The Lie of a Jewish Nation

'Birthright' founder Michael Steinhardt giving anti-Birthright demonstrators the finger in New York, April 16, 2018. Posted by If Not Now on twitter.

Central to Zionist ideology, the idea of Jewish ‘homelessness’ and the concept of a ‘right of return’ is the myth of a Jewish nation.   Below is an article from Jonathan Offir explaining why this myth is central to Zionist ideology and the Zionist project.

This Zionist idea that Jews do not belong in the lands of their birth is really just a reflection of the anti-Semitic idea that Jews do not belong.  Zionism is not original.  Its most important ideas are borrowed, not from the Bible but from the enemies of the Jews.  Zionism is, above all, not the product of a 2,000 year yearning for a Jewish state, as the Zionists would have you believe but the desire of anti-Semites that Jews pack up and go.  It is because Zionism does not accept that Jews have any right to live anywhere outside Palestine that the fight against anti-Semitism is not a priority for it.  Historically Zionism never fought anti-Semitism because it was deemed 'futile' in the words of Political Zionism's founder, Theodor Herzl.  When individual Zionists have fought fascism or antisemitism they have done so despite not because of their Zionism.  Integral to Zionism  is the idea that anti-Semitism cannot be cured or even fought because it is inherent in the non-Jew, the Gentile.

Jonathan Offir - the author of the article below

When Zionism today purports to oppose anti-Semitism in reality it is redefining anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism.  Because Zionism calls its opponents, including Jewish opponents, ‘anti-Semitic’ people often forget that Zionism is not only indifferent to anti-Semitism but on occasion positively welcomes it.  

We can see, with the effusive welcome given to Donald Trump and the alt-Right in the USA by not only Netanyahu and the American Zionists but by the whole of the Zionist movement, including the Israeli Labour Party.  We can see this in the friendly relations between the anti-Semitic far-Right governments of Poland and Hungary and Israel.  Even today Zionism and anti-Semitism are like Siamese twins.

Sir Edwin Montagu - was not only the only member of Lloyd George's war cabinet to oppose the Balfour Declaration but he was also its only Jewish member

The quote from Sir Edwin Montagu below is from a much longer memorandum by him to his colleagues in the Lloyd George War Cabinet in August 1917.  Its title was ‘Memorandum of Edwin Montagu on the Anti-Semitism of the Present (British) Government’ and its opening paragraph stated:

I have chosen the above title for this memorandum, not in any hostile sense, not by any means as quarrelling with an anti-Semitic view which may be held by my colleagues, not with a desire to deny that anti-Semitism can be held by rational men, not even with a view to suggesting that the Government is deliberately anti-Semitic; but I wish to place on record my view that the policy of His Majesty's Government is anti-Semitic in result will prove a rallying ground for Anti-Semites in every country in the world.

How prescient this was.

When the Zionist Organisation of America held its last Annual Gala Dinner it invited Steve Bannon, formerly Donald Trump's Strategic Advisor and someone who is on record for antisemitic comments [Steve Bannon Didn’t Want Children Going to School With ‘Whiny’ Jews] according to his former wife, but also Sebastian Gorka, a member of a neo-Nazi Hungarian order , Vitezi Rend.

Tony Greenstein

The ‘Jewish nation’ is the central myth of Zionism. It needs to be dismantled

Jonathan Ofir April 18, 2018

Some people are probably wondering how it could be possible, if Israel declared its independence on the even of May 14^th that this year it is celebrating its independence on the eve of the 18^th April. The answer is, that Israel celebrates the event as if it was a Jewish holiday, according to the moon calendar, which most often does not coincide with the Latin, sun-based calendar.

This is only one aspect in how Israel seeks to apply itself as a “Jewish State”. But I am going to speak about an even more essential ideological aspect that sits at the heart of Zionism. It is not the notion of the Jewish state as such, but the notion of the Jewish nation.

