Today we're trying to counter the feverish Zionist obsession with Islamic fundamentalism. Occupation magazine (kibush) publishes a devastating review by Ran Greenstein, a South African, of Benny Morris's new book, One State, Two States:
The very opening words
invoke the spectre that is haunting Morris, the spectre of “Palestinian
Arab Islamic fundamentalists”. This bogey man makes its appearance
repeatedly, apparently as part of the overall “Islamic world’s assault
on the West” (p. 6). The entire history of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict has been re- written by Morris to reflect the ever-present,
uncompromising, never-changing opposition of fundamentalist Muslims to
Jewish presence in the country (and to the West in general – on p. 156
Morris warns it to expect Hamas suicide bombers on its doorstep,
seriously…).
Any other manifestation of Arab secular
nationalism, quest for human and political rights, opposition to
occupation, campaigns to prevent or reverse dispossession, demands for
equality, are nothing but disguises for the operation of this
fundamental and fundamentalist force…In France, the likes of [soccer players] Zinedine Zidane (of Muslim Algerian
background), or of Thierry Henry (of Caribbean ancestry) are entitled
to full equality and share in national wealth and power no less than
the descendants of the ancient Gauls, even if they have no ethnic
linkage to them at all, or to the Catholic church. In Sweden, the likes
of Zlatan Ibrahimovic (of Bosnian Muslim origin) are entitled to full
enjoyment of citizenship rights as the descendants of the Nordic tribes
of ancient times. This is not the case in Israel, in which citizenship
and access to resources are determined to a large extent by ethnic
origin and religious affiliation, and in which civic nationalism that
encompasses all citizens regardless of ethnicity and faith does not
exist. Even countries that may give preference in the acquisition of
citizenship to ethnic kin of the majority group (Germany, Hungary), do
not do that at the expense of indigenous non-German or non-Magyar
groups, as is the case in Israel.To fail to see this basic distinction is not just philosophically shaky but also plainly dishonest.
