A terrific article by Eitan Chitayat and Einat Wilf! It succinctly and eloquently explains what Zionism actually is. Zionism is simply put, the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their ancient homeland. That’s it. Zionism has nothing to do with settler-colonialism, white supremacy, Jewish supremacy, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, or genocide. Zionism simply means that the Jewish people are returning to their homeland to rebuild their state. The charge it had anything to do with colonialism is hilarious because Zionism is in fact, an anti-colonial, indigenous rights movement. People often overlook a crucial fact, the Jews didn’t just fight the Arabs to restore their state, they fought the British Empire as well. The Jewish people are literally no different from the Native Americans, Inuits, Native Hawaiians, Aboriginal Australians, Māoris, Aleuts, Ainu, Kurds, or the Samaritans. Theodor Herzl and Sitting Bull for example, would’ve seen many parallels between their people’s respective struggles. The Jewish people were never fully accept as equals or welcomed anywhere they went. In Christendom, they were persecuted, discriminated against, called devil worshippers, stereotyped, made to wear distinctive clothing, hats or badges to tell them apart from the rest of the population, were victims of pogroms, were expelled too many times to count, and were victims of genocide by the Nazis and their allies during World War II. Under Islam, they were second-class citizens who were made to pay a discriminatory tax, the Jizya for not accepting Muhammad as their final prophet. They had to live in segregated neighborhoods. They could only serve in positions subordinate to Muslims as well. Arabs and Muslims also did pogroms against Jews. During World War II, the Grand Mutfi of Jerusalem Amin Al-Husseini made an alliance with Adolf Hitler and the two made an agreement to exterminate the Jews of Palestine. Many Arabs welcomed the Nazis as liberators from British and French colonialism and enthusiastically assisted them and their Italian allies in rounding up North African Jews and putting them in concentration camps.
Thousands of Arabs, Afro-Arabs and black Africans also joined the Wehrmacht’s Free Arabian Legion. THIS history is exactly why Zionism was needed! Western and liberal values were NOT enough to protect the Jewish people from possible extermination! The Jewish people needed to return to the land the vast majority of them had been forced to leave several millennia ago due to an economic recession, Roman repression and a series of failed uprisings. When Jews prayed they didn’t face France, Germany, Poland, Morocco, Algeria, or Yemen. They faced the holy city of Jerusalem and they faced toward Zion. THAT was their native land, not Britain, France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, or Bulgaria! Europeans and Arabs always treated Jews as at best an alien other who didn’t really belong. Nor did America always treat them right either. In colonial times, some states forbade Jews from voting. Jews faced discrimination, red lining, quotas at universities, exclusion from private clubs, being banned from hotels, restaurants and swimming pools, and hate coming from popular groups like the second Ku Klux Klan and the German-American Bund. Israel was the best and only place on Earth for the Jewish people. Apartheid? In Israel? Don’t make me laugh! In Israel, everyone has equal rights under the law. Two million Arabs live in Israel and have full equal rights. The occupation of the West Bank doesn’t fit the bill either as the occupation is quite humane. If you want to see a real apartheid, go to Gaza where all the black population lives in the same neighborhood called Al-Abeed meaning “My Slave” in English or any Arab country where Palestinians are second-class citizens. Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. That is where you’ll find the REAL apartheid! There is no more inclusive a country in the entire Middle East than Israel. Jews by the way are white-passing, black, brown, red, and yellow. So you are ignoring Asian, African, Middle Eastern, Latin American, and Caribbean Jews when you make the argument Israel is a white supremacist state. Ashkenazi Jews also are not white. Many are light-skinned enough they can identify as such and most American Jews do. But they are technically not. Also, dark-skinned Ashkenazi Jews cannot pass as white. So again, this argument is just flat out ridiculous. Israel also has done more to help the nations of Africa than any Arab country ever has. Who was it that had a centuries long slave trade and enslaved millions of black Africans? Oh right, that was the Arabs.
