Zionist designs un-encumbered with nice words or
> skillful maneuvering. The
> "wall" refers to the wall of bayonets, British
> and/or Zionist, necessarily
> required to establish a colonial Jewish State. The
> author persuasively
> argued why Arabs would not accept a Jewish State in
> Palestine. His vision,
> as articulated in this 1923 article, is amazingly
> prophetic in what was to
> transpire in Palestine over the next 80 years.
>
> Is Zionism the Other Side of the Coin of
> Anti-Semitism?
>
> Zionism in essence was a project that accommodated
> slightly varied modes of
> operations, such as using Arab labor or not, working
> with existing political
> systems to achieve its goals, or using only military
> means. The essence of
> it was and still is the creation and maintenance of
> a Jewish state with a
> clear and unambiguous Jewish majority (as long as
> this Jewish majority
> supported Zionism). In a land already occupied by
> another people, its
> tactics were viewed as a traumatic, but necessary,
> loss. The main device
> towards the realization of this dream was
> "anti-Semitism". This form of
> racism was well intertwined, and is also explained
> by deep psychological
> phenomena.
>
> The term anti-Semite was coined by anti-Jewish bigot
> Wilhelm Marr in 1879.
> According to Yahoo encyclopedia, Marr's 1862
> pamphlet titled Der
> Judenspiegel ("Jews Mirror") was followed by the
> influential "The Victory of
> Judaism over Germandom, Considered from a
> Non-Religious point of View".
> Marr apparently did not want to use Jew as it
> connotes a religion and wanted
> a term that is referring to ethnicity. He was
> likely never introduced to
> the word Ashkenazi and he assumed Ashkenazi/European
> Jews to be "Semitic."
> Marr thus introduced in 1879 the word "anti-Semite"
> into the political
> vocabulary by founding the League of anti-Semites,
> which organized lectures
> and published a short-lived monthly. The "league"
> failed as an
> organization, but it was historically important for
> it was the first effort
> of creating a popular political movement based on
> hatred Ashkenazim. As
> pointed out in chapter 2, Semites refer to all
> people who speak Semitic
> languages (Arabic Hebrew, Aramaic). Ashkenazi Jews
> would technically not be
> Semitic since they spoke Yiddish. The fact that this
> term developed by a
> racist was adopted by many Jews and Zionists is
> astonishing yet fits well
> within the context of development of Zionist
> thoughts as discussed above
> (i.e. a solution to the "Jewish problem" being
> relocation to a "Jewish
> state").
>
> That Zionism and Judeophobia are intimately
> connected is evidenced by
> writings of early Zionists. Here is Vladimir
> Jabotinsky, the ideological
> forefather of the Israeli Likud Party, writing in
> 1904 about the "Jewish
> problem" :
>
> "It is inconceivable from a physical point of view,
> that a Jew born to a
> family of pure Jewish blood over several generations
> can become adapted to
> the spiritual outlook of a German or a Frenchman. A
> Jew brought up among
> Germans may assume German customs, German words. He
> may be wholly imbued
> with that German fluid but the nucleus of his
> spiritual structure will
> always remain Jewish, because his blood, his body,
> his physical-racial type
> are Jewish ... And a man whose body is Jewish can
> not possibly mold within
> himself the spirit of a Frenchman ... It is
> impossible for a man to become
> assimilated with people whose blood is different
> than his own " 14
>
> Perhaps this parallel quote from Adolf Hitler's book
> "Mein Kampf" needs to
> be pondered and analyzed:
>
> "Yet I could no longer very well doubt that the
> objects of my study were not
> Germans of a special religion, but a people in
> themselves; for once I had
> begun to concern myself with this question and to
> take cognizance of the
> Jews, Vienna appeared to me in a different light
> than before. Wherever I
> went, I began to see Jews, and the more I saw, the
> more sharply they became
> distinguished in my eyes from the rest of humanity.
