The Best of Authentic Zionism

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Originally uploaded by Hadar.

The Hebrew grafiti says {Eyn Aravim eyn homos} No Arabs, no hummus. As this humorous grafiti suggests, the Arabic cultural presence in Israel is an integral part of Israeli society.

Below is the text of a speech I delivered this past spring. I've decided to start posting some of my papers and articles here in addition to the usual posts.

It is often difficult to uncover the truth when one is dealing with such hotly contested topics as peace and war. Nowhere is this more true than in Israel/Palestine. It is frequently hard to even define the two opposing groups in this conflict. Such complexities as the sizable Arab population with Israeli citizenship, the view of Zionism as heresy by many of the ultra-orthodox Jews, and the growing numbers of anti-Zionist Jewish Israelis make the picture of two warring peoples much more blurry and confused upon closer examination. Perhaps the closest approximation of a definition of the opposing sides would be Zionism versus anti-Zionism. However, this definition is disorienting to many passive observers who may be unaware of the actual meaning of the term Zionism. This division, like the others, is shown to be false after closer consideration. Zionism is not racism, as the increasingly popular slogan Zionism equals racism would suggest, nor is it a messianic national liberation movement, such as that supported by branches of conservative Christianity and the relatively few messianic Jewish settlers.

What Zionism used to mean is very different from what it has come to mean today. Zionism is erroneously defined as Jewish nationalism that seeks to establish and maintain a Jewish nation-state modeled after the various European ethnic nation-states of the 19th and 20th centuries. The major challenge faced by Jewish nationalists of this variety was that Jews were not a majority in any significant territory. In order to establish a nation-state, they would first have to occupy lands already inhabited by others. This was and continues to be a major source of conflict which, in this case, has led to the occupation of Palestinian lands and the creation of millions of Palestinian refugees. Of course there are some Israelis who support a more moderate form of statist nationalism, honestly attempting to make an equitable and lasting peace with the Palestinians. Such views are held by many members of the social-democratic political parties Havodah and Yachad. However, there are also those who envision a more aggressive, expansionist approach to Jewish nationalism, such as the members of the Gush Emunim settlers' movement and Ariel Sharon's ruling right-wing Likud party.

It is important not to single out Israel in a world filled with many much larger conflicts, and criminals that receive very little attention from would-be critics, but rather to remember that this is a conflict involving about 12 million people over a piece of land smaller than Vancouver Island.

However, we must not be afraid to criticize unjust actions and dream of what could be. My dream for the Israelis, and for the Palestinians is neither a one-state solution, nor a two-state solution of any type. I reject all nation-states, and all statist nationalisms, from the rather dovish variants to the more militaristic varieties. I envision a cooperative society based upon the integration of all segments of the population between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Many of you may not understand what I mean, or may view this as a total repudiation of Zionism. In reality this vision of cooperation would have been accepted within the Zionist mainstream about 70 years ago.

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Tree II Beta
Originally uploaded by Beny Shlevich