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Tel Aviv 12
July 2004 Oren Medicks oren@medicks.net Israel, Zionism and anti-Semitism As an Israeli concerned for his country, I
believe that Israel’s future depends on our ability to promote a just and
long-lasting peace with our neighbors, primarily with the Palestinian people.
Given the huge inequality in the balance of power, in all respects, between the
Israeli and Palestinian societies, effective external intervention alone can
prevent Israel from continuing its oppressive policies towards the
Palestinians. Although these are common ideas, the paralyzing fear of being
labeled an Anti-Semite prevents many from acting effectively or even raising a
voice. The need for urgent popular action is emphasized now, in the wake of the
ruling by the International court of justice in The Hague against the
Separation Wall – this quintessential manifestation of the Zionist ideology,
and the fear that cynical world state politics will try and ignore the demand
of millions around the world to dismantle the wall – just as they did one year
ago, launching the war on Iraq. This paper is an attempt to rebuff and unmask the cynical
exploitation of anti-Semitism and European guilt as a political tool used by
Israel and Zionist leaders of the Jewish Diaspora. *** "The
anti-Semites will become our most loyal friends, the anti-Semite nations will
become our allies." The Diary of Theodor Herzl *** As these lines are being written, some 100
emissaries from Israel are in France, Trying to convince 30,000 French Jews to
leave France and “make “Aliyah” (in Hebrew – to "ascend", to
immigrate to Israel). Their message is simple yet quite frightening: “Leave
France now and come to your real homeland – Israel. France is no longer a safe
place for Jews. Jews must remember…” This message harmonizes very well with
Anti-Semitic venom: “Jews, leave our country and go to yours, Israel. After
all, is this not why we helped you create it?” This episode shows in a nutshell how
Anti-Semitism may be the bitter enemy of the Jew and at the same time a
powerful ally of the Zionist. This view may be confusing because many
regard the terms ‘Zionist’, ‘Jewish’ and even ‘Israeli’ as almost synonymous.
Actually, this confusion is not surprising, as Zionist leaders, the Israeli
leadership and Jewish communities world wide, all take part in blurring the
distinctions between these terms and they certainly have their own reasons for
doing so. The Zionist Movement: The identification between the Zionist
movement and the Jewish people gave this Jewish nationalist movement the
legitimation it needed so badly in its early days. If not for the “Jewish”
label, it is very doubtful that the world would accept a nationalistic ideology
based on replacing the indigenous Palestinian population with newcomers from
Europe. Israel: Israel has made the greatest contribution
to this confusion and possibly has the most to gain from it. Here are some of
the ways in which Israel contributes to the ambiguity of identities: The most obvious factor is the definition
of Israel as a ‘Jewish-Democratic’ state. Israel has not yet succeeded in
resolving the inherent contradiction therein (Jewish state – belonging to the
Jewish people, Democratic state-belonging to all its citizens). One thing that
many people do not know is that Israel recognizes a ‘Jewish’ nationality, but
not an Israeli one. My ID card gives my nationality (as
opposed to citizenship) as Jewish, not Israeli. The nationality of non-Jewish
citizens of Israel is defined as Arab, Russian, Turkish and so on, but again,
the Israeli nationality is not amongst them. Many Israelis, Jews and Arabs, mostly
belonging to the peace camp, had submitted several appeals demanding the
state’s recognition of an Israeli nationality, but on May 23 2004 the Israeli
Supreme court once again ruled against the them. Defining itself as a Jewish
state gives Israel a pretext for discriminating against non-Jewish citizens.
This discrimination is practiced at most levels of daily life, as will be
described later. The ambiguity in identity does not stop at
the legal level. The Israeli public and political discourse, especially on the
right of the political spectrum, often blurs the distinction between Israeli
and Jewish. Ordinary People and political leaders alike say “Jews can settle
anywhere on this land”, or “The Arabs hate us just because we are Jews”, etc,
etc. By mixing these terms, Israel is actually
saying that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a national/political one,
between Israelis and Palestinians, a conflict that can be resolved by political
means, but an ethnic-religious conflict between Jews and Arabs/Muslims. As Haim
Hanegbi, an Israeli journalist, said about this policy: “Wherever a Jew and an Arab stand, a border
is stretched between them”. This, of course, is an extremely dangerous concept
and should be opposed because it pushes us all towards a dreaded and senseless
“Clash of Civilizations”. The Jewish Diaspora: The contribution of the Jewish Diaspora to
this amalgam is not cynical like the previous two, but tragic. The Jewish
Diaspora was deeply traumatized by the Holocaust. One third of the Jewish
people had perished along with their culture, traditions and even language.
