What is Zionism?

As the fragile “multiculturalism” of the West begins to fall apart in the wake of Hamas’ murderous incursion into Israel (perpetrated with psychopathic glee), and Israel’s inevitable brutal response to it, we’ve seen a lot of talk about those nasty “Zionists”.

They’re being talked about with a fair degree of hate. One, erm, gentleman was captured on video in London recently saying that “Hitler knew how to deal with these people”.

So, if you’re a Zionist, the way to deal with you is to send you to the gas chambers?

I’m sure this thoroughly tolerant and balanced chap in London is not some outlier in his hatred of the Zionists¹.

I started to realize that I didn’t know what a Zionist was, properly. They must have some pretty extreme views, eh?

Here’s a Vox article from 2018 which states that :

Zionism is Israel’s national ideology. Zionists believe Judaism is a nationality as well as a religion, and that Jews deserve their own state in their ancestral homeland, Israel, in the same way the French people deserve France or the Chinese people should have China. It’s what brought Jews back to Israel in the first place, and also at the heart of what concerns Arabs and Palestinians about the Israeli state.

I’ve looked at other definitions and they’re pretty much the same. This from woke-ipedia for example :

Zionism : (derived from Zion) is a nationalist movement that emerged in the 19th century to enable the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine, a region roughly corresponding to the Land of Israel in Jewish tradition. Following the establishment of Israel, Zionism became an ideology that supports “the development and protection of the State of Israel”

From these definitions we glean that to be a Zionist one must

• Think the Jews should have their own homeland, the state of Israel

• Think that this state should be located within the region called Palestine

• Think that this state should be developed and protected

I may be missing the point, but I’m really not seeing what’s so extreme about these positions that they are worthy of such hatred and vitriol.

Disagreement with them? Fine - I can see that. Whether a national identity should be closely coupled with Jewishness is a question I can see causing disagreement, even amongst Jews.

For what it’s worth (and, let’s be honest, it’s not worth very much) my own view is that the founding of Israel in the region known as Palestine was, on balance, the right thing to do. So I guess I must call myself a Zionist. I can totally understand why someone would think the opposite - and, one would hope, we could sit down and argue the pros and cons of the issue without actually hating one another.

My understanding and appreciation of history is somewhat sketchy, to say the least. In my typical simplistic “big picture” fashion I tend to view history as a case of bad stuff happened (BSH). I don’t think I’d get an A if I sat a college history exam.

The thing that causes all sorts of angst, today, can be summed up with the question “so, what you gonna do about it?”.

The ‘woke’ view the BSH of white colonialism to be very bad stuff indeed. So bad, in fact, that we must endlessly apologize and make reparation and hate ourselves for it. Other forms of colonialism, like Islamic colonization, do not require the same degree of self-loathing (or any at all).

The (alleged) Jewish colonization of Palestine? Well, that’s super-double-plus BSH in the ‘woke’ perspective. Them thar Jews, apparently, do the BSH thing worse than anyone else. Of course, it couldn’t possibly be that this is viewed this way because it’s the Jews, could it? I mean, come on, that would just be so anti-Semitic and the ‘woke’ are such lovely, tolerant, compassionate, and empathetic people. Identity politics has been a real nasty shit stain on the underpants of humanity.

Sarcasm aside, the differing interpretation of history on both sides and the overly-simplistic² framing of Jews as “colonizers”, “oppressors” and “occupiers” is fuelling much of the current hatred.

An understanding of the history of Palestine and Israel can give us potential insights into what’s happening today, and why it’s happening. It cannot, however, answer the question “so, what you gonna do about it?”

Our answer to that question (if any) might be inspired by our understanding and interpretation of that history, but the history itself doesn’t really give us an instruction manual of what to do, right now, 75 years after the founding of Israel.

Is it possible to be an anti-Zionist and still support the continued existence of the state of Israel? Based on the definitions above, and others like them, I don’t think it is. Maybe those definitions are not quite correct, or don’t capture the full entirety of what Zionism is but, based on those definitions alone, I think standing in opposition to Zionism is equivalent to being for the complete dismantling of the state of Israel.

Is this a tenable “solution”?

How do we go about ‘dismantling’ an economically and militarily strong state that has existed for 75 years?

