Anti-Zionism or Anti-Imperialism is not Anti-Semitism or Bigotry

Due to Barack Obama’s recent trip to the Middle East, Israel again becomes as an often discussed topic. Though, I personally cannot remember a time when Israel was not an important foreign relations matter. In that time, it seems two groups have been created, those for Israel “Friends of Israel” and those against Israel “Anti-Semites.” This rhetorical device is of course very deadly to open discourse and that is all that it is, a rhetorical device. Criticizing Saudi Arabia’s policies does not make one an “Anti-Arab,” likewise, criticizing Israel’s policies does not make one an anti-Semite. I have been accused of this countless times over the past few years and the tactic is getting rather annoying.

The case against the Zionism is not the case against all Jews, just those who buy into Zionist philosophy. One finds that during criticism of Israeli Government/Zionism, one could just as well be arguing against Imperialism. Make no mistake about it, Zionism is by definition an imperialistic philosophy. The entire purpose of Zionism is imperial, and the logic behind the Zionist philosophy boils down to that of superiority (essentially bigotry) and special rights (some sort of stone-age religious theology). Those two factors are essential to imperialism. A quick study of modern imperial states reveals that those two factors remain consistent. The most extreme example of this being by the Nazis. Imperialism at all times requires a large and lengthy justification and to my knowledge, it has rarely, if ever, been properly and appropriately justified.

Quite Shocking Isn't It?

That of course remains the case with Zionism and actually Zionism is an extreme case of poor justification. It imposes harsh restrictions and unjust laws on the Palestinian people, settlements within Palestinian territory without any justification other than pure greed. A map that overlooks the Israel-Palestine territory distribution from say, 1940 to 2000 illustrates that point in such a way that no words can compete. If one would like to state concisely what Israel has done and is currently doing, it would go something like this: “The unjustified confiscation of lands by an illegal occupying state-sponsor of terrorism.” I should state that, by unjustified I do not mean that no argument has been put forth, but the arguments themselves are embarrassingly bad. It is a surprise that people can deliver them with a straight face.

The first argument they begin with is, Jews deserve a homeland and therefore the land of their far distant ancestors is the only logical one. The first half of the argument is a sentiment that I agree with, of course a large population of people should have some sort of “homeland” which they can claim as their own. My issue with the argument is second half which chooses its location. In this case, god seems to be the ultimate imaginary and invisible real estate agent. So it seems, god is incompetent at another job as he also promised the same bit of rather poor land to another people, convinced that their prophet transferred at Palestine on route to Heaven to have Sunday Brunch with Jesus, Moses and a couple other blokes (one of them being god). I suppose in the current state of matters, it is a useless endeavor to question the argument for the location of the Jewish homeland as it already is there and that’s not going to change anytime soon. So the argument I have to battle against is slightly different now. The question is, how can one bring peaceful coexistence into a land that peace has rarely ever remained constant. Well… the obvious solution is and always has been a Two State Solution. We have two different people and both are making claim to the same land, therefore cut the land in half, draw up some reasonable borders and call it a day. Of course, if it were that simple I would have no need to write at length about this subject.

Recently, the Israeli Government under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a two-state solution with for main stipulations.

1. Demilitarized Palestine
2. Unequivocal Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish State
3. Jerusalem as an only Israeli ruled territory
4. No Right of Return for Palestinian People

In response to the notion of a demilitarized Palestine. This sort of request is absurd beyond belief, it implies the notion that the Palestinian people do not deserve nor have the right to a military force that can resist aggressive Israeli Expansion on the West Bank. It makes very little sense to say, “the only way we will accept you as a neighboring nation is if you have no chance of ever undermining our imperialistic policies.” Netanyahu also stated that settlement building in the West Bank would still occur, but perhaps not as aggressively as before. What nonsense! So, Israel wants to strip Palestine of its only form of a defense in order for it to be accepted as a legitimate neighbor? The next notion is rather difficult for me to disagree with at this stage in the game, but I suppose those who have had their land stolen and their homes seized have a much more difficult time recognizing Israel. To the notion that Jerusalem should only be ruled by the Israeli government, Netanyahu seems to forget (perhaps purposely) that those Palestinians have just as much an equal claim to that land (perhaps even more so, since it was recently legally Palestinian land). Sure the city of Jerusalem plays a big role in the Jewish theology, but it plays a just as big a role in Muslim theology. The denial of right of return is perhaps the most disgusting stipulation out the four. How dare they ask the Palestinian people to self-relinquish their right to their own land, and let us not forget that the Palestinian right of return is fully legal under international law. One could go as far as to say international law demands the right of return for refugees.

Again and again, we see that anti-Zionism and also anti-Israeli Government is not antisemitism nor is it any other form of bigotry. Rather, the general notion of anti-Zionism and opposition to the policies of the current Israeli Government is simply coming into defense of basic human liberties. I do not hate the Jewish people, I just ask that their government begin acting as if they respect the human rights and dignity of someone other than their citizens.

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