Friday, August 27, 2004

Zionism and Judaism

Since we are dealing with a modern movement, Zionism, that strives to establish a homeland for the Jewish people, through utilizing many concepts from Judaism, it is indispensable that we understand this oldest monotheistic tradition that prevails until today.

JUDAISM:
Basic ideas: Judaism is a monotheistic religion that had come to existence through a series of Prophets sent to the Sons of Israel (the sons of Prophet Jacob, (Yacqoub)), of whom the most important was prophet Moses (Musa) to whom the Torah, which contains most of the Judaic teachings, was revealed. Basic ideas upon which the Judaic faith is based are:

The Concept of Unity of God.
The concept of the “Chosen People”, which means that God chose the Jews to be his closest and most beloved of all humankind, and to whom He bestowed His blessings.
The concept of the Holy Land, which means that God has devoted the most blessed of His lands, Palestine, to Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim) and his progeny, in particular to the sons of Israel, the Jews.

The concept of the Messiah (Mashih) who will come in the end of times to save the Jews and take them to their homeland (Palestine), from where they would establish their righteous rule over the world.

These basic concepts are mentioned here in an abstract manner, but there are many differences over them between the Jews of the world. Indeed, during the Judaic age, which started with Prophet Moses (Musa) and expired with the downfall of the Kingdom of Judah at the hands of the Babylonians (From 1250-586 B.C. if we take the longest interval), the basic beliefs and practices of Judaism were not yet clearly laid. During the period 200 B.C.-1000 C.E, four main different groups lived together under the same label, Jews, but they differed to extents that had sometimes reached to contradiction. These groups were in brief:

The Karaites: They appeared in Iraq during the eighth century C.E, they believed only in the Torah as a holy book, and rejected all the other scripts, including the Talmud (see below for the Jewish holy scripts). The Karaites followed the literal teachings of the Torah.

The Pharisees: They represented the masses and stressed upon piety and purity. They believed in all the scripts, including the Talmud, but did not follow them literally; on the contrary they imaginatively and innovatively understood the holy scripts. They believed in life after death and the Day of Judgment, and are seen as the great grandfathers by modern day Jews. Jesus (Prophet cIsa) preached mainly among this group and he accused them of being impure and deviant.

Sadducees: Unlike the Pharisees, this group represented the rich and educated elite. They appeared during the time of the Persian rule, and most of the Rabbis and servants of the Temple were among them. The Sadducees neither believed in the revival of bodies in the hereafter nor in the Day of Judgment. They also rejected the Talmud and followed the Torah literally. They conceived God as an ethnic one, who is the God of his people only, the People of Israel.

The Essenes: They believed in a form of religion and practice that is near to Christian monasticism. They lived an ascetic life that did not care for property or any other activity in life that distracted from worshipping God. This group started during the time of Jesus (Prophet cIsa).

We have mentioned these different groups to establish that Judaism is not a single concept, or even a belief, that was established and practiced in a certain form at one point of time. Consequently, when we refer to Jews we do not mean that they are of one faith, but rather people with some common beliefs, but do not even share the basic concepts. Yet, they conceive themselves as one for reasons that will be discussed below. Based on this, whenever we say: “Jews believe” or “Judaism says” we certainly do not refer to all groups, but mainly to most of them.

Holy Scripts: The Holy scripts of Judaism are not one and the same, they are composed generally of two scripts: The Old Testament (Tenach) and the Talmud.

The Old Testament is composed of 39 books of which the Torah forms the first five and the rest deal with the history of the Jews, their prophets and the Temple. They were compiled by 444 BC, more than 750 years after the death of Prophet Moses (Musa).
There are two traditions that explain the Torah, that is mainly compilations of rules of religious conduct, moral teachings and rules of civil life. First is the Mishnah that refers in a general way to the full tradition of the Oral Torah, as formulated by the Rabbis in the first centuries of the Common Era, and had to be transmitted and learned by word of mouth. The second is the Gemara, or the Talmud, both terms refer to the same thing and are derived from words that mean study and learning. The Babylonian Talmud is a commentary on the Mishnah, whose order it follows. It was composed over several generations, from the early third century to about the sixth. As a commentary, it deals with many aspects of the Mishnah, often going far beyond mere explanation.

