Modern Zionism
I chose the Modern (political) Zionist Movement as my second entry because it is mostly unknown, highly controversial and insulated from being examined because it is considered taboo to be critical of Jews.
Starting in the middle 1800’s with Moses Hess, the idea of a national home for Jews re-appeared. The debate existed in ancient times, as a religious disagreement within the tribal nation of Israel: God had exiled the Jews for their lack of obedience. Some Israelites had a desire to re-occupy their tribal lands, in contradiction of God’s mandate.
The modern Zionist Movement, beginning with Moses Hess (and comically with Henry Wentworth Monk,) eventually flowered into a powerful political ideology. The “problem” of Jews failing to assimilate into the countries and cultures they lived in created a need for a “National Jewish Homeland” in the minds of some elitist intellectuals.
Theodor Herzl is typically given credit for fathering the idea of a “Secular Jewish State”. His most famous work concerning Zionism is his book “The Jewish State” written in 1896. By 1897 Herzl had called the First Zionist Congress. Despite some bickering over the location, Herzl was finally able to establish Basel Switzerland as the meeting place. The World Zionist Organization was born, and their agreed goal was to have a Jewish state. Zionism has remained a controversial subject within the Jewish community since its re-emergence in the middle 1800’s.
The true goal of Modern Zionism was the establishment of the Jewish State of Israel. This goal was accomplished on May 14, 1948 when the United Nations declared two separate states to exist in those hotly debated Middle Eastern territories: namely Israel and Palestine. U.S. President Harry Truman immediately acknowledged Israel, making the United States the first to recognize Israel as a country. Palestine has never been recognized as a country—thus the problems of the Middle East continue to this day. Technically, Zionism today is support for the state of Israel. True political Zionism accomplished its goal in 1948 when Israel fought its “War of Independence”.
This is the little known truth about the Zionist movement—they used terrorism and intrigue to establish their foothold in the Middle East. It was the Jews who introduced explosives to the Arabs (read the last link carefully). The car bomb was a tool first used by Militant Zionist groups like the Hagana, The Stern Gang (Lehi), the Irgun and the less widely known Palmach. The most notable Zionist Terrorist attacks were the Lavon Affair (known in Israel as the shameful affair) and the King David Hotel Bombing.
Both of these attacks were carried out with Jewish Militants posing as Arabs. Placing the blame for the bombings on Arabs would strengthen the position of the Militant Zionists and garner support. Zionism has a long history of False Flag Terrorism, with some people speculating that they were responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
The effects of Zionism touch each part of society. Zionism has a huge influence on politics. Amazingly—it is mostly hidden in the United States. Media sources and politicos take the United States’ support for Israel for granted. We were first in recognizing Israel, and we remain first in supporting her: in word and in deed.
The most startling reality, in my opinion, is the massive support for Zionism outside of the Jewish community. The Christian Zionists support Israel financially (with regular donations), politically (with sermons of military solidarity), and spiritually with prayers and special interpretations of scripture.
The support for Israel in the mainstream media and entertainment industry is startling. If you want information that is less biased, you will have to rely on the international press. Even the international press is slanted in Israel’s favor, but they are willing to criticize—something the U.S. mainstream media is rarely capable of. While Arabs are regularly painted as terrorists in the news, movies and on television, the role of any Jew, (especially an Israeli), as a terrorist, or a criminal is all but missing from their scripts.
My continued studies of world events have led me to many shocking subjects. But none shocked more than to learn that Modern Political Zionism had such an enormous influence in the world. I had never heard of it. It was never mentioned in school, and when I became a student of Zionism, I was immediately labeled as a racist, bigoted, Jew-hating anti-Semite. Being I had known only two Jewish friends in my life, I was shocked to find that I allegedly hated them so much—and I didn’t even know it!
Usually prejudice stems from a repeated string of personal experiences. I know an old man who used to own a chain of ice cream parlors. He was repeatedly robbed, mugged and beaten by various black men who had moved into the neighborhood. To this day he is prejudice against blacks. Although I disagree with his prejudice, I understand it. He is gun shy based on his extremely negative past experience. For people to claim that I was now “anti-Semitic”, simply because I had begun to study World Zionism and found a TON of conflicting and negative information, was shocking.
I have tried to see the positive side of the Zionist movement, but it just does not work for me. I sympathize with the Palestinians when the Israeli Defense Forces use machine guns, tanks and grenades to respond to kids throwing rocks and the occasional rocket fire.
Lastly I must say that I think that the Jewish people have suffered from Zionism the most. Many Jews were staunchly anti-Zionist from the beginning. Many more still are today. In retrospect, the idea that a strictly Jewish state can be established in the middle of a bunch of Arab and Muslim countries is absurd. Jews who have been fooled into moving to Israel, to live in fear of Arab attacks, are suffering needlessly. Zionist ideology is to blame.
I bought a book called “God Cried” for ten dollars on the internet. Written by Tony Clifton with photographs by Catherine Leroy, the book describes the invasion of Lebanon by the Israelis in 1982. Similar to the invasions of Gaza that have happened recently, the Israeli’s bombed schools and hospitals in Lebanon. They machine gunned innocents and rocketed ambulances—all in the name of Zionism. Mr. Tony Clifton makes a terrific observation near the end of his writing in “God Cried”. He describes his feelings while visiting the ruins of a place called Masada.
The story of Masada goes like this: In ancient times the Romans had conquered everything except a small fortified plateau in Israel called Masada. It was held by a group of warrior Jews. Having supplies and excellent defense because of their location, the Jews held out and were not overcome by the Romans for a long period of time. The Romans, being patient and having their own resources, built an enormous earthen ramp up to the fortifications of Masada. (This was a common Roman tactic.) To make a long story short, when the Romans finally got inside, the Jews had all committed suicide to avoid being overcome by their captors. Ironically the entire story has been proven to be myth, by a Jewish archeologist.
Tony Clifton’s observation, as he was writing his memories of Masada, was that he thought the Arab nations would eventually do just what the Romans had done. In time they would build their ramp of solidarity against the State of Israel, and one day their cohesion would reach the point of strength, and they would conquer the Jewish state.
I’m not sure if I agree with Tony on this point, but it is a gruesome possibility. I personally believe that Israel and Zionism have been intentionally set up for defeat at some time in the future. A dialectical process: Create a problem, observe the reaction, and supply a solution. My next entry in this series will delve into the dialectic more so—confronting the groups and peoples who allow it to work effectively—whether they realize it or not…
the pattern becomes obvious.
