M. Shahid Alam, Israeli Exceptionalism: The Destabilizing Logic of Zionism, New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2009
This is an excellent book that dares to transgress the regnant taboos and myths in the American mainstream on the issue of Israel. The author, M. Shahid Alam, a professor of economics at Northeastern University of Pakistani nationality, is a published writer on contemporary social and political topics that far transcend his academic field. Due to his proclivity to write on controversial and taboo topics, he has attained a place in ultra-Zionist David Horowitz’s book, “The Professors: The One Hundred and One Most Dangerous Academics in America (2006).”
Israeli Exceptionalism lucidly encapsulates in its relatively short 220-page narrative the essential aspects of the Zionist movement, showing how it has been able to rapidly advance from its birth to regional dominance, and how, concomitantly, its amazing success has brought the United States, its powerful patron, into the cauldron of never-ending Middle East wars. While undoubtedly hostile toward Zionism, Alam manages to write rather dispassionate prose. And it is difficult to take issue with the validity of his arguments.
The author states that book’s “primary theme” is to “focus on the germ of the Zionist idea, its core ambition—clearly discernible at its launching—to create a Jewish state in the Middle East by displacing the natives. This exclusionary colonialism would unleash a deeply destabilizing logic, if it were to succeed. It could advance only by creating and promoting conflicts between the West and the Islamicate [the social and cultural complex historically associated with Islam]. Since its creation, this primordial logic has driven the Jewish state to deepen this conflict. Overweening ambition launched Zionism, but the destabilizing logic of this idea has advanced and sustained it.” (p. 3) Because of Zionism’s unparalleled influence over American policymakers, this “destabilizing logic” has mired the United States in a Middle East morass from which it is now politically unable to extricate itself.
Interwoven in the narrative is the theme of Israeli and Jewish exceptionalism, which provides the title of the book. The Jews have historically seen themselves as an exceptional people—“God’s chosen people”—and the Zionists expanded on this religious theme to make it serve as the intellectual basis for the modern state of Israel’s existence and defense. Moreover, this exceptionalism is recognized, at least tacitly, by Western countries, and, consequently, Israel is able to ignore the norms and rules usually applied to other countries. Most significantly, Alam notes that Israel stands alone as the only European settler colonial state that was created and continues to exist in an era of anti-colonialism.
Alam emphasizes that Zionism originated as a very ambitious project that had to overcome a number of formidable hurdles. The Jews were a people without a homeland and without much of a national feeling, but the Zionists intended to establish a Jewish homeland on land fully inhabited by another people and, in the process, mold a national identity. Moreover, unlike other European colonizers, the Jews did not have a motherland to support their colonial venture, which required them to find one.
Unlike what many pro-Israel mythologists imagine to be the case, Zionism did not have a morally pure beginning—at least by the standards of modern international morality. From the outset, the Zionists intended to occupy land inhabited by others, bringing about the latter’s displacement. The early Zionists did not give much consideration to the native Palestinians and thus did not dwell on the need to forcibly expel them from the land. It was the revisionist Zionist, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who in the 1920s brought out into the open the inevitable need for violence against the Palestinians in order to achieve the Zionist goals. Alam remarks, however, that the Zionist leaders had “always known what Jabotinsky now challenged them to acknowledge and confront openly” (p. 27).
The Zionists’ choice of Palestine, a settled land, for a homeland guaranteed conflict. What was the reason for choosing Palestine? And why did the Zionists seek a homeland at all? A conventional argument, disputed by Alam, is that the Zionists sought a homeland abroad because hostility to Jews in Europe necessitated moving elsewhere. To falsify the idea that finding a safe haven was the fundamental motive, Alam reviews the suggested alternative homelands for Jews, which were very sparsely inhabited and whose native occupants thus did not face displacement by Jewish emigrants. In short, Jews could have emigrated to areas where the likelihood of conflict was much less than in Palestine. Since the Zionists did not show much interest in these much safer, alternative homelands, it would seem apparent that finding a haven for Jews was not their overarching goal.
