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by Peter A. Belmont / 2010-04-28
© 2010 Peter Belmont
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Zionism defined as support for “a” Jewish State is no definition at all. It is like saying “What I want for dessert is dessert.” “How much do you want?” “Some.”
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Someone writes that:
“Goldstone is not the only decent Zionist in the world. I know many other people I consider to be very decent, reasonable, and honorable, who believe in the appropriateness, even the necessity, of a Jewish State.”
Let me explain why I have such difficulty with such a statement.
I very much dislike to read that someone (as a Zionist) supports “a” Jewish State. This is a seriously incomplete statement to the point of meaninglessness. What does “a” mean in this sentence? If we cannot tell whether the speaker supports “this” Jewish State, we (anti-Zionists or anti-this-particular-Israel-today-ists) do not even know if the speaker is an enemy or a friend.
Is the “Jewish State” he thinks “appropriate” located in Palestine at all? If so how much of Palestine does it occupy? And which part? The questions do not end there (although, years ago, they started there).
If Judge Goldstone (or anyone else) wants to call himself a Zionist who supports “a” Jewish State (I don’t know that Judge Goldstone would so express himself, but he is called a Zionist), let him have the decency to explain what the “a” means. Does it mean “this” Israel (assuming arguendo that Israel is a Jewish State), you know, the one which mistreats its own non-Jewish citizens and runs this horrible, horrible (and expanding and never-ending) occupation, the one that feels the necessity to start wars from time to time in which to kill so many innocent people as “collateral damage” to a war that should never have been started?
Or does it merely express a sort of pious wish or dream, you know, support for some Jewish State in the sky, somewhere in a galaxy far, far away, where there is no occupation, no usurpation of the Palestinian homeland, no expulsion and forced exclusion of the Palestinian people from their homes for 62 years, no barbed wire, no bayonets. no phosphorus bombs and child-maiming cluster-bombs? Perhaps something Judah Magnes would have supported as a Jewish National Home in Palestine (among the others and not instead of the others)?
Perhaps there is a Zionist somewhere who does not accept “this” Israel (today’s Israel, the factual Israel) but is not opposed to “some” removal of Palestinian lands, some inconveniencing of the Palestinian people, but who despises the reality of “this” occupation as much as I do and wants Israel to withdraw entirely and as soon as possible from ALL the territories occupied in 1967. Such a person should stand up and explain, especially to the Jews in the USA, what he “demands” or “desires” or “finds appropriate” by way of Zionism and what he detests as to “this” Jewish State.
But don’t weasel out of it by saying “a”. A lot depends on what the meaning of “a”, ahhhhh, is.
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