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Against Zionists not Jews

a Zionism On The Web Special

Against Zionists not Jews

"I'm against the evil Nazi Zionists, Racist Zionists and the Apartheid Zionist State... but I'm not anti-Jewish. Some of my best friends are even Jewish" - statements like this are very worrying. They show a complete lack of understanding about Zionism, not to mention Judaism.

Zionism is the national self determination movement of the Jewish people. Zionism is the belief in a Jewish homeland for the Jewish people, in Israel. Zionism is the Jewish people's instantiation of the human right of self determination. 99% of Jews are supportive of the existance of the Jewish state - that makes them Zionists.

Zionists can be and often are critical of some decisions of the government of Israel, just like British people living in America can be critical of the British government, or Americans in Canada can be critical of the US President. Israelis (Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Athiest) are even more critical of their politicians - just like healthy democracies everywhere. Jews support their right for a Jewish homeland, but they also support democracy - including a free and critical press. The difference is that reasonable people also notice the positive things the Israeli government and people do.

If Zionism is about minority rights, why are so many people against Zionism?

The Jews

The web site www.jewsagainstzionism.com claims that True Torah Jews are anti-Zionist. It belongs to the Ultra Orthodox Chassidic Satmar sect. The group numbers about 124,000 and believe that the Jewish homeland can not be created until the messiah comes. Many members of the sect live in Israel but refuse to accept welfare from the state or pay taxes. The Satmar sect does NOT support terrorism and does not get involved in political campaigning against Israel. There make up less than one percent of the Jewish population world wide and account for vast majority of non Zionist Jews. See more at Wikipedia.

More problematic are the 2,000 odd Neturei Karta members. Unlike the Satamar which are based on religious beliefs going back centuries, Neturei Karta were only created in 1935 and are explicitly political activists. This small radical anti-Zionist group was condembed even by Satmar in April 2002, and again in November 2004 for their prayers for Arafat. The Satmar Rabbi when invited to meet with the PLO in the 1970's replied "I do not meet with murderers." Neturei Karta by contract are always present at PLO rallys and usually appear with other anti-Israel activists at every opportunity.

With the exception of Neturei Karta, the Satmar and a handful of (usually left wing) anti-Zionist academics the vast majority of the Worlds Jews are Zionists... about 99%. The anti-Zionists are by far the anomaly.

The Arabs

Many of the Arabs (Israeli Arabs being a large exception) wish to restore Arab control over Israel. This turned to violence well before the stablishment of the state of Israel, see for example Jerusalem pogrom of April, 1920.

The Left

Put simply, many on the left feel Israel betrayed them. At one point Israel was the darling of the left. The Kibutz system was (and is) institutionalised socialism. This article points out the support from the left for Israel in her early days. This article The Left and Israel - Not Anti-Semitism explains the problem the left has with a successful western state - which is largely what Israel now is. Except has been taken to the argument that the left is not antisemitic, the best place to read about this is That's Funny You Don't Look Anti-Semitic a publication by Steve Cohen from 1984, republished by engage online in 2005.

The Right

The far right tend to be against Jews. It's usual to hear anti Israel rather than anti-Jewish comments from the far right. What you do hear is the arguments of the far right recycled by the far left, usually with the word "Zionist" substituted for Jew.

In summary

Almost all Jews (99%) are infact Zionists, but the definition Zionists (and infact almost all Jewish anti-Zionists) themselves use. If you use an antisemic defintion such as Zionism as Racist you can ofcourse invent statistics as you please. However you may as well declare Jews to be organges for all the meaning that has. It is unfortunate that a few sites, mostly antisemitic ones such as Serendipity link to the sites of the Satmar and Neturei Karta and try to spin a narrative of Zionists being a minority of Jews. It's unfortunate both because people believe it and get their facts wrong, but also becuase of the antisemitism they spread, antisemitism that those who wish to draw a destinction between the minority called Jews and the "evil entity" they have been attacking called Zionism are more than susceptible to.

 

Other featured articles on Zionism and Israel

Why I am a Zionist - The author takes stock of his feelings on Israel and Zionism on the occasion of Israel's 53rd Birthday

Do not treat Israel like apartheid South Africa - The comparison with South Africa is intellectually lazy, morally questionable, and possibly even mendacious

External Zionism Links

This site provides resources about Zionism and Israeli history, including links to source documents. We are not responsible for the information content of these sites. These links are NOT intended to be an exhaustive reference about Zionism, but the list will keep growing...

Please tell us about your favorite links and we will review them for inclusion.

Copying - Please do copy these pages, and especially these links to your Web site,  giving credit to Zionism on the Web  www.zionismontheweb.org

 Thank you.

Please link to our Sister Web sites - at  http://www.zionism-israel.com   Information about Israel and Zionism and http://www.zionism.netfirms.com The Zionism Pages

Wikipedia article about Zionism - A comprehensive article including the history of Zionism  as well as links to specific topics and articles about anti-Zionism.

Zionism - Table of contents at the Jewish Virtual Library

Zionism, Israel, Palestine Blog

Zionism article at Infoplease

Zionism - Definition and Brief History - A balanced article that covers the definitions and history of Zionism as well as opposition to Zionism and criticisms by Arabs,  Jewish anti-Zionists.

Labor Zionism - Early History and Critique - Contribution of Labor Zionism to the creation of the Jewish state, and problems of Labor Zionism in a changing reality.

The US Library of congress has a comprehensive and balanced set of articles about Zionism:

Zionist Precursors - US Library of Congress

Political Zionism - US Library of Congress

Cultural Zionism - US Library of Congress

Labor Zionism - US Library of Congress

Revisionist Zionism - US Library of Congress

Essential Texts of Zionism

Jewish Agency Zionism pages - Links to basic information about Zionism from the Jewish Agency

Ambassador Herzog explains Zionism in the UN

Advocacy

Active Zionism - A Zionist advocacy site with many useful links

Realistic Religious Zionism - moderate religious Zionist Web site


Zionism On The Web Directory

Learn more about this site at our main page. Comment and add your thoughts to our forums. See our special section on the Academic Boycotts of Israel. Learn more at our Zionism Commentary collection. Extend your learning through out collection of links or at our links directory