Thursday, September 02, 2004

The Emergence of Zionism

Zionism is a relatively modern movement whose early beginnings are traced to the 17th century, but it became an important movement only since the 19th century, especially towards its end. Zionism presented itself mainly as a solution for the “Jewish Question”, which is a modern phenomenon as well. To understand Zionism, we need to comprehend the Jewish question, the environment within which it emerged and the strategic considerations that facilitated its international recognition.

A- The Jewish Question:
In simple terms, the Jewish Question refers to the status of the Jews of the world in their countries, and the future of the worldwide Jewish minority. Most world countries, especially in Europe, were not considered as part of the nations where they lived. European nations regarded the Jews an alien group, who do not care for their national interest or national cause. On the other hand, should we refer to the religious background discussed in the previous topic, Jews had as well conceived themselves different from the local people, although, most of the time, they spoke the same language and practiced the same customs. This led to making the Jews a second-class, or even less, citizens in those countries.

The Jewish question was not a global issue as may be assumed, but a European phenomenon, particularly in Eastern Europe, that emerged there for reasons that will be clarified throughout the discussion.

Some imposing questions with regard to the Jewish Question had thus to be asked. Since the Jews had lived for a relatively long time in Europe, why did their problem suddenly appear? Why is it that by the end of the eighteenth century their presence became unwelcome? And if they were unwanted right from the beginning, why had the problem become so prominent, and why hadn’t Zionism start earlier than it did?

Answers to these questions may be summarized in the following points:

Before the fifteenth century, most of the World’s Jewry lived in the Muslim World, especially in Andalusia, and they are referred to as Eastern Jews, or Sephardim, who continued to form most of the world’s Jewish population until the 16th century. By then other Jewish group, known as the German Jews or Ashkenazim, increased dramatically in number, especially in Poland, constituting 50% of the world’s Jewry by the end of the 17th century. (See more in the Jews of the world). This population explosion among the Ahkinazim, which happened long before the industrial revolution, was due to the immigration of the Khazar Jews of the Khazar tribe that lived in southern Russia, who accepted Judaism in the 8th century, and were considered Ashkenazim. After the fall of their Kingdom, these Jews started a massive migration to Poland then under Russian control. The Ashkenazim, unlike the Sephardim, tended to live in isolation and avoided integration, thus they were unwelcome immigrants. By 1900 the World’s Jewish population reached 10.5 millions, of whom 90% were Ashkenazim, thanks to the Khazars.

At the same time nationalism was emerging and spreading throughout Europe, taking an aggressive shape most of the time. Russia was no exception; romantic Russian nationalism was emerging and expanding slowly. It was Slavic nationalism which did not welcome other ethnicities, and consistently and aggressively swallowed neighboring countries like Poland, that had regarded the Ashkenazim Jews an alien group and excluded them from the national boundary. In the peak of these developments, European Jews discovered that they would have no place if they did not assimilate into the societies in which they lived.

The above developments led to the emergence of what is known as anti-Semitism that reached its climax after the assassination of the Russian Tsar Alexander II in 1881, for which the Jews were unconvincingly blamed. Nonetheless, a massive anti-Jewish campaign spread, popularly known as anti-Semitism because the Jews descended from the Semitic race, and which the reflected the national trend that laid much emphasis on the genetic purity of the nation. The campaign involved some massacres and extreme hardship that triggered a massive Jewish migration of 2,367,000, Jews predominantly to Western Europe and the U.S, during the period 1881-1914. However, only 55,000 of them went to Palestine, a fact that shows how marginal was Zionism at that time, and, to some extent, how effective were the Ottomans restriction against Jewish migration to Palestine. The anti-Semitic policies of Nazi Germany (1932-1945), before and during World War II, caused another wave of migration, but to Palestine this time. The anti-Semitic campaign, undertaken first by Russia and then by Germany, had thus created a bulk of homeless people who became a fertile ground for Zionism, and from whom appeared its pioneers.

Religious reformation and the emergence of Protestantism, which considered the Old Testament a main source for the Christian faith, had directly exposed more people to the Old Testament and therefore to Judaic tradition. Ideas of the Messiah, the chosen people and the Promised Land became widespread. Protestant Christians looked at the Jews as “Palestinian strangers” living in Europe, but should return to “their” country. The existence of a Palestinian people living then in Palestine was totally off their minds that were very much shaped by the religious propaganda. Many Christian Protestants believe in the Millennial Reign when Jesus will come back to earth, marking the beginning of a thousand years of happiness in the world. But for him to come, “Israel” must be restored because the Prophecy stated that he would come to “Israel” and descend from heaven on the Temple (which means that the Temple has to be rebuilt replacing Al Aqsa. Indeed, abundant funds were sent by believers in this notion to “Israeli” Jewish organizations that adhered to this belief). Together with nationalism, this development persuaded most of Europe to think of the Jews as a “nation” with a land, that is Palestine. Historical sources, indeed, indicate that non-Jewish Zionism started before Jewish Zionism, and, in a way, caused it.

