Explaining the Long — and Largely Untold — History of Jewish Opposition to Zionism »
Posted By hyperbola 1 year ago in ReligionA THREAT FROM WITHIN: A CENTURY OF JEWISH OPPOSITION TO ZIONISM,
by Yakov M. Rabkin,
While many in Israel and in Jewish communities in the U.S. and other countries now promote the idea that Zionism and Judaism are, in effect, the same and that opposition to Zionism constitutes “anti-Semitism,” the historical fact — largely untold — is that, for most of its history, Zionism has been a decidedly minority movement among Jews throughout the world.
Since its inception as a political movement in 1897, both Reform and Orthodox Jews rejected Zionism’s basic premise of creating a Jewish state in Palestine and having Jews either emigrate to it or, at the very least, consider it “central” to their Jewish identity.
An overwhelming majority of Orthodox Jews, unwilling to accept the restoration of a Jewish state in Palestine by means other than divine intervention, considered Zionism a false messianic movement. Most Jewish liberals and socialists, having accepted the faith of the Enlightenment, with its emphasis on optimism, reason and progress, rejected Zionism as a reactionary philosophy. ....
... In the forward, Joseph Agassi, professor of Philosophy at Tel Aviv University, notes that, “The author raises questions about the myth that Israel protects the Jews around the world and constitutes their natural homeland. This book rightly shows that this myth is anti-Jewish. ...
... Zionism gained support in areas where social and political conditions were unfavorable to Jews, particularly the Russian Empire. Indeed, Rabkin argues that Zionism has far more in common with the emerging nationalisms which swept Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries than anything to be found in Jewish tradition. ...
... This instrumentalization of religion, writes Israeli historian and political scientist Zeev Sternhell, is not specific to Zionism but can be found in many varieties of organic nationalism propagated in Europe from the mid-l9th century onward. Rabkin declares that, “While keeping intact the social function of religion in order to unify the people, Zionism eliminated its metaphysical content. In the same way religion became a vital element of many varieties of nationalism; for example, neither the Polish variant nor 1’Action Francaise made any efforts to disguise their Catholic traits, Sternhell defines this trend as ‘religion without God,’ religion that has preserved only its outward symbols.” ...
Zionist leaders took as their model the nationalisms which emerged in largely undemocratic societies and seemed to have little understanding of the dynamics of free, open societies such as France, England and the United States. .... But few Zionists were aware of a countervailing reality, such as that of France, where in a slow and deliberate process, the state made use of an existing legal and political framework to create a nation. They had never experienced the kind of tolerant nationalism that could allow for a clear distinction between nation, religion and society — the model that enables large Jewish communities to thrive in France, England and the U.S. today (and where a substantial number of rabbinical critics of Zionism can be found)....
In Israel itself, the gulf that separates the secular from Judaism in all its forms has widened. Israeli newspapers are full of caricatures of Orthodox Jews, not unlike the anti-Semitic stereotypes current in Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Israeli historian Noah Efron declares: “This kind of hostility is not novel. Nowhere are Haredi Jews as feared and hated as in Israel. ...
The use of violence, Rabkin points out, was to be found among Zionists from the very beginning, against both indigenous Arabs and Jews who dared to challenge the emerging Zionist consensus..... Albert Einstein was among the Jewish humanists who denounced the Betar youth movement in 1935, describing it as being “as much a danger to our youth as Hitlerism is to German youth.”....
Terrorism has frequently reared its head among extremists within the ranks of Zionism. The bombing of the King David Hotel, the assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte and the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin are well known. The political assassination of Jacob Israel De Haan (1881-1924) is less well known... Rabkin laments that, “... the sad tale of De Haan reminds us that the terrorism the Zionists brought with them from Russia to Palestine in the early years of the 20th century would ultimately be turned against their descendants in the closing decades of the century ... Indeed, aside from the Hagganah, which was responsible for the assassination of De Haan, several armed organiz¬ations — such as Lehi and Irgun — perpetrated terrorist acts. Their leaders, Itzhak Shamir and Menachem Begin, went on to become prime ministers of Israel. What united these military organizations was the conviction that it was necessary to inculcate fear and to terrorize the adversary, all in the name of establishing a nation. Ironically, the same approach was later to be adopted by the Palestinian terrorists.” .....
