Bruce Robbins on why he made a documentary about Shlomo Sand: “If everyone knew what Sand has discovered about the construction of the Jewish story of exile and return, beautiful but false, they would be a little shaken… I hope that American Jews who tend to be liberal will transfer their democratic values to Israel. Let’s be democratic across the board.”
The creation of the modern Hebrew language in Israel built upon romantic and messianic concepts of ‘return’ to the ‘promised land.’ It served a purpose of ethnic cleansing, as it serves the application of apartheid today.
The Israeli left is shocked when one of its legislators– Orly Levy-Abekasis — refuses to support a government that has the outside backing of Palestinian politicians. They shouldn’t be shocked. This is Zionism.
Israel’s third election inside a year shows the rightwing continuing to gain ground. This is what Jewish nationalists want. A society governed by an authoritarian leader, no matter how corrupt. Just so long as there are no Arabs anywhere near power. The only hope politically is the burgeoning Joint List of Palestinian parties, which reject apartheid and discrimination.
Voting for the 38th World Zionist Congress begins today, and progressive Zionist organizations in the US are encouraging American Jews to vote for their slate. Donna Nevel says the elections themselves illustrate the racism and inequity of Zionism: “Participating in the World Zionist Congress elections under the banner of progressive values effectively whitewashes Zionism’s impact on Palestinians. These elections don’t begin to tackle Israel’s unjust, apartheid system and its underlying Zionist ideology, but, rather, feeds that system and ideology and gives them more roots.”
The Modi-Bibi bonhomie rests on much more than personal chemistry, or even the Israeli military-industrial complex’s significant role in servicing Indian needs. It is rooted in the profound admiration of generations of Hindu nationalists for Zionism and its product, Israel, whose model of nation-state they seek to emulate in India.
ews are only safe walking around the West Village because Israel exists, and it’s “insane” not to understand this, says Bari Weiss of the NYT. She also says Jewish donors should stop giving money to “prestige” schools so as to fight for Israel. “The idea that there are very wealthy Jews giving their money to places that actively employ antisemitic professors is astonishing to me,” she says.
India’s Prime Minister Modi, his ruling BJP party, the RSS movement, and their intertwined actions can teach us all a lot about what Zionism is, how how both Zionism and Hindutva work to create and defend an exclusivist, ethno/sectarian-nationalist state.
In his new book, Zionist Betrayal of Jews, Stanley Heller demonstrates that Netanyahus embrace of Trump even as antisemtism spikes is in a tradition of Zionists forgiving powerful antisemites in the west if they can serve Zionist goals in the Middle East.
If you think Zionism is out of step with 21st century norms, then Trump’s declaration of war on anti-Zionism and BDS is the battle you have been waiting for.