Orthodox Jews, of course, had prayed about returning to Jerusalem, but Alam points out that very few actually tried to live there prior to the advent of Zionism. And even the Zionists found it difficult to attract Jewish settlers to Palestine before the era of Nazi persecution. Alam, in short, maintains that the choice of Israel did not reflect the historical longing of the Jewish people but rather the ideological needs of modern Zionism.
Alam contends that Zionism was essentially a 19th century nationalist movement, similar to other forms of European ethnic nationalism, and was not simply a defensive reaction to the threat of anti-Semitic persecution. In fact, the condition of European Jews had actually improved significantly in the 19th century, as they prospered economically and could assimilate into the higher echelons of gentile society, which had become available to them as Western society had become more open and free. For numerous Jews, however, this move toward assimilation caused considerable angst as they lost their Jewish religious distinctiveness. To compensate for this psychological loss, Jewish thinkers started to emphasize Jewish racial identity as a group unifier.
Other European nationalist movements could rely on a home territory, inhabited by their nationality, as a magnet to provide group unity and a sense of nationhood. For the Jews, in contrast, territory would need to be taken in order to forge this sense of unity and nationhood among a congeries of disparate people alien from one another in language and culture, and linked together only by a religion and its customs. With this arduous task at hand, the choice could not be any available territory. To provide the necessary social and cultural binding for nationhood, the territory chosen would have to have a strong connection to a Jewish nation that had existed in the past—thus the only choice was Palestine.
In trying to get hold of a foreign land, the Zionists were quite like other Western settler colonial enterprises, but were radically different from other colonial ventures in that they did not have a mother country to facilitate their enterprise. They would have to find a surrogate mother country. Zionists were able to turn what would seem to have been a weakness into a strength, since they were in a position to choose their mother country and thus could select the one best suited to their needs. Prior to gaining independence, the Zionists would rely on England, which was critical since it held the League of Nations Mandate over Palestine; after the Israeli state came into being in 1948, they would gradually switch to the United States, which, as England’s military capability waned, had become the mightiest country in the world and was assuming burgeoning global responsibilities in its Cold War with the Soviet Union.
It was also of crucial importance that Jews were very influential in the West because of their wealth and dominant positions in key sectors of society, such as the media. To influence the foreign powers and their populations, the Jewish Zionists would have to present a rationale for their takeover of already-inhabited Palestinian land. Alam observes that the Zionists essentially provided a number of fundamental arguments to justify their endeavor. First, they argued that the land did not really belong to the native inhabitants but was, instead, the Jewish homeland by historical right, and that it had been given to them by God and later usurped by invaders. This argument has especially appealed to Protestants with their special affinity for the Old Testament. Next, they claimed that they were more progressive, both socially and economically, than the native Arab inhabitants, and thus appealed to both the socialist Left and the capitalist Right. And what has especially become a key argument since the Holocaust has been the claim that Jews have suffered more than all other peoples and thus deserve recompense. This claim of being the ultimate victim not only served to morally justify the Zionists’ take-over of Palestine but also has shielded them from criticism for their mistreatment of the Palestinians, since any suffering experienced by the Palestinians could not compare with the infinite suffering endured by Jews in the Holocaust. Finally, for individuals motivated less by moral empathy than by national self-interest, the Zionists have claimed that the Jewish state serves as a strategic asset to Western interests in the Middle East.
Oh look, another Israel-bashing book that tries to promote the entire country ceasing to exist as a Jewish state.
Who needs this crap? I know anti-semites, radicals on the far right and far left, and many arabs/muslims love this junk, but it’s useless garbage that just helps keep the problem going.
Maybe these losers should just leave israel alone someday. Then Israel won’t bother them.
