Mezvinsky on Zionism - re-published 4 June 2018

 
Having read with interest David Habakkuk's article,I am motivated to write a brief comment on Zionism. (I may post another comment at another time about the advocacy of a two state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.)

Habakkuk opines categorically that "the whole Zionist enterprise was hopeless from the start." The growth and development since 1948 and the present strength of Israel, even with its internal and external problems and its oppressive policies and actions, make Habakkuk's statement wishful thinking rather than proven fact.

I am personally inclined to think (or perhaps guess) that the Zionist state will ultimately fail. As an historian , not a prophet,however,I neither believe failure is imminent nor absolutely certain to occur in the foreseeable future. I realize that United States backing and support has been essential for Israel's survival to date and will almost certainly be necessary for continued survival of that state. Although changes have occurred and are continuing to occur in United States public opinion concerning Israel, the United States government remains overwhelmingly supportive and protective of the Zionist state.

 

(As a person who has for half a century opposed Zionism and the almost blind support by the United States government for oppressive policies of the state of Israel, I continually remind myself that I need to be as realistic as possible as I continue to be cause committed and to work for positive change.) I contend, as do some other commentators, that Zionism is the fundamental cause of this conflict. Habakkuk seems to suggest this, but I want to attempt to be a bit more specific and precise.

I need not and cannot in this one comment review the entire historical development of Zionism. It is enough to state that the essence of political Zionism rests upon the following absolute theory of anti-Semitism: Jews have been in the past and/or are being in the present and/or will be in the future persecuted by non-Jews in all nation-states in which they are a minority. In Zionist logic it follows that Jews will only be safe in a nation-state in which they begin as the majority of the residents of the state (or at least of the citizens who control the state) and thereafter remain the majority.

The state of Israel was created in the Zionist image and has since its creation maintained its Zionist foundation. Thus it is that the state of Israel denies by law to non-Jews,even to non-Jewish citizens of the state, certain rights and privileges, given to Jewish citizens. Thus it is that the indigenous population of about four million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have been occupied and oppressed since 1967 but not been given the opportunity to become citizens of the state. All of this (and more) is Zionism in action.

The primary cause of conflict is obvious. The Zionist state has existed for nearly sixty-three years. Only a small percentage of Jews from the United States, Britain and France have emigrated to Israel. These Jews, most of whom support Zionism, have opted to remain in the diaspora. They do not believe wholeheartedly in the absolute theory of anti-Semitism; they obviously do not think they would be safe only in the Zionist, Jewish state. They attempt to garner financial and other support for Israel by emphasizing the Holocaust and then maintaining that the Jews in Israel are living in the most unsafe place for Jews in the world. Zionists appear to pay no heed to their convoluted logic.

Zionists are not a monolithic group. The left-wing Zionists, who in varied ways oppose Jewish settlements in the West Bank and advocate a Palestinian state, still favor a Zionist state behind or slightly beyond the green line. They, therefore, with but few exceptions want a Jewish exclusive state that would continue to grant certain rights and privileges to Jews not granted to non-Jews. Such a position maintains the basis, even if lessened, of conflict.

A Jewish, exclusive state, consisting to a great extent of land taken from the non-Jewish indigenous population, will probably have steadily increasing difficulty remaining viable in the Arab Middle East.

Jewish religious Zionism adds another problematic dimension to the conflict. The great majority of Orthodox rabbis and groups opposed Zionism before the Holocaust. They adhered to Talmudic dictates that the Jewish state would not be restored until the Messiah came and that it would be a sin for Jews to attempt to have a state before then. These Orthodox Jews also opposed the secularism of most early Zionist leaders. A minority of Orthodox rabbis and their followers in the early twentieth century, however, became religious Zionists. and followed the leadership of Rabbi Kook, the elder. Rabbi Kook maintained that the Messianic age had arrived, and, therefore, Jews could and should work for the creation of a Jewish state. The Jewish state, envisioned by Rabbi Kook and his followers, was different in many ways from the kind of state sought by secular, Zionist leaders. During the time of the Holocaust and clearly by 1948, when the state of Israel came into existence, the overwhelming majority of Orthodox Jews, including rabbis, who had been anti-Zionist, became ardent supporters of the Zionist state in many ways, even though they continued to oppose certain specific policies and practices of the state's largely secular leadership. Orthodox religious parties took their place in the political system of the state and became for the most part fiercely anti-Palestinian. A small minority of Orthodox Jews and rabbis, the most notable being the Chassidic group called Naturei Karta, remained anti-Zionist and have continued to oppose the state and its oppressive policies. Some of the Orthodox groups, most noteworthy being the Lubavitch Chabad Chassidic group, refused to be identified as Zionist but still supported some of the most extreme Zionist policies and practices.

