Before delving into the history of Zionism let's get this issue off the table:
Zionism is the movement for the Jewish People’s national self-determination in their ancestral homeland.
Zionism stands as a remarkable example of decolonization, in which an oppressed and exiled people returned to their ancestral homeland, revived their ancient language, and built a vibrant democracy.
Abraham, our Patriarch, was a Zionist
Genesis makes it clear that Zionism is central to Abraham’s new religious mission.
Abraham becomes a Jew and a Zionist at the same time. The first command he receives is “Go from your country [lech lecha], your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” Abraham’s religious journey begins with a pilgrimage to Israel. Israel is an ever-present theme in the text; when Abraham and Sarah abandon Israel in search of food, it is seen by some, such as the Ramban, as a “major sin.” Their entire lives focus on the dream of building a nation in the land. When Sarah dies, the Bible depicts the intense effort Abraham makes to bury her in Israel. As Ibn Ezra notes, the purchase of a burial plot for her marks the beginning of the future Jewish state.
Genesis makes it clear that Zionism is central to Abraham’s new religious mission.
Generations of Jews would follow in Abraham’s footsteps. Instead of offering hairsplitting arguments about “the spiritual essence of Judaism,” they turned their hearts toward Zion. Israel was a part of their prayers, part of their Tanakh, part of their studies and stories. At the Seder, they sang “l’shanah haba’ah b’yerushalayim,” “next year in Jerusalem,” with all of their hearts.
They simply couldn’t imagine a Judaism without Zionism.
Jews who knew little else still heard the call of “lech lecha,” and from the furthest reaches of exile would find their way home, just as Abraham and Sarah did so many generations before.
And they never let go of the dream of Israel, even in the worst of times.
"The Jewish people never really left the Holy Land. Certainly, many were killed or expelled at the time of Masada and later, but many Jews continued to live in “Palestine” (the name given by the Romans after the Bar Kochba revolt, 132-135 CE) for a considerable time afterward.
The evidence is clear from the extensive archeological sites visible today, such as those at Beit Alpha, Beit She’arim, Tzippori (Sepphoris), Baram, and many others. Jews formed a majority of the population of Palestine until at least the fifth century CE, and an autonomous Roman-recognized Jewish patriarchate in Palestine existed until 429 CE.
Archeological ruins point to the establishment of more than 80 synagogues, particularly in the Galilee, during the six centuries after the destruction of the Temple. After Masada, the Jewish population was substantial enough for three serious revolts against Roman or Byzantine rule to occur; the last one, against the Emperor Heraclius, was in the seventh century."
This is mostly a very good article, but you don’t do what your closing comment demands—name the “it.” You elude to it, but you don’t clearly and unequivocally name it. You do not name the sword that brought the violent conquest, colonization, slavery, and religious intolerance that has been the blight on the Middle East, North Africa, Persia, Central Asia, and parts of Southern Europe, and beyond, since its inception in the 7th Century — Islam.
Peaceful coexistence means accepting the rights of all peoples to live peacefully among each other in the world—a code of human law to live and let live. And, yes, this means killing those who won’t abide and are instead coming for your throat with a knife. Peaceful coexistence does not mean peace will only come to the world once everyone has submitted to Islam. That is tyranny, and that is the big IT in the room.
Nice piece. Two caveats. The first is that not only do the Arab Muslim states use the Palestinians to combat Israel but the Palestinians use the Arab Muslim states to do the same things. The entire Arab Muslim world is marked by a refusal of modernization understood as a functionally differentiated society and in its stead to revert to traditional Islam based on a kinship society and blend it with a revolutionary eschatology in the marxist critical theory outlook. The upshot has been a crazed and murderous society, both internally and externally against Zionism which allows for no peaceful resolution. The second caveat is that in this light the Palestinians must be conquered, crushed and expelled from the entire Jewish homeland west of the Jordan, a policy justified not only by the historical precedents you mention but by the need of the Jews not to commit national suicide.
You MUST confess that "Zionism was a European colonial and imperial project, an outpost of an empire planted in the Middle East, and that everything since follows from that original crime."
I don't recall ever seeing a political issue or cause so backwards-facing and so obsessed with historical trivia from a century or so ago, all at the expense of the present and future. The Free Palestine! people have no plans for 2026, 2027 or 2035, but if you want to debate 1926 or 1948 etc, they'll happily discuss this for hours. (They often very much remind me of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.)
I think part of this is rooted in the sense of entitled victimhood that's been cultivated in them by the West since the late 60s. The Western Left here (as it often does) has acted like a Munchausen mama, telling her child repeatedly: you are the true wretched of the earth, victims of history's greatest crime, you are justice incarnate and must never abandon the struggle for liberation, no matter how many deaths or decades it takes. (And as with all Munchausen cases, it's only the mama who understands, supports, and has the child's best interests in mind.)
