Retrospective introduction - This article was not written to condemn anti-Zionist Jews, but to point out that they will eventually find themselves isolated by the people whose cause they are championing. This is already happening.Arguably, the most vociferous and effective opponents of the existence of the state of
Israel today are anti-Zionist Jews. Who has done more to advance the myth of Zionist "ethnic cleansing" than Ilan Pappe? Who has done more to combat the "
Holocaust Myth" than Norman Finkelstein?? Who has been at the forefront at spreading the libel of "Apartheid Israel," if not our own 'dear' Jeff Halper? Who has made hatred of Israel respectable in US Academia if not Joel Beinin? Who has done more to advance the image of Israel as a tool of the colonialist imperialist warmongers than Noam Chomsky? Who has been the ideological soul of the British boycott campaigns, if not Jacqueline Rose? Who has done more to discredit the IDF than Dorothy Naor with her "New Profile" movement? It is the Golden Age of anti-Zionist Jews. All over the world, the watchword is "Just Peace in Palestine." Jews are leading the fight to brainwash the world into thinking that genocide is justice. Anti-Semitism was abandoned by the respectable right; now it is the Jews who must lead the anti-Zionist fight, the struggle to deny the rights of the Jewish people. Surely it is absurd that Jews lead the anti-Zionist movement!
This development, which may seem bizarre, is predictable from the classical Zionist analysis of history.
Jews have always been pioneers, going where nobody else wanted to go or could go, and developing fields of endeavor that were neglected by others for lack of motivation or qualifications.
In many lands, as the Middle Ages waned, Jews were the only people who had the education to engage in commerce, and the motivation to do it because they were barred from other occupations. Baruch Espinoza pioneered aspects of modern philosophy that other Europeans could not dare to touch. He was only excommunicated. Christians who dabbled in these matters would have been burned at the stake. In comparatively large numbers, Jews engaged in obscure and nonlucrative pursuits such as theoretical physics, and in the USA, Jews took advantage of the new and risky field opened by the invention of motion pictures. Jews have been at the forefront of movements of social change as well, places where imaginative and bold leaders could gain an audience, while they were shut out of the respectable political movements by non-Jews. Jews, likewise, were at the forefront of the US civil rights movement and the South African anti-apartheid movement. Not surprisingly, Jews took up the Palestinian Arab cause.
Jews bring a special "qualification" to the business of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Only Jews, after all, can advocate the destruction of the Jewish state in liberal circles without risking the charge of racism and advocating genocide. Only Jews can spread nonsense about the "Holocaust industry" without being labeled anti-Semites and neo-Nazis. Only Jews can recycle the tired Nazi accusation that the Jews control the media and the governments of the world without risking the anger of "liberals."
In large part, the Arab Palestinian anti-Israel movement is led not by Palestinian Arabs or anti-Semites, but by Jews. Halper, Beinin, Rose, Pappe, Chomsky, Finkelstein and Brian Klug, rather than Alloush, Abunimah, Fayyad Husseini, Qaukji, Tamimi and abu Youssef, are the intellectual mainstays of the movement to wipe out the Jewish state. Their English is much better, and they can cast their ideas in slogans acceptable to western culture. "Secular Democratic State" sounds so much better than "Drive the Jews into the Sea" to a good progressive, doesn't it? It is hard to label them as "anti-Semites." It is hard to discredit their lies. If a Jew and an Israeli says that Zionists commit war crimes, it must be true.Their appearances and their books and articles are lauded in the Arab world, and reprinted in Al-Ahram and Roz el Youssef alongside the latest "proofs" of the authenticity of the blood libel and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Not since al-Andalus (Moorish Spain) have Jews enjoyed such a Golden Age.
