Is Zionism nothing more than the assertion of the right of self determination for the Jewish people? Or is it a complex political ideology whose history has ramifications for the present day?
When I first started paying attention to I/P diaries and discussions here on Kos I was struck by the manner in which the term Zionism was tossed about without much appreciation for the historical specifics of it's developement. I soon discovered that many who discribed themselves as Zionists felt that the term was reducible to a single principle. That principle being the right of the Jewish people to national self-determination.
I can see that this approach has an appealing simplicity. It avoids the necessity of addressing the messy contradictions, compromises and moral ambiguities that are part and parcel of any effective political movement or ideology. However, political and personal ease aren't a sound basis for analyzing such movements. To understand a political ideology, its manner of thought and how its thinking effects current actions, one must have some idea of how social, political and historical forces shaped its developement.
I recently came across an article published in the May issue of The Monthly Review by Jacques Hersh entitled Inconvenient truths about 'Real Existing' Zionism. It provides some interesting historical background on the developement of Zionism, albeit while putting forward a thesis' that some are sure to find provocative.
The celebrations on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel brought forth mixed feelings for those of us who survived the Holocaust. The reason for this ambivalence is that, while the survivors of the Nazi genocide celebrated the creation of a Jewish state in 1948, few were aware at the time of the human costs and injustices that had been, were being, and would be perpetrated against Palestinian Arabs in our name. The slogan "Never Again," which was the dominating thought in the Jewish psyche in those years, was mostly concerned with the fate of European Jews.
Hersh begins by describing what he sees as the current crisis of Zionism.
The existential purpose of Israel has come into question for many Israelis as well as for an increasing number of Diaspora Jews. The concept of a "national home of the Jews" is losing its appeal. According to Tony Karon, "the simple fact is that almost two-thirds of us have chosen freely to live elsewhere, and have no intention of ever settling in Israel." It is somewhat paradoxical that 750,000 Israelis live in the United States or other European countries and that it is the norm today, for Israeli citizens who can, to acquire a foreign passport. One of Karon’s conclusions that is relevant to the analysis of the Middle East problematique, and in direct contradiction to Bush’s prognosis, is that "Israel may be an intractable historical fact, but the Zionist ideology that spurred its creation and shaped its identity and sense of national purpose has collapsed — not under the pressure from without, but having rotted from within. It is Jews, not Jihadists, that have consigned Zionism to the dustbin of history."3
Hersh then goes on to provide a brief sketch of the history and developement of Zionist ideology which he sees as underlying its current dilemma.
To understand what has happened, it may be useful to go back to the roots of Zionism and to include the forces external to the movement that influenced the evolution of Jewish politics. Awareness of the past is of importance to any analysis of the present as well as projections of the future. The collective Jewish memory has been tainted by the Zionist discourse. In this regard, taking the Holocaust as the point of reference for the rich experience of the Jewish people is not nearly sufficient. It should be made clear at the outset that Zionism was only one attempt among others, in modern times, to resolve the Jewish condition caused by their specific situation in the European context. The endeavor to unify the different elements of Jewry behind the Zionist project was a wager undertaken at the end of the nineteenth century that didn’t come to fruition until after the Holocaust. Secular nationalism among Jewish populations of Europe appeared parallel to the rise of nationalist ideologies on the continent after the 1840s. But the ideas of the movement began to receive the support of a Jewish base only as a result of the rise of anti-Semitism after 1881. Although the poor and discriminated-against Jewish populations of Eastern Europe were the most receptive to the message of a new life in Palestine, the majority nevertheless tried to emigrate to Western Europe, the Americas, and Australia.
Provocative, as I said but providing a good deal of food for thought. Read the whole thing.