The foundations of Zionism were laid during a time when nobody could imagine any other solution of minority or nationality problems than the autonomous national state with a homogenous population; Zionists are afraid that the whole building might crack if they abandon their old ideas. The contrary is true: the building will collapse if we don't adapt our minds and our ideas to new facts and new developments.
-- Hannah Arendt, "The Crisis of Zionism" (February 1943)
[The] fundamental tension between Zionism and liberal democracy cannot be fully resolved within Israel's borders. But it can, to some extent, be resolved outside them. Were Israel to permit the creation of a Palestinian state that enabled a Palestinian right of return and expressed Palestinian identity in its anthem and flag, Arab Israelis, like diaspora Jews, would have a country that expressed their special character as a people, even if they chose not to live there.
-- Peter Beinart, "The Crisis of Zionism" (2012)
I really like Arendt for both the fact that she was moral brilliance personified and that Saul Bellow despised her for the same. But Arendt’s claim that the “foundations of Zionism were laid during a time when nobody could imagine any other solution of minority or nationality problems than the autonomous national state with a homogenous population” is, as we now know, threadbare. In fact, there were a few brave people who did imagine a moral solution. They were silenced and ran over.
It was an amoral, criminal act then and it is in hindsight. Arendt probably said these words to conciliate the intended audience and move them to act upon the present.
Beinart wrote a whole book on why liberals should support the Iraq War. It would have been appropriate for him to revisit those ideas and also critique some of the assumptions he held as a member of the liberal class. Even if he made the case as a liberal Zionist, it doesn’t explain why many liberals supported the Iraq War. Why isn’t he also bothered about the opposing tradition in liberalism that enforces violence?
link to guardian.co.uk
And what that means now. I feel he has skipped a whole ideology which has never made sense. What would Israel mean as a liberal democracy? Would The Good Fight be good then? That’s not the end.
old facts and old developments
religion has been and most will be the bane of civilization
Jefferson, John Adams, Mark Twain and many many many others have said the same thing more or less…and now with folks creating life, religion just ain’t so magical no mo….with the exception of the truly mystical stuff from the India/China…which seems to be the coming deal…or Solaris…
if one starts to believe they are the “chosen people by God” then you start down the merry path of the nincompoops…which God?…Well the only “true” god…youbetcha…
Mormons seem to solve some of the problem by making everybody a god (goddess)…and Hie to Kolob…Yipppeee!
You kinda start to wonder whether that was the jew problem all along…great until somebody else’s god comes along and beats the hell out of you…
Sure the building will collapse…it’s built on quicksand and nothingness…
“Were Israel to permit the creation of a Palestinian state that enabled a Palestinian right of return and expressed Palestinian identity in its anthem and flag, Arab Israelis, like diaspora Jews, would have a country that expressed their special character as a people, even if they chose not to live there.”
The contradiction within the paragraph. He can’t even call them palestinians. Israel can’t “permit the creation of a palestinian state” because it does not recognise the Palestinians as a people with the right to self determination. They are just Arabs who have 22 countries to choose from . Which is why Israel and Beinart call them Arab Israelis.
The only recognition that Israel can grant the Palestinians is that they are Zionism’s niggers.
I think Beinart’s paragraph does imply that “Arab Israelis” are Palestinians (which is why he says Arab Israelis would have the same relationship to the Palestinian state he favors that diaspora Jews have to Israel). He merely calls the Palestinians living within Israel “Arab Israelis” to distinguish them from other Palestinians, and in particular from Palestinians living within the new Palestinian state.
He could call them Palestinians with Israeli passports.
Arab Israeli is a colonial term IMO.
Every time I see statements of Beinart’s like the one above I just turn away in disgust at how insulting this kind of childish reasoning is to rational people….it’s, it’s…I can’t find a word for it.
“like diaspora Jews, would have a country that expressed their special character as a people, even if they chose not to live there.”‘
Yea, all diaspora people need a country’ that they don’t live in’ to expresses their special character… and that is the solution for Palestines….give them a few flags and etc. in return for their land and resources…
what the heck, armed with their flag and anthem palestinians can look forward to cheering for their athletes every four years at the olympics. assuming, that is, that the israel & the u.s. allow them to participate in this expression of national pride, which undoubtedly would satisfy their quest for self-determination.
Flags and if they are really good they can get a few buttons. And a pat on the head.
Those days have passed, I’m afraid.
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so even though israel’s the last place i’d choose to live in, the apartheid entity’s supposed to express my special character as a jew? but since israel didn’t exist for the initial two decades of my life, what, for this period of time i was less than a fully expressed jew; until that is, along came 1948 and then, presto, i was endowed with some mystical special character attributes? and exactly what are the newly acquired attributes that could possibly justify putting all living beings at risk?
You get to be part of an ancient mystical tribe yourstruly….although I think you have to make some kind of zionist blood oath or ‘make your bones’ first to actually get a slice of the benefits.
“kind of zionist blood oath or ‘make your bones’ first to actually get a slice of the benefits.”
Would it surprise you if those closest to the initial dispossession or those in the military closest to the original Zionist terrorist groups occupy the highest rungs of the Israeli regime?
“Would it surprise you if those closest to the initial dispossession or those in the military closest to the original Zionist terrorist groups occupy the highest rungs of the Israeli regime?”….Mooser
Nope, wouldn’t surprise me at all. When I reading thru the ” Absentee Property Law” Israel created to take over the property and homes of the fled Palestines and the assorted papers on it…..it was pretty clear that the so called leaders in ’48 got first choice of prime real estate and abandoned business…. basically way the law worked was the “officials” gave whatever they wanted to to whoever they wanted. ..most likely themselves and their co terriers first.
“and exactly what are the newly acquired attributes that could possibly justify putting all living beings at risk?’
Don’t you understand? Now Zionist Jews can, as a final insult to the Gentiles, have a country and a nationality they can think about in the same degraded, exceptionalist, violent way that Zionist Jews think all the Gentiles think about their own country and nationality. Besides, it’s a rough neighborhood.
“and exactly what are the newly acquired attributes that could possibly justify putting all living beings at risk?’
Tanning oil, steroids, and personal ads in Tel Aviv
If Mr. Beinart has characteristics that he shares with some other people (what are they? is he sure that these other people are so like him? if so, why does he wring his hands so publicly about what they do?) but he doesn’t choose to live among them, other things must be significantly more important to him. How then can he justify setting up and maintaining at vast expense in human suffering and hard cash an institution that performs this expression, which after all is not so important?
I’m not sure that Arendt is right to say that in the early twentieth century the only way anyone could conceive of protecting minorities was transforming them into majorities somewhere or other. The old Czechoslovakia, for instance, may have failed but it was built on the idea that Czechs, Slovaks and Germans, not to mention Jewish people within these groups, could live together well enough. The idea or conception existed even if the likes of Hitler were determined that it should not succeed.
The Zionists say they want the Jews to have their own nation-state just like all other peoples do, but this outdated embrace of ethnocracy and of vague and romantic nationalist ideas is actually what differentiates the “Jewish state” from other nation-states.
“[A] binational state protected by an Arab federation is nothing else than minority status within an Arab empire.”
It was always going to be subsumed into the wider polity, Hoph. If you didn’t want to live in the Middle East you should never have set up your colony in the Middle East.
“[A] binational state protected by an Arab federation is nothing else than minority status within an Arab empire.”
Like the numerous minority states in the USA…