Sir Edwin Montagu

First, let’s jump back 100 years and look once again at the words of the British (and notably Jewish) Secretary of State for India Edwin Montagu, in his critique of His Majesty’s Government’s intentions to endorse a ‘Jewish national home” in Palestine in 1917:

“I assert that there is not a Jewish nation. The members of my family, for instance, who have been in this country for generations, have no sort or kind of community of view or of desire with any Jewish family in any other country beyond the fact that they profess to a greater or less degree the same religion. It is no more true to say that a Jewish Englishman and a Jewish Moor are of the same nation than it is to say that a Christian Englishman and a Christian Frenchman are of the same nation: of the same race, perhaps, traced back through the centuries – through centuries of the history of a peculiarly adaptable race”.

But Montagu’s logic did not win the day. Zionism did. And nowadays, many Jews around the world are relating to Israel’s Independence Day as if it was a religious holiday. Last Friday I had a conversation in Copenhagen with a man I hardly knew, we both merely knew we were Jewish:

“Will you be celebrating Yom Haatzmaut [Israeli Independence Day]?”, he asked.

“You betcha I won’t!” I answered.

The man responded with a predictable expression of bewilderment.

“I’d rather be commemorating the Nakba”, I said.

“Nakba? What’s that?” He wondered.

“It’s Arabic for ‘catastrophe'”, I explained, “when the vast majority of Palestinians was expelled”.

“Oh”, he said.

After a short pause, he went:

“But I love holidays like for example Pesach [Passover]”, he said.

“Alright, but that’s a religious holiday. Independence Day is not a religious holiday, unless you consider nationalism to be religious”, I said.

That was that conversation. Yesterday I was invited by another Jew to celebrate Israeli Independence Day – at the Copenhagen synagogue (as the very issue of Independence Day as a Jewish holiday was discussed):

“If you really are in any doubt about it being a Jewish holiday you can go to the Synagogue in Copenhagen tomorrow night as well as most other synagogues where there are special services and there are prayers on Thursday that you only say on Holidays (Hallel) and of course it is a day off and therefore a holiday in the Jewish state”, he wrote.

So you see, this notion of an extra-territorial, Jewish ‘nation’ has been subscribed to by very many Jews around the world – and makes the Israel case a mixture of religion and nationalism – but not nationalism in the sense that we normally attribute to the term.

The Jewish ‘nationalism’, as embodied by the State of Israel, literally means that there are no Israeli nationals, and that there cannot be. It may sound surreal (and should) to those who are not yet familiar with this bizarre concept – but even more bluntly put, Israelis don’t exist in the national sense – only as citizens. “Jewish” is defined as a “nationality” (alongside some 130 other recognized ‘nationalities’), and the purpose of this construct is simple: Since Israel defines itself as The Jewish State, and wishes to cement that concept fully as the Nation State of the Jewish People, the only ones who actually enjoy national rights, as opposed to merely citizenship rights, are the Jews. And yes when I say ‘the Jews’, I’m not accidentally generalizing – this is a generalization that Israel itself makes, an extra-territorial generalization, which entails that any Jew from anywhere can ‘return’, ‘ascend’ and receive automatic citizenship and a subsidy welcome package from the Jewish State. This even includes people who are not Jewish by Israeli orthodox law, merely by third generation paternal affiliation.

These are fantastic terms for Jews all over the world – I mean, why wouldn’t you want such an ‘insurance policy’?

It is this ‘insurance policy’ that makes it possible for Prime Minister Netanyahu to call on Jews to immigrate to Israel in the wake of terror, like he did in the wake of the Paris 2015 attacks:

“To all the Jews of France, all the Jews of Europe, Israel is not just the place in whose direction you pray, the state of Israel is your home”, he tweeted.

Some Jews were concerned about what such proclamations and ‘insurance policies’ can mean. The Director of the European Jewish Association, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, said at the time:

“Israel must cease this Pavlovian reaction every time Jews in Europe are attacked. Every such Israeli campaign severely weakens and damages the Jewish communities that have the right to live securely wherever they are.”

This is essentially the point that the mentioned Edwin Montagu was also making, back in 1917:

“When the Jews are told that Palestine is their national home, every country will immediately desire to get rid of its Jewish citizens, and you will find a population in Palestine driving out its present inhabitants”.

