Rethinking Zionism

Dana Goldstein, whose thoughtful condemnation of the Gaza slaughter after years of reserve I welcome, is a little uncomfortable with the embrace. She points out that I have identified myself as a non- or anti-Zionist, and says that anti-Zionism is redolent of antisemitism. She's a post-Zionist, she says. Goldstein's comments deserve a response, especially at this moment in intellectual life, when so many people are crowding the doorways of this conversation.

I also used to say post- or non-Zionist to avoid being negative. The playwright David Zellnik told me that anti-Zionist felt to him like a denial of Israel's considerable achievements and I respected David's view. Now I've come to say that I'm an anti-Zionist for several reasons.

First: My feelings are not neutral about Zionism; I don't like it. As a Jew, I think about it a lot and there is nothing I can really feel positive about outside of the Jewish pride and its historical significance of it and its visionary component. All these elements have lost their value: Zionism privileges Jews and justifies oppression, and this appalls me. Saying I'm anti-Zionist is a sincere expression of my minority-respecting worldview.

Second, Post-Zionist strikes me as an evasion. At this moment, Zionism reigns in historical Palestine and in American Jewish leadership. To say you're a post-Zionist is like saying you're a post-Communist during the Stalin purges. You are tastefully separating yourself from the world, dainty as an English person drinking tea with their little finger in the air. Zionism remains a very powerful force in Middle East affairs and American society. It's not helpful to those who are trying to understand these matters to evade this fact or suggest that post-Zionism is actually a real factor in, say, the life of Gaza City. I urge people to take a stand if they find Zionist beliefs that privilege 6 million Jews over 5-6 million non-Jews and that have entailed apartheid on the West Bank and ethnic cleansing a supportable ideology, especially in the age of our mutt president-to-be.

Third, anti-Zionism is an idealistic Jewish tradition. In fact, it draws on the same visionary and If-you-dream-it feeling that Zionism did 100 years ago, before the militants ruined it, and engages the same young restless sensibilities and liberationist feeling as Zionism did by imagining Israel as a state of its citizens, not a Jewish state. We anti-Zionists can say with honor that anti-Zionists like Rabbi Elmer Berger identified the problems with Zionism 60 years ago, accurately when he said that Zionism meant contempt for the Arab population, dependence on a backroom lobby in the United States, and the introduction of dual loyalty into American Jewish life. All true. Hannah Arendt and Walter Benjamin and Norman Mailer all opposed Zionism to one degree or another out of concerns with ethnocentrism--didn't like its Is-it-good-for-the-Jews backbeat. These problems are larger today than ever, especially post-Iraq-war and the Iraq war's idiot stepson, Gaza.

Finally, declaring I'm anti-Zionist is a way of trying to make room in American life for this view. Right now being critical of Israel means that you can hurt your business, as a Bay Area professional told the San Francisco Chronicle. True and disgusting. As Jimi Hendrix said when he was changing attitudes: I'm going to wave my freak flag high!

As to the antisemitism point, the American Jewish Committee has said the same thing: anti-Zionism is antisemitism. It thus conflates Jewishness with Zionism, and this conflation is damaging the Jewish experience around the world. When Dana says she worries about the antisemitic suggestion of anti-Zionism, I feel a shadow of censoriousness. There are things you can and can't say. Well, I am an empowered Jew who has never experienced functional antisemitism ever in my life, and my empowerment is also part of this conversation: I insist on speaking about Jewish cultural/financial power in the U.S. as a component of my Zionist critique. Do I think that Jews should be denied power? No! Do I think that there should be quotas on Jewish inclusion in elite institutions? No! Well: I would like Jewish participation in mainstream media roundtables on the Middle East held to 50 percent. That is my quota. These ideas have made some of my readers uncomfortable. They've made me uncomfortable. I grew up in fear of lurking antisemitism. But I have decided in my 50s that these are things I think about all the time as a mature person, however flawed I am, and I think they're important--so I am going to talk about them.