No “historical” analysis of the origins of the “Palestinians”? In fact, in the thirties and forties if you were called a Palestinian, you were most probably a Zionist Jew. The truth that these “intellectuals” seem to forget is that the Jewish people have had and will always have a strong historical, biblical, mystical, and national connection to the land of Israel. No amount of propaganda or revisionist analysis can change the truth. Israel is real. Get over it. Five Arab armies banded together and marched on Israel in 1948, Israel lost over two percent of its population fighting the enemy, Israel is real and and legitimate. The Jewish homeland always was and is legitimate. That is why peace may never come, because the truth hurts too much, and Arab pride, is more important that peace.
No, you were most probably an Arab — since Arabs were the majority. But, yes, there were also Jewish Palestinians. Many of the indigenous Jews were also opposed to Zionism.
Why should people “get over” the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and theft of Arab land? What is “legitimate” about Zionist crimes against the indigenous population?
Why do you support the notion of a “Jewish state”? What evidence of anti-Semitism do you find in the review?
Wrong. However one calls them, there were Palestinians in Palestine – Palestinian Arabs (to differentiate them from Syrian Arabs), Jews, Druzes, etc.. Zionism is indeed a colonialist/settler movement, and the Israeli “new” historians have documented this. In the 40s, Zionists knew they had a problem because the religious establishment in Palestine as well as in the diaspora didn’t support this project. Therefore the very secular fathers of Israel decided to “buy” the support of Jewish rabbis in Palestine: the letter decide on religious matters, such as who is Jewish (and consequently marriage, burial and everything in-between) in return for not opposing the establishment of the state. Israelis are paying the price for this today as any one who has lived in Israel can tell attest. the irony is that there are Hasidic Jews living in Israel but who do not recognize the state: for them, only the mashiach can ingather the exiles – without bloodshed.
Oh those pesky Zionists!!! Or is it those pesky Jews? Oh I forgot its not fashionable to say Jews today, so let’s just call them Zionists…the world is too stupid to understand the difference anyway….Where have we heard this tripe before? Mel Gibson?? The Jews/Zionists are causing all of the wars in the world, they took the land from the poor poor innocent Palestinanas who were already settled..boo hooo…really? How utterly offensive and evil. How despicable. How revisionist! Please read a book on the proud wonderful brave history of Zionism. This “professor” and his book, including Mr. Sniegoski, are all yet another attempt to de-Jewify the historical and bilblical connection to the land of Israel, by calling Jewish Nationals “Zionists”. For the record….and for the uneducated…..Zionism is the belief in a Jewish Homeland in the historical land of Israel, the land of their ancestors. If you do not believe in Zionism then you do not believe that Jews have any soverign right to their historical homeland, ie..the land of Kind David, the land of King Solomon, the place where Jesus was born, get it people??? Can you tell me if Jesus or King David were born in Israel or in Palestine??? Duh….. And in any case, whatever you may feel…today there are nearly seven million Israels…are they going to “go-away”? Will Arabs kill them all in a holy war? Can the Jews be pushed into the sea? Many people today seem to believe so..not just Helen Thomas. Per haps Mr. Sniegoski and Mr. Allam also feel this way, but are not brave enough to come out and say so.
It is so easy these days for anti-semites (meaning anti-Jewish haters, and man there are many!!) to disguise their true feelings by cloaking it with anti-zionist diatribe and revisionism. If any people or nation are occupying the land, it is the so called Palestinians, who are really nothing more than squaters. The Palestinians, the so called Arab Nation, as perceived today, are an invented nation. They did not exist as a nation before 1967. The word Palestine is not even an Arab word….it refers at most to a province in the Ottoman Empire…an UNSETTLED LAND….where the only people who were called “Palestinian” were the Jewish Zionists Farmers!!!!! You can verify every word of this by turning off Al-Jesirah and try instead….studying history and reading books…..
