Posted on 08/23/2010 10:25:43 AM PDT by pabianice
Before the victory of feminism, there was a popular Israeli song in which the boy asks the girl: “When you say No, what do you mean?” This question has already been answered. Now I am more and more tempted to ask: “When you say Zionism, what do you mean?”
Lately, associations for the defense of Zionism have been springing up like mushrooms after rain. Poisonous mushrooms. All kinds of American Jewish multimillionaires are financing “patriotic” Israeli groups in Israel, to fight the holy war for “Zionism”. The assault takes place along all the fronts. Jewish organizations aim at cleansing the universities of post-Zionists. They threaten to induce other donors to withhold their donations, they terrorize presidents and rectors and frighten professors and students.
Americans may be reminded of the sinister era of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who blighted the life of thousands of intellectuals and artists, pushing many of them into exile or suicide.
One group has proudly announced that it is teaching hundreds of professional Zionists how to cleanse Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia, of post-Zionist items and plant Zionist ones in their stead.
The term “post-Zionism” is starring in the propaganda of all the dozens — and perhaps hundreds — of the associations financed by the Las Vegas multimillionaires and their likes in the United States in order to restore the Zionist glory of old.
Why this term, of all others? They mean the leftists, but those who attack the “leftists” are liable to be called “rightists”. However, the members of the extreme right want to be seen as belonging to the patriotic center. Nor is it nice or enlightened to speak out against “liberal” or “progressive” professors. “Post-Zionists” is the Israeli equivalent of the “Reds” of Sen. McCarthy or the “Jews” of his predecessors in Germany. But what is “post-Zionism”? Why not simply “anti-Zionism”?
As far as I know, I was the first to use this term in 1976 while testifying in a libel case that my friends and I had lodged against a publication that had accused the “Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace”, that we had just founded, of being “anti-Zionist”. In trying to explain my view to the judge, I said that Zionism was a historic movement, with both light and shadow, which had fulfilled its role with the establishment of the State of Israel. From then on, Israeli patriotism has taken its place. “Post-Zionism” means that with the founding of the state, a new historic era began. A “post-Zionist” can admire the achievements of Zionism or criticize them. He is not by definition an anti-Zionist. The judge accepted my arguments and found in our favor. She awarded us handsome compensation. Now I am the only living Israeli who has a judicial confirmation that he is not an anti-Zionist.
Since then, the term “post-Zionist” has acquired wide currency in academic circles. But in the mouths of our new mini-McCarthys, it has become a simple denunciation. A post-Zionist is a traitor, an Arab-lover, a lackey of the enemy, an agent of the sinister worldwide conspiracy to destroy the Jewish state.
Shlomo Avineri, a respected professor of philosophy, recently published an article in which he fervently argued that Israel is a Jewish state and must remain so.
In his article, Avineri argued passionately that Israel is a Jewish state “as Poland is a Polish state and Greece is a Greek state”. He was responding to a Palestinian citizen of Israel, Salman Masalha, who had asserted that there cannot be a “Jewish state”, much as — he says — there cannot be a “Muslim state” or a “Catholic state”.
How can one compare, Avineri cried out. After all, the Jews are a people! Israel belongs to the Jewish people, whose religion is Judaism.
Logical, isn’t it?
By no means. The analogy does not fit.
If Avineri had demanded the recognition that Israel belongs to the Israelis as Poland belongs to the Poles, I would have applauded. But he argues that Israel belongs to the Jews. This immediately raises some basic questions. For example: Which Jews? Those who are Israeli citizens? Clearly, this is not what he means. He means the “Jewish people” dispersed all over the world.
How does a person become an American? By acquiring American citizenship. How does a person become French? By becoming a citizen of the French republic. How does a person become a Jew? Ah, there’s the rub. According to the law of the State of Israel, a Jew is somebody whose mother is Jewish, or who has converted to the Jewish religion and not adopted any other religion. Ergo: The definition is purely religious, like that of a Muslim or a Catholic. Not at all like that of a Pole or a Greek.
There are in Israel hundreds of thousands of people who have immigrated from the former Soviet Union with their Jewish relatives, but are not Jewish according to the religious definition. They consider themselves Israelis in every respect, speak Hebrew, pay taxes, serve in the army. But they are not recognized as belonging to the Jewish people, to which, according to Avineri, the state belongs. Like the million and a half Israeli citizens who are Palestinian Arabs. The state does not belong to them, even though they enjoy — at least formally — full civil rights.
Simply put: The state belongs, according to Avineri, to millions of people who do not live here and who belong to other nations, but does not belong to millions of people who live here and vote for the Knesset.
Who has decided that this is a Jewish state? Avineri and many others assert that the character of the state was decided upon by the resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations of November 29th, 1947, which partitioned the country between a “Jewish state” and an “Arab state”.
Not true. The UN did not decide upon a state which belongs to all the Jews in the world, any more than upon a state that belongs to all the Arabs in the world. The UN commission which investigated the conflict between the Jews and the Arabs in the country then called Palestine decided (very sensibly) that the only possible solution was to allot to each of the two national communities a state of its own. Nothing more. In short: the words “Jewish” and “Arab” in the UN resolution have nothing to do with the character of the two states, but only define the two communities in the country that were to establish their states. They have no other meaning.
But a professor who comes to this conclusion would be hounded as a “post-Zionist” who must be expelled from his university. According to our little McCarthys, even the debate is absolutely verboten. Verboten to think. Verboten to write. Strictly verboten to speak. In every university there would be Zionist overseers to receive reports about the lectures of professors, check their publications, report what they hear from students who inform on other students, and safeguard ideological purity.
But the results of their labors may be very different from what they expect. They may make the term “Zionism” a synonym for fascism. When you say Zionism, do you mean the humanist vision of Theodor Herzl or Avigdor Lieberman’s Jewish fascism?
Psalm 2:6
“I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
Psalm 9:11
Sing praises to the LORD, enthroned in Zion; proclaim among the nations what he has done.
Psalm 14:7
Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!
Psalm 50:2
From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.
First off, McCarthy, unless one is completely blind, today is proven to be 100% correct. They were COMMUNISTS, There ARE COMMUNISTS, and America is screwed because the COMMUNISTS have taken over our education system and universities, Hollywood, the MEDIA and the Democrat Party.
Second, Israel and the Jews are God’s and what is taking place is the center of history, the center of the world, the center of our salvation. Get over it. Get used to it. The wrongly called “Palestinian” people are nothing but wood to be burned if they don’t repent and turn back to the One True God, who’s name is definitely not some satanic moon god.
Arab News, The Editors (and yet, “I” is the only pronoun the “writers” use throughout). Thanks pabianice.
Good riddance. McCarthy was, to the silent chagrin of the drooling left, correct on all counts. The only good commie is a dead commie. Muslims have this trait as well.
Go Israel!
Sincerely,
The Comedian, Proud member of Zionists of America (www.zoa.org)
Blah, blah, blah.....if you people are stupid enough to believe this drivel, we’ll push all the Jews into the sea.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.