... Fortunately, Rabkin shows, more and more prominent Jews are rejecting such efforts at thought control. A veteran of American Jewish organizations who has taken a critical distance from his institutional past, Henry Siegman, regrets what he calls “Jewish community McCarthyism” and has said that for many Jewish organizations, “if you do not support the government of Israel, then your Jewishness and not your political judgment will be called into question.”
Professor Rabkin has written a scholarly work which brings alive for the reader a complex history which has been largely ignored. No one who reads this book will ever again believe that Zionism and Judaism are the same, or that Zionism enjoys the level of support among Jews in the United States and elsewhere in the world which it claims.
Read Full Story at acjna.org »
794 Views Share Story 8 Comments Report
Submitted By:
hyperbola
Military brat (14th generation American) with unassuaged wanderlust. By age 11, schools in four states and three foreign countries (in 3 languages). Left home at ...
Who Also Submitted:
Other Related Articles:
RSS Join the Discussion
+ Add CommentComments So Far: 30 (view all)
-
Neutral
truthiness1 year ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
"The 28th Zionist Congress, meeting in Jerusalem 1968, adopted the five points of the "Jerusalem Program" as the aims of Zionism today.
Reply
1. The unity of the Jewish People and the centrality of Israel in Jewish life;
2. The ingathering of the Jewish People in its historic homeland, Eretz Israel, through Aliyah from all countries;
3. The strengthening of the State of Israel which is based on the prophetic vision of justice and peace:
4. The preservation of the identity of the Jewish People through the fostering of Jewish and Hebrew education and of Jewish spiritual and cultural values;
5. The protection of Jewish rights everywhere."-
-
100%
hyperbola1 year ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Those very points emphasize how similar zionism is to other totalitarian ideologies, e.g. the Nazi aryan master race.
Reply
'''''1. The unity of the Jewish People and the centrality of Israel in Jewish life;''''
Why should any jew be compelled to accept a racist totalitarian state as the be-all and end-all of his life? This is pure terrorism by a violent minority.
''''2. The ingathering of the Jewish People in its historic homeland, Eretz Israel, through Aliyah from all countries; ''''
And zionists bombed and killed jews all over the mideast to force them to move to israel. Many of those mideastern jews now hate the askenazi racists from eastern europe.
THE JEWS OF IRAQ - TESTIMONY OF A FORMER ZIONIST
By Naeim Giladi
Naeim Giladi: "I write this article for the same reason I wrote my book: to tell the American people, and especially American Jews, that Jews from Islamic lands did not emigrate willingly to Israel; that, to force them to leave, Jews killed Jews; and that, to buy time to confiscate ever more Arab lands, Jews on numerous occasions rejected genuine peace initiatives from their Arab neighbors. I write about what the first Prime Minister of Israel called 'cruel Zionism'. I write about it because I was part of it."
http://www.jewsnotzionists.org/jewsofiraq.htm
At the present time, given that jews are only 35% of the population of Palestine (5.5. million jews, 10.5 million christians and moslems according to the UN census), given that the zionists are desperate for more cannon fodder (see below), and given that the biggest potential is in the US, american jews may well be the next target of zionist violence.
New West Bank Settlers - Peruvian Indians!
Orthodox Israeli Jewish Rabbis have found a new source for their ideologically driven settlers in order to try and fill the empty apartments in their many settlements on Palestinian land in the West Bank: Peruvian Indians....
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/444.htm -
100%
hyperbola1 year ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
''''3. The strengthening of the State of Israel which is based on the prophetic vision of justice and peace: ''''
Reply
The claim that zionism is based on a 'prophetic' vision of justice and peace is a good example of feeding phony religion to the masses to 'induce' them to support totalitarian goals. It is very similar to Hitler's claims that nazism is based on 'christian family values'. Indeed, many of the zionist leaders EXPLICITLY endorsed Hitler's ideas about the 'organization' of society.
Here is a commentary from an american jew about this feature of zionism. It is well worth reading all of this article (and the book) to understand the true nature of zionism.
51 Documents:
Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis
In 1983, Croom Helm Ltd. published my 1st book, Zionism in the Age of the Dictators.... There are six selections re Zionism's relationship to anti-Semitism and racism prior to Hitler...
