An Uncomfortable Truth?
There will, undoubtedly be some who will disagree with my premise. So be it. We
are sometimes bombarded with events and decisions which inspire self-contradictory
feelings because they are at odds with each other.
Example: Florida’s
governor, Ron DeSantis, proudly signed, late last week, a bill aimed at
restructuring Florida’s education standards. One key provision is the mandated teaching
of The Holocaust. On the off chance that any public-school history teacher
worth their paycheck would not do so unless ordered to, I guess this is OK. It
was certainly a major world event and a genocidal horror which demands remembrance.
The bill goes on to mandate teaching not only the Holocaust, but the (sic) “history
of systematic anti-Semitism aimed at the Jewish people throughout history.”
Again, as teacher of World and United States History, genocide of any nature was
a subject for my classroom…. but: The bill also bans the teaching
of critical race theory and “dumps” Common Core. So? So, an essential part of Common
Core is the teaching and inculcation of critical thinking skills.
Stay with me
here. Critical thinkers might well ask. “Why are we mandated to teach one horrific
series of world events aimed at a specific ethnic group and banned from
teaching about similar efforts aimed at others?” Why are the horrors inflicted upon one group (Hebrews)
more worthy of critical analysis than the systematic and at times genocidal
efforts aimed at Native Americans by the US, Caribbean natives by the Spanish,
Armenians in Turkey, the Irish by the English, and African Americans in Africa
by European colonialists and here in the US?
The correct
answer is a better “Lobby.” First however
let me establish one salient fact: Being opposed in principle to Zionism is not
anti-Semitic and, in fact there are several significant anti-Israel Jewish
organizations in the US. By “anti- Israel”, these groups mean that they are
calling for what, traditionally, Jews have sought all along – the right to live
equally and participate peaceably in society wherever they may live. Where they
differ is in the nature of what Israelis have done to indigenous Arabs in the
process. To a great extent, the denial
of this basic human right has, historically, previously been driven by
Christians. Jews have suffered thus. To those Evangelical ravings that
Christians haven't killed in the name of their religion consider the following:
Bosnia: During the Bosnian War, at least 97,207 people were
killed. The vast majority were Bosnian Muslims, the victims of religiously
motivated "ethnic cleansing" at the hands of both Croatian Catholics
and Yugoslav Orthodox.
Crusades: Christian military excursions against the Muslim
Conquests killed at a lower estimate, 1.7 million. Although styled as Holy War,
and preached as one by the Pope, it was even worse, as it rapidly degenerated
into empire building in the name of "Christian kingdoms" in the
eastern Mediterranean.
French Wars of Religion: In France, during the last half of
the 16th century wars between French Catholics and (Protestant) Huguenots caused
the death of 2.8 million souls, again in the name of the same god (different
uniform).
The Thirty Years' War:
Fought between parts of Germany and other outside forces pitted
Protestant against Catholic again, both convinced God was on their side, as
Protestant princes rebelled against the Holy Roman Empire. During the first
half of the 17th century at least 5.9 million died in the name of one or the
other version of Christianity.
Spanish Inquisition:
Once again, Roman Catholics killed those who did not believe as they
did. between 1493 and about 1530, burnings killed at least 1,000, but the real
tragedy was the belief that God had, via the Pope, granted all of the Americas
to Spain, ergo, if native persons did not follow God's will (give up the gold
and be slaves) they could be killed, and essentially all Arawaks and Caribs in
the Caribbean basin eventually were.
Worthy of special mention is the fact that Germany
considered itself a Christian nation as it pursued the "final
solution". Of course, this was not the first time Jews in Germany had been
persecuted, since Teutonic Knights on their way to the holy land burned
synagogues with the congregations locked inside. This, then is just a partial
listing of the real story about the clean hands of Christianity.
But I digress, as I sometimes do. So/ what do anti-Zionists including
a significant number if US Jews dislike about it. It is simply this. Israel’s current
rulers are treating indigenous Arab peoples in much the same manner as they themselves
have been treated historically.
In defense of this colonialist attitude (which is what it
is) David Harris, head of the American Jewish Committee, says “To deny the
Jewish people, of all the peoples on earth, the right to self-determination
surely is discriminatory.” All the
peoples on earth? The Kurds don’t have their own state. Neither do the
Basques, Catalans, Scots, Kashmiris, Tibetans, Abkhazians, Ossetians, Lombards,
Igbo, Oromo, Uyghurs, Tamils and Québécois, nor dozens of other peoples who
have created nationalist movements to seek self-determination but failed to
achieve it.
States based on ethnic nationalism – states created to represent
and protect one particular ethnic group – are not the only legitimate way to
ensure public order and individual freedom, and certainly the USA is exemplary
in its (generally) inclusionary policy. One might think Israel’s leaders would
understand this, because many of the same Jewish leaders who call national
self-determination a universal right are quite comfortable denying it to
Palestinians. Israel contains close to 5 million non-citizens, that is, Palestinians
who live under Israeli control in the West Bank and Gaza (yes, Israel still
controls Gaza) without basic rights in the state that dominates their lives. In
(too) many ways, Palestinians are subjected to the same sort of “Apartheid”
rules which South African Blacks were forced to endure under apartheid. When
the Knesset decides to approve the establishment of more and more Jewish settlements
in the occupied territories, no Palestinians are consulted or are their opinions
valid.
Israel’s “nation state law” (formally known as Basic Law:
Israel - The Nation State of the Jewish People), which came into force in 2018,
defines Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people,
constitutionally entrenching inequality and discrimination against non-Jews.
The law grants the right to self-determination exclusively to Jews, establishes
that immigration leading to automatic citizenship is exclusive to Jews and promotes
the building of Jewish settlements. It essentially establishes a theocracy (you
know, like that of Iran?) and since Israel collects income taxes from every Palestinian
employed in Israel and the occupied territories sets up a situation much like America’s
colonies who ass one might recall protested and went to war over “No taxation without
representation.”
Israel as a
state is simply another colonial attempt, following a war, one of whose aims
was to end colonialism, as stipulated in both the Atlantic Charter and the
Charter of the United Nations. Whether one thinks it justified or not, that's
all it is. Israel is Plymouth Plantation, and its Arab neighbors are Native
Americans, pushed off their land and told where they may live, as long as they
behave.
Imagine, some Jewish Americans think Israelis are
hypocritical. So do I.
For a detailed (and too long for this gram) historical analysis
of the evolution of the region from Abrahamic fantasy to the present read this
monograph in my blog:
No comments:
Post a Comment