You are absolutely correct that “accusation is the first rung in the ladder to justice. No declaration of illegality can mean no trial, no redress and no end to cycles of violence”. Various human rights groups - including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and UN rapporteurs - have produced a great deal of information relating to Israel’s alleged violation of international law through military activities and, this goes on to say, how impunity has fostered those violations in institutions such as the Knesset and IDF to represses the Palestinian population (more recently in Lebanon too).
A further complication for those pushing for international accountability is the historical baggage of guilt from the Holocaust and, consequently, how this manifests in European policy and particularly how strongly the Germans back Israel. Some researchers argue that this manifests as unquestioning support, regardless of whether these actions are carried out in accordance with international legal norms. Of course, while these activities are immune from criticism so the level of antipathy among those who feel they are being forced to pay for the sins of others intensifies.
This does not mean to dismiss the severity of the Holocaust – it really was uniquely evil and unpalatable - but to say that seeing the children of the victims of the Holocaust replicate the behaviour that so wronged them when targeting other people can be deeply disturbing; and it does ask if the former can be used as justification for the latter. As you put it so well:
“So when children of the Holocaust seem to practice ghettisation, the expulsion of others, collective punishment etc. Can the guilt about what happened on their behalf justify those actions today?”
But we will only see an end to those cycles if the “accusation” stage is successfully followed by the accountability mechanisms to actually enforce international law and to save civilians and begin to pave the way for peace.
I suspect we will only see these cycles end when Hamas and those like it are fully disarmed. Two million Muslim Arabs live completely peacefully in Israel, achieving positions of the highest rank. One cannot say the same for the millions of Muslim Arabs under the Palestinians' tender mercies, much less for Christians or Jews in their control.
A terrific article by Eitan Chitayat and Einat Wilf! It succinctly and eloquently explains what Zionism actually is. Zionism is simply put, the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their ancient homeland. That’s it. Zionism has nothing to do with settler-colonialism, white supremacy, Jewish supremacy, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, or genocide. Zionism simply means that the Jewish people are returning to their homeland to rebuild their state. The charge it had anything to do with colonialism is hilarious because Zionism is in fact, an anti-colonial, indigenous rights movement. People often overlook a crucial fact, the Jews didn’t just fight the Arabs to restore their state, they fought the British Empire as well. The Jewish people are literally no different from the Native Americans, Inuits, Native Hawaiians, Aboriginal Australians, Māoris, Aleuts, Ainu, Kurds, or the Samaritans. Theodor Herzl and Sitting Bull for example, would’ve seen many parallels between their people’s respective struggles. The Jewish people were never fully accept as equals or welcomed anywhere they went. In Christendom, they were persecuted, discriminated against, called devil worshippers, stereotyped, made to wear distinctive clothing, hats or badges to tell them apart from the rest of the population, were victims of pogroms, were expelled too many times to count, and were victims of genocide by the Nazis and their allies during World War II. Under Islam, they were second-class citizens who were made to pay a discriminatory tax, the Jizya for not accepting Muhammad as their final prophet. They had to live in segregated neighborhoods. They could only serve in positions subordinate to Muslims as well. Arabs and Muslims also did pogroms against Jews. During World War II, the Grand Mutfi of Jerusalem Amin Al-Husseini made an alliance with Adolf Hitler and the two made an agreement to exterminate the Jews of Palestine. Many Arabs welcomed the Nazis as liberators from British and French colonialism and enthusiastically assisted them and their Italian allies in rounding up North African Jews and putting them in concentration camps.