> Particularly the Inner
> City and the districts north of the Danube Canal
> swarmed with a people,
> which even outwardly had lost all resemblance to
> Germans. And whatever
> doubts I may still have nourished were finally
> dispelled by the attitude of
> a portion of the Jews themselves. Among them there
> was a great movement,
> quite extensive in Vienna, which came out sharply in
> confirmation of the
> national character of the Jews: this was the
> ZIONISTS" (emphasis in
> original) (ref 15)
>
> Hitler's book is the most horrific denigration of
> Jews and other people and
> the most racist book one could even imagine. For
> him to state that whatever
> "lingering doubts" about his anti-Semitism were
> dispelled because Zionists
> agreed with him about the national character of Jews
> is amazing and has
> historically almost completely been ignored. It is
> an important notion
> because Zionists not only agreed with Hitler that
> Jews should go away from
> Europe but they actually worked towards that goal.
> Here is what The Zionist
> Federation of Germany wrote in a letter to the new
> Nazi regime:
>
> "Zionism believes that a rebirth of national life,
> such as is occurring in
> German life through adhesion to Christian and
> national values, must also
> take place in the Jewish national group" (ref 16)
>
> Both Zionists and Nazis believed that Jews couldn’t
> be Germans. They both
> believed that Jews could not function normally in
> other societies as equal
> citizens. Zionists in fact were clearly putting a
> primary goal of colonial
> Jewish presence in a majority in Palestine ahead of
> any other issues even
> when this goal contradicted the welfare of Jews.
> This is why they
> collaborated with the Nazis and thwarted some
> efforts to rescue Jews.
>
> The Zionists cooperated with the Nazis in the
> mid-thirties to facilitate
> Jewish immigration to Palestine. The details of
> this agreement were given
> by Edwin Black's book (ref 17). After commencement
> of attacks on Jews under
> German control, the British, in the hope of easing
> the pressure for
> increased immigration into Palestine, proposed that
> thousands of Jewish
> children be admitted directly into Britain.
> Ben-Gurion, the recognized
> leader of labor Zionism at the time was absolutely
> against the plan, telling
> a meeting of Labour Zionist leaders on 7 Dec. 1938:
>
> "If I knew that it would be possible to save all the
> children in Germany by
> bringing them over to England, and only half of them
> by transporting them to
> Eretz Yisrael, then I would opt for the second
> alternative. For we must
> weigh not only the life of these children, but also
> the history of the
> People of Israel" (ref 18)
>
> Rabbi Shonfeld quotes the Zionist leader Yitzhak
> Greenbaum, as stating after
> the war:
>
> "When they asked me, couldn't you give money out of
> the United Jewish Appeal
> funds for the rescue of Jews in Europe, I said,
> 'NO!' and I say again 'NO!'
> . . . one should resist this wave which pushes the
> Zionist activities to
> secondary importance" (ref 19)
>
> Most Jews in the 19th and early 20th century
> criticized Zionist
> methodologies and even the whole concept of Zionism.
> They saw this
> movement as a cynical use of religion to establish
> state power. Perhaps the
> most interesting were views of highly intelligent
> and humanistic Jews like
> Einstein and Freud who while openly not opposing
> Zionism, simply refused to
> take part in it. They reflected the majority Jewish
> opinion before the
> establishment of the state of Israel.
>
> Sigmund Freud, the father of psychotherapy, was
> opposed to Zionism. When
> approached to sign a petition to condemn the Arab
> riots in Palestine and to
> support the settlement of Jews in Israel, he wrote
> politely to decline:
>
> "Dear Sir,
>
> I cannot do as you wish. I am unable to overcome my
> aversion to burdening
> the public with my name, and even the present
> critical time does not seem to
> me to warrant it. Whoever wants to influence the
> masses must give them
> something rousing and inflammatory and my sober
> judgment of Zionism does not
> permit this. I certainly sympathize with its goals,
> am proud of our
> University in Jerusalem and am delighted with our
> settlement's prosperity.
