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Tue 4 Mar, 2008 12:23 pm
.......or permitted?
Israel's Jewish critics
Anti-Zionism is part of a larger opposition to racism, an expression of solidarity with the Palestinians as victims of injustice
by Mike Marqusee
March 4, 2008
As long as there has been Zionism, there have been anti-Zionist Jews. Indeed, decades before it even came to the notice of non-Jews, anti-Zionism was a well-established Jewish ideology, and until the second world war commanded wide support in the diaspora. Today, as cracks show in the presumed monolith of Jewish backing for Israel, increasing numbers of Jews are interrogating and rejecting Zionism. Nonetheless, the existence of anti-Zionist Jews strikes many people - Jews and non-Jews - as an anomaly, a perversity, a violation of the first clause in Hillel's ethical aphorism: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?"
Zionism is an ideology and a political movement. As such, it is open to rational dispute, and on a variety of grounds. Jews, like others, might well view the Jewish claim to Palestine as irrational, anachronistic, and intrinsically unjust to other inhabitants. They might consider the Jewish state to be discriminatory or racist in theory and in practice or might object, on political, philosophical, or even specifically Jewish grounds, to any state based on the supremacy of a particular religious or ethnic group. As Jews, they might reject the idea that Jewish people constitute a "nation", or at least a "nation" of the type that can or should become a territorial nation-state. Or they might have concluded on the basis of an examination of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians that the underlying cause of the conflict was the ideology of the Israeli state.
Any or all of the above should be sufficient to explain why some Jews would become anti-Zionists. But that doesn't stop critics from placing us firmly in the realm of the irredeemably neurotic. In their eyes, we remain walking self-contradictions, a menace to our fellow Jews.
Whenever Jews speak out against Israel, they are met with ad hominem criticism. Their motives, their representativeness, their authenticity as Jews are questioned. For only a psychological aberration, a neurotic malaise, could account for our defection from Israel's cause, which is presumed to be - whether we like it or not - our own cause. We are pathologised. So we are either bad Jews or Jews in bad faith.
Of course, being an anti-Zionist Jew is a negative identity. It's a disavowal of a politics commonly ascribed to Jews. And if one's anti-Zionism is made up exclusively of a rejection of Zionism, then it's not worth much. But for myself and for the anti-Zionist Jews I know, anti-Zionism is part of a larger opposition to racism and inequality, an expression of a positive solidarity with the Palestinians as victims of injustice and specifically of colonialism.
It should go without saying, but unfortunately cannot, that being an anti-Zionist by no means implies a desire to destroy the Jews who live in Palestine. On the contrary, anti-Zionism is founded on a refusal to countenance discrimination on racial or religious grounds. The Jews of Israel have every right to live safely, to follow (or not) their religious faith, to adhere (or not) to their cultural heritage, to speak Hebrew. What they do not have is the right to continue to dispossess and oppress another people.
An edited extract from Mike Marqusee's new book, If I Am Not for Myself, appears in today's G2. Click here to read it.
In my opinion, to think that Jews should become anti-Zionist is like "looking a gift horse in the mouth." If one knows the history of anti-Semitism, than one would know that before the State of Israel existed, many people around the world had the paranoid idea that the Jews in their respective country wanted to "take over" (as evidenced by the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a forgery probably by the Secret Police of the Czar in 19th century Russia). In my opinion, only by people knowing that Jews have a "homeland" in Israel, if they want to go there, has this delusion abated.
Again, thinking that Jews should be anti-Zionist is like looking a gift horse in the mouth (to see if one is getting a good/young horse with teeth; it's a gift; one shouldn't be an ingrate by counting teeth).
Karl Marx is as Jewish as jesus.
Jesus is still all pervasive but Karl marx is invisble
Foofie wrote:In my opinion, to think that Jews should become anti-Zionist is like "looking a gift horse in the mouth." If one knows the history of anti-Semitism, than one would know that before the State of Israel existed, many people around the world had the paranoid idea that the Jews in their respective country wanted to "take over" (as evidenced by the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a forgery probably by the Secret Police of the Czar in 19th century Russia). In my opinion, only by people knowing that Jews have a "homeland" in Israel, if they want to go there, has this delusion abated.