And I would add that shutting down debate in the name of "antisemitism" strikes me as selfish. Our phantom worries about a second Holocaust take precedence over the real evidence that surrounds us of man's inhumanity to man, not just man's inhumanity to Jews. And our phantom worries mean that we cannot address the incredible, everyday, real suffering of Palestinians that has been perpetrated politically in large part by empowered American Jews who are all over the media and political establishment, some of whom limit debate of the issue by citing a possible infraction of our tremendous freedoms. Believe me, when our freedoms are encroached upon, I will howl. Today and tomorrow I howl for the Jewish leadership's actual crushing of the Palestinian right of self-determination.

Comments

[getreal145]

This is war not genocide

Genocide and massacres are what happens when an army deliberately targets civilians that are unarmed, seeking to inflict maximum civilian deaths. That"s Rwanda. And Darfur. And the Holocaust.

If Israel were doing this, there would be hundreds of thousands of Gazans dead, not hundreds. I challenge anyone on this forum to name a single country that has acted with greater restraint when repeatedly attacked than Israel has shown in Gaza. Russia in Chechnya, perhaps? Where are all the protests about Mugabe in Zimbabwe, causing mlliions to be homeless and hundreds of thousands to die, for no other reason than power and financial gain for him and his generals.

Wake up and listen objectively to what both sides are saying, Israel is about to declare a unilateral ceasefire. Hamas, led, somehow, by terrorist leaders in Syria, say they will keep fighting, for the "right" to continue to smuggle weapons for their ongoing terrorist war against Israel.

Hamas has been screaming they are at war for years now. They are firing from civilian shields; from inside or near UN Schools, from hospitals. They terrorize their neighbor and their own civilians and refuse to live in peace. They have unleashed a steady war against Israel. They are getting the response they deserve.

[trsutdityoi]

Well said!

[AllanGoldstein]

"Oasis From Politics As Usual"

I have posted a submission for the Citizen"s Briefing Book. http://citizensbriefingbook.change.gov/home

The submissions with the most points, based on votes, will be compiled and put in the Citizen"s Briefing Book.

The theme of the post is that we revisit the 1948 UN mandate to establish Jerusalem as an "International City." I have always sincerely felt that Jerusalem for millennia has been the key to peace in the Middle East. Jerusalem means so much for so many.

The voice that we now have is what we voted for! This is not politics as usual! Please vote for this submission to the Citizen"s Briefing Book. Please Email and ask your family and friends to vote for this submission.

You can find it by going to the Citizen"s Briefing Book homepage http://citizensbriefingbook.change.gov/home signing up, go to Foreign Policy, and type in Oasis For Peace in the search box.

If you are signed in you can go directly to

http://citizensbriefingbook.change.gov/ideas/viewIdea.apexp?id=08780000000517S&srPos=0&srKp=087

If indeed we are the change we have been waiting for, we can promote that change now! If you agree with this concept and connect with this issue of Jerusalem becoming this planet"s "International City" I am asking for your help.

Please help, and spread the word to vote on this submission.

Mahalo,
Allan Goldstein
http://wwww.mindfulcoaching.com
http://www.oasisfromstress.wordpress.com
[e-mail]

[notginffuh]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/feb/21/israel2

[jennynewsfirst]

What a huge relief to see the headline and then to read this piece. To me, as a Jew, Zionism has always seemed tragically to be no more than a last gasp of European colonialism -- serving the interests not of Jews, but of their European rulers -- in this case the WW2 allied countries (with their own brutal restrictions on Jewish immigration). A European base in the oil-rich Middle East.
As usual, historically, Jews got the crumbs and Jewish "leaders" got a captive people to "lead." Do I sound bitter? I am. The terrible injustices done in my name to the people of Palestine, the insistence that Zionism and Jewishness are one and the same, the thirty years of being called an anti-Semite and self-hating Jew. The horribly complicity of all anti-Semites everywhere in supporting Israel no matter what. You bet I'm bitter, and furious! So, a blessing on Mr. Weiss for this small opening on to a moral universe I can recognize.

[Donald855]

I think this article provoked a very productive discussion. We can conclude that we have argued and successfully refuted every point that Mr. Weiss has put forward in favor of anti-Zionism.

Further, we clarified the use of the term "Ethnic cleansing" as it applies to Gaza and the West bank, by pointing out that there are NO JEWS living there.