> But, on the other hand, I do not think that
> Palestine could ever become a
> Jewish state, nor that the Christian and Islamic
> worlds would ever be
> prepared to have their holy places under Jewish
> care. It would have seemed
> more sensible to me to establish a Jewish homeland
> on a less
> historically-burdened land. But I know that such a
> rational viewpoint would
> never have gained the enthusiasm of the masses and
> the financial support of
> the wealthy. I concede with sorrow that the
> baseless fanaticism of our
> people is in part to be blamed for the awakening of
> Arab distrust. I can
> raise no sympathy at all for the misdirected piety
> which transforms a piece
> of a Herodian wall into a national relic, thereby
> offending the feelings of
> the natives.
>
> Now judge for yourself whether I, with such a
> critical point of view, am the
> right person to come forward as the solace of a
> people deluded by
> unjustified hope." (ref 20)
>
> Freud was referring to the clear methods of Zionists
> of the day to assert
> sovereignty on areas of Palestine and to regularly
> confront and show the
> natives that their interests were incompatible.
> Zionism was for a state of
> the Jews and not for a democratic state for a
> variety of people. As Freud
> pointed out it is born of a preference for a tribal
> affiliation that still
> haunts us to this day. Hillel Halkin wrote in the
> Jerusalem Post in 2002:
>
> "You would like me to look at it objectively.
> Objectively, I agree: we are
> only breeding more hatred and violence. You want me
> to imagine how I would
> feel if I were a Palestinian. I suppose that if I
> were, I might want to
> kill Israelis myself. But I am not objective and I
> am not a Palestinian.
> It's not that the lives of Palestinians don't matter
> to me. But Israeli
> lives matter more.
>
> I know this doesn't sound terribly enlightened. And
> it certainly doesn't
> lead to any of the political solutions that we both
> know are necessary if
> this horror is going to end. But being objective
> would not make me more
> human. It would make me less.
>
> I can try to be objective about Russians and
> Chechnyans, or about Hindus and
> Muslims in Kashmir, without drying up the milk of
> human kindness in me, just
> as you can try to be objective about us here, but
> that is only because I am
> not a Russian or a Chechnyan. If I were, and if I
> didn't put my own people
> first, I would simply be an emotional monster.
> Nothing good could come of
> that" (ref 21)
>
> Thus, Zionism's victims were not only the intended
> native displacement but
> it could be argued that humane Jewish values were
> also its victims. In his
> book "Ben Gurion's Scandals" Naeim Giladi ,an Iraqi
> Jew and ex-Zionist,
> discusses Zionist tactics in trying to import Jews
> from Iraq to Israel in
> the 1950s. He immigrated to the US and recently
> wrote an article in 'The
> Link', a publication of the Americans for Middle
> East Understanding about
> his book. In part he said that "about 125,000 Jews
> left Iraq for Israel in
> the late 1940s and into 1952, mostly because they
> had been lied to and put
> into a panic by what I came to learn were Zionist
> bombs [referring to the
> bombings done at Synagogues and other areas of
> Jewish public concentration).
> But my mother and father were among the 6,000 who
> did not go to Israel”
> (ref 22). Other books discuss Zionist discourse and
> its relationship to
> anti-Ashkenazim and Judeophobia. Some of these are
> cited in the
> recommended readings below.
>
> A Post-Zionist Discourse
>
> This Zionist program tried but failed to make its
> ideology the ideology of
> "the Jewish people." Many even argued that Zionists
> tried to replace
> Judaism with Zionism or at least to make sure that
> Zionism is a dominant
> feature of mainstream Jewish thought. Hence, one
> understands the incessant
> need to label anti-Zionists or even non-Zionists as
> "anti-Semitic" or if
> they are Jewish as "self-hating Jews." In the first
> 80 years of Apartheid
> South Africa, the leaders of the White South
> Africans also labeled apartheid
> as a national movement for white safety and all
> opposition within blacks as
> anti-White racism. Jewish intellectuals and many
> others opposed Zionism
> simply because they knew it was not a workable
> construct for Jewish
> self-determination or freedom.