In fact, in between 1948 and 1967 the Arabs controlled the so called “occupied territories” and no Arab ever wanted a Palestinian state side by side with a Jewish Homeland. The PLO were created in 1964..to liberate all of the land. That is the hidden truth here. The real fight is the fight over Israel’s right to exist. Arab/Muslim extremism was not created by Zionists…Islam was always and is today..an extreme hateful religious ideology….The notion of Jewish soverignty in the Middle East, is a painful reminder to the millions of Arabs and Muslims that they do not have total control….total hegemony….that in fact there are a people who will stand up to them and fight back….Here is were these so called “professors” come into play and try to argue that Zionists – are taking the land from the true owners, the poor native Arabs…blah..blahh. blah.. what utter bullshit…..The true homeowners, ie…the Jews, have returned from the Diaspora, settled the unsettled land, years even before the Holocaust happened, the Jews came from all over the world and took back the keys to their historical homeland. They were not colonizers….there was no mother country…Jews were coming home. Jews from Iraq, Iran, Syria, and yes …..Germany and Poland… have COME HOME. Thank G-D. Can Israel change its policy toward the Palestinians?……Yes of course, Israel is a free democratic country with different people and different views, women can wear bikinis and not get their heads chopped off, people can disagree with the government…even anti-zionists can become Knesset members….Israel can make mistakes, but hey..so can any other country…but does that mean that it has no right to exist? Does America have the right to exist? Does Australia have the right to exist? Does Russia have the right to exist?….Can Iran change their immoral genocidal policy to Israel? Can China change their policy?… Sure..but why is it that only Israel cannot exist?. I submit to you that the Jewish people have more of a historical claim to their ancestral land, then any American has any claim to any part of the United States for that matter….
If you believe that Israel has no right to exist…then you are at best a misguided fool, a useful idiot, and at worst an anti-semite who believes that the whole Jewish nation should simply vanish (aint gonna happen babe). Yes..Palestinians should resettle, and should have a homeland once their people renounce their evil charter to destroy Israel and give up any hope of destroying it. Notice how the idea of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is so terribly worrying to this author, yet the thought of ethnically cleansing Jews from the land is okay and even encouraged. Message to Israelis everywhere – Have faith in God, and stand united before the hateful brainwashed masses, your nation is loved and treasured by GOD. Your people have brought the world countless blessings from the Torah, from the Jewish mind, medicine, sports, law, science, art, (the cell phone, cures for cancer, voice mail, psychiatry,) just to name a few gifts, (individuals who are not brain washed hateful anti-semites, oh sorry..I mean anti-zionists…. can just google Israeli inventions and sit back and be amazed at the list of wonderful inventions those evil Jews..ah..i mean Zionists have given the world) and the entire non-Jewish/Zionist world stares dumbfounded and eyes and mouth gaping open at the sheer courage and inventiveness of The State of Israel. Okay..I said it…That is the real reason why everyone of these fuck heads hate the State of Israel, look at how you have grown, with one hand tied behind your back fighting for your very lives throughout the ages, from the ancient Egyptions, the ancient Romans, the Crusades, down throughout history to the Nazis, and today fighting the Arab/Islamic forces that reject your return to your homeland. Arabs have given nothing to this world except awful hate, holy jihad war, and never ending demonic rage. (actually, I stand corrected, they did give the world the actor Omar Sharif, bellydancing, beheadings, the Hijab, and Whahabism). Throughout world history, Jews and yes ZIONISTS, have contributed more toward peace than anything that the Arabs have ever done. It was Israel that gave up the Sinai, that gave up Gaza (literally pulling Jews out of houses and ethnically cleansing Jewish families, one by one, from Gaza), Israel left southern lebanon, it was Israel that made peace with Egypt and Jordan. What exactly have the Palestinians or any Arabs for that matter have ever done to contribute to peace and good will? Blow up old people and children on buses, shopping malls, and cafes? What have Muslim ever done to make peace anywhere in the world? Crash planes into the WTC on 911? Blow up discos in Bali? Blow up the subways in Madrid and Englad? Killing hundreds of innocent people in Mumbai? Almost all conflicts in the world today come from Muslims fighting someone else who will not accept their hateful, homophobic, sexist, extremist, ideologies.