We brought up the Hamas charter that says: "The Day of Judgement will not come until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. We also recalled the Nazi past of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and his supporters.

Finally, GZLives very rationally explained the source of Jewish anti-Zionism, or Israeli bashing by some Jews " according to him, they are simply running away, trying to divert hatred from themselves.

In conclusion, I invite everybody to "come out from behind the tree" and rethink Zionnism once again.

[Petunia39]

Who is "we"?

[abdallac]

Your quote is such a purposeful LIE - about Muslims fighting Jews...do you know that Hamas is also comprised of Palestinian Christians?

Silly. Next time don't be so blatant in your subterfuge, you may get away with it.

[MagisterLudi]

FROM 1948 until 1967 ARABS CONTROLLED GAZA, WEST BANK,JERUSALEM, NEGEV AND GOLAN HEIGHTS.

WHY NO PALESTINIAN STATE WAS FORMED?

Go ahead, try this one for size, abdullah, defender of ( some) Palestinains.
The hypocrisy of A-rab leaders has no limits.

[ENOS]

The fact that we can come out and call out Zionism for what it is, is a huge step. The sad fact is that this ackowledgement has only come by the result of Zionisms mis-use of power of the killing of innocent people.

[KiwisCanFly]

The Zionist movement changed.
The Zionist movement once was acquiescent to the existence in a future Jewish state of an equal footing with the Arab.
Ze"ev Jabotinsky, the founding father of the branch of Zionism that was the forebear of today"s Likud party. A 1923 article stated, Jabotinsky voiced his readiness "to take an oath binding ourselves and our descendants that we shall never do anything contrary to the principle of equal rights, and that we shall never try to eject anyone."

That was then!

[goldcoastsailor]

Zionism like Nazism is supremest and exclusionary, based on race.

[KiwisCanFly]

"It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands."
Israeli commentator Yoram Bar Porath, in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aahronot, of 14 July 1972 .

[Prattvictory2]

There was a "Marshall Plan" for Palestine. George Marshall, Truman's Secretary of State envisioned a democratic election of all of Palestine. Truman listened to Clark Clifford who told him he would lose New York and the 1948 election if he didn't support a Jewish state.

It was domestic U.S. politics that founded the state of Israel. Marshall was right when he said we light a fire we don't have the means to extinguish when he spoke of Truman's decision.

[JacksonJones]

It was the Jews of Palestine that founded Israel.

[jennynewsfirst]

if you believe that, you are naive and ignorant in the extreme. My father, an English Jew, was living in Palestine after serving with the British Army in North Africa during WW2. For the first time in his life, he told me, he felt free from anti-Semitism among the diverse population of Palestine.
He was planning to settle in this wonderful, culturally rich area. He opposed Zionism. The Irgun murdered his friends and colleagues. He returned to England, broken, and never really recovered.

[Marlyn]

"our mutt president-to-be" ???

Hardly a mutt. His pedigree is clear.

[strawberryjulius]

He has on occasion called himself a mutt. Do you know what that word means? It means that you aren't a pure-bred. And he isn't. I look forward to the day that we are all mutts. Or rather, admit to being mutts.

[raymondh]

By the time the ink dries on this page another 40 or more Palestenias will be slautered. I am not sure my comments will be approved for publication (this is my 4th miss). But I want to thank the author for his clear and courageous analysis.

[JacksonJones]

That comment certainly packs an emotional punch, but I wonder if the writer feels that on account of the fact that Palestinian civilians will no doubt be killed in a confrontation with Hamas, that one million Israelis should be forced into "safe rooms" on a daily basis so as to avoid risk of death from Hamas missles?

In other words, what is your viable alternative?

[chaos4700]

Gee, at least Israelis have safe rooms. Last time I checked, you couldn't even wear a UN badge or take refuge in a UN school without being bombed or shot by the IDF.

[sal860]

A viable alternative: Give the Palestinians some dignity and recognize the extreme injustice that Zionism has brought upon that peaceful people. Recognize their right of return and their right to equal citizenship in an inclusive state for Jews, Muslims and Christians alike. Dismantle illegal settlements in the occupied territories.
Before you consider this is to be too costly, consider the potential cost of world war if things continue to progress in the same direction. I think the choice is obvious.

