XPost: alt.atheism, soc.culture.israel, alt.bible.prophecy   
   XPost: sci.electronics.design   
   From: jl@glen--canyon.com   
      
   On Sat, 10 May 2025 18:31:48 -0400, NefeshBarYochai    
   wrote:   
      
   >Straight Talk About Zionism: What Jewish Nationalism Means   
   >By Mark Weber   
   >   
   >   
   >It’s important to understand Zionism, not just because it’s an   
   >influential ideology and a powerful social-political movement, but   
   >also because there’s a lot of ignorance, confusion and deliberate   
   >misinformation about it.   
   >   
   >If you look up the word “Zionism” in a standard American dictionary,   
   >what you’ll find is likely to be inaccurate, or at least misleading.   
   >For example, a popular and supposedly authoritative American   
   >dictionary in my office defines Zionism as “A movement formerly for   
   >reestablishing, now for supporting, the Jewish national state of   
   >Israel.” / 1 This definition, which is typical of American reference   
   >works, is more than just misleading. It’s deceitful.   
   >   
   >The founder of the modern Zionist movement was a Jewish writer named   
   >Theodor Herzl. In the 1890s he was living in Paris, where he was a   
   >journalist for a major newspaper in Vienna. He was deeply troubled by   
   >the widespread anti-Semitism, or anti-Jewish sentiment, in France at   
   >the time. He thought a lot about the pattern of tension, distrust and   
   >conflict between Jews and non-Jews that had persisted through the   
   >centuries, and he hit upon what he believed is a solution to this   
   >age-old problem.   
   >   
   >Herzl laid out his views in a book, written in German, entitled The   
   >Jewish State (Der Judenstaat). Published in 1896, this work is the   
   >manifesto or basic document of the Zionist movement. A year and a half   
   >later, Herzl convened the first international Zionist conference.   
   >Fifty one years later, when the “State of Israel” was solemnly   
   >proclaimed at a meeting in Tel Aviv, above the speakers’ podium at the   
   >conference was, appropriately, a large portrait of Herzl.   
   >   
   >In his book Herzl explained that regardless of where they live, or   
   >their citizenship, Jews constitute not merely a religious community,   
   >but a nationality, a people. He used the German word, Volk. Wherever   
   >large numbers of Jews live among non-Jews, he said, conflict is not   
   >only likely, it’s inevitable. He wrote: “The Jewish question exists   
   >wherever Jews live in noticeable numbers. Where it does not exist, it   
   >is brought in by arriving Jews … I believe I understand anti-Semitism,   
   >which is a very complex phenomenon. I consider this development as a   
   >Jew, without hate or fear.” / 2   
   >   
   >In his public and private writings, Herzl explained that anti-Semitism   
   >is not an aberration, but rather a natural response by non-Jews to   
   >alien Jewish behavior and attitudes. Anti-Jewish sentiment, he said,   
   >is not due to ignorance or bigotry, as so many have claimed. Instead,   
   >he concluded, the ancient and seemingly intractable conflict between   
   >Jews and non-Jews is entirely understandable, because Jews are a   
   >distinct and separate people, with interests that are different from,   
   >and which often conflict with, the interests of the people among whom   
   >they live.   
   >   
   >A prime source of modern anti-Jewish sentiment, Herzl believed, was   
   >the so-called “emancipation” of Jews in the 18th and 19th centuries,   
   >which brought them from the confined life of the ghetto into modern   
   >urban society and direct economic competition with non-Jews in the   
   >middle classes. Anti-Semitism, Herzl wrote, is “an understandable   
   >reaction to Jewish defects.” In his diary he wrote: “I find the   
   >anti-Semites are fully within their rights.” / 3   
   >   
   >Herzl maintained that Jews must stop pretending – both to themselves   
   >and to non-Jews – that they are like everyone else, and instead must   
   >frankly acknowledge that they are a distinct and separate people, with   
   >distinct and separate goals and interests. The only workable long-term   
   >solution, he said, is for Jews to recognize reality and live, finally,   
   >as a “normal” people in a separate state of their own. In a memo to   
   >the Tsar of Russia, Herzl wrote that Zionism is the “final solution of   
   >the Jewish question.” / 4   
   >   
   >Over the years many other Jewish leaders have affirmed Herzl’s   
   >outlook. Louis Brandeis, a US Supreme Court justice and a leading   
   >American Zionist, said: “Let us all recognize that we Jews are a   
   >distinctive nationality of which every Jew, whatever his country, his   
   >station or shade of belief, is necessarily a member.” / 5   
   >   
   >Stephen S. Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress and of the   
   >World Jewish Congress, told a rally in New York in June 1938: “I am   
   >not an American citizen of the Jewish faith. I am a Jew … Hitler was   
   >right in one thing. He calls the Jewish people a race, and we are a   
   >race.” / 6   
   >   
   >Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, wrote in his memoirs:   
   >“Whenever the quantity of Jews in any country reaches the saturation   
   >point, that country reacts against them … [This] reaction … cannot be   
   >looked upon as anti-Semitism in the ordinary or vulgar sense of that   
   >word; it is a universal social and economic concomitant of Jewish   
   >immigration, and we cannot shake it off.” / 7   
   >   
   >In keeping with the Zionist worldview, Israeli prime minister Ariel   
   >Sharon told a meeting of American Jews in Jerusalem in July 2004 that   
   >all Jews around the world should relocate to Israel as soon as   
   >possible. And because anti-Semitism was especially widespread in   
   >France, he added, Jews in that country should immediately move to   
   >Israel. French officials quickly, and predictably, responded by   
   >rejecting Sharon’s remarks as “unacceptable.” / 8   
   >   
   >But imagine if the leaders of France, the United States, and other   
   >countries were to respond to those remarks by Sharon, and similar ones   
   >by other Zionists, by expressing agreement. Imagine if an American   
   >president were to respond by saying: “You’re right, Mr. Sharon. We   
   >agree with you. We agree that Jews do not belong in the United States.   
   >In fact, we are ready to show our support for what you say by doing   
   >everything we can to promote and encourage all Jews to leave our   
   >country and move to Israel.”   
   >   
   >That would be the logical and honest attitude of non-Jewish political   
   >leaders who say that they support Israel and Zionism. But the   
   >political leaders of the United States, France, Britain, and other   
   >such countries today are neither honest nor consistent.   
   >   
   >During the 1930s, one European government that was honest and   
   >consistent in its attitude on this issue was the government of Third   
   >Reich Germany. Jewish Zionists and German National Socialists shared   
   >similar views about how best to handle what Herzl called “the Jewish   
   >question.” They agreed that Jews and Germans were distinctly different   
      
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