[Peace-discuss] Re: Another Jew talks about Zionism

[Morton K. Brussel]

David,

You say Zionism is no longer the problem, but I associate Zionism  
with the construct of and adherence to a Jewish state, a state for  
the Jews. And the laws of the country still emphasize that. And in  
what sense is Zionism finished? Can it be distinguished from the  
nationalism of a Jewish state? You also mention the blatant anti- 
semitism of certain commenters. Who are they? What are they saying?

Chomsky seems to be uncharacteristically subdued these days with  
regard to Israel. I sometimes think he has too soft a spot in his  
heart for that land.   I wonder, after all that has happened to  
Palestinian infrastructure, if he still thinks a two state solution  
is the only feasible solution.  Finkelstein still speaks up  
powerfully, as he did on DemocracyNow! with Indyk recently.

--Mort

On Jan 12, 2009, at 1:12 PM, David Green wrote:

> Mort,
>
> This is an incisive post by Philip Weiss, who spends most of his  
> energy on discourse with other Jews in New York. I'm not as  
> interested in this issue as I once was, which will come as a relief  
> to most of the people on this list who haven't yet pressed the  
> delete key. Zionism was a powerful ideology toward establishing a  
> Jewish state, and up to 1967 in attracting Jewish immigrants,  
> absorbing Jews from Arab and other non-European countries,  
> assigning Arab non-Jewish Israelis to 4th class citizenship at  
> best, and maintaining the siege mentality that led to the 1967 war  
> and subsequent occupation. Obviously, it still is a powerful  
> motivator among settler fanatics, in a religious manifestation that  
> was of course not intended by the founders (although territorial  
> expansion was).
>
> Ideologies outlive their usefulness, and its harder and harder to  
> attribute Israel's behavior to Zionist ideology, in my opinion. In  
> fact, I would see Zionism per se as having almost nothing to do  
> with Israel as it now exists and behaves. The ideology is greatly  
> overshadowed by material realities, facts on the ground, power and  
> domination--and, of course, it's choice to be an American  
> surrogate. The Jewish state is like any other state at this point;  
> the people who run it do so for their own aggrandizement; along  
> with that goes racism, militarism, neoliberalism, etc. Zionist  
> ideology is now windowdressing, intended more for American Jews  
> than Israeli Jews.
>
> I understand that those dissenters who seek an alternative need to  
> articulate their positions and address the problems of Zionism and  
> a Jewish state, especially those who are Jewish, especially in  
> discussions with other Jews. Your post is from Philip Weiss, on  
> whose blog I've attempted to participate. It's extremely  
> informative and has become quite popular, if one can tell by the  
> greatly increasing number of individuals who participate in the  
> comments sections. In spite of all the nutcases it attracts, I  
> think it's a positive interaction. The blog is also run by a guy  
> named Adam Horowitz, who is more to my liking than Weiss, who is  
> much too giddy about Obama, JStreet, etc.; and who is also obsessed  
> with the Lobby.
>
> What's concerns me, however, is that a basic Chomsky/Finkelstein  
> leftist Enlightenment orientation is not often clearly and plainly  
> articulated (in my comments, I started referring to myself as a  
> boring whitebread leftist socialist). There's too much time wasted  
> on the Lobby, dual loyalty, etc. There's obvious and blatant anti- 
> Semitism by some frequent commenters. Add to that the anti vs. post  
> Zionist discussion. Having a state based on Jewish domination of  
> non-Jews has obviously turned out to be a horrible idea, a moral  
> and humanitarian catastrophe. But now we've got 6 million Jews  
> living with five million Arabs in Israel and Palestine. Anti or  
> post, Zionism is  finished. The choice is either continued state- 
> sponsored terrorism and a national security state vs. the  
> Enlightenment and human decency.
>
> If one has to make choices, anti-Zionism implies correctly that  
> it's a racist ideology, and disregards the minimal (sadly)  
> influence of bi-national Zionism as endorsed by Einstein, Chomsky,  
> etc. Post Zionism asserts the validity of the original necessity of  
> a homeland for the Jews, which was a terrible idea but now is a  
> fact on the ground that we all have to deal with.
>
> Just my 2 latkes.
>
> DG
>
> From: Morton K. Brussel <mkbrussel at comcast.net>
> To: peace-discuss Discuss <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
> Cc: David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com>
> Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 10:11:00 AM
> Subject: Another Jew talks about Zionism
>
>
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-weiss/rethinking- 
> zionism_b_156955.html
>
> Dana Goldstein, whose thoughtful condemnation of the Gaza slaughter  
> after years of reserve I welcome, is a little uncomfortable with  
> the embrace. She points out that I have identified myself as a non-  
> or anti-Zionist, and says that anti-Zionism is redolent of  
> antisemitism. She's a post-Zionist, she says. Goldstein's comments  
> deserve a response, especially at this moment in intellectual life,  