[KiwisCanFly]

Israel has a choice: by accepting Palestinian rights under international law now and jettisoning its exclusivist ideology and militarism, Israel secures the future of its people in a shared Israel/Palestine; or by continuing its present policy of ruthless repression of indigenous Palestinians and denying them self determination, it cultivates an intensified and unyielding native resistance. Israel has always chosen the latter.

An extract by Elaine C. Hagopian, Professor Emerita of Sociology, Simmons College, Boston
http://www.counterpunch.org/hagopian01092009.html

[jennynewsfirst]

A secular, multi-ethnic state.

[valkyrie607]

Thanks so much for your essay. As a non-Jew (indeed, a non-religious person), I appreciate you making an effort to carve out a space for criticism of Israel that is not automatically branded as anti-semitic.

[MagisterLudi]

Human Rights Watch:
Becuause the Palestinian groups fire these weapons at populated areas and the rockets are too inaccurate to aim at military targets with any degree of precision, the attacks violate the international humanitarian law prohibitions against attacks that target civilians or are indiscriminate.
Furthermore, the groups have launched rocket attacks from locations close to populated areas in which they failed to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians under their control against the effects of the attacks, including by not deploying military targets near densely populated areas.

http://www.hrw.org/en/node/10911/section/7

[chaos4700]

Duh? We know that. Nobody's arguing that Hamas attacks are legal. But neither are Israels -- and considering the IDF has racked up a casualty rate at five hundred times greater than anything the Palestinians have ever mustered, I think the rest of us sane people can do the math about who the bigger threat to justice and peace would be.

[JacksonJones]

The Israel replies to Hamas missles are legal. The rule of proportionality has little to do with relative body counts, and much more to do with the force needed to address a legitimate military objective, like silencing rockets aimed at Israeli civilians. Moreover, it is the party that is not amendable to a peace agreement and shoots rockets at civilians, i.e., Hamas, that is the biggest threat to peace.

[KiwisCanFly]

Human Rights Watch:
IDF phosphorous bombs in Gaza violate int'l law
U.S. rights group Human Rights Watch this week charged Israel with illegal use of white phosphorous bombs in urban areas.

International law allows such weapons to be used in battlefields as a smokescreen but the material is considered dangerous in residential areas due to the severe burns it inflicts, as well as its incendiary quality.

Based on his observations last week, HRW military analyst Mark Garlasco determined that the IDF is using the material, although the army has not confirmed its use.
During recent decades the tendency has been to ban the use of phosphorus munitions against any target, civilian or military, because of the severity of the injuries that the substance causes.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054947.html

[MagisterLudi]

In 1947 UN agreed on partition. Arabs got TransJordan and most of Palestine: A HUGE chunk of land.

THIS WASN'T GOOD ENOUGH FOR ARABS AND PALESTINIANS!!!
They immediately rejected this compromise.
7 Islamic countries together with local Arabs IMMEDIATELY attacked Jewish population.
Lucky for Jews, not so lucky for Arabs---they lost

Egypt, Syria and Jordan treacherously grabbed Gaza, West Bank and Jerusalem for themselves. NO COMPLAINTS FROM ARABS ARE EVER VOICED FOR THIS! You?
Jews helped themselves to some extra land as well. This GETS ALL THE ATTENTION!

You want to know the root problem?-- THERE IT IS.

No Arab/ attack, no war, no refugees. The rest is just propaganda.

[chaos4700]

Historical accuracy was never your strong suit, ML.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN_Partition_Plan
Palestine had been accounted for as a seperate nation by the UN from day one. See the little map right there?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_the_Palestinian_National_Authority
96 states recognize the existence of Palestine as a sovereign (and occupied) nation. 13 more extend it diplomatic recognition of some other variety.

The rest of your post is just raving, so I'll let it stand with just as much credibility as remains. Excessive use of Caps Lock does wonders for your presentation, by the way.