B- Strategic and Political Reasons:
Zionism emerged almost concurrently with the drive of imperialism, the great powers were competing for colonies and spheres of influence in the Middle East, and the Zionists had thus formulated their strategy in close cooperation with this imperialist trend. It has to be pointed, however, that Napoleon Bonaparte was the first statesman who viewed Zionism as a strategic force for colonizing the Middle East. On 20 April 1799, during his siege of cAkka (Acre), and in a desperate attempt to gain support for his campaign in Greater Syria, Napoleon issued a statement in the French official newspaper calling the world’s Jewry to support the French war effort in Palestine in return for a Jewish home there. Later on, when Britain controlled this area that was crucial for the safety of its imperial communications to the East (through Suez Canal), the Zionists quickly presented their project as a part and parcel of this Grand imperial project. British cooperation with the Zionists was thus motivated, inter alia, by this factor.

The disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, and the drive of European powers to divide its territories among themselves provided another impetus for the Zionist project. It was in the imperialist London conference of 1905-1907 that the notion of a “buffer state” in Palestine appeared, and promptly communicated to the British premier Campbell Bannerman. The idea was essentially the formation, in the eastern Mediterranean, of a pro-West alien entity that would constitute a human shield against the anti-West Muslim peoples of the region. The Jews were, no doubt, the best tool for the implementation of this imperialist project. Thus, the underlying factor behind the formation of this “buffer state” in the heart of the Muslim World was to isolate its Asian and African wings from each other, and obstruct, or, if necessary, crush any attempt for unity between them. The hostile Zionist entity was, programmed to engage the Muslims in a long and complex dispute that would drain their military and economic resources, and paralyze their political will vis-à-vis the Western superpowers. While the West guaranteed the continuity of the Zionist entity, the latter’s survival has been crucial for the realization of the Western imperialist aims in the region. The Christian West has apparently never forgot its eleven centuries long conflict with the successive powerful Muslim Caliphates: Al Rashidah, the Umayyad, the Abbasid, the Mamluk, and the Ottoman, who had all imposed their supremacy on the world. Nonetheless the progressive erosion of the Ottoman’s power since the 18th century inspired European imperialist powers, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries, to look for ways and means to prevent, by force if deemed necessary, any revivalism of the Muslim World. Hence was the notion of the “buffer state”, the codename for the establishment of a Zionist entity in the land of Palestine.

Wide range political changes took place in Europe that became dominated by secular national ideologies that propagated such values as human rights, freedom of speech, of belief, and universal suffrage. These developments, accompanied with the process of Jewish emancipation, enhanced the position of the Jews and allowed them more space to organize political activities and run organizations like the World Zionist Organization . In short, spheres of influence that had previously been largely closed to the Jews of these countries had now become available for their activities and influence.

C- Changes inside the Jewish groups:
This topic had been discussed in the previous part on Zionism and Judaism. Suffice to record here that most of the modern trends in Judaism appeared among the Ashkenazim, who formed the major subject of the Jewish Question. Two main trends, with totally different approaches, tried to deal with this question. The first was the Reformatory trend, known as the Haskalah, that was a form of enlightenment among the Jews. It called for making rational thinking superior to all considerations, including religious dogmas. All the Jewish texts should be judged in the light of rationalism that should dominate Jewish life. It called for purifying the Jewish faith from its ethnic and cultural content, and to take it as a faith, not an ethnicity or a blend of both. Based on the above, Haskalah movement called the Jews to assimilate in the societies in which they lived and be loyal to their nations not to Judaism. They should simultaneously adopt the culture of their societies and keep the Judaic faith, as this had become possible in the new relaxed political environment of Europe that allowed freedom of belief. The Haskalah achieved some success, especially by taking the Jews out of their isolation, in their ghettos, to the larger society, a development that had later on significantly contributed to increasing the Jewish influence, and thus eventually served the Zionist cause rather than the enlightenment. This success continued until 1880 when anti-Semitism strongly emerged, especially after the Jews were accused of assassinating the Russian tsar in 1881. Millions of Jews were subjected to extreme hardship and thus provided a fertile ground for the opposite force, Zionism.

The other important movement that presented itself as a solution for the Jewish Question was Zionism. It viewed the Jews as a nation without land, and capitalized on the Jewish concept of the Promised Land, Palestine the would-be home for this “homeless nation”. In total contrast with the Haskalah, Zionism found an interested audience in the frustrated Jews of Poland, and, later on, Germany. (For a detailed discussion of Zionism see Zionism and Judaism )

# ANTENNA SHARON | 4:25:00 pm |