...Zionism convicts itself. On June 21, 1933, the German Zionist Federation sent a secret memorandum to the Nazis:
.... "Zionism believes that a rebirth of national life, such as is occurring in German life through adhesion to Christian and national values, must also take place in the Jewish national group. For the Jew, too, origin, religion, community of fate and group consciousness must be of decisive significance in the shaping of his life. This means that the egotistic individualism which arose in the liberal era must be overcome by public spiritedness and by willingness to accept responsibility."...
-
-
Neutral
truthiness1 year ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Advanced genetic testing, including Y-DNA and mtDNA haplotyping, of modern Jewish communities around the world, has helped to determine which of the communities are likely to descend from the Israelites and which are not, as well as to establish the degrees of separation between the groups. Important studies archived here include the University College London study of 2002, Ariella Oppenheim's study of 2001, Ariella Oppenheim's study of 2000, Michael Hammer's study of 2000, Doron Behar's study of 2008, and others.
Reply
Key findings:
The main ethnic element of Ashkenazim (German and Eastern European Jews), Sephardim (Spanish and Portuguese Jews), Mizrakhim (Middle Eastern Jews), Juhurim (Mountain Jews of the Caucasus), Italqim (Italian Jews), and most other modern Jewish populations of the world is Israelite. The Israelite haplotypes fall into Y-DNA haplogroups J and E.
Ashkenazim also descend, in a smaller way, from European peoples such as Slavs and Khazars. The non-Israelite Y-DNA haplogroups include Q (typically Central Asian) and R1a1 (typically Eastern European).
Dutch Jews from the Netherlands also descend from northwestern Europeans.
Sephardim also descend, in a smaller way, from various non-Israelite peoples.
Georgian Jews (Gruzinim) are a mix of Georgians and Israelites.
Yemenite Jews (Temanim) are a mix of Yemenite Arabs and Israelites.
Moroccan Jews, Algerian Jews, and Tunisian Jews are mainly Israelites.
Libyan Jews are mainly Israelites who may have mixed somewhat with Berbers.
Ethiopian Jews are almost exclusively Ethiopian, with little or no Israelite ancestry.
Bene Israel Jews and Cochin Jews of India have much Indian ancestry in their mtDNA.
Palestinian Arabs are probably partly Israelite.
"Despite their long-term residence in different countries and isolation from one another, most Jewish populations were not significantly different from one another at the genetic level. The results support the hypothesis that the paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population, and suggest that most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring non-Jewish communities during and after the Diaspora."
(M.F. Hammer, Proc. Nat'l Academy of Science, May 9, 2000)-
Neutral
truthiness1 year ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
the purpose of this post is to refute the false premise put forward in the article that jews are somehow not a people in their own right but a religious group only. It may be more proper to identify the ethnicity as Hebrews, but the semantic difference is the one between calling African-Americans by the name 'blacks'. one may be more accurate than the other, but neither moniker changes the identity.
Reply -
100%
hyperbola1 year ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Well truthi, either you are not very well informed about the subject of genetics or you are deliberately trying to mislead us here. There is a HUGE amount of more recent information. Here is a first warning about what you are trying to claim:
Reply
Beware the gene genies
Lavish but questionable promises have been made to those who want to trace their genetic ancestry
"Studies of human genetic diversity have barely begun. Yet the fashion for genetic ancestry testing is booming.... Buoyed by the hype, the private sector has been moving in. Other groups, such as Jews, are now being targeted. This despite the fact that Jewish communities have little in common on their mitochondrial side - the maternal line down which Judaism is traditionally inherited. It's the male side that shows common ancestry between different Jewish communities - so, of course, that's what the geneticists focus on." ....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2003/feb/21/hi...
-
-
Neutral
truthiness1 year ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Country, State, and Nation
Reply
Definining an Independent Country
By Matt Rosenberg, About.com
See More About:political geographycountriesterritories
Sponsored Links
More HD Than Satellite
Comcast Now Over 1,000 HD Choices See the Difference In Your Area
www.Comcast.com/HD
Citi® Nickelback Promo
Win a Nickelback Behind-the-Scenes Concert Experience. Learn More.
citi.bridgetrack.com
1 rule to a flat stomach:
I cut down 12 lbs of stomach fat every 2 weeks by obeying this rule!