>
> When Palestinians return to their lands and form a
> pluralistic society for
> all, will the descendants of those expelled
> Palestinians remember more the
> words and actions of Heztl, Ben Gurion, Barak, and
> Sharon or will they
> remember the words and actions of Martin Buber,
> Israel Shahak, Uri Avneri,
> or Norman Finkelstein? Will those memories teach us
> to be more tolerant of
> each other or will it instill in us the kind of
> self-righteous, know it all,
> "we were the perpetual victim" mentality that was so
> characteristic of many
> Zionists. Victims of the Holocaust took different
> lessons from it. Some,
> perhaps goaded or misled by simplistic and rather
> unrealistic notion of
> separation/apartheid, thought "never again" but
> meant never again to us Jews
> and thus we must separate ourselves from humanity.
> To make sure this does
> not happen, we will build a very strong state based
> on Jewish power. A
> logical place was Palestine, the ancient homeland of
> the Jews. Of course
> the only problem was that Palestine was already
> heavily inhabited and the
> native population was not simply going to consent to
> having sovereignty of
> their land transferred to an extra national entity.
> Other Holocaust
> survivors and their children like Norman
> Finkelstein, Israel Shahak and tens
> of thousands like them took the message that never
> again will we allow
> hatred or racism against anyone. Others also
> rejected the notion of a new
> secular "Jewish state" based on theological
> arguments (this was true of
> essentially all Orthodox Jews until 1967 and still
> now common among the
> ultra-orthodox like the Naturei Karta).
>
> I am confident that an exclusionary Palestinian
> movement analogous to
> Zionism will not gain widespread recognition nor
> would ever be allowed to
> get a foothold analogous to that of Zionism in
> Jewish masses. I know this
> because I saw it happen with natives in other parts
> of the world. In South
> Africa, the Blacks won their freedom but did not
> push the whites into the
> sea as was feared. Palestinians will not push Jews
> into the sea. The
> reverse of this actually did happen in 1948 where
> Palestinians were
> literally pushed into the sea at Jaffa and were
> loaded into boats to end-up
> in places like Gaza. It is also something that the
> world would never
> tolerate in the 21st century as witnessed in Bosnia.
>
> Jewish voices against Zionism and against Israeli
> actions are gaining
> momentum but it is true that the dominant feature in
> at least the organized
> Jewish community is Zionist. However, one must
> realize that a majority of
> Jews in all surveys state that they are not Zionist
> and even today a
> majority of Jews live outside Israel. Further, the
> growth of the Jewish
> anti-Zionist and post-Zionist movements has been
> dramatic. What are some of
> the good things about these movements?
>
> 1) Jewish opponents to Zionism make it rather
> impossible for both Zionists
> and other racists to make generalizations about
> "the Jews." This is
> important in many ways but the most important is
> that generalizations can
> lead to racism and attacks on the whole community.
> I think it is an ironic
> twist that these Jews whom Zionists vilify as
> "self-hating" or as traitors
> to their religion actually do a lot of good for the
> religion and enhance
> protection for their co-religionists while Zionists
> who perpetuate
> brutalities and claim they represent all Jews
> increase anti-Jewish paranoia.
> The lesson to all, including Palestinians, is to
> never vilify those who
> stand up for justice/freedom for all.
>
> 2) Jewish opponents of Zionism take a moral stance
> on issues regardless of
> the victim or the perpetrator. They provide the
> highest of human ideals in
> rejecting tribalism and the philosophies of "us" and
> "them." They view each
> event on its own merits and are thus freed from the
> hypocrisy of ideological
> adherence. Zionists must continuously play a game
> of moral relativism and
> hypocritical support of human rights in some cases
> while opposing them on
> others (depending on whether the tribe is affected
> or not). This is not a
> healthy way to live and creates many sleepless
> nights among some Zionists I
> know. The lesson to all, including Palestinians is
> to never think or act
> tribally, think and act as a human being.
>
> Those Jews who oppose Zionism are not doing what
> they do to provide us an
> example, nor are they doing it because they think
> they can change history.