Judaism: A religion or an ethnicity? The question that arises here is: if Judaism was not completely established, then on what basis do the Jews conceive themselves as one, and why are they united under one category despite massive differences? Further, if Judaism is a religion why do we say the “Jewish People” in the sense of a nation? Followers of one religion should be classified in religious and sectarian bases and not as “nations” or “ethnicities”.

Judaism has a distinctive nature among the Abrahamic religions, and among the major religions of the world, in its definition of believers and in setting the borders of the faith. Being a Jew is determined by two parallel factors, belief and heredity. Belief refers mainly to believing in the four common basics in their different versions. As for heredity, it is determined through motherhood, every child born to a Jewish woman is a Jew. Most of the Jews, and based on the concept of the chosen people, conceive God (Known in Hebrew as Jehovah) as their God and religion as an identity rather than a faith. Unlike the major religions of the world, most Jews believe in a Judaism that do not seek to expand its circle of believers through propagation, and they do not conceive any form of missionary to convert people to Judaism, apparently because of the concept of the chosen people. One cannot “become chosen” because God had already chosen his people, and his choice was to the Sons of Israel.

This understanding is supported by the concepts of sacred and of good and bad. Although Judaism stresses the unity and might of God, in many cases we find God personified and humiliated. He speaks to human and he debates the Rabbis; indeed the Rabbis might overwhelm and defeat him with their knowledge. Most of the concerns of God are devoted to the Jews and most of his activities are dedicated to them, he is happy when they are happy and feel sad and guilty when they are not. Jehovah leads and directs the Jews in their fight and truce, in their conquests and victories; his spirit is materialized in “his people”. In short, it is a story of a people and their loyal king rather than a God and his creatures.

Any deed that makes the Jewish people happy, or well off, is a good one from a religious point of view. Therefore, if you are born to a Jewish mother (Jew by heredity), but you denounce Jehovah as non-existing, and the Torah as a naïve myth book, then you will still be a good Jew if you do things that contribute to the well-being of the Jewish People. Therefore the question of apostasy is not very much of a question in contemporary “Israel”, even for communist and atheist “Jews”. This understanding explains much of the political behavior in contemporary “Israel”, it explains the rationale of a fundamentalist religious party forming a coalition government with a leftist socialist party, and that of a socialist party in accepting a religious party to take over important ministries like the ministry of education.

All the above reasons contribute to the great complexity and controversy in the definition of Judaism, is it a religion or an ethnicity? The answer seems to be that Judaism is a religion that does not have clear and accepted-to-all bases. Yet, being a Jew is very much dependant on heredity that could not be maintained through reaching a common understanding on the components of the faith, but rather through stressing the loyalty to the group; the only and most common characteristic among Jews is that they are born as such. To sum up, it is possible to say that Judaism is a faith that defines its loyalty in a way much similar to that of an ethnic group, but in religious term. Thus, if you contribute for the well being of the ethnic group, you are not a patriot but rather a saint.

This however does not make Jews an ethnic group because, until the emergence of Zionism that was based on this postulate, Jews of the world did not share common elements that qualify them to be an ethnic group, such as language, common history, common fate, genetic similarity or common culture except for some parts concerning Judaism that is not established over common bases as we have seen. Above all, at least for the last 1900 years (!), they missed the territory on which people interact and form social norms, institutions and culture. Judaism left its followers in a unique case of loyalty: to be culturally a part of the civilization of the place where you live in, but yet born with a different identity as a Jew, who partially shares some vague concepts with people around the world who were born with the same identity. While a Jew is very much a part of the place where he lives, at least culturally, he is totally detached from it in loyalty because he was born with a different identity that does not give him much more than a label and the status of being a member of a minority group. It was neither possible to be completely a member of society nor a member of another ethnic group in the real sense of the word.
Contemporary Jewish groups: the above background may help us to introduce the Jewish groups that exist today, and to understand the logic of their classification.
First: Ethnic Jews: who are Jews by definition. They were born as such, but they lost all their ties with Judaism as a religion. They believe that Judaism is an ethnicity and a cultural heritage rather than a faith. It is estimated that more than 50% of the Jews in the U.S., and far more than 50% of the Jews in the former USSR, are from this group. Therefore, Jews of this group form around half the Jews of the world; they are usually referred to as secular Jews.