AnnsWeightLoss.com
Geography Ads
Nation State
State Parks
State Outline
State Name
United State Map
While the terms country, state, and nation are often used interchangeably, there is a difference.
A State (note the capital "S") is a self-governing political entity. The term State can be used interchangeably with country.
A nation, however, is a tightly-knit group of people which share a common culture. A nation-state is a nation which has the same borders as a State.
States and Independent Countries
Let's start with what defines a State or an independent country. An independent State:
Has space or territory which has internationally recognized boundaries (boundary disputes are OK).
Has people who live there on an ongoing basis.
Has economic activity and an organized economy. A country regulates foreign and domestic trade and issues money.
Has the power of social engineering, such as education.
Has a transportation system for moving goods and people.
Has a government which provides public services and police power.
Has sovereignty. No other State should have power over the country's territory.
Has external recognition. A country has been "voted into the club" by other countries.
There are currently 195 independent countries or States around the world. Territories of countries or individual parts of a country are not countries in their own right.
Examples of entities that are not countries include: Hong Kong, Bermuda, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and most notably the constituent parts of the United Kingdom. (Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and England are not countries.)
A "state" (with a lower-case "s") is usually a division of a federal State (such as the states of the United States of America).
Nations and Nation-States
Nations are culturally homogeneous groups of people, larger than a single tribe or community, which share a common language, institutions, religion, and historical experience.
When a nation of people have a State or country of their own, it is called a nation-state. Places like France, Egypt, Germany, Japan, and New Zealand are excellent examples of nation-states. There are some States which have two nations, such as Canada and Belgium. Even with its multicultural society, the United States is also referred to as a nation-state because of the shared American "culture." -
-
Neutral
truthiness1 year ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I can find quotes from people of any nationality with all sorts of titles who will will refute the basic premise of their nation or states identity. that alone proves nothing. that alone leads us to nothing.
Reply
a group of people with a common bond of culture and lineage gathered in the land of their ancestors and built a homeland. those around them attempted to destroy them by force and failed. those enemies suffered for the attempt.
now a decision must be made. whether to continue a cycle of violence and hatred that will only lead to more suffering, or to accept the successful development of this nation and agree to leave together peacefully.
the israelis have made it clear they are willing to negotiate (most of them) and many palestinians have as well. it is time for the extreme elements in the two governments to stop pushing for untenable positions, accept that peace is the only answer for their children, and work out the details.
continuing to fan the flames of hate with irrelevant commentary like this article only adds to the suffering of the innocent caught in the middle.-
100%
hyperbola1 year ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
At the end of the 19th century, when zionism got its start in eastern europe, jews were less than 6% of the population of palestine. The ONLY time the jews had a 'national homeland' in palestine was during the kingdom of david in 1000 BC - and that fell apart after about 70 years. For virtually ALL of history, the jews WERE NOT the governing power in palestine (although some were there and although they and other groups were often left alone by the governing powers).
Reply
The cycle of violence, racism, totalitarianism and crimes against humanity insitituted by a pseudo-jewish sect called zionism MUST be ended by the world.
Here is a good description of the challenge we face by an Israeli.
Why Israel Has No "Right to Exist" as a Jewish State
.... In our world, a world that resisted Apartheid South Africa so impressively, recognition of the right of the Jewish state to exist is a litmus test for moderation and pragmatism. The demand is that Palestinians recognise Israel's entitlement to constitutionally entrench a system of racist basic laws and policies, differential immigration criteria for Jews and non-Jews, differential ownership and settlements rights, differential capital investments, differential investment in education, formal rules and informal conventions that differentiate the potential stakes of political participation, lame-duck academic freedom and debate....
... The Jewish state could only come into being in May 1948 by ethnically cleansing most of the indigenous population--750000 of them. The judaisation of the state could only be effectively implemented by constantly internally displacing the population of many villages within the Israel state....
... The path of two states is the path of separation.Its realisation would mean the entrenchment of exclusionary nationalism for many years. It would mean that the return of the dispossessed and the equality of those who return and those non-Jew-Arabs who are now there would have to be deferred indefinitely consigned to the dusty shelved of historical injustices.Such a scenario is sure to provoke more violence as it would establish the realisation and legitimisation of Zionist racism and imperialism....