[JacksonJones]

Your reply doesn't address the points ML made. What does it matter what the UN Partition Map said when the plan was rejected by the Arabs? What does it matter whether countires "recognize" a country called Palestine?

[Prattvictory2]

Sderot the much publicized town that is a kilometer from the Gaza border sits atop the former Palestinian village of najd. The citizens of that town were forced off their land and were not compensated.

A friend of mine a veteran of the Iraq war noticed that the houses attacked in "Sderot" have holes in the roofs. If it missiles had warheads there would be no holes because there would be no house.

[JacksonJones]

Yeah, and none of that information makes it OK to target Israeli civilians.

[TheFriendlyAtheist]

In 47 the Palestinian Arabs owned 93% of all the land of Palestine, the Jews owned 7%. The UN partition plan, which was not a binding resolution and was in the process of being modified by the US when Israel declared itself a state, gave 57% of the land for a Jewish homeland and only 43% to the Palestinians. The plan in no way gave ownership of the land in the new state of Israel to the Jews. The Jews gained the land through a series of massacres and ethnic cleansing, that started in Dec. of 47, that drove 300,000 Palestinians from their homes in both the new state of Israel and from the land that was set aside for the Palestinians, befor the first Arab solder crossed the border to stop the ethnic cleansing that was taking place in the area that was to be the new Palestinian state in April of 48. The Arab armies, which totaled only half the forces of the new state of Israael, never attacked the state of Israel itself but fought to stop the ethnic cleansing in what was supposed to be the new Palestinian state.






















5

[JacksonJones]

Your numbers are wrong, and attribute 100% of the state owned land, which no one owned personally, to Palestinians.

[KiwisCanFly]

Hamas is not the issue. All Palestinian leaders sooner or later, secular or Islamic, are declared unacceptable partners for peace no matter how much they concede to Israel. That Israel hides behind the "Hamas Islamic threat" today to destroy it as a potential partner is becoming transparent.
The picture changes when history matters. Treating Israeli war crimes as historically detached events, unrelated to its Zionist ideology and militaristic strategy to control all of Palestine, becomes more transparent each day.
Israel has a choice: by accepting Palestinian rights under international law now and jettisoning its exclusivist ideology and militarism, Israel secures the future of its people in a shared Israel/Palestine; or by continuing its present policy of ruthless repression of indigenous Palestinians and denying them self determination, it cultivates an intensified and unyielding native resistance. Israel has always chosen the latter.

An extract by Elaine C. Hagopian, Professor Emerita of Sociology, Simmons College, Boston
http://www.counterpunch.org/hagopian01092009.html

[avicenna]

Calling these actions by Israelis "offensive" is a bit of a euphemism. The brain-child behind this massacre surely has no desire to endear Israel to its neighbours, and any bemoaning of "anti-semitism" by Israelis will be taken as excessive whining from this point on. The main proponents of anti-semitism is, ironically enough, Israel themselves, as Palestinians are ethnically Semites - their haulocaust in the hands of brother Cane is very circular indeed. If they were Buddist or Hindu, they may be aware of the karmic consequence that every action has an opposite and equal reaction.

[JacksonJones]

That argument is too cute by half. First, look up the etymology of the term "Anti-Semitism", second endearment is not really on the cards with a lot like Hamas, who is ideologically committed to Israel's destruction and violently pursues that end, however ineffectively.

[chaos4700]

The toppling of the Israeli government is not synonymous with the extermination of Jews. It's your argument that is too cute by half.

[KiwisCanFly]

"Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural, we have taken their country." David BEN Gurion quoted by Nahum Goldmann in The Jewish Paradox, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978, p.99.

David Ben-Gurion - Zionist leader and Israel's first and longest-serving Prime Minister.

