James Baldwin speaks on this back in 1979, "But the state of Israel was not created for the salvation of the Jews; it was created for the salvation of the Western interests. This is what is becoming clear (I must say that it was always clear to me). The Palestinians have been paying for the British colonial policy of "divide and rule" an…
James Baldwin speaks on this back in 1979, "But the state of Israel was not created for the salvation of the Jews; it was created for the salvation of the Western interests. This is what is becoming clear (I must say that it was always clear to me). The Palestinians have been paying for the British colonial policy of "divide and rule" and for Europe’s guilty Christian conscience for more than thirty years."
Funny how all the smart people who long ago called out the project are Black formerly-enslaved men. I guess they know a little bit about the dynamic....
Remember, in 1948 the UN created 2 states - Palestine and Israel. And the Arabs immediately attacked. (They lost.)
I'm Jewish, yet I see the point about an ethno-state. On the other hand, I'm glad there is a Jewish homeland, as Jews have been persecuted for 2,000 years - and not just in Europe, but in Arab states like Iraq and Morocco who EXPELLED their Jews! (And most of those Jews moved to Israel.)
Also, there are many Moslem countries, but just one Jewish country.
That said, Israel's story is more complicated than I realized growing up on "Exodus." Vacant, malarial land was settled and cultivated, land was bought - but land also was stolen. (And I learned that from liberal groups like Americans for Peace Now. It would be nice to see some liberal Palestinians criticizing their own - but it IS hard to be objective when whole generations of families are being wiped out by bombs.) And the increasing number of West Bank settlements, and evictions in East Jerusalem, continue today.
1. "The Arabs immediately attacked." This is highly misleading and dehumanizing. Palestinians, not "Arabs." And there had been ongoing hostilities between Palestinians and Zionists from the 1920s onward; the Palestinians found unacceptable the implantation of White European settlers on their lands.
2. "...like Iraq and Morocco who EXPELLED their Jews!" This is false. Most of the immigration into the new ethnostate began in the 1950s, greatly accelerated by the Suez crisis. Further, it is highly debatable how many of those Jews "fled" or were "expelled." There was an ambitious and far-reaching campaign by Zionists to encourage immigration by means of fear ("Israel is the only safe place for Jews!!"). This campaign continues to this day, helped by the original American Zionist, Joe Biden.
Many, many Jewish thinkers have rejected this argument (and indeed the entire Zionist project) from Noam Chomsky to Gideon Levy to Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis.
3. The only objective to the creation of an ethnostate is the exclusion of other groups who do not belong to the desired ethnicity. This is brought to life most vividly by the apartheid regime in Israel/Palestine. Other notable examples include pre-1980s South Africa and the ethnically-based genocide in Rwanda.
Everything I've noted here is verifiable with a simple Google search.
James Baldwin speaks on this back in 1979, "But the state of Israel was not created for the salvation of the Jews; it was created for the salvation of the Western interests. This is what is becoming clear (I must say that it was always clear to me). The Palestinians have been paying for the British colonial policy of "divide and rule" and for Europe’s guilty Christian conscience for more than thirty years."
Funny how all the smart people who long ago called out the project are Black formerly-enslaved men. I guess they know a little bit about the dynamic....
Remember, in 1948 the UN created 2 states - Palestine and Israel. And the Arabs immediately attacked. (They lost.)
I'm Jewish, yet I see the point about an ethno-state. On the other hand, I'm glad there is a Jewish homeland, as Jews have been persecuted for 2,000 years - and not just in Europe, but in Arab states like Iraq and Morocco who EXPELLED their Jews! (And most of those Jews moved to Israel.)
Also, there are many Moslem countries, but just one Jewish country.
That said, Israel's story is more complicated than I realized growing up on "Exodus." Vacant, malarial land was settled and cultivated, land was bought - but land also was stolen. (And I learned that from liberal groups like Americans for Peace Now. It would be nice to see some liberal Palestinians criticizing their own - but it IS hard to be objective when whole generations of families are being wiped out by bombs.) And the increasing number of West Bank settlements, and evictions in East Jerusalem, continue today.
1. "The Arabs immediately attacked." This is highly misleading and dehumanizing. Palestinians, not "Arabs." And there had been ongoing hostilities between Palestinians and Zionists from the 1920s onward; the Palestinians found unacceptable the implantation of White European settlers on their lands.
2. "...like Iraq and Morocco who EXPELLED their Jews!" This is false. Most of the immigration into the new ethnostate began in the 1950s, greatly accelerated by the Suez crisis. Further, it is highly debatable how many of those Jews "fled" or were "expelled." There was an ambitious and far-reaching campaign by Zionists to encourage immigration by means of fear ("Israel is the only safe place for Jews!!"). This campaign continues to this day, helped by the original American Zionist, Joe Biden.
Many, many Jewish thinkers have rejected this argument (and indeed the entire Zionist project) from Noam Chomsky to Gideon Levy to Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis.
3. The only objective to the creation of an ethnostate is the exclusion of other groups who do not belong to the desired ethnicity. This is brought to life most vividly by the apartheid regime in Israel/Palestine. Other notable examples include pre-1980s South Africa and the ethnically-based genocide in Rwanda.
Everything I've noted here is verifiable with a simple Google search.