In our book, Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Israel Shahak and I discuss this Jewish religious Zionist dimension in some depth. We pinpoint in our book reasons why these religious Jews have exerted influence far beyond their numbers. In my work since the publication of the book I have supplied more explanation. These religious Jews, including those who do not call themselves Zionists but who support the state of Israel and many of its extreme Zionist policies, believe and maintain that God gave Jews an eternal deed to the Holy Land. They specify those passages of the Bible that clearly express this promise of land. The Holy Land includes at least the Israel of pre-June, 1967 borders and the West Bank. According to these Jews giving any of this land to Palestinians or to other non-Jews would be committing a sin.

Perhaps, the best advocacy of this position is the Lubavitch Chassidic tract, Eyes Upon the Land, put on the lubavitch.org website in 1997. Eyes Upon the Land is taken from the teachings of the late, revered (by his followers) Lubavitch "Rebbe," Menahem Mendel Schneerson, who stated that the giving back to Egypt of the Sinai in 1979 was a major sin, committed by then Prime Minister Begin and the Israeli government. (Schneerson died in 1994, although some of his followers who to this day consider him to be the Messiah believe he will soon be resurrected.) It is a mistake to discount, as some commentators have, the importance of Jewish religious Zionism. It is an influential factor in the conflict. It has influenced and is continuing to influence not only Jews and the state of Israel but also many non-Jews, most especially the Christian Zionists.

I emphasize in conclusion that a sophisticated understanding of Zionism and its complexities is necessary if we wish to deal adequately with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Norton Mezvinsky

Comments

[William R. Cumming]

Always read the book before the movie!

[shanks]

I certainly have no skin in the game other than the fact the GoI(India) walks a tightrope trying get ME oil and not rile up the USA over Israel. As an aside, the thehindu.com is running the wikileaks cables over India's foreign policy over Iran, Israel etc. Might be of interest to some of you here.

Coming to this Zionism stuff, the more I see the muslim bashing from the Zionists and all the other hanger ons, a few things strike out

a) Coming from casteist India where this is fairly common involving few hundred thousands in different states, the level of hate spewed in this set up of Jews/Muslims, one ethnic group is going to get nailed, hard.

b) As others have mentioned before, stolen land is just that, stolen land; any amount of rationalisations and verbiage doesn't take away the fact, this is stealing. And therefore the consequences.

c) In a bit of nihilistic irony, the media demonisation of Arabs and Muslim has been too successful. At this point, anything about Jews or Israel however outlandish is being believed in the ME. Laugh but note that that's 200M people believing 'Jews drink Muslims's babies blood' and all that jazz. Stupid fellows innit? Now try to negotiate something reasonable or rational with a elected/autocrat rep. from a muslim state. How much is the peace deal worth now? How long will the rep. last in his election or get overthrown if he is seen agreeing to a one sided deal with the 'eternal enemy'? And the propaganda seems to be targeted at a western audience while the so called peace that the jews desire is with the surrounding Arabs?

The options are limited, the stakes getting worse as the days go by. And with the political turmoil in the ME going mental, one doesn't even get to depend on the usual dictators hold the line. Stupid Mubarak couldn't even bring himself to murder 20,000 people! They don't make them like Pinochet, do they? Going soft and senile....

[Adam L. Silverman]

Redhand and Mr. Cumming: I would recommend the autobiography of Archbishop Graul, a Maine man, as well as the only non Jew to serve on the crew of the Exodus 47. I was briefly fortunate enough to be one of his students. I think you'll find his account of the events rather different from the fictionalized version of Leon Uris.

[Roy G]

Very good post and comments. What I find most important is going beyond the monolithic stereotypes; I believe that we in the US have been marinated so long in Maximalist Zionism that it is as accepted as water is to a fish. Perhaps it is scarcely less shocking to find out that there are many Jews who do not support MZ, than to find out that not all Muslims are Wahhabists bent on imposing Sharia law on the world.

AIPAC and its handmaidens, the holocaust and aliyah 'industries' follow the classic strategy of fearmongering, 'apres moi, les deluge,' and like a stern authority figure, threatens unspeakable horrors if the authority is not followed. The fact that many many Jews feel more comfortable in the US and even now Germany than Israel is a grave issue for the Zionists, who are all too willing to treat their nonconformist co-religious brethren as apostates if they fail to toe the line.