[JacksonJones]

Further to my last reply, to call what is going on in Gaza a "holocaust" is a groos misuse of the term, and one that is surprisingly so for someone carping about the use of the term "Anti-Semitism." It is a matter of common knowledge that Israel has a large and effective armed forces that could, if it wanted to, effect a "holocaust" on the Palestinians in Gaza without much difficulty. It is also a matter of common knowledge that Hamas maintains a violent belligerant stance toward Israel's existence and has been firing rockets at Israeli civilians since Israel pulled its people out of Gaza a number of years ago. It is a matter of common knowledge that Hamas has ensconced itself, i.e., its fighters and weapons, among its civilian population (contrary to laws of war). The facts that Hamas has mixed itself in with its civilians and yet the ratio of combatant casualties to civilians is quite high for a war of this kind (i.e., urban warfare against an enemy mixed in with its civilians) argues quite forcefully for the Israeli claim that they are targeting Hamas and its weapons and not civilians.

[chaos4700]

Okay, fine, let's call it an ethnic cleansing. That definition still fits.

[LaFilleEnRose]

At its root, Zionism claims ancient religious Jewish beliefs as the justification for land ownershipt. And isn't that what the fundamentalist Muslims zealots claim as well for the same land. After all, the Jewish diaspora (when the Jews lost its land after Roman destruction) began before the that time about about 2500 BCE yearsI believe -- and was completed by the Romans around 2,000 years ago, give or take a hundred years. The return of Jews to form the state of Israel came in the late 1940's when, understandably, they were looking for a place to govern themselves after WW II. A home had to be found. There is no denying that. But the home chosen was a 2,000 year old claim to a state of Israel that hadn't existed in two millennia. And the home was in an area where other faith-based beliefs claimed the area as holy for themselves. Let's face it...it's biblical and religious belief that one or the other is entitled to this small patch of land that is fighting itself out. God gave it to the Jews. No, Islam should be the only religion in the Middle East. When I see our own people up in arms over which clergyman is speaking during Obama's inauguration, one has to wonder how the Middle East's problem will ever be settled. If we can come together here maybe it's a start that people can come together everywhere.

[KiwisCanFly]

An Invention Called "the Jewish People" by Tom Segev
Israel's Declaration of Independence states that the Jewish people arose in the Land of Israel and was exiled from its homeland. Every Israeli schoolchild is taught that this happened during the period of Roman rule, in 70 CE.

The nation remained loyal to its land, to which it began to return after two millennia of exile. Wrong, says the historian Shlomo Zand, in one of the most fascinating and challenging books published here in a long time. There never was a Jewish people, only a Jewish religion, and the exile also never happened -- hence there was no return.

According to Zand, the Zionist need to devise for them a shared ethnicity and historical continuity produced a long series of inventions and fictions, along with an invocation of racist theses. Prof. Zand teaches at Tel Aviv University. His book, "When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?"

http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/segev120308.html

[JacksonJones]

All "peoples" are "invented", as they exist by dint of self-definition. The Jewish people, however, according to acheological records, among other things, was "invented" over 2000 years ago.

[JacksonJones]

For anyone that wants to grapple with Zand's theories:

http://www.ajc.org/atf/cf/%7B42D75369-D582-4380-8395-D25925B85EAF%7D/YakobsonRubinstein2005.pdf

Suffice it to say that there is no shortage of disagreement with his conclusions in the halls of academia.

[vinny]

Israel just banned arab-oriented parties from running in the next election.

[GuyRC]

And that would never happen under an Islamist government.

[JacksonJones]

No, at its root Israel is simply the surprisingly controversial idea (surprising for people who call themselves progressive, as I do) that the Jewish people, like all others, has the right to self-determination.

[KiwisCanFly]

Describing Israel is always difficult. One can either stay within the mainstream paradigm, or tell the truth. I will opt for the truth.

Drawing on scores of books by diverse authors, the facts are quite clear: Israel was created through one of the most massive, ruthless, and persistent ethnic cleansing operations of modern history. In 1947-49 about three-quarters of a million Muslims and Christians, who had originally made up 95 percent of the population living in the area that Zionists wanted for a Jewish state, were brutally forced off their ancestral land. There were 33 massacres, over 500 villages were completely destroyed, and an effort was made to erase all vestiges of Palestinian history and culture.

The fact is that Israel's core identity is based on ethnic and religious discrimination by a colonial, immigrant group; and maintaining this exclusionist identity has required continued violence against those it has dispossessed, and others who have given them refuge.

http://ifamericansknew.org/stats/weir-aid.html