Again, thinking that Jews should be anti-Zionist is like looking a gift horse in the mouth (to see if one is getting a good/young horse with teeth; it's a gift; one shouldn't be an ingrate by counting teeth).
Are you saying people will stop spreading the anti-semitic conspiracy theories just because Israel exists? Surely the existence of Israel gives weight to the idea of a 'fifth pillar' and loyalty being placed else where.
Do you agree with me that the Europeans were happy to support the idea of a homeland for Jewish people outside of Europe because they wanted to encourage them to leave?
I believe that Europe historically quite easily the most anti-semitic place on the planet, expulsions, nazism, holocaust, protocols forgeries promotion etc all in Europe.
And we are again seeing the rise of neo-nazi there.
So my belief is Europe could not guarantee the safety of Jewish people and therefore facilitated, encouraged and supported them to leave.
For Zionist jews critique anti-zionist jews by accusing them of being out of touch with the real world, meaning not learning from the suffering of the Jewish people at the hands of gentiles.
stevewonder wrote:Foofie wrote:In my opinion, to think that Jews should become anti-Zionist is like "looking a gift horse in the mouth." If one knows the history of anti-Semitism, than one would know that before the State of Israel existed, many people around the world had the paranoid idea that the Jews in their respective country wanted to "take over" (as evidenced by the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a forgery probably by the Secret Police of the Czar in 19th century Russia). In my opinion, only by people knowing that Jews have a "homeland" in Israel, if they want to go there, has this delusion abated.
Again, thinking that Jews should be anti-Zionist is like looking a gift horse in the mouth (to see if one is getting a good/young horse with teeth; it's a gift; one shouldn't be an ingrate by counting teeth).
Are you saying people will stop spreading the anti-semitic conspiracy theories just because Israel exists? Surely the existence of Israel gives weight to the idea of a 'fifth pillar' and loyalty being placed else where.
Do you agree with me that the Europeans were happy to support the idea of a homeland for Jewish people outside of Europe because they wanted to encourage them to leave?
I believe that Europe historically quite easily the most anti-semitic place on the planet, expulsions, nazism, holocaust, protocols forgeries promotion etc all in Europe.
And we are again seeing the rise of neo-nazi there.
So my belief is Europe could not guarantee the safety of Jewish people and therefore facilitated, encouraged and supported them to leave.
For Zionist jews critique anti-zionist jews by accusing them of being out of touch with the real world, meaning not learning from the suffering of the Jewish people at the hands of gentiles.
Why do you need me to agree with you? You've made your point quite eloquently, I believe.
Foofie wrote:stevewonder wrote:Foofie wrote:In my opinion, to think that Jews should become anti-Zionist is like "looking a gift horse in the mouth." If one knows the history of anti-Semitism, than one would know that before the State of Israel existed, many people around the world had the paranoid idea that the Jews in their respective country wanted to "take over" (as evidenced by the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a forgery probably by the Secret Police of the Czar in 19th century Russia). In my opinion, only by people knowing that Jews have a "homeland" in Israel, if they want to go there, has this delusion abated.
Again, thinking that Jews should be anti-Zionist is like looking a gift horse in the mouth (to see if one is getting a good/young horse with teeth; it's a gift; one shouldn't be an ingrate by counting teeth).
Are you saying people will stop spreading the anti-semitic conspiracy theories just because Israel exists? Surely the existence of Israel gives weight to the idea of a 'fifth pillar' and loyalty being placed else where.
Do you agree with me that the Europeans were happy to support the idea of a homeland for Jewish people outside of Europe because they wanted to encourage them to leave?
I believe that Europe historically quite easily the most anti-semitic place on the planet, expulsions, nazism, holocaust, protocols forgeries promotion etc all in Europe.
And we are again seeing the rise of neo-nazi there.
So my belief is Europe could not guarantee the safety of Jewish people and therefore facilitated, encouraged and supported them to leave.
For Zionist jews critique anti-zionist jews by accusing them of being out of touch with the real world, meaning not learning from the suffering of the Jewish people at the hands of gentiles.
Why do you need me to agree with you? You've made your point quite eloquently, I believe.
I was asking your opinion, I wasnt asking for you to agree with me.
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