-
-
mackiemesserComment removed: Retracted by user
-
0%
Endoscopy1 year ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Typical hyper antisemitic article and postings. He is very much a Jew hater. He sounds like a Muslim. Are you hyper. Is that why you are so into the Zionist conspiracy?
Reply
What hyper and others ignore is the prayer of Jews for centuries was "Next year in Jeruselam."
A bit of history of Zionism.
1843 - First Zionist writings of Rabbi Alcalay and of Rabbi Kalischer, Emuna Yeshara.
1844 - First census in Jerusalem shows 7120 Jews, 5760 Muslims, 3390 Christians.
1860 - First Jewish settlement (Mishkenot Sha'ananim) outside Jerusalem walls.
1878 - First Zionist Settlement - Petah Tikwa
1870s - Formation of Hovevei Tzion in Russia
1882 - Leon Pinsker writes Auto-Emancipation in 1882; formation of BILU; beginning of the First Aliya (wave of immigration).
1897 - First Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland.
Nov. 2 1917 - British issued the Balfour Declaration, promising a “National Home” for the Jews in Palestine.
1936 - 1939 - Arab Revolt led by Haj Amin Al-Husseini. Over 5,000 Arabs were killed according to some sources, mostly by British. Several hundred Jews were killed by Arabs. Husseini fled to Iraq and then to Nazi Germany. British White Paper (1939) severely restricts Jewish immigration.
May 9, 1942 - Biltmore Program - Zionist leaders, headed by Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion, convene at the Biltmore Hotel in New York and declare their postwar program (known as the Biltmore Program). The program recommended an end to the British Mandate and demand Jewish control over immigration to Palestine with the aim of founding a Jewish "Commonwealth."
Most of this is Jews pushing for a homeland like they were praying about for centuries. Why do you ignore this side of it hyper. Is your hatred of them that great? Also note the census in 1844 shows that Jews were there already in bigger numbers than the Muslims or Christians. This is always ignored.-
100%
willottica1 year ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Your same census also shows that Jews were NOT a majority. Seven thousand some Jews to Eight thousand some non-Jews.
Reply
Jews pushing for a homeland like they were praying for for centuries Just because they really, really, want it, doesn't mean they deserve it and can take it by force. I realize the Old Testament may have a different take on it (the Battle of Jericho), but I don't recall divine intervention getting them their victory this time. -
Neutral
hyperbola1 year ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Well Endo, Hitler also had his plan for "living space" for the "master race". Given your arguments, I take it we should assume that you are in favor of that kind of plan. After all, as several of the articles I linked above documented, there are very strong parallels between the "aryan" plan and "zionism" that are rooted in the 19th century east european ferment of racism and totalitarianism.
Reply
You are over a century too late with your abominations Endo - the world has already seen the bloody disasters caused by your kind of ideology. And, if you are in the US, you have let to learn the basic principles of american democracy.
-
-
Neutral
vettenut1 year ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
What I, as Goy/Gentile see in this article and in the comments by Hyperbola, is that, just as modernist, revisionist, higher-criticism, rationalist, left-wing, haughty "Christian" theologians and elitists look down upon their traditionalist, literalist, fervent, conservative and practicalist "Christian" brethren (calling them simplistic, gullible, fanatic "fundamentalists"), there exist modernist, revisionist, rationalist, elitist Jews who look down upon their traditionalist, literalist, fervent, conservative and nationalist brethren who strongly believe in and support the restored State of Israel and its future.
Reply
Such a "look-down" haughtiness borders upon bigotry, and strongly resembles racism, self-justification, ego-centrism, self-righteousness and SELF-HATRED.
Personally, I do not see how these revisionist, rationalist elitists of either type can have any joy in their lives, or even sleep well at night, since their philosophy is not a happy one at all......-
100%
hyperbola1 year ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Ah my, trying to plug the zionist / christian zionist obscenity again.
Reply
The silliness of your argument can be seen by the fact that the most traditional, conservative, religious jews OPPOSE the existence of a racist, totalitarian, non-jewish, zionist state of isreal.
Orthodox Jews Demand End to Zionist Atrocities in the Middle East
http://www.nkusa.org/activities/Statements/2006Jul...
-
Add a Comment
Sign In With Your Propeller Account
Please keep your comments relevant to this story.
To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.