Alas for the anti-Zionist Jews, their fate is sealed, like that of the Jews of Spain and Germany. Zionist analysis can equally well predict the denouement of Jewish anti-Zionism. The same drama has been enacted many times before. The father of Marxist Zionism called it a "Stychic process." Eventually, the new field pioneered by Jews becomes a success. It becomes attractive to non-Jews. The Jews are forced out of commerce or the Communist party of the Soviet Union, or the US civil rights movement or whatever other field they have pioneered. The Jewish department stores and the Jewish industries are "Aryanized." Lenin and Stalin take over from Trotsky and Kaganovich and Babel, and Farrakhan and Obama take over from Spingarn and Goodman.
In the case of the Palestinian quest to destroy Israel, there is a special intrinsic problem with Jewish leadership, especially Israeli Jewish leadership. As Marxists would possibly phrase it, there is a contradiction between the means of social organization (Jews) , and the goals (wiping out Jews). The goal of the Palestinian movement, as was made quite clear by its founder,
Grand Mufti Hajj Amin al Husseini, was the physical annihilation of the Jews of Palestine, as his mentor, Adolf Hitler, had accomplished regarding the Jews of Europe. Under the influence of Soviet mentors, this goal was modified slightly by the PLO, which originally planned that the "Secular Democratic State" would "only" expel those Jews who had arrived after 1917.
From that point of view, the Halpers and the other Jewish helpers constitute a subversive fifth column. In their mad delusion, they think that the Palestinian Arabs are only against "those other Jews." They seriously intend that the Secular Democratic State will give rights to Jews and allow Jews to live in "Palestine." Of course, there would be no point to the Palestinian "struggle" if that is how it ends, as the Hamas make abundantly clear. Still worse, perhaps, are those Jews who insist that there should be two states, one Palestinian Arab, and the other "Secular Democratic."
Perhaps Jeff Halper, or Ilan Pappe or Dorothy Naor even have the dangerous illusion that they might hold some government post in the Palestinian utopia, as they are so central to the movement right now. Certainly, they may object to getting on the boat or the train when the time comes. After all, they see themselves as part of the "revolution." They are not like those other Jews. If they ever achieve their goal of destroying the Jewish state, it is clear that their fate will be the same as that of the Left Poalei Tzion and the Yevsektzia who were purged by Stalin, of Pfeffer and Mayakovsky and all the leading lights of the Soviet Revolution. For Jews, as the
Hamas Charter notes ,have always been trouble makers. Dorothy Naor and Tali Fahima will no doubt protest against polygamy, wife beating, female circumcision or honor killings, and the democratic Hamas will do to them what the democratic Hamas must do. Perhaps, on the other hand, they will meet their fate believing in the revolution to the bitter end.
The end is already in sight. The stalwart Ibrahim Alloush, who has the courage to say what other Arabs only think, has spelled it out (see freearabvoice.org/articles/SolidarityfromPro-PalestinianJewsRevisited.htm):
There are plenty of people out there who claim to be 'pro-Palestinian', or to support 'Palestinian rights'...
Nevertheless, not everyone who claims to support us is actually a supporter. Many such supporters actually oppose some of the most crucial things we stand for, except they dislike some of the human rights violations that the Zionists are visiting upon us. That is, they: 1) recognize the right of "Israel" to exist and the alleged right of Jews to settle in Palestine, 2) they oppose our strategy to liberate Palestine, and 3) they especially oppose the armed struggle of Palestinian organizations. Such 'supporters' are not actually supporting us, but simply trying to make themselves feel better...
In some cases, you find Jews claiming to support the Palestinian cause. But when you scrutinize carefully what they stand for, you'll find they simply want what amounts to a 'nice occupation', as opposed to a brutal one. In reality they just wish there could be an occupation without administrative detentions, targeted assassinations, land confiscations, house demolitions, and all the rest. Otherwise, those same 'supporters' try as hard as they could to convince Palestinians to present their case 'in a civilized manner' without resorting to human bombs and military operations, especially against what they call "Israeli civilians". One such Jewish 'supporter' is Noam Chomsky who says that it would be immoral for Palestinians to target even an off-duty "Israeli" soldier!
This makes one wonder whether these Jewish "supporters" are just trying to whitewash the occupation with their own professed guilt, as Jews, or whether they're simply out to present another 'positive' side of Zionism!