How insightful. Montagu elucidates not only the Judeo-centric concern – but the Palestinian one. And with all the Jewish concerns, it is the Palestinians who have had to pay most dearly for this Jewish ‘insurance policy’. The “Jewish nation” has for them meant dispossession, and it is a continuing matter. Jews around the world insist on their “birthright” to Israel, while those who were actually born there and have ancestry from time immemorial, are dispossessed. And when some Jews protest this, they even get the finger (see above how ‘Birthright’ founder Michael Steinhart reacted to Jewish protesters calling for boycott of the free trip to Israel for young Jews). But giving the finger to Jews is the least of it. That finger has been given to Palestinians all the way through, that’s what it’s all about. The Jewish ‘nation’ idea is about them being dispossessed and stripped of any national affiliation with their homeland, for Jews to ‘return’.

That’s what Israel’s ‘independence’ is about. It means ‘we don’t need Palestinians’. Because we already have a ‘nation’ – the Jewish one.

This is the central myth that needs to be dismantled – that of the ‘Jewish nation’. It is the absolute core of Zionism. Everything that Israel does stems from this notion, of the “Jewish nation”.

For Judaism to actually survive this horror and become a mere religion or societal tradition within modern constructs of ‘nations’, the myth of the ‘Jewish nation’ must be deconstructed. The archaic concept of a religious-conditioned ‘nation’ must give way to the modern, enlightened version, wherein the term basically defines those who happen live in a given territory in a given time, providing them with justice, freedom and equality. Dispossessing the vast majority of those under the pretext that there’s a ‘nation’ waiting to take their place cannot be the solution. 

Israel has officially declared itself an apartheid state

Earlier this week Israel’s Knesset passed the first reading of the Jewish Nation-state bill.  In so doing it made it clear, beyond any doubt, that Israel is now officially an apartheid state.  Israel has, of course, always declared itself to be a Jewish state, despite having a 20% non-Jewish minority.  But now this has become a Basic Law, which is the equivalent of a constitutional law in a country with no constitution.

At the same time the status of the Arab language, which up till now has been a second official language of Israel, although in practice very few signs are in both Hebrew and Arabic, has now been relegated to a language with a ‘special status’.

This is of course what happened in South Africa where Afrikaans was the official language.

Israel is a state without a nationality – something that is quite unique in any modern state.  Instead nationalities are based on religion, a pre-French revolution concept, and being a Jewish state the Jewish ‘nationality’ was the first and most important.

A good example of how the Jewish state treats non-jews

This whole concept of a Jewish state is based on the racial myth that Israel is the 'historic homeland' of the Jewish people.  It is nothing of the sort.  It may be the religious centre of the Jewish religion but Zionism is about creating a Jewish nation/race.  It is not a religious movement although it uses religion to define that nation/race.  It is like suggesting that Palestine is the historic homeland of Christians because Jesus was born, crucified and resurrected there.

The home of Jews throughout the world is where they live.  Pure and simple.  Anything else is a racial myth and should be consigned to the same historical dustbin as ideas of a 1,000 year Reich.

But it is worse than that because Israel is a state not of its own citizens – Jewish and non-Jewish – but a state of the ‘Jewish people’ a mythical concept which is based on race not religion.

Read the following article by Jonathan Cook which is extremely good.

Tony Greenstein

Apartheid flags flies outside Knesset

Israel’s Jewish Nation-State bill ‘declaration of war’

11 May 2017

Israel’s Knesset has passed its first vote on a new bill defining Israel as ‘a national home of the Jewish people’

Al Jazeera – 11 May 2017

New legislation to cement the definition of Israel as a state belonging exclusively to Jews around the world is a “declaration of war” on Palestinian citizens of Israel, the minority’s leaders warned this week.

The bill, which defines Israel as the “national home of the Jewish people”, passed its first vote in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday, after it received unanimous backing from a government committee on Sunday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to get the measure on to the statute books within 60 days.

Fraudster Netanyahu speaks on 4th May 2017 in favour of Israel Apartheid Bill

Among its provisions, the legislation – popularly known as the Jewish Nation-State Bill – revokes the status of Arabic as an official language, even though it is the mother tongue of one in five citizens. Israel’s population includes a large minority of 1.7 million Palestinians.

The legislation affirms that world Jewry has a “unique” right to national self-determination in Israel, and calls for the government to further strengthen ties to Jewish communities outside Israel.

It