Zionism

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==Anti-Zionism==
 
==Anti-Zionism==
In the 19th and early 20th century, the majority of Jews rejected Zionism. The causes of this reaction varied -- on the right, conservative religious Jews (especially Haredi and Hasidic) believed that the re-establishment of a Jewish state in Israel was a task to be undertaken by the Messiah alone -- Zionists, by attempting to hurry up the divine plan of redemption, were committing a sin. They pointed to various rabbinical passages which prohibited the return of Jews to Israel en masse prior to the coming of the Messiah. On the left, progressive, secular and reform Jews wanted Jews to be accepted as members of the nations they were now living in, rather than attempting to form their own for themselves. These Jews often had commitments to liberal internationalism or socialism, and they saw Zionism as contrary to this.
+
In the 19th and early 20th century, the majority of Jews rejected Zionism. The causes of this reaction varied on the right, conservative religious Jews (especially Haredi and Hasidic) believed that the re-establishment of a Jewish state in Israel was a task to be undertaken by the Messiah alone Zionists, by attempting to hurry up the divine plan of redemption, were committing a sin. They pointed to various rabbinical passages which prohibited the return of Jews to Israel en masse prior to the coming of the Messiah. On the left, progressive, secular and reform Jews wanted Jews to be accepted as members of the nations they were now living in, rather than attempting to form their own for themselves. These Jews often had commitments to liberal internationalism or socialism, and they saw Zionism as contrary to this.
  
However, the traumatic events of the 20th century dramatically changed the Jewish attitude towards Zionism, from being a position with minority support to being the majority view. But there are still groups which carry on these earlier anti-Zionist positions. On the right, a number of Haredi and Hasidic groups maintain a religiously-based rejection of Zionism -- the most notable of these groups is the Satmar dynasty, but there are many others. A small, but notable group is the Neturei Karta, who express their rejection of Zionism through extreme means, including associations with the Palestinian and Iranian leadership, and associations with Holocaust deniers. Even though many other groups like Satmar share the opposition to Zionism, they reject the extreme approach of the Neturei Karta. In particular, the attendance of Neturei Karta delegates at a Holocaust denial conference arranged by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad caused great offence, although the Neturei Karta attendees insisted they did not reject the Holocaust, but were attending the conference to try to change the Holocaust deniers' minds.
+
However, the traumatic events of the 20th century dramatically changed the Jewish attitude towards Zionism, from being a position with minority support to being the majority view. But there are still groups which carry on these earlier anti-Zionist positions. On the right, a number of Haredi and Hasidic groups maintain a religiously-based rejection of Zionism the most notable of these groups is the Satmar dynasty, but there are many others. A small, but notable group is the Neturei Karta, who express their rejection of Zionism through extreme means, including associations with the Palestinian and Iranian leadership, and associations with Holocaust deniers. Even though many other groups like Satmar share the opposition to Zionism, they reject the extreme approach of the Neturei Karta. In particular, the attendance of Neturei Karta delegates at a Holocaust denial conference arranged by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad caused great offence, although the Neturei Karta attendees insisted they did not reject the Holocaust, but were attending the conference to try to change the Holocaust deniers' minds.
  
 
One particular passage the religious anti-Zionists point to is a a passage in the Talmud called the "Three Oaths", where the Jews swear to God to obey the rule of the Gentiles and not attempt to return to Israel en masse, and the Gentiles swear not to persecute the Jews excessively. Religious anti-Zionists see Zionism as a violation of the oath, and therefore sinful. Zionists have a number of responses: that the oath is not one of the legally binding parts of the Talmud (haggadah rather than halakah); that no individual Jews can violate the oath (since it does not prohibit the return of individual Jews), so Zionists cannot be held to be in violation of the oath; that the oath has been cancelled due to the Gentiles' failure to keep their side of the bargain (not to persecute the Jews excessively). Anti-Zionists do not accept these responses - in particular, they argue that since the three oaths are to God, not oaths the Jews and Gentiles make to each other, a failure of the Gentiles to obey their oath does not justify the Jews in violating theirs.
 