This also leads to this weird learned helplessness where the map of the discourse and the territory of actual Palestinian lives barely intersect. Instead of planning for a better future, there's just endless rehashing of the crimes of Zionism, which starts to feel like a ritual incantantion, as if once all these crimes are recited enough some cosmic judge will descend from the heavens and rule that Israel must be dissolved.
And the proposed solutions of either a single state and/or with the spurious "right of return" (a right accorded no other people before or since) are just surreptitious plans for more (endless) war. Do the West's campus crusaders really imagine that Israelis are stupid enough to fall for these fantasies (again!) where they decide from afar that Justice demands Israel move jihadists next door for neighbors? That there wouldn't be enormous bloodshed?
The Free Palestine! movement is simply frozen in deed and thought and can't imagine any other strategy but eternal jihad. The circumstances might change, and the language and the jargon and tactics, but this is one grievance that seems much too valuable for either the Arab world or the Western Left to ever give up. It provides too much meaning and purpose (another sacred political crusade) and, best of all, it's always distant strangers doing the bleeding and dying.
"In 1948, roughly 750,000 Palestinians were displaced"
Indisputable, but what kind of displacement? Expulsion? Voluntary relocation? Under what conditions? What are the causes? What is the background? Vital elements of the dispute the Red-Green Axis blithely ignore because it refutes their eliminationist agenda.
"when the Zionist movement made its alliance with Britain"
For historic accuracy, it should read: "when the nationalist Zionist movement made its alliance with Britain." Nationalist, as opposed to any of the other versions, such as religious, historical, cultural, political, etc.
"Arab nationalism is valid, just like any other ethnic group."
Indisputable. It dates back to the Caliphate system established by Abu Bakr in 632 CE with its most recent iteration under Nasser's pan-Arabism. That said, it should be noted Arab nationalism is not the same thing as "Palestinian nationalism." A national identity is based on a pre-existing national entity. There never was a state of Palestine. As even some of the early founders of this identity admit, it was a political construct deployed to deny Jews the right to their ancestral homeland because their presence violated the Dar al-Harb precept that once any territory comes under Muslim domination it remains Islamic forever.
Before delving into the history of Zionism let's get this issue off the table:
Zionism is the movement for the Jewish People’s national self-determination in their ancestral homeland.
Zionism stands as a remarkable example of decolonization, in which an oppressed and exiled people returned to their ancestral homeland, revived their ancient language, and built a vibrant democracy.
Abraham, our Patriarch, was a Zionist
Genesis makes it clear that Zionism is central to Abraham’s new religious mission.
Abraham becomes a Jew and a Zionist at the same time. The first command he receives is “Go from your country [lech lecha], your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” Abraham’s religious journey begins with a pilgrimage to Israel. Israel is an ever-present theme in the text; when Abraham and Sarah abandon Israel in search of food, it is seen by some, such as the Ramban, as a “major sin.” Their entire lives focus on the dream of building a nation in the land. When Sarah dies, the Bible depicts the intense effort Abraham makes to bury her in Israel. As Ibn Ezra notes, the purchase of a burial plot for her marks the beginning of the future Jewish state.
Genesis makes it clear that Zionism is central to Abraham’s new religious mission.
Generations of Jews would follow in Abraham’s footsteps. Instead of offering hairsplitting arguments about “the spiritual essence of Judaism,” they turned their hearts toward Zion. Israel was a part of their prayers, part of their Tanakh, part of their studies and stories. At the Seder, they sang “l’shanah haba’ah b’yerushalayim,” “next year in Jerusalem,” with all of their hearts.
They simply couldn’t imagine a Judaism without Zionism.
Jews who knew little else still heard the call of “lech lecha,” and from the furthest reaches of exile would find their way home, just as Abraham and Sarah did so many generations before.
And they never let go of the dream of Israel, even in the worst of times.
"The Jewish people never really left the Holy Land. Certainly, many were killed or expelled at the time of Masada and later, but many Jews continued to live in “Palestine” (the name given by the Romans after the Bar Kochba revolt, 132-135 CE) for a considerable time afterward.
The evidence is clear from the extensive archeological sites visible today, such as those at Beit Alpha, Beit She’arim, Tzippori (Sepphoris), Baram, and many others. Jews formed a majority of the population of Palestine until at least the fifth century CE, and an autonomous Roman-recognized Jewish patriarchate in Palestine existed until 429 CE.
Archeological ruins point to the establishment of more than 80 synagogues, particularly in the Galilee, during the six centuries after the destruction of the Temple. After Masada, the Jewish population was substantial enough for three serious revolts against Roman or Byzantine rule to occur; the last one, against the Emperor Heraclius, was in the seventh century."