. Brother Alloush had some good teachers, or perhaps there is only a parallelism induced by the merciless operation of the processes of history and social dynamics. "Not everyone who claims to support us is really a supporter," writes Alloush. There are right-deviationists and left-deviationists hiding in our midst. Agents of imperialism in sheep's clothing - rootless cosmopolitans. Presently, it will be discovered that Dorothy Naor is unwilling to wear the Dhimmi star, and that Noam Chomsky actually was, as he freely admits, a Zionist, a card-carrying member of the international Zionist conspiracy. Likewise, it will be revealed that Joel Beinin, leader of the anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist camp as former head of MESA (Middle East Studies Association) was likewise a card-carrying Zionist. Perhaps all these people are still agents of the Mossad, who have infiltrated and subverted the Arab Palestinian movement? After all, the clever Elders of Zion have a contingency for every exigency. If they can't control the Palestinians one way, they will do it another way. If the "Jew Zionists" cannot control the American government, they will put forward the Jewish anti-Zionists to do it instead.
There is no getting around the problem. Anti-Zionist Jews are still Jews. What is the point of getting rid of one type of Jew, if at the end of the day, the Arab Palestinians are to be controlled by a different type of Jew? The problem is highlighted by the rise (or rather the recrudescence) of Islamist ideology among Arab Palestinians. As the Hadith observes, before the end of days, the Muslims will kill all the Jews. It doesn't exempt anti-Zionist Jews. A Jew is a Jew and remains a Jew. A Jew is liable to support outlandish and evil notions like the right of Jews to settle in Palestine, or to oppose time honored customs like wife beating or honorable pursuits like suicide bombing. The Jews will try to hide behind trees. But no tree will shelter Tali Fahima or Ilan Pappe or Jeff Halper.
Alloush is an extremist, in the vanguard of the Arab Palestinian movement. He is a Holocaust denier, but no more so than say, Norman Finkelstein, or the Neturei Karteh Jews. Alloush dares to say what others are only thinking. His ideas will achieve popularity first with the "anti-Zionists" like the Stormfront people, but inevitably, they must percolate down to every Arab Palestinian and every anti-Semite who rightly feels that the Jews have not only dispossessed the Arabs from Palestine, but have now dispossessed them from their own genocidal movement. It wouldn't do at all if Eichmann or Himmler or Heydrich had been Jewish.
The Jewish anti-Zionist movement must inevitably fall victim to the nemesis of of the historical dialectic. If the Arab Palestinian movement to destroy Israel succeeds, the Jews who are leading it now will certainly be redundant and undesirable. What use will Tali Fahima or Ilan Pappe or Jeff Halper be in an Arab Palestinian state? If it fails, they will be blamed for its failure. A specter is haunting over the anti-Zionist movement. It is the specter of anti-Semitism. As day follows night, the social contradictions of the Palestinian movement must lead to the exclusion, if not the annihilation, of the anti-Zionist Jews. It is far better for them if it happens sooner, rather than later.
Hat Tip: Ber Borochov.
Ami Isseroff
Original content is Copyright by the author 2008. Posted at ZioNation-Zionism and Israel Web Log, http://www.zionism-israel.com/log/archives/00000514.html where your intelligent and constructive comments are welcome. Disributed by ZNN list. Subscribe by sending a message to ZNN-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Please forward by e-mail with this notice, cite this article and link to it. Other uses by permission only.
Replies: 13 Comments
THere is a discussion of this article here:
http://www.engageonline.org.uk/blog/article.php?id=1784#
Noga, Wednesday, April 2nd
It is OK to disagree and to correct errors of fact. It is OK to post a link to an article. It is not OK to publish articles in the comment space or to make repeated groundless personal attacks or to use this space as a spam device for popularizing your own Web sites.
Ofer published several vicious and baseless personal attacks on me and tried to use our Web log for his propaganda. He did not leave an e-mail address - a telltale characteristic of spammers.