One particular passage the religious anti-Zionists point to is a a passage in the Talmud called the "Three Oaths", where the Jews swear to God to obey the rule of the Gentiles and not attempt to return to Israel en masse, and the Gentiles swear not to persecute the Jews excessively. Religious anti-Zionists see Zionism as a violation of the oath, and therefore sinful. Zionists have a number of responses: that the oath is not one of the legally binding parts of the Talmud (haggadah rather than halakah); that no individual Jews can violate the oath (since it does not prohibit the return of individual Jews), so Zionists cannot be held to be in violation of the oath; that the oath has been cancelled due to the Gentiles' failure to keep their side of the bargain (not to persecute the Jews excessively). Anti-Zionists do not accept these responses - in particular, they argue that since the three oaths are to God, not oaths the Jews and Gentiles make to each other, a failure of the Gentiles to obey their oath does not justify the Jews in violating theirs.
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On the left, many progressive Jews living outside of Israel reject the need of a Jewish state, and see Zionism as inevitably resulting in the oppresssion of the Palestinian people.
 
On the left, many progressive Jews living outside of Israel reject the need of a Jewish state, and see Zionism as inevitably resulting in the oppresssion of the Palestinian people.
  
Zionists will often claim that "anti-Zionism" is a synonym for "anti-Semitism", but clearly that is just an attempt by them to slur their opponents. Certainly some anti-Zionists are antisemites, but clearly many also are not. There are many Jewish anti-Zionists, who quite clearly are not anti-semitic (the Zionists' favoured appelations of "Jewish anti-Semite" or "self-hating Jew" are again just slurs.) Zionists will argue that anti-Zionists support Palestinian nationalism while opposing Jewish nationalism, and that this is an anti-semitic double standard. But many anti-Zionists reject Palestinian nationalism as well -- many anti-Zionists reject all forms of nationalism, and hence must reject Jewish nationalism (Zionism) as well. Even for those who accept Palestinian nationalism, it is not necessarily a double standard to support one and not the other, so long as there are legitimate differences in situation between the two nationalisms -- and there may well be. But, many anti-Zionists, rather than supporting the Palestinian nationalist call for a separate Palestinian state, instead favour the one state solution -- abolition of Israel and Palestine, to be replaced by a single state which is for all its citizens (sometimes suggested to be called "Israelestine" or similar.)
+
Zionists will often claim that "anti-Zionism" is a synonym for "anti-Semitism", but clearly that is just an attempt by them to slur their opponents. Certainly some anti-Zionists are antisemites, but clearly many also are not. There are many Jewish anti-Zionists, who quite clearly are not anti-semitic (the Zionists' favoured appelations of "Jewish anti-Semite" or "self-hating Jew" are again just slurs.) Zionists will argue that anti-Zionists support Palestinian nationalism while opposing Jewish nationalism, and that this is an anti-semitic double standard. But many anti-Zionists reject Palestinian nationalism as well many anti-Zionists reject all forms of nationalism, and hence must reject Jewish nationalism (Zionism) as well. Even for those who accept Palestinian nationalism, it is not necessarily a double standard to support one and not the other, so long as there are legitimate differences in situation between the two nationalisms and there may well be. But, many anti-Zionists, rather than supporting the Palestinian nationalist call for a separate Palestinian state, instead favour the one state solution abolition of Israel and Palestine, to be replaced by a single state which is for all its citizens (sometimes suggested to be called "Israelestine" or similar.)
  
Many Neo-Nazi and other antisemitic groups, however, have adopted the label "Zionist" as effectively a synonym for "Jew"; having done so, they continue to spout the same tired old antisemitic conspiracy theories they have been doing for decades, but by replacing "Jew" with "Zionist" it does not sound as bad, and people may not recognize these same old ideas in their new form, whereas in their original form they would immediately reject them. This process is the origin of their favoured phrase ''Zionist Occupation Government'' - i.e. Jews secretly direct the US government.
+
Many Neo-Nazi and other antisemitic groups, however, have adopted the label "Zionist" as effectively a synonym for "Jew"; having done so, they continue to spout the same tired old antisemitic conspiracy theories they have been doing for decades, but by replacing "Jew" with "Zionist" it does not sound as bad, and people may not recognize these same old ideas in their new form, whereas in their original form they would immediately reject them. This process is the origin of their favoured phrase ''Zionist Occupation Government'' i.e. Jews secretly direct the US government.
  