> when so many people are crowding the doorways of this conversation.
>
> I also used to say post- or non-Zionist to avoid being negative.  
> The playwright David Zellnik told me that anti-Zionist felt to him  
> like a denial of Israel's considerable achievements and I respected  
> David's view. Now I've come to say that I'm an anti-Zionist for  
> several reasons.
>
> First: My feelings are not neutral about Zionism; I don't like it.  
> As a Jew, I think about it a lot and there is nothing I can really  
> feel positive about outside of the Jewish pride and its historical  
> significance of it and its visionary component. All these elements  
> have lost their value: Zionism privileges Jews and justifies  
> oppression, and this appalls me. Saying I'm anti-Zionist is a  
> sincere expression of my minority-respecting worldview.
>
> Second, Post-Zionist strikes me as an evasion. At this moment,  
> Zionism reigns in historical Palestine and in American Jewish  
> leadership. To say you're a post-Zionist is like saying you're a  
> post-Communist during the Stalin purges. You are tastefully  
> separating yourself from the world, dainty as an English person  
> drinking tea with their little finger in the air. Zionism remains a  
> very powerful force in Middle East affairs and American society.  
> It's not helpful to those who are trying to understand these  
> matters to evade this fact or suggest that post-Zionism is actually  
> a real factor in, say, the life of Gaza City. I urge people to take  
> a stand if they find Zionist beliefs that privilege 6 million Jews  
> over 5-6 million non-Jews and that have entailed apartheid on the  
> West Bank and ethnic cleansing a supportable ideology, especially  
> in the age of our mutt president-to-be.
>
> Third, anti-Zionism is an idealistic Jewish tradition. In fact, it  
> draws on the same visionary and If-you-dream-it feeling that  
> Zionism did 100 years ago, before the militants ruined it, and  
> engages the same young restless sensibilities and liberationist  
> feeling as Zionism did by imagining Israel as a state of its  
> citizens, not a Jewish state. We anti-Zionists can say with honor  
> that anti-Zionists like Rabbi Elmer Berger identified the problems  
> with Zionism 60 years ago, accurately when he said that Zionism  
> meant contempt for the Arab population, dependence on a backroom  
> lobby in the United States, and the introduction of dual loyalty  
> into American Jewish life. All true. Hannah Arendt and Walter  
> Benjamin and Norman Mailer all opposed Zionism to one degree or  
> another out of concerns with ethnocentrism--didn't like its Is-it- 
> good-for-the-Jews backbeat. These problems are larger today than  
> ever, especially post-Iraq-war and the Iraq war's idiot stepson, Gaza.
>
> Finally, declaring I'm anti-Zionist is a way of trying to make room  
> in American life for this view. Right now being critical of Israel  
> means that you can hurt your business, as a Bay Area professional  
> told the San Francisco Chronicle. True and disgusting. As Jimi  
> Hendrix said when he was changing attitudes: I'm going to wave my  
> freak flag high!
>
> As to the antisemitism point, the American Jewish Committee has  
> said the same thing: anti-Zionism is antisemitism. It thus  
> conflates Jewishness with Zionism, and this conflation is damaging  
> the Jewish experience around the world. When Dana says she worries  
> about the antisemitic suggestion of anti-Zionism, I feel a shadow  
> of censoriousness. There are things you can and can't say. Well, I  
> am an empowered Jew who has never experienced functional  
> antisemitism ever in my life, and my empowerment is also part of  
> this conversation: I insist on speaking about Jewish cultural/ 
> financial power in the U.S. as a component of my Zionist critique.  
> Do I think that Jews should be denied power? No! Do I think that  
> there should be quotas on Jewish inclusion in elite institutions?  
> No! Well: I would like Jewish participation in mainstream media  
> roundtables on the Middle East held to 50 percent. That is my  
> quota. These ideas have made some of my readers uncomfortable.  
> They've made me uncomfortable. I grew up in fear of lurking  
> antisemitism. But I have decided in my 50s that these are things I  
> think about all the time as a mature person, however flawed I am,  
> and I think they're important--so I am going to talk about them.
>
> And I would add that shutting down debate in the name of  
> "antisemitism" strikes me as selfish. Our phantom worries about a  
> second Holocaust take precedence over the real evidence that  
> surrounds us of man's inhumanity to man, not just man's inhumanity  
> to Jews. And our phantom worries mean that we cannot address the  
> incredible, everyday, real suffering of Palestinians that has been  
> perpetrated politically in large part by empowered American Jews  
> who are all over the media and political establishment, some of  
> whom limit debate of the issue by citing a possible infraction of  
> our tremendous freedoms. Believe me, when our freedoms are  
> encroached upon, I will howl. Today and tomorrow I howl for the  
> Jewish leadership's actual crushing of the Palestinian right of  
> self-determination.
>
>
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