What had once been a strong religious and cultural opposition to Zionism turned
into whole-hearted support for it and its physical manifestation – the state of
Israel. In the Jewish collective mind and identity, the
Israeli-Zionist ‘New Jew’ – tall, strong and proud - fully replaced the weak,
pale and wandering Jew who went to his fate without a struggle. Through Israel
Jews could regain their pride and confidence. With the power and protection of
the mighty Israeli army, Jews will never again be at the mercy of a treacherous
Europe. This identification, loyalty and even gratitude of the Jewish Diaspora
towards Israel often leads to blind support of Israeli policies, regardless of
their nature. *** This blurring of identities is the corner stone of Israel's
strategy that uses the Anti-Semitic demon as a shield for her oppressive
policies. Just As pictures of exploding buses evoked sympathy for
Israel and the suffering of its people, images of bulldozers uprooting
thousands of olive trees and flattening hundreds of houses caused a surge of
revulsion towards Israel throughout the world. The blurred and confusing
identity of the Israeli, together with the heat of emotions, caused the rage
and criticism to shoot off in all directions. Some of the resulting attacks
were directed at Jewish communities, others at the Zionist ideology, but the
majority of these attacks were aimed directly at Israel and its oppressive
policies. This scattered attack was labeled by Israeli propagandists “The
new “Anti-Semitism”. Jewish Diaspora
leaders responded to these attacks with the instinctive fear brought about by
centuries of persecution. Rather than taking a close, honest and hard look at
the events and their causes, they hit the “Anti-Semitism!” panic button without
realizing that this new wave of Anti-Semitism was clearly connected to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and therefore the remedy should be looked for in
the context of this conflict Israel immediately understood the great potential of this
“Anti-Semite” shield and rather than dealing with attacks on a political level,
chose to hide behind her ambiguous Jewish identity and further inflame the
Jewish panic about Anti-Semitism. Whether it is painting swastikas in a
Jewish cemetery in Rome, criticizing the demolition of Palestinian homes,
assaulting a Rabbi in Paris or denouncing Israeli extra-judicial assassinations
- all acts and declarations are shoved into one box labeled “Anti-Semitism”. The “munitions” for Israel’s war on
“anti-Semitism” can be found in an official booklet entitled “Fighting Anti-Semitism” that was issued
by the Israeli government recently. The text defines four characteristics of anti-Semitism:
1.Demonization of Israel and the Jewish People.
2.The Use of Religious Hate Themes Against Israel.
3.International Double Standards.