Second: Jews with a form of religious belief, and they are divided into:
1. Orthodox Jews: They inherited the form of Judaism that existed in medieval Europe. They believe in the Torah as the word of God as well as in the Talmud. They consider all the teachings and legislations that come in these scripts to be compulsory for all Jews. They follow most of the teachings, including those of the Sabbath, the kosher food (the religiously approved food) and all the other Jewish rituals.

2. Reformist Jews: Followers of what is known as the school of Haskalah, which is a Hebrew expression for Jewish Enlightenment. It appeared as a response to Orthodox Jews, and represent the essence of the age of enlightenment in Europe. It tries to adapt Judaism to modern civilization, it proposes the superiority of rational thinking over all other sources, including religious ones, it tries to distinguish between ethnic, cultural and religious components of the Judaic faith, it calls for keeping the religious content only, dismissing the rest to make Judaism merely a religion. Therefore, they call for disregarding the idea of the coming of the Messiah and other related ideas as ethnic components of Judaism. Reformation, known as the Haskalah movement, strives to strengthen the ties between Jews and the society in which they live, in order to achieve more integration as a solution to the Jewish problem.

3. Conservative Jews: They represent more than one group, and believe that Judaism is “an expression of the constant spirit of the Jewish People” that developed and took different forms throughout history. Therefore, Judaism is not standardized, it undergoes changes that come out of the spirit of the Jewish people. This group conceives religion as Jewish Folklore and nothing more. Beliefs and views of this group are very much similar to those of Zionist Jews.

Both reformist and conservative Jews do not believe that the Torah is the word of God, or that it was revealed to Prophets, rather it is a compilation of teachings and wisdoms that prophets came up with through Godly inspiration and not revelation. Jewish rituals are not compulsory for them, they accept female Rabbis, homosexual marriage, and they see that religion is open to change because it is a human product, though they favor following some teachings like Sabbath and kosher food, occasionally as Folklore.

On the other hand, Orthodox Jews believe in Judaism as a religion, and in its holy texts and teachings that should be followed literally. Although Orthodox Jews control the religious institution in the “Israeli” society, they form only 5% of the Jews of the world.

ZIONISM:
Background: In the late nineteenth century, the Jewish Question became, for many reasons, a persistent problem in Europe, particularly after the emergence of nationalism in the continent, Zionism presented itself as the solution for the Jewish problem by calling for the establishment of a homeland for the Jews of the world. (See more on the emergence of Zionism)

Although Zionism may be traced to the eighteenth century, it never became an important option until the end of the nineteenth century. Zionism was first proposed by Jewish writers around Europe as the solution for the Jewish problem, but was not introduced in a comprehensive and systematic manner until Theodore Hertzl, a Jewish journalist from Austria, took the initiative and organized the First World Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 29-31 August 1897 CE. The conference declared the establishment of the World Zionist Organization (WZO) that aimed to “create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law”. By public law they meant international recognition. The WZO gradually grew larger and stronger, and it achieved its main goal by the establishment of the Zionist State “Israel” on Palestinian lands. Before this, few Jewish writers called for establishing a homeland for the Jews in Palestine, amongst them were Rabbi Zevi H. Kalischer who wrote in German “Looking for Zion”, and Moses Hess who, under the influence of the then Italian national struggle, wrote his book “Rome and Jerusalem: the Last National Question”. But, the most important and most pragmatic call for Zionism before Hertzl was that of the Jewish Polish thinker Leon Pinsker, who established a movement called “Hibbat Zion” (the lovers of Zion). It started working for its goal of a Jewish home in Palestine through direct, but unsystematic, settlement in Palestine. It bought lands there and raised a special fund to finance its activities. It penetrated into Palestine through the good offices of some corrupt Ottoman officials, notwithstanding the formal stand of Sultan Adbdulhameed II against any Jewish plans to settle in Palestine, and the restrictions he placed on Jewish migration there.