While antisemitism springs eternal to some degree, it has been used as a boogeyman to play on historical Jewish fears, as a means to power for the "Jewish state" of Israel. As is often noted, there is something wrong with a nation that wants to welcome a Dentist from LA 'home' while persecuting those who actually lived on the land. Aliyah is a horrible hypocrisy driven by demographic fears. By this, I don't mean that Jews should not be connected to Israel, but rather the mindset behind the Yad Vashem 'Passion Play.' The State of Israel has always carried the seeds of its own moral destruction to the extent that it has promoted criminal apartheid on the Palestinians, who are supposed to be content within the diaspora that the Maximal Zionists are apparently so afraid of. Not to mention the hypocrisy of scapegoating and fearmongering against all Muslims to perpetuate the Enterprise. I am not naive enough to believe that the Golden Rule is absolute, however, there comes a time when it becomes so abrogated that, per Harper, history takes its course.

[Charles I]

Shanks, re

Stupid Mubarak couldn't even bring himself to murder 20,000 people!

Assad did back in the 80's so what's the question now? Is Bashir intelligent enough to murder 40,000 this round? Or sly enough to only murder few thousand?

It looks like 100 or so can trigger a revolution, or an intervention.

[Sean McBride]

At least three of the Republican front runners for the presidential nomination are utterly besotted Christian Zionists, yes? Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. And Newt Gingrich, who recently converted to Roman Catholism (usually not associated with Christian Zionism), nonetheless often sounds like a zealous Christian Zionist -- which would make four Republican front runners in this messianic ethno-religious nationalist camp.

How on earth did the Republican Party and American politics devolve to this state of lunacy? I would argue that Rupert Murdoch, more than any other single person, has produced this state of affairs, in close cooperation with all the leading organs of the Israel lobby, including, especially, the neocons (the Kristols and Elliott Abrams in particular).

Any disagreement on that point?

Also, when reading books by Christian Zionists (John Hagee and Mike Evans come to mind), one often notices Mossad heads lurking in the background, managing their gullible and pliable charges. For instance, try Googling:

[Mike Evans Mossad Isser Harel]
http://www.google.com/#q=mike+evans+mossad+isser+harel

Is Christian Zionism largely a scientific psychological operation -- a psyop, in short? I think it is.

[{red]

Sean, Murdoc's media outlets are certainly influential, yet the blame lies with those who have consistently avoided the effort to vote in a primary election - on both sides. These are the same people who work to avoid jury duty and then complain about jury decisions.

[William R. Cumming]

Thanks Professor Silverman!

[Fiorangela]

{red, unfortunately, the difference between Dems and Repubs is not worth a (devalued) dime: both have been co-opted by AIPAC. David Frum's new group, NoLabels, appears to be a bid to knock out independents like Ron Paul.

In other words, as Chris Hedges has said, the political process is so broken that political activism is not the solution.

[Cal]

Nice article.

Question however, about this...

"I emphasize in conclusion that a sophisticated understanding of Zionism and its complexities is necessary ..."

Let's assume that most of us or some of us understand all the various reasons, delusions, desires and so forth and so on, in the Jews, Judaism, Israel, Christian Zionist.

The question again is...what do we do about it? What is it going to take to rid the US and others of this destructive Zionist cult?

How long are we going to 'talk' about it and do nothing about it?

What has to happen?
The Zionist love talk,..talk,talk,talk...to which they can reply with the ususal convoluted babble nonsense, the holocaust, victimhood etc.,ect..and while we are all talking about it, as we have done for 40 years, they continue along their way.

[Fiorangela]

cal -- "What do we do about it?"

this morning's news reported that state authorities had detected radiation in my town's water supply. The markers in the radiation indicated the radiation was from Fukushima.

This is not a stretch: what we do is demand that Israel be enjoined from ANY participation in nuclear activities ANYWHERE, until Israel signs and fully complies with NPT. That will cause a lot of dominoes to have to fall.

Why should that demand be made NOW?

Because of Fukushima and STUXNET.
In a hearing chaired by Joe Lieberman on Nov 17 2010, Sen. Susan Collins said "STUXNET was created by a very well financed organization" and that "STUXNET could bring about the next 9/11."

US & Israel used STUXNET on Iran; to use Collins' words, Israel & US launched a 9/11 magnitude attack on Iran.

What if something had gone horribly awry? Experts do not know the implications of STUXNET. The US and Israel gambled with a Fukushima-like disaster in Iran.

An Israeli firm handles security monitoring at Fukushima.
What degree of confidence is it reasonable to have that a state that reserves to itself the right to assassinate whomever it will; that has spied in the past; that has nuclear weapons; that is not party to NPT, should be trusted ANYWHERE near a nuclear facility?

BDS. Starting with Israeli software and nuclear technology.

BDS Intel-Israel.

BDS every Israeli company on NASDAQ.

Call you congressman. Tell him/her you are not willing to risk serving your children Three Cups of Irradiated Tea.

Israel has got to come into compliance with international law. No more STUXNET.