 
===Zionism and Nazism===
 
===Zionism and Nazism===
 
There are many people who have started claiming that Zionism is equivalent to [[Nazi]]sm.  This is fairly laughable when one considers that Zionists were trying to secure ONE state for Jewish people, whereas Nazis were attempting to exterminate and subjugate all other nations. Besides, [[Godwin's Law]].<!-- User Leninist123 asks: WTF!?! They are like Nazism. They stole Hitler's ideas for how to persecute an ethic group. Sure it is not Aryan-to-Jew but Jew-to-Arab. They claim, incorrectly, they are the only semites like the Nazis did to the Ayran race. !-->
 
There are many people who have started claiming that Zionism is equivalent to [[Nazi]]sm.  This is fairly laughable when one considers that Zionists were trying to secure ONE state for Jewish people, whereas Nazis were attempting to exterminate and subjugate all other nations. Besides, [[Godwin's Law]].<!-- User Leninist123 asks: WTF!?! They are like Nazism. They stole Hitler's ideas for how to persecute an ethic group. Sure it is not Aryan-to-Jew but Jew-to-Arab. They claim, incorrectly, they are the only semites like the Nazis did to the Ayran race. !-->
  
On the other hand, Zionism and Nazism have something in common - they are both forms of [[nationalism]]. (They are not of course the only two forms of nationalism, there are many others). Anti-nationalists see them both as rotten fruit of a rotten tree, although there can be no doubt that Nazism is among the most rotten of the many rotten fruits that tree has produced.
+
On the other hand, Zionism and Nazism have something in common they are both forms of [[nationalism]]. (They are not of course the only two forms of nationalism, there are many others). Anti-nationalists see them both as rotten fruit of a rotten tree, although there can be no doubt that Nazism is among the most rotten of the many rotten fruits that tree has produced.
  
 
[[Category:History]]
 
[[Category:History]]

Revision as of 00:41, 2 July 2011

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Zionism was the movement to create a political and geographic nation-state for the Jewish people, so that they could escape the persecution and anti-Semitism that was so prevalent throughout Europe at the time. In this way, Zionism was an expression of Jewish nationalism, though the two should not be considered identical. Most forms of Zionism focused on creating a state in the land that is now Israel, since that land had strong symbolic meaning for the Jewish people. However, many sites were considered, including modern-day Uganda. The movement was named for Mt. Zion, the mountain that Jerusalem was built on. "Zion" is also a synonym for the Holy Land.

Contents

History

The movement originated in 19th century Europe with Serbian/Hungarian Jewish journalist Theodor Herzl, and was originally a secular movement devoted to providing a home for cultural Jews, possibly in the wake of the French Affaire Dreyfus. The British Empire controlled much of Palestine and Trans-Jordan at the time. The Balfour Declaration gave hope to many Zionists that a Jewish state would be carved out of the Middle East, giving western Palestine to the Jews, and Trans-Jordan to the Arabs. Other political forces took hold, however.

The British, needing to maintain a favorable relationship with the Arab peoples in Palestine/Trans-Jordan, put stringent restrictions on Jewish immigration. Jews living in displaced persons camps were smuggled into Palestine by the Aliya Bet (or "informal" immigration service). As populations shifted, frictions increased between the Arabs and Jews in Palestine.

After World War II and the Holocaust, many of the Allied powers felt that it was a good idea to grant a stretch of land to the Jewish people, and so the modern state of Israel was founded. (It should be noted that both the United States and the Soviet Union were quick to diplomatically recognize the new state.) The Arabic Palestinian population, lacking advocates among the major Western powers, considered this to be Western imperialism, and over the next twenty years relations deteriorated rapidly between Israel and its surrounding countries, coming to a head in the 1967 Six-Day War and flaring up again several times, most notably the 1990s Al-Aqsa intifada, triggered by Israeli military hero and future Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unauthorized entry onto the Muslim-controlled Temple Mount.

Political usage of the term

Since the founding of the State of Israel, and especially since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, "Zionism" and "Zionist" have become snarl words in some circles. While some legitimate criticism can be made of both the Zionist goals and methods, the term has since been stretched beyond its original meanings. Many conspiracy theories, particularly ones that revolve around the supposed "New World Order," frequently refer to a "Zionist conspiracy" or efforts to set up a "Zionist government." These people will often claim that "Zionists" control the United States, which goes so far beyond the call of what Zionists actually want as to be laughable. In many of these cases, it is obvious that "Zionist" is merely a euphemism for "Jewish" and that the groups using the term are anti-Semitic and/or neo-Nazi.

It should be noted, however, that according to the proper meaning of the word, one can make a direct challenge to Zionist ideals (political) and not be anti-Semitic. One crosses the line when facts are replaced with ingrained hatred.

Christian Zionism

Many Christians, particularly fundamentalists, support the State of Israel for their own religious reasons, calling themselves "Christian Zionists". They believe that the return of the Jews to Israel is vital to the Second Coming of Christ.