Development of the Zionist Project: Since the project to settle the Jewish People in a Jewish home was entertained, many destinations, other than Palestine, were proposed for its implementation. After his failure to achieve this goal through a negotiated deal with the Ottoman Caliph, Abdulhameed II, Hertzl, the President of the newly established World Zionist Organization, concluded that as long as the Ottomans control Palestine it will be closed in the face of Zionist activities. As a step towards Palestine, Hertzl had thus proposed settling the Jews in Cyprus until the political set up would change in Palestine, but he soon withdrew this project due to the strong opposition of Hebbat Zion opposed it strongly. He then suggested northwest Sinai, around the Egyptian territory of Al cAreish, but the British government, then in full control of Egypt, refused, and, instead proposed Eastern Africa, particularly Uganda. Hertzl took the project, which he considered a step in the right direction, to the Sixth Zionist Congress of 1903 that approved it with a slight majority, and recommended sending a special fact-finding committee on the suitability of Uganda for the Zionist project. Hertzl died a year later (July 1904), and the committee submitted a report that excluded Uganda as a possible destination for Jewish settlement. Other projects to settle in Libya, Argentina and other places were proposed, but were all turned down. Finally, the WZO declared in the Seventh Zionist Congress of 1905 that Zionists should not get involved in any project to settle the Jewish People outside Palestine, on which they subsequently focused.
Schools of Zionism: Throughout the history of Zionism, many interpretations developed on the movement that were reflected in the emergence of different schools of thought, inside and outside the World Zionist Organization (WZO). These schools are mainly:

1- Political Zionism: It was founded by Theodore Herzl himself, and, as its name indicates, it aimed to gain international support for the Zionist cause, and its project. Herzl and his school believed that their project was so ambitious that it needed to be patronized and facilitated by one of the world’s major colonial powers of that time. They therefore concentrated on the quest for international recognition, or a “charter” as they named it. Political Zionists believed that the funds of the “Jewish Colonial Trust”, of WZO, should be utilized solely for political maneuvers that would help in achieving their goals. Political Zionists hoped to persuade the Ottoman Empire to accept their project through an offer to pay part of the Ottoman debt in return. The way to Palestine was at that time seen to be only possible through the Ottomans who had been in control of the territory for the last four centuries. This approach had, however, failed because of the categorical rejection of Sultan Abdulhameed II to all such plans. Alternatively, the political Zionists looked for the support of Germany, a close ally of the Ottomans, to convince them to do so, as had been reflected in the frequent meetings that Herzl had with Prussian officials, and with the Emperor himself, until the beginning of WWI. By then, a strong trend emerged within the Zionist body to seriously seek British support for their cause.
The Political Zionists had initially controlled the WZO, but they soon faced strong opposition from the pragmatic Zionists who strove to launch the project immediately through direct colonization.
Today, we may argue that political Zionism no more exists in the above form, though the Revisionist Zionists may be considered as its heirs, or at least those who consider themselves to be so.
Revisionist Zionism: Revisionist Zionism is an extremist movement founded in 1925 by Vladimir Jabotinsky, a Polish Jew. He called for the direct establishment of a Jewish home on both sides of the Jordan River, including today’s Jordan, through direct, extensive and armed colonial activities. He rejected all British plans as too slow to achieve the Zionist goals. His ideas were, however, not popular among the various Zionist schools, at certain time he broke up with them and established a new Zionist organization that he called the New Zionist Organization (NZO). Revisionist Zionism is mainly a liberal national movement represented in today’s “Israeli” politics by the Likud Party, and its two main rival leaders are Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyaho. Amongst its former leaders was Premier Menachim Begin (1977-1983) and the four-time premier Yitzhak Shamir (latest was 1990-1992). The military arms of this school were the terrorists Irgun and Stern Organizations, that had both participated in the 1948 war and were responsible for many massacres, most infamous of which was Deir Yassin.