4.Denial of Israel’s Right to Exist. Before focusing on each argument and the
counterarguments –it is interesting to note how the text uses the terms
‘Jewish’ and ‘Israeli’ almost as synonyms. Demonization of Israel and the Jewish People. Attacking Israel is altogether different
from attacking the Jewish people. While Israel, like any other state, should be
criticized for its wrong-doing, the Jewish people have no common policy and any
attack on the Jewish people is therefore aimed at what they are and not at what
they actually do. Comparing Israel to the Nazi regime, or Israeli soldiers to
Nazis could be considered as the demonization of Israel only if the Nazis are
considered to be demons. This is clearly an Anti Nazi accusation and not
Anti-Semitic. These comparisons, politically
foolish as they are, are an immoderate accusation: “You, who were once victims of the Nazi beast, are becoming
like the beast.” Jeshaya Leibowitz, a renowned religious Israeli thinker who
coined the term “Judeo-Nazi”, and was very far from being an Anti-Semite. The Use of Religious Hate Themes Against Israel. This argument was largely answered in the
previous section. I would like to stress once again – a state cannot be based on
an ethnic-religious ideology and complain about being attacked with religious
hate themes. Israel itself practices many forms of
discrimination on an ethnic basis, both towards its own Palestinian citizens
and especially towards the 3.5 million Palestinians who are under occupation
and deprived of even the most basic civil rights. Some examples: due to a
long-term policy of land confiscation, Israeli Palestinians own only 3% of the
land, while constituting 20% of the population. The Arab education system,
separate of course from that of the Jews, lacks thousands of class rooms. Since
the creation of Israel not one new Arab village has been built to cater for
population growth, while hundreds of villages and towns have been built for
Jews only. Actually seven shanty towns were built – to herd the nomad Bedouins
together, and prevent them from living their traditional life. International Double Standards. Of course there are International double
standards where Israel is concerned! But the double standards are mostly in
favor of Israel. If that were not the case, Israel would probably never have
been created in the first place, and would certainly not enjoy such powerful
U.S support. Ironically, a fair share of the double standards in favor of
Israel are heavily contaminated with anti-Semitism, like the support of . the
U.S Protestant extreme right. No other state could have gotten away with
over 180 violations of UN resolutions, some of them binding Security Council
resolutions. This was made possible by Israel acting not as any other state,
but as the “Jewish State”, which enjoys great privileges based on either
anti-Semitic fear of the wrath of “The elders of Zion”, the wish to gain their
support, or deep guilt towards the Jews. Be this as it may, it is curious that
Israel enjoys the advantages of all these double standards and condemns them at
the same time. Denial of Israel’s Right to Exist. This is the fourth attribute of an
anti-Semitic expression according to the booklet issued by the Israeli government.
In considering this we must remember that on March 2001 the entire Arab world,
22 states, including Iraq, offered Israel full peace and recognition in return
for its withdrawal to the “Green Line” and the creation of a Palestinian state.
Israel did not even bother to answer and devoted itself to supporting Bush’s
war on Iraq. So what does this argument really mean? Well, very little unless we add the
words “as a Jewish State”. So why did the writers of the booklet omit
these words? Probably because it is becoming increasingly difficult to defend
the idea of a Jewish state, as it turned out to be. The wish to turn Israel
into a multi-cultural, democratic, secular state is shared by many, including a
fair number of Israelis. Many of us believe that Israel can not forever
maintain the contradictory identity of a “Jewish Democratic State”, we also
believe that the interdependent world of the future will not tolerate states
based on ethnic superiority and ethnic or religious discrimination. The
opponents of the state of Israel as a Jewish-Zionist state include several
Jewish religious groups, such as Satmer and Neturei Karta, who cannot be
accused of being anti-Semitic. Jews Not Zionists - http://www.jewsnotzionists.org Furthermore: Jews of the Diaspora
must ask themselves if they should support a political system they would never
have accepted in their own country. How many Jews would accept a
“Christian-Democratic” state, in which they would be discriminated against on
account of being Jewish? How many Jews would accept a “democracy” in which Jews
are not permitted to purchase state land?
I.
If Israel is really concerned about
Anti-Semitism…
This is what I would suggest she
does:
1.Declare that anti-Semitism, together with
all other forms of racism and discrimination, is a global disease and that
Israel itself will stop immediately any practice of discrimination on the basis
of religion, ethnic origin or gender.
2.Declare that the conflict in the Middle
East is not a religious-ethnic conflict between Arabs/Muslims and Jews, but a
political one, that should be solved by negotiations based on International
law, rather than upon advantages of power.
3.Start an immediate process of true and
deep reconciliation with the Palestinian people in a serious effort to reach a
just and long-lasting peace between the two peoples.
4.Start building a new vision of bridges
between neighbors rather than Separation Walls. Israel is in a unique and
extraordinary position to change the course of events in the world, from the
‘Clash of Civilizations’ she is currently promoting, to a new model of
partnership and generosity. In this, the Jewish communities of the world, most
of whom have enjoyed the privileges of living in prosperous democracies for
many decades, can offer vital help. Actually, this is the best form of help the
Jewish world can offer Israel and itself at the same time. |