Thousands of Arabs, Afro-Arabs and black Africans also joined the Wehrmacht’s Free Arabian Legion. THIS history is exactly why Zionism was needed! Western and liberal values were NOT enough to protect the Jewish people from possible extermination! The Jewish people needed to return to the land the vast majority of them had been forced to leave several millennia ago due to an economic recession, Roman repression and a series of failed uprisings. When Jews prayed they didn’t face France, Germany, Poland, Morocco, Algeria, or Yemen. They faced the holy city of Jerusalem and they faced toward Zion. THAT was their native land, not Britain, France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, or Bulgaria! Europeans and Arabs always treated Jews as at best an alien other who didn’t really belong. Nor did America always treat them right either. In colonial times, some states forbade Jews from voting. Jews faced discrimination, red lining, quotas at universities, exclusion from private clubs, being banned from hotels, restaurants and swimming pools, and hate coming from popular groups like the second Ku Klux Klan and the German-American Bund. Israel was the best and only place on Earth for the Jewish people. Apartheid? In Israel? Don’t make me laugh! In Israel, everyone has equal rights under the law. Two million Arabs live in Israel and have full equal rights. The occupation of the West Bank doesn’t fit the bill either as the occupation is quite humane. If you want to see a real apartheid, go to Gaza where all the black population lives in the same neighborhood called Al-Abeed meaning “My Slave” in English or any Arab country where Palestinians are second-class citizens. Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. That is where you’ll find the REAL apartheid! There is no more inclusive a country in the entire Middle East than Israel. Jews by the way are white-passing, black, brown, red, and yellow. So you are ignoring Asian, African, Middle Eastern, Latin American, and Caribbean Jews when you make the argument Israel is a white supremacist state. Ashkenazi Jews also are not white. Many are light-skinned enough they can identify as such and most American Jews do. But they are technically not. Also, dark-skinned Ashkenazi Jews cannot pass as white. So again, this argument is just flat out ridiculous. Israel also has done more to help the nations of Africa than any Arab country ever has. Who was it that had a centuries long slave trade and enslaved millions of black Africans? Oh right, that was the Arabs.
Now would be an opportune time to educate people on Jewish and Israeli history. So here are some great books for the Rod Martin Report’s audience:
* A History of the Jews: A Study of Jewish History and Influence Across Millennia by Paul Johnson
* Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth by Noa Tishby
* Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn by Daniel Gordis
* Impossible Takes Longer: Covering Israel's Judicial Reform Crisis and the October 7th War by Daniel Gordis
* Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning by Timothy Snyder
* A History of Judaism by Martin Goodman
* Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World's Mightiest Empire by Barry Strauss
* Uprooted: How 3000 Years of Jewish Civilization in the Arab World Vanished Overnight by Lyn Julius
* Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military by Bryan Mark Rigg
* Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Barry Rubin
* In Ishmael's House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands by Martin Gilbert
* Churchill and the Jews: A Lifelong Friendship by Martin Gilbert
* Lincoln and the Jews: A History by Jonathan D. Sarna & Benjamin Shapell
You are absolutely correct that “accusation is the first rung in the ladder to justice. No declaration of illegality can mean no trial, no redress and no end to cycles of violence”. Various human rights groups - including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and UN rapporteurs - have produced a great deal of information relating to Israel’s alleged violation of international law through military activities and, this goes on to say, how impunity has fostered those violations in institutions such as the Knesset and IDF to represses the Palestinian population (more recently in Lebanon too).
A further complication for those pushing for international accountability is the historical baggage of guilt from the Holocaust and, consequently, how this manifests in European policy and particularly how strongly the Germans back Israel. Some researchers argue that this manifests as unquestioning support, regardless of whether these actions are carried out in accordance with international legal norms. Of course, while these activities are immune from criticism so the level of antipathy among those who feel they are being forced to pay for the sins of others intensifies.
This does not mean to dismiss the severity of the Holocaust – it really was uniquely evil and unpalatable - but to say that seeing the children of the victims of the Holocaust replicate the behaviour that so wronged them when targeting other people can be deeply disturbing; and it does ask if the former can be used as justification for the latter. As you put it so well:
“So when children of the Holocaust seem to practice ghettisation, the expulsion of others, collective punishment etc. Can the guilt about what happened on their behalf justify those actions today?”
But we will only see an end to those cycles if the “accusation” stage is successfully followed by the accountability mechanisms to actually enforce international law and to save civilians and begin to pave the way for peace.
I suspect we will only see these cycles end when Hamas and those like it are fully disarmed. Two million Muslim Arabs live completely peacefully in Israel, achieving positions of the highest rank. One cannot say the same for the millions of Muslim Arabs under the Palestinians' tender mercies, much less for Christians or Jews in their control.