2- Labor Socialist Zionism: Socialist Zionism believes that the social composition of the Jews is unique and distinctive, thus they should refrain from being assimilated into other cultures. This school was mostly widespread among the Jews of Russia and Eastern Europe, its basic figures in the beginning were Naham Syrkin and Aharon Gordon who respectively stressed the ethical element of the Jewish culture and the role of labor and work values in creating the new home. This school had a strong impact on the Jewish refugees inside Palestine, and a decisive role in shaping the history of “Israel”. Its strength had been mainly acquired at the time of David Ben Gurion, the godfather of the Zionist State, and the champion of the immigrants in the WZO.

This school worked for the creation of a giant body of institutions that would shoulder all the responsibilities of the state before its formation, and would run its affairs once it is established. During that time they controlled the Jerusalem office of the Jewish Agency, and converted its executive committee into the first Government of “Israel” in 1948. They controlled the Jewish Colonial Trust which they converted into the “Israeli Central Bank”, and established the Labor Union, Histadrot, while their military arm, the Haganah Organization, that fought in the 1948 war, was converted into the “Israeli Defense Forces”, the official name of the “Israeli” army. They also had the Palmach, an elite military organization that was converted into the “Israeli” Commando force. Both military forces had played the major role in expelling the Palestinians in 1948.

This school, represented in “Israeli” politics by the Mapai, (Labor Party), controlled the Zionist State and led its government until the 1977 when the Likud overthrew it and revolutionized the “Israeli” polity. Basic figures of the Labor are, Shimon Peres, Prime Minister several times and foreign Minister in Sharon’s government until November 2002, Ehud Barak, a former Prime Minister, Benjamin Ben Eliezer, defense minister and Secretary General of the party until November 2002.

3- Religious Zionism: Religious Zionism, as its name indicates, emphasizes the religious nature of Zionism. It is divided into two main streams:
First: It believes that today’s Zionist movement, though secular in nature, participates in achieving the religious goals of Judaism, and would eventually follow the religious teachings. This school has been on the go since the early days of Zionism, and it basically encourages the Zionists to work for their goal, but without forgetting the Torah’s religious teachings. Its main founders were Yitzhak Cook and Chaim Landau, and is represented in today’s politics by the Mifdal (Religious National Party) led by Chaim Shabira, Yosif Bourg and Yitzhak Rafael.
Second: It is a group that had initially considered Zionism a form of heterodoxy that opposed the divine doctrine that do not allow the Jews to return to Palestine before the coming of the Messiah. It maintained this stand until the Balfour Declaration, which it, however, interpreted its promise of a homeland as the realization of the divine promise. However, while participating in Zionist activities, they do not recognize “Israel” as a proper state, they neither accept its flag nor conscript in its army. Yet they are accommodated by the various “Israeli” political parties, although they are occasionally criticized for their negative attitudes towards the existence of “Israel”. In today’s “Israel”, this school is represented in a way by Shas party, which is gaining increasing popularity, and its main figure had until recently been Arieh Der’iy.

4- Cultural Zionism: This school stresses the cultural unity of the “Jewish People”, it believes that the main danger that faces Jews of today is the loss of identity and assimilation into other cultures. It stresses Zionism as an ethnicity, and calls for keeping and reviving “Israeli” traditions among the Jews of the world, the Diaspora. However, it is not an independent school of Zionism; but is represented through the above schools.

Generally speaking, political differences seem to be marginal inside the Zionist body in the sense that they do not imply differences in the goals or in the ways of achieving them, but are mainly on strategy and priorities. They all agree on the goal of making Palestine a home for Jews through direct colonization, but differ over whether they should do it by themselves or through gaining international support. Until today, political differences still remain marginal. Except in “Israel”, it is indeed very rare for left wing parties to form coalition with religious parties, or give them important positions like the education ministry. We may safely conclude that the Zionists adopt political ideologies, like liberalism or socialism, as a means to achieve the Zionist agenda; the main substance remains the same.