A message to the people of Israel : Never mind these evil people with their articles, blogs, and revisionism, they will ultimately fail, like countless of your enemies throughout your past, they will fail and fall because their claims are built on a house of sand, they have no truth to stand on, nothing good or Godlike fuels them, their basis is simply blind hatred and jealousy. Israel stand united and strong. We love you, and righteous people who can tell the difference between good and bad also stand with you!
Worse than any enemy the Jewish people have faced, is the self-hating Jew, the Jew who hates Israel more than the gentile, because it does not conform with his brand of Judaism. The Haredim, good for nothings, who do not contribute one iota to the Jewish state, yet are allowed freedom to burn Israeli flags and say what they say… These types, the black hats..who think they have a mantle to say who is Jewish and who is not…these shmuks…who would be the first ones into the ovens in Aushwetz..have the chutzpah to open their ugly mouths and decry Israel..but they will always take Israeli money and housing….
they would even go to a mad man in Iran and shake his hand…the same man who said the holocaust didn’t happen…these Erev Rav….are more interested in promoting their Brooklyn Boro Park, Kiryat Joel type of Judaism, while making every effort to stand with the enemy. If they believe in Hashem, they should be the ones to fear him the most.
The term “self-hating Jew” is an asinine construction used by moral and intellectual cowards. Imagine the term “self-hating American” being used to describe someone who criticizes U.S. policies, etc. Just totally asinine.
Your denials that Zionists took land from the Arab Palestinians, the asinine and intellectually cowardly argument that essentially “there’s no such thing as a ‘Palestinian’, your false claim that Palestine was “unsettled”, and so on demonstrate that the only anti-Semite here is you, for Arabs are also Semitic peoples.
Yes…anti-semite can also mean anti-Arab, of course…however the word in the United States at least is generally considered to mean be anti-Jewish. That was a famous argument once posed by Yasir Arafat who claimed that he could not be anti-semitic because he could not be anti-himself. It is a play on word games and the fact that you do not understand that illustrates that you are a phony intellectual. If an Arab declares in the street “Itback il Yahud!” Kill the Jew! He cannot be anti-semetic, because he is an Arab, right? Wrong. Your argument is trivial and intellectually weak. There was never any State of Palestine, nor any connection between any nation of Palestine, and you know it.
You are worse than asinine, because you advocate the wholesale demonization of the State of Israel. Zionism is a brave attempt at establishing a Jewish Homeland, an idea you reject because you reject any notion of Jewish Nationhood or statehood, and that my non-friend, is the most fashionable form of anti-semitizm these days. Jeremy, I suggest you read a bit more, maybe consider that perhaps your point of view can be wrong or misguided. All this animosity toward the Jews in Israel. Why? Why can’t you simply accept Israel…be nice..change your ways. Israelis are the most peaceful people in the world..No nation on earth want’s peace more than Israel. But you cannot see past your philosophy. I speak Arabic, my family came from Iraq- when I saw the bombing of Iraqis, unlike many others here in the States, I cried, because I could certainly understand them. I cry for the Palestinians who have lost the most and have been used by everyone – mostly because of their own hatred and blind refusal to share the land. Trust me, because I saw it first hand.. in wars..in battle..There is no justification to kill another human being on the earth, none. I would give back every piece of land just to get my friend back. I believe that there is no problem in the world that man can create that cannot be solved by human beings of good will around a table over coffee. However, if you openly declare your intent to come and kill me and my family, then what am I supposed to do ? What is Israel supposed to do with an enemy that refuses to make peace or even acknowledge its existence. My last point is this: You may disagree with an Israeli policy via the Palestinians, many do in Israel, you may feel that “Zionists” were wrong to create a homeland, you may feel the Palestinians were robbed, you may openly decry the way the State of Israel conducted itself at various times throughout its history, however, if you believe the State of Israel “should not exist and openly fight against it, either by taking up arms or writing blogs on the net” you are not advocating peace, but rather advocating war and genocide, and as I said before, you are more than just asinine, you are evil. I hope that one day you there will be peace between Israel and all of her neighbors, and that one day you will evolve beyond your current bigotry. Yes..I called you a bigot just now, and as I did, I admit that I may have been too hard and bigoted on the Arab/Muslim people in my prior blog, but you know, as it were, I just happend to be walking along the street one day in downtown Jerusalem one fine day and I heard the sound of a loud blast, then I turned and saw bloody body parts all over the street, heads of children, burned bodies, carnage, and I lost my hearing for a while, later I saw how these “poor poor Palestinians” were jumping for joy in the street and passing out sweets. I remember how Israelis were burying their dead, in quiet sorrowful ceremonies, contrary to the rage and fist pumping hatred I saw every day in the territories. So i admit I am a little biased…I saw the reality….perhaps unlike you. It is time for all of us to grow up – YOU WILL NEVER DESTROY ISRAEL—NEVER AGAIN. Change you philosophy, accept my people’s historical right to exist, I am willing to share the land and make peace, are you Jeremy Hammond?