An Inconvenient Truth,
The Jewish People Never Left the Land of Israel
https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/10/24/an-inconvenient-truth-the-jewish-people-never-left-the-land-of-israel/
This is mostly a very good article, but you don’t do what your closing comment demands—name the “it.” You elude to it, but you don’t clearly and unequivocally name it. You do not name the sword that brought the violent conquest, colonization, slavery, and religious intolerance that has been the blight on the Middle East, North Africa, Persia, Central Asia, and parts of Southern Europe, and beyond, since its inception in the 7th Century — Islam.
Peaceful coexistence means accepting the rights of all peoples to live peacefully among each other in the world—a code of human law to live and let live. And, yes, this means killing those who won’t abide and are instead coming for your throat with a knife. Peaceful coexistence does not mean peace will only come to the world once everyone has submitted to Islam. That is tyranny, and that is the big IT in the room.
Nice piece. Two caveats. The first is that not only do the Arab Muslim states use the Palestinians to combat Israel but the Palestinians use the Arab Muslim states to do the same things. The entire Arab Muslim world is marked by a refusal of modernization understood as a functionally differentiated society and in its stead to revert to traditional Islam based on a kinship society and blend it with a revolutionary eschatology in the marxist critical theory outlook. The upshot has been a crazed and murderous society, both internally and externally against Zionism which allows for no peaceful resolution. The second caveat is that in this light the Palestinians must be conquered, crushed and expelled from the entire Jewish homeland west of the Jordan, a policy justified not only by the historical precedents you mention but by the need of the Jews not to commit national suicide.
informative piece and also the comment below
Thank you!
You MUST confess that "Zionism was a European colonial and imperial project, an outpost of an empire planted in the Middle East, and that everything since follows from that original crime."
I don't recall ever seeing a political issue or cause so backwards-facing and so obsessed with historical trivia from a century or so ago, all at the expense of the present and future. The Free Palestine! people have no plans for 2026, 2027 or 2035, but if you want to debate 1926 or 1948 etc, they'll happily discuss this for hours. (They often very much remind me of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.)
I think part of this is rooted in the sense of entitled victimhood that's been cultivated in them by the West since the late 60s. The Western Left here (as it often does) has acted like a Munchausen mama, telling her child repeatedly: you are the true wretched of the earth, victims of history's greatest crime, you are justice incarnate and must never abandon the struggle for liberation, no matter how many deaths or decades it takes. (And as with all Munchausen cases, it's only the mama who understands, supports, and has the child's best interests in mind.)
This also leads to this weird learned helplessness where the map of the discourse and the territory of actual Palestinian lives barely intersect. Instead of planning for a better future, there's just endless rehashing of the crimes of Zionism, which starts to feel like a ritual incantantion, as if once all these crimes are recited enough some cosmic judge will descend from the heavens and rule that Israel must be dissolved.
And the proposed solutions of either a single state and/or with the spurious "right of return" (a right accorded no other people before or since) are just surreptitious plans for more (endless) war. Do the West's campus crusaders really imagine that Israelis are stupid enough to fall for these fantasies (again!) where they decide from afar that Justice demands Israel move jihadists next door for neighbors? That there wouldn't be enormous bloodshed?
The Free Palestine! movement is simply frozen in deed and thought and can't imagine any other strategy but eternal jihad. The circumstances might change, and the language and the jargon and tactics, but this is one grievance that seems much too valuable for either the Arab world or the Western Left to ever give up. It provides too much meaning and purpose (another sacred political crusade) and, best of all, it's always distant strangers doing the bleeding and dying.
For the “Arab World” side of the obsession, it’s really the Muslim world (Arab and otherwise) who cannot get off the jihad treadmill.
"In 1948, roughly 750,000 Palestinians were displaced"
Indisputable, but what kind of displacement? Expulsion? Voluntary relocation? Under what conditions? What are the causes? What is the background? Vital elements of the dispute the Red-Green Axis blithely ignore because it refutes their eliminationist agenda.
"when the Zionist movement made its alliance with Britain"
For historic accuracy, it should read: "when the nationalist Zionist movement made its alliance with Britain." Nationalist, as opposed to any of the other versions, such as religious, historical, cultural, political, etc.
"Arab nationalism is valid, just like any other ethnic group."
Indisputable. It dates back to the Caliphate system established by Abu Bakr in 632 CE with its most recent iteration under Nasser's pan-Arabism. That said, it should be noted Arab nationalism is not the same thing as "Palestinian nationalism." A national identity is based on a pre-existing national entity. There never was a state of Palestine. As even some of the early founders of this identity admit, it was a political construct deployed to deny Jews the right to their ancestral homeland because their presence violated the Dar al-Harb precept that once any territory comes under Muslim domination it remains Islamic forever.