Zionism as a form of discrimination: Zionism defines its self as a national movement that strives to achieve the national dreams of the Jews; but the reality is much different from this claim. The word national is related to a nation, mainly people living in a locality, a specific land that gives them its name, and is very much tied to the concept of ethnicity. The Jewish people, as we have seen, are not one ethnicity or one nation as such, but they entertain certain religious ideas that mix up their ethnic and religious identities, which do not, anyhow, qualify them to form a distinctive nation. Furthermore, Zionism did not pursue a national struggle per se because it did not exist on a certain land striving to liberate its people; rather, it is more of a form of colonization that excluded the autochthons of the land. Even if we accept that Jews constitute one nation and Palestine is their territory, there were, and are local Arab Palestinians living there before and after the ethnic cleansing of 1948, for whom Zionism has practically nothing. In other words, Zionism is an exclusive movement that excludes 20% of the population from its agenda, besides the refugees that it has already created. It then calls for apartheid rule that conceives only the Jews to be the citizens of the nation-because it is a state of the Jewish people in their homeland- and therefore Arabs are not part of this nation.

Based on this plausible argument, many international bodies, including the U.N. General Assembly, has maintained that Zionism is a form of apartheid and discrimination that should be eradicated, the U.N. issued resolution 3379 (XXX) of 1975 that dismissed Zionism as a form of racism and racial discrimination. This stand had, however, continued until the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991 when the General Assembly revoked this resolution on the grounds that this conference created a new political reality and was a demonstration of good will from both sides. The decision revoking the resolution.

The relationship between Zionism and Judaism:
Zionism utilizes and builds on many of the Judaic concepts discussed above; it calls for the return of the Jewish People to their homeland in Palestine, and justifies the right of the Jews to this land through religious arguments. i.e. the stories narrated in the Old Testament that claims Jewish ownership of the land, thus any people who subsequently stay in it are labeled as colonizers who usurped the rights of the Jews. For the Zionists, historical arguments are not as important as religious ones to support their claims. This, however, leads many observers to the conclusion that Judaism and Zionism are indeed the same, and that no distinction between them should be tolerated. They tend to equalize a Jew with a Zionist, and many Muslims thus consider all Jews as enemies. But this view is not really precise for the following reasons:

First: This view overlooks an important reality about religious-political movements. They all legitimize themselves through religious ideas, but they are never equal to the faith. We cannot, for example, say that the Muslim Brotherhood as a political movement equals Islam, the faith, and that all Muslims are members in Muslim brotherhood. Indeed, this is a simplistic approach that disregards existing facts. The adversaries of the Palestinians, the Arabs and the Muslims are, in fact, those who has colonized Palestine, caused the sufferings of its displaced people and strive to keep them displaced in order to settle the Jews in their place This is exactly what Zionism called for and practiced.

Second: Not everybody who works for the well-being of his fellow believers is necessarily a believer or a good one, many secular leaders participated in religious struggle which they understood from different perspectives. For example, the Muslim League Party of Mohammad Ali Jinah adopted secular policies to establish a Muslim state in Pakistan.

Third: Zionism is not only a Jewish movement; there are many non-Jewish Zionists, mostly Protestant Christians. Indeed, historically, non-Jewish Zionism started long before the World Zionist Organization.

Fourth: There are some anti-Zionist Jews, although they do not form a big sector of the Jews of the world. Among them is the Natouri Karta movement that believes in waiting for the Messiah-who has not yet come- before going to the Holy Land. There are some anti-Zionist Jewish thinkers around the world like the famous Naom Chomsky and Norman Finkelstien. It is neither just for these people nor in the interest of the Palestinian struggle to disregard such dignitaries and equate them with the Zionists.

The main religious ideas of Judaism that Zionism stressed are: The chosen people, which helped very much in conceptualizing Judaism as an ethnicity rather than a faith. They utilized and built on the concept of the Holy Land and the promise made for the Jews to own it. The concept of Messiah was also present in Zionism, especially for those who considered the Messiah a metaphor and interpreted him as Zionism itself that will take the Jews back to their homeland. They also depended on the Jewish scripts in validating their rights in Palestine through the historical narration in the Old Testament, Tenach.

# ANTENNA SHARON | 7:43:00 pm |