> They do it for a very simple reason – because it is
> just. In fact, the more
> of us think like that, the less likelihood there is
> for wars, for tribal
> conflicts, for nationalism, and the more likelihood
> there is for peace and
> prosperity to all of us.
>
> The questions asked by those skeptical of Zionist
> aspirations are still
> relevant today. Were Jews really able to survive
> only because of the
> creation of the Jewish State of Israel and the
> continuing dispossession of
> the native Palestinians? What price is a Jewish
> state to the natives? Does
> Zionism really solve the lingering feeling of being
> oppressed or
> discriminated against? Do Zionism and anti-Jewish
> feelings
> ("anti-Semitism") feed on each other to grow? In
> the US, Jews, Christians,
> Muslims and others are well adapted as members of a
> society that protects
> their rights. During the zenith of Arabic/Islamic
> civilization, Jews,
> Christians and Muslims similarly prospered together
> and built a great
> economic, architectural, intellectual, and cultural
> heritage. The best
> example of this is the pluralistic society developed
> in Al-Andalus (Spain).
> My grandfather frequently spoke of the amicable
> relationships he, as a
> Palestinian Christian, observed between all
> communities in Palestine well
> before the disasters imposed by the British-Zionist
> project unfolded.
> Jewish colleagues agree with my grandfather's
> statement, “It is not true
> what Zionism preached to us that we could not live
> together. It is a shame
> that instead of building a pluralistic country for
> all, some chose to build
> a country for one and dispossess the other.”
>
> The record shows that Zionism and anti-Jewish
> feelings (anti-Semitism) had a
> symbiotic relationship. Victims of Zionist ideology
> were not limited to the
> Palestinians (the native inhabitants) but extended
> to Jews and many others.
> Sephardic Jews who were forced to flee their homes
> and rather comfortable
> lives in Arab countries as Israel pushed to
> undermine their presence in
> those countries and as anti-Jewish feelings
> increased due to the repression
> of the Palestinians by self-declared Jewish
> representatives. Even today,
> actions of the State of Israel do increase and
> certainly do not decrease
> threats or danger to Jews around the world. So even
> strictly judging from
> its own stated goals of providing normality and
> safety to Jews, Zionism has
> been a failure. But perhaps these stated goals were
> not truly genuine and
> that Zionism, like so many other -isms, has been
> mainly about power and
> control. Declassified documents are shedding light
> on these things and
> raise very troubling questions.
>
> These questions about relationship of Zionism to
> anti-Judaic feelings and
> Jewish reactions to it are all worth exploring. But
> the story with regard
> to the native Palestinian inhabitants is much
> simpler and much less
> controversial. In practice to fulfill the dreams of
> Zionist leaders, ethnic
> cleansing was and continues to be practiced. After
> taking 78% of the land
> from its native people and expelling over three
> fourths of them, Zionism
> still was not satisfied and Israeli leaders are
> aggressively and violently
> insisting on partitioning the remaining 22%
> (apartheid) while insisting on
> no return of Palestinian refugees and on maintaining
> racist laws that
> discriminate against non-Jews. The idea is to keep
> the Jewish character of
> the state. These laws and beliefs are the topic of
> the next chapter.
>
> Notes to Chapter 6
>
> 1. Mohameden Ould-Mey, The non-Jewish Origin of
> Zionism, The Arab World
> Geographer, 5:34-52, 2002.
> 2. Barbara W. Tuchman, Bible and Sword: England and
> Palestine from the
> Bronze Age to Balfour (New York: Ballantine Books,
> 1984).
> 3. The Times, 17 August 1840, Restoration of the
> Jews, p. 5, col 6(f).
> 4. Lord Lindsay, Letters on Egypt, Edom, and the
> Holy Land, , (London:
> Henry Colburn, 1838), pp. 188-190.
> 5. L. J Epstein, Zion’s Call: Christian
> Contributions to the Origins and
> Development of Israel. (New York: University Press
> of America, 1984).