Anti-Zionism

In the 19th and early 20th century, the majority of Jews rejected Zionism. The causes of this reaction varied — on the right, conservative religious Jews (especially Haredi and Hasidic) believed that the re-establishment of a Jewish state in Israel was a task to be undertaken by the Messiah alone — Zionists, by attempting to hurry up the divine plan of redemption, were committing a sin. They pointed to various rabbinical passages which prohibited the return of Jews to Israel en masse prior to the coming of the Messiah. On the left, progressive, secular and reform Jews wanted Jews to be accepted as members of the nations they were now living in, rather than attempting to form their own for themselves. These Jews often had commitments to liberal internationalism or socialism, and they saw Zionism as contrary to this.

However, the traumatic events of the 20th century dramatically changed the Jewish attitude towards Zionism, from being a position with minority support to being the majority view. But there are still groups which carry on these earlier anti-Zionist positions. On the right, a number of Haredi and Hasidic groups maintain a religiously-based rejection of Zionism — the most notable of these groups is the Satmar dynasty, but there are many others. A small, but notable group is the Neturei Karta, who express their rejection of Zionism through extreme means, including associations with the Palestinian and Iranian leadership, and associations with Holocaust deniers. Even though many other groups like Satmar share the opposition to Zionism, they reject the extreme approach of the Neturei Karta. In particular, the attendance of Neturei Karta delegates at a Holocaust denial conference arranged by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad caused great offence, although the Neturei Karta attendees insisted they did not reject the Holocaust, but were attending the conference to try to change the Holocaust deniers' minds.

One particular passage the religious anti-Zionists point to is a a passage in the Talmud called the "Three Oaths", where the Jews swear to God to obey the rule of the Gentiles and not attempt to return to Israel en masse, and the Gentiles swear not to persecute the Jews excessively. Religious anti-Zionists see Zionism as a violation of the oath, and therefore sinful. Zionists have a number of responses: that the oath is not one of the legally binding parts of the Talmud (haggadah rather than halakah); that no individual Jews can violate the oath (since it does not prohibit the return of individual Jews), so Zionists cannot be held to be in violation of the oath; that the oath has been cancelled due to the Gentiles' failure to keep their side of the bargain (not to persecute the Jews excessively). Anti-Zionists do not accept these responses - in particular, they argue that since the three oaths are to God, not oaths the Jews and Gentiles make to each other, a failure of the Gentiles to obey their oath does not justify the Jews in violating theirs.

On the left, many progressive Jews living outside of Israel reject the need of a Jewish state, and see Zionism as inevitably resulting in the oppresssion of the Palestinian people.

Zionists will often claim that "anti-Zionism" is a synonym for "anti-Semitism", but clearly that is just an attempt by them to slur their opponents. Certainly some anti-Zionists are antisemites, but clearly many also are not. There are many Jewish anti-Zionists, who quite clearly are not anti-semitic (the Zionists' favoured appelations of "Jewish anti-Semite" or "self-hating Jew" are again just slurs.) Zionists will argue that anti-Zionists support Palestinian nationalism while opposing Jewish nationalism, and that this is an anti-semitic double standard. But many anti-Zionists reject Palestinian nationalism as well — many anti-Zionists reject all forms of nationalism, and hence must reject Jewish nationalism (Zionism) as well. Even for those who accept Palestinian nationalism, it is not necessarily a double standard to support one and not the other, so long as there are legitimate differences in situation between the two nationalisms — and there may well be. But, many anti-Zionists, rather than supporting the Palestinian nationalist call for a separate Palestinian state, instead favour the one state solution — abolition of Israel and Palestine, to be replaced by a single state which is for all its citizens (sometimes suggested to be called "Israelestine" or similar.)

Many Neo-Nazi and other antisemitic groups, however, have adopted the label "Zionist" as effectively a synonym for "Jew"; having done so, they continue to spout the same tired old antisemitic conspiracy theories they have been doing for decades, but by replacing "Jew" with "Zionist" it does not sound as bad, and people may not recognize these same old ideas in their new form, whereas in their original form they would immediately reject them. This process is the origin of their favoured phrase Zionist Occupation Government — i.e. Jews secretly direct the US government.

Zionism and Nazism

There are many people who have started claiming that Zionism is equivalent to Nazism. This is fairly laughable when one considers that Zionists were trying to secure ONE state for Jewish people, whereas Nazis were attempting to exterminate and subjugate all other nations. Besides, Godwin's Law.

On the other hand, Zionism and Nazism have something in common — they are both forms of nationalism. (They are not of course the only two forms of nationalism, there are many others). Anti-nationalists see them both as rotten fruit of a rotten tree, although there can be no doubt that Nazism is among the most rotten of the many rotten fruits that tree has produced.

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