Also, one more point on the term “self-hating Jew”, I guess you have to be Jewish to understand that idea. Many of the worst Jewish haters here in the states, are Jews who despise their own religion, either because they do not agree with the notion of Zionism before the Messiah, (but I guess after the Massiah, then they will be flag waiving with the rest of us?) Or Jews that deny the atrocity of the holocaust, or Jews who will not speak Hebrew, their own language, typically, here in the States, American Jews on the most part are Jewish in name only, most of them already assimilated and having only one parent or grand parent that is Jewish, their real religion is their left wing ideology, or socialism. When Israel was the underdog in 1948, many American Jews were pro-Israel because they were guilty for just standing by during the Nazi period and did nothing to save their people who were being murdered. Today, when Israel is perceived as militarily strong, as the tough guy, many American Jews cannot identify with it, and that is because American Jews (like most Jews in the world) will not be united together until the situation becomes drastic. The feeling is the same in Israel when you see a Haredi Jew burn and step on an Israeli flag, the same flag his neighbors son just died protecting, so other Jews feel the Haredi is a self-hating scum bag Jew. I guess the term Jew can be confusing to many non-Jews because to Jews it can mean one’s religion, or nationality. So I can see why you many not understand, but please do not resort to calling me names, although I agree with you that at times I am very asinine!
You no more need to be Jewish to understand the stupidity of the term “self-hating Jew” than you need to be Swedish to understand how idiotic the term “self-hating Swede” is.
To suggest that a Jew is “self-hating” because the reject Zionism is just simply asinine. There’s not much more to say than that. “Jew” does not = “Zionist”. As Jew I would think you would know that.
I called nobody any names. You are the only one calling anyone any names — specifically the asinine name of “self-hating Jew”.
You know, Bill, calling someone a “phony intellectual” for pointing out a simple point of fact, which you yourself acknowledge, is really quite amusing.
Suggesting I, myself, engage in “anti-semitizm” (sic) for criticizing Israel crimes, is, needless to say, completely asinine, warranting no response beyond that.
Similarly suggesting I reject that the Jewish people have a “right to exist” is equally asinine.
When you want to have a serious discussion based on the facts, please just let me know.