This seems to be the solution being called for with the slogan “from the river to the sea”, which is a bit vague; the most benign interpretation of which would merely be a transfer of sovereignty of the region to a different ethnicity. But I suspect, realistically, that this isn’t what’s being called for here.

What might the consequence of attempting to dismantle³ the state of Israel be?

A new era of universal love and brotherhood in the region?

Would we end up with another Syria or Yemen - whose current death counts overwhelm Netanyahu’s by some orders of magnitude (if we’re interested in playing tit-for-tat numbers games)?

What course of action will result in the least loss of life in the region? I’m a bit pessimistic, because I don’t think there is any (realistic) course of action at this point that will not ultimately result in the loss of more innocent lives. I would so desperately love to be wrong about this.

One solution might be for people like Hamas and Hezbollah to declare themselves to be (genuinely) committed to peace and to working with Israel to ensure justice and equality for all in the region. Maybe in return for a general amnesty for past actions and greater investment in Palestinian areas. Maybe even a return of some of the land Israel took as a result of being attacked, or as a defensive measure against future attacks. This might work with someone a little more, shall we say, reasonable than Netanyahu in power.

Anyone think this is a realistic solution? Nope, me neither. Accepting such a solution would be to agree with Zionism, and we can’t have that, can we? Either Arabs need to be in complete control or Jews need to be in complete control - and ne’er the twain shall meet - seems to be about the position we’re at today.

Whether you’re a “river to the sea” person or one of those people who Hitler knew how to deal with, what is the practical solution here?

Is there any realistic course of action at this point in time that will not result in further bloodshed?

How do you think Israel should defend itself if, indeed, you think Israel has any right to defend itself at all? Is Israel justified in taking brutal action today that, in their estimation, will save more life tomorrow? How do you think organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah should proceed in order to further their political goals? What can both sides do to reduce the bloodshed, or is the onus entirely on Israel?

Is the aggression of people like Hamas and Hezbollah entirely the fault of Israel, or might the centuries-long enmity⁴⁵ between Jews and Muslims have something to do with it?

I’m afraid I’m all out of easy answers today. I would like to see both sides take some responsibility for their actions, past and present, and to sit down together and create a workable solution that is fair for all. But I don’t think that’s gonna happen anytime soon, is it?

There really isn’t much room for compromise between (a) the continued existence of Israel and (b) “from the river to the sea”. The two positions are, fundamentally, incompatible.

How the hell does one “negotiate” their way out of that one?

1. We started with “gas the Jews” the day after the massacre on Oct 7th, but the ‘woke’ woke up to the fact that this might not be the best framing and so we now have gas the Zionists instead. It isn’t Jews we hate, you see, just those damned Zionists.

2. There are elements of truth in these perspectives, to a limited extent - and we could perhaps argue the limits - but, so far, I don’t view the actual history of the region as supporting such overly-simplistic labelling. Have the Israelis oppressed the people of Gaza? Kind of hard to argue otherwise. Have they oppressed all Palestinians in the same way? Not as far as I know. Are Israel justified in their treatment of Gaza as a response to the threat of people like Hamas? Well, that’s the $64,000 question, as they say. I’m so glad I’m not having to make the decisions in these life-or-death situations when the safety and security of your own people (Israeli or Palestinian) is at stake.

3. It’s already been tried with the 6 day war. It didn’t go too well.

4. Yes, as has been pointed out many times, there were periods and places in history where Jews and Muslims had a (relatively) peaceful co-existence in which Jews (as long as they kept to their place within the Muslim hierarchy) were able to live their lives peacefully. But we can’t deny the deep divisions that have existed over the centuries. Even the language of the Qur’an is not exactly overflowing with praise for the Jews, is it? So a degree of mutual enmity was built in right from the start. Jews (and Christians) were tolerated, as long as they knew their place. People of the Book, yes, but decidedly inferior to Muslims. And don’t get me started on how bad the traditional Christian picture of the Jews was.

5. Let’s face it, all religions have this enmity to others kind of built in. After all, if you didn’t think your religion was “better” than some other religion, you wouldn’t be following it, would you? The trick is in trying not to lets this superiority complex spill over into outright hatred. Or, indeed, to let your position as supposedly inferior lead to hatred of those who think themselves better.