> 6. George Gawler 1845, ‘Tranquilization of Syria and
> the East: Observations
> and Practical Suggestions, in Furtherance of the
> Establishment of Jewish
> Colonies in Palestine, the Most Sober and Sensible
> Remedy for the Miseries
> of Asiatic Turkey" as quoted in Mohameden Ould-Mey,
> The non-Jewish Origin of
> Zionism’, The Arab World Geographer, Vol. 5, pp.
> 34--52,( 2002).
> 7. Epstein, Zion’s Call.
> 8. ‘Zionism versus Bolshevism: A struggle for the
> Soul of the Jewish
> people’ Illustrated Sunday Herald 8 February 1920,
> reprinted in Lenni
> Brenner, 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with
> the Nazis (New Jersey:
> Barricade, 2002), p. 27
> 9. Translated from German by Dr. D. S. Blondheim,
> Federation of American
> Zionists, 1916, Essential Texts of Zionism; Jewish
> Virtual Library
>
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Zionism/pinsker.html
> 10. Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of
> the Zionist-Arab Conflict,
> 1881-2001 (New York: Knopf, 2001), p. 21.
> 11. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Website
> http://www.israel.org/mfa/go.asp?MFAH00ng0
> 12. Amnon Rubinstein, Haaretz, 13 March 2002.
> 13. Vladimir Jabotinsky, "The Iron Wall: We and the
> Arabs" First published
> in Russian under the title "O Zheleznoi Stene" in
> Rasswyet," November 4,
> 1923. Translated by Lenni Brenner. It can be
> downloaded at
>
http://www.marxists.de/middleast/ironwall/ironwall.htm
> 14. Vladimir Jabotinsky, ‘A Letter on Autonomy,
> 1904', reprinted in
> Brenner, 51 Documents, p. 10.
> 15. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Reissue edition
> (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
> 1998), p. 56.
> 16. June 21, 1933 memo from The Zionist Federation
> of Germany, reprinted in
> Brenner, 51 Documents, p. 43.
> 17. Edwin Black, The Transfer Agreement: the Untold
> Story of the Secret
> Pact Between the Third Reich & Jewish Palestine (New
> York: Macmillan
> Publishing Co., London: Collier Macmillan
> Publishers, 1984).
> 18. Lenni Brenner, The Iron Wall: Zionist
> Revisionism from Jabotinsky to
> Shamir (Zed Books, 1984). cites as reference no. 23:
> Yoav Gelber, ' Zionist
> Policy and the Fate of European Jewry (1939-42)' Yad
> Vashem Studies, vol.
> XII, p. 199.
> 19. Rabbi Moshe Shonfeld, The Holocaust Victims
> Accuse, Neturei Karta,
> USA, New York, 1977.
> 20. Freud's Letter to Dr. Chaim Koffler Keren
> HaYassod, Vienna: 26 February
> 1930; posted at the Freud Institute in UK website:
> http://www.freud.org.uk./arab-israeli.html.
> 21. Hillel Halkin ,’Objectivity is morally
> overrated’, Jerusalem Post, 14
> November 2002. Also on the web at
>
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1037248935749
> 22. Naeim Giladi , Ben Gurion's Scandals (Flushing:
> Glilit Pub. Co., 1995).
>
> Recommended Readings
>
> Edwin Black, The Transfer Agreement: The Dramatic
> Story of the Pact Between
> the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine (New York :
> Carroll & Graf, 2001).
> Marc H. Ellis, Israel and Palestine: Out of the
> Ashes, (London: Pluto Press,
> 2003).
> Naeim Giladi , Ben Gurion's Scandals (Flushing:
> Glilit Pub. Co., 1995).
> Lenni Brenner, The Iron Wall: Zionist Revisionism
> from Jabotinsky to Shamir
> (London: Zed Books, 1984).
> Tom Segev with Haim Watzman (Translator) The Seventh
> Million: The Israelis
> and the Holocaust, (New York: Owl Books, 2000).
> -------------------------------------
> Mazin
> http://qumsiyeh.org
>
>
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