Dorothy Naor is the director of New Profile I have nothing against her personally, but New Profile materials are distributed by the Israel Communist party, which is anti-Zionist. I believe if you ask her, she will tell you that she is not a Zionist and never was.
New Profile encourages young people not to serve in the IDF. That is different from refusing service in the territories. If there is no IDF there is no Israel.
Sternhell published a book, The Founding Myths of Israel, which by all indications is a tendentious distortion of history, using the usual quota of Ben-Gurion quotes taken out of context.
He has also published rather slanted articles about Israel in Tikkun magazine & elsewhere. He gave a reasonable interview in Ha'aretz to Ari Shavit, but it seems that is not representative of his writings. He tends to throw out the state with the occupation.
A.I.
Ami Isseroff, Friday, March 28th
Ami, what happened to the post by Ofer in which he linked to an interview with Chomsky? Ofer is an acquaintance of mine. He told me you removed his posts, but I found it hard to believe. Was I wrong?
I also don't understand what you have against Shternhal, who is a zionist. Has he said anything worthy of such condemnation? About Dorothy Naor, I don't know what earned her condemnation either. But i know nothing of her good or bad.
Micha, Friday, March 28th
I did not write anywhere that Finkelstein is a Holocaust denier. I asked who has done more to advance the cause of Holocaust denial. There is no doubt he has been more effective in delegitimizing the Holocaust than those like Zundel who are frank about Holocaust denial.
Ami Isseroff, Friday, March 28th
To claim, as the author does, that Normal Finkelstein is a "Holocaust denier" is simply too obscene for words. His parents survived the Warsaw Ghetto as well as the Auschwitz and Maidenak death camps. He dedicates one of his books to his parents with these words: "May I never forget, nor forgive, what was done to them."
Suffice it to say that, in making this claim, the author demostrates a lack of scholarship that makes the rest of the article pointless reading.
Joel Finkel, Friday, March 28th
The notorious anti-Israel radicals of Israeli academia are exposed and monitored at an excellent web site - www.isracampus.org.il
yirmi, Wednesday, March 26th
I know it's not fashionable among liberal groups to say that there is evil in the world. Such a contention is considered the quaint, ignorant pronouncement of spiritualists or shamanists. But when I encounter the likes of Chomsky, Pappe, or Zand, evil becomes something more than a useful adjective to me.
Howard Wolf, Wednesday, March 26th
My father, used to tell about the ones in the lagers the Germans' used to call the "neutzlicher Juden" (oh he's a useful Jew) men and the rare woman who would collaborate with the Gestapo henchmen. All of them be they a Kapo a Judenraut official, or a technician or doctor could give you rational reasons why. Some even believed the Hitlerite lies, but when push came to shove, it mostly came back to the pride in their mental self image, and rarely was it solely because of self preservation. Many years ago I had the honour to meet the great partisan commander Anton Zuckermann, and I asked him about such people. The wisdom of his answer never left me, "they are selfish and frightened men, know it and act accordingly"
Larry Riteman, Tuesday, March 25th
Dear Micha,
I encourage you to write a review of Zand's book if you read it. I don't like to write reviews of books I didn't read. That's the sort of thing Chomsky does.
I read only Tom Segev's article about Zand's book and it is enough. There is no denying that most "Palestinians" are probably converted Jews, as shown by genetic evidence, and studies by Belkind and Ben Tsvi a long time ago.
But the same genetic evidence counts against the idea that the Ashkenazy Jews are Khazars, since we are genetically close to the Arabs of Palestine. The pronouncement that the Jews are NOT a people while the "Palestinians" ARE is surely amazing, considering that no Arab claimed to be a "Palestinian" before 1948.
In any case, the idea that peoplehood must be based on genetics is absurd and racist. It is applied only to the Jews. Nobody checks if a "British" person is a descendant of the Britons, or of a Saxon or Norman or Danish invader, or a 3d generation immigrant from somewhere. The royal family are German. So what?
We are not arguing about facts really, but about interpretations that people want to put on facts, twisting of value systems and criteria for nationhood etc. and the ability of Zand to put his academic moxie behind his pet beliefs and dress them up as "science."