Jeremy, let’s stop the name calling and the nonsense. Please just answer my one question, do you believe in a two state solution for two peoples to live under the sun in mutual respect. If you do not, then I have no respect for you, because there are two sides to every coin, and you cannot remove Jewish National Identity or the Jewish narrative. If you simply label Zionists as “thieves”, you are truly an idiot and hopelessly lost. There is no debating, Jews currently live in Israel, in their homeland, there are two narratives – the only choice forward is endless war, or peaceful co-existence. Stop the propaganda and decide in your heart which way you want to go. I have seen war(s). If anything I have said to you hits your heart, then please let it be this. The answer to this problem is mutual respect and reverence for each others origins. Yes..you may disagree….I may disagree..personally I don’t believe the Palestinian narrative one bit. Modern Zionist Jews…not the easily forgotten religious zionists immigrated to a mostly barren dessert land in the 1800s, Mark Twain in his study entitled “Innocents Abroad” clearly describes what he observed while being one of the few visitors in Israel at the time. A barren wasteland. No modern working cities, of course Jews and Arabs resided there, but there was NEVER ANY PALESTINIAN STATE. No Arab king ever ruled the land, I can certainly tell you of Kind David and Kind Solomon to name a few. Again, if we enter this discussion it will have no end, and I don’t really care what brownie points each one of us can get off the internet – point is what do we do from here??? Can both peoples learn to live with each other-Israelis have long had a strong pro-peace camp, as opposed to the Palestinians who have tragically had horrible just horrible leaders without the courage to step above the extremist voices and say – WE WANT A REAL PEACE BASED ON MUTUAL RECOGNITION!!! EVEN YOU CANNOT COME OUT AND SAY THAT – YOU JUST NEED TO KEEP PUNCHING ISRAEL TO SATISFY SOME NEED – AND THAT IS WHAT IS KEEPING THE WORLD AT WAR.
Bill, if you don’t like name calling, then stop calling people asinine names like “anti-Semitic” and “self-hating Jew”.
I believe that all people have the right to self-determination. Why do you reject that right for the Arabs?
Most of the Jews you refer to as living in “their homeland” are not indigenous to Palestine, but immigrated there or were born of immigrants who had never lived there. The Jews ethnically cleansed Palestine and displace the Arab majority inhabitants. To this day, Jews illegally occupy Arab land ,destroy Arab homes, and steal Arab land.
You use a tired argument that effectively says: since the inhabitants of Palestine never exercised self-determination in the past, therefore they do not have the right to self-determination today. That is asinine, and an argument whose fallacious neature speaks for itself.
You speak of “mutual recognition”, but it is not the Arabs who deny Jews the right to self-determination. It is not the Arabs who ethnically cleansed Jews from the land. It is not the Arabs who illegally occupy Jewish land. It is not the Arabs who bulldoze Jewish homes. It is not the Arabs who attack Israel with the might of a powerful military.
Hypocrite!
Bill, I believe both Jews and Arabs have an equal right to self-determination. It is you, by defending, denying, excusing, attempting to justify, and otherwise playing the apologist for the Zionist rejection of the Arabs’ equal right to self-determination, their ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and their theft of Arab land who is not worthy of respect.
Se·mit·ic
Relating to or denoting a family of languages that includes Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic and certain ancient languages such as Phoenician and Akkadian, constituting the main subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic family.
Bill. U talk to much. The author is right about Zionism and how it drags America into endless conflicts against its interests. The truth can’t stay hidden forever.
You have never responded to my question Jeremy, will you accept my people’s right to exist? yes, you are not the first to say that, in fact, I do talk to much, sorry if that offends you. Please answer my question…….will it be peace or war between our peoples? Can we not share the land in peace? Israel accepted the UN Partition Plan in 1948, the Arabs did not? Why not? Will you?
If your answer is no, then you my friend, are an anti-semite, a Jew hater, a person who will not recognize or tolerate any Jewish homeland, and therefore you are evil, (I secretly hope that you are a good guy, person who can see past, the bullshit and hatred) – hope I am not wrong.
Fres, Zionism “drags America into endless conflicts?”, really? I guess it was those pesky Zionists who “draged” America into the civil war?, World War One? World War Two? Vietnam? Again, those pesky evil Zionists!! Perhaps it was the Zionists who “draged” American into the Korean War? Perhaps it was the Zionists who dragged America to drop the Atom Bomb on Japan killing hundreds of thousands.
Please stop! Stop being such a willing fool. Zionists are guilty of one thing and one thing only – defending Israel. Americans are mostly a good people, open-hearted, generous, and religious people. It was Harry Truman who denied the Ku Klux Klan on the vote for Israel’s Independence, and bravely stated “I am Cyrus”, after the famous Babylonean King who allowed the Jews to return to their homeland. Israel is real, the Jewish people are real, alive, strong, and flourishing, despite Hitler, despite the continuous demonization and hatred being waged at this tiny small nation – Fres – please stop drinking the coolaid you are smarter than that I hope.
Jeremy, can you answer my question please?
this assinine person would like a response, Or are you going to simply spew the typical anti-Israel, anti-zionist garbage and be the coward most of your type end up being anyway. why not take a stand? I am putting it to you, after I looked over all of your articles, and devoted fanantical web sites, the myths and facts website you created, I am demanding that you answer me, Jeremy, Do you believe in a peaceful two state solution wherein each side will respect the other side’s request for self-determination? I do. I am waiting for you, Hamas, Hizbollah, Iran, all the neo-nazis, and of course the devoted journalists such as yourself, to respond. There are real people at the other end of the internet Jeremy and people will be convinced by what you say. You have discovered the power of writing, so will you be an instrument for peaceful co-existence or not? If not, you are another smug anti-semite, cloaking his hateful rage by calling it anti-zioinst. perhaps seriously misguided, perhaps not misguided at all, perhaps you are one of those individuals who spend their lives bloging and creating websites devoted to fighting “zionism”. You cannot stand the existence of the State of Israel, according to you, Jews living in their historical homeland have no right to exist at all, neither in 1948 Israel, nor after 1967 Israel, how does the mantra go, Free Palestine!!! Free Palestine!!. blah…blah..blah… but you just don’t care for the anti-semite label, no Jeremy, not you, you are an intellectual, an honest reporter, an international journalist, who has nothing to do all day but fight evil zionists…right? Are you one of those Jeremy? If you are I feel sorry for you. A camera, a few blogs.. and a left wing cause, do not make a serious journalist. If you are not honest enough to realize your hateful belief promotes the genocide of a people, then you are a tool. Another useful idot. Just by doing a few minutes of research I can see where your true bias lies. Just stop pretending you are not a bigot yourself. Oh and hey Jeremy, many before you have taken up the cause, and failed miserably. You want to know why? Because behind your lies, anti-zionist propoganda, and bullshit, there are real people who will live, fight, and die for their homeland, no less than your beloved Palestinians, this is a fight you will not win, because the Jews have been through the fire, we have been there and done that. Israelis do not break. We will either wait for you to grow up and make peace, or if you insist we will fight. Abba Ebban once stated, if the Arabs want peace they may have it, if they want war, they may have that too.
Bill,
I don’t see how you can reconcile your claim that you favor a two state solution and recognition of the right to self-determination of both Jews and Arabs while also claiming that Israel has done no wrong, has committed no injustices, that those who criticize Israel are “anti-semitic” or “self-hating Jews”, etc.
Zionists are guilty of only “defending Israel”? How was the ethnic cleansing of Palestine an act of “self defense”? How is the ongoing destruction of Arab homes and theft of Palestinian land “self defense”?
You are delusional, my friend.
Bill, do you still beat your wife?
When you’re ready to ask serious questions and have a serious conversation, just let me know.
Bill,
I feel sorry for you guy who quote
“..Zionism is the belief in a Jewish Homeland in the historical land of Israel, the land of their ancestors.”
1- In the bible said: Jews took 40 years to find way “home” I feel embarrass to my children if I don’t have “home/land of my ancestors” to show them where to go back. I am up root. Lost direction.
2- “.Zionism is the belief in a Jewish Homeland” BELIEF doesn’t mean “belong” to.
3- That why Jews BELIEF and take anyone land if Jews BELIEF???!!!!!
Too bad.
For accuracy, replace “England” with “Britain” throughout. It was the British Government that held the mandate.