Zand is not the only example - Look at Ilan Pappe or Ze'ev Sternhell for example.
RE Chomsky - I had an argument with him once that should be on the Web, wherein he defended the binational state, and I remarked that he has been riding the same horse for 50 years, and did not notice that it is dead.
Ami Isseroff, Tuesday, March 25th
You don't have to convince me that a bi-national state doesn't have a chance in hell of succeeding. If the Belgians are barely making it, there is no chance for the Israelis and Palestinians. I have no desire to live in arab Kalchnikov democracy.
I also agree that Israel is necessary for the continued cultural existence of the Jewish people, as well as the physical. But there is a difference between saying that the eliminiation of Israel may result in a 'cultural genocide' of the HJewish people, and saying that calling for bi-national state is a call to genocide (without even adding cultural). I feel the difference is important, especially since the word genocide comes too easilt to people's tongues these days.
Chomsky's arguments against a bi-national state are useful to add to our own.
What's worrying about Zand is the coverage he's been getting and the fact that his arguments are presented as 'research'.
Micha, Tuesday, March 25th
Micha:
I think George Orwell said it well, when he said that just because something appeared in the Daily Mail it didn't mean it was untrue.
However much I don't care to be lumped in with illiberals, it's not just Hamas that is likely to convert any binational secular state to an Islamic theocracy. Fatah is not a wholely secular democratic organization either. If it was, it wouldn't tolerate names like the "Aqsa Martyrs" for its paramilitary wings.
As for Chomsky's opinions, who cares. He's shown himself to be a digusting hypocrite over such matters as Pol Pot's genocidal regime in Cambodia and allegations of a "silent genocide" in Afghanistan (arising from NATO's intervention), which was silent indeed as it never manifested.
Lynne T, Monday, March 24th
Zand is only one of many who have the same idea. What is new there. "Mah Nishtanah"?
Genocide in its broadest definition is the extinction of a national culture. What sort of rights do you think Jews will have in this Secular democratic state? How long will they remain in the state or remain Jews? However, the Mufti contemplated physical genocide - he told the British that was his plan, and it seems he was planning a death camp near Nablus.
Of course, Chomsky's ideas or those of a Jeff Halper are not compatible with this ideology.
Likewise, Alloush's ideas are clear enough, and he has never made any attempt to hide them.
It is unfortunate if the sad truth sounds like "right wing propaganda." However, in fact, real right wing propaganda insists, just like Alloush, that Peace Now are traitors and "Communists."
Ami Isseroff, Sunday, March 23rd
Ami, as much as I despise the people you list, and oppose the one staste solution as per Fatach or Hamas, I think your use of the phrase Genocide to describe their ideology undermines your credibility. It makes you sound like a right wing fanatic and undermines your attempt to oppose this dangerous and hypocritical idea.
We know that the false slogan secular-democratic state is actually a call to the dismantling of the Jewish nation state and its replacement with a Palestinian, arab, or muslim nation state. We know that this state will most likely not be democratic for long. And if it's taken over by Hamas, then it will become an islamic tyranny very quickly. We also know that the world being the way it is, such state will revert to violence against Jews pretty fast. Perhaps even Genocidal. But still, this is not the same as saying that the call to dismantle Israel is an outright call to genocide.
If we are to oppose this false idea, we should oppose it for what it is: a hypocritical, unjust idea that will likely lead to more misery rather than less.
It should also be pointed out that Chomsky, for all his faults, has opposed in recent years the idea of a bi-national state.
If I were the Mossad, I would spread the rumor that he's a Mossad agent. Was it really a coincidence that Israel attacked Hizballa shortly after his visit?
By the way, are you going to write something about Shlomo Zand's book claiming that there are no Jewish people? I I haven't read it, and have no intention to do so, but from what I've heard in interviews, and from his previous columns in Nrg promoting this absurdity, he is presenting juvenile arguments as academic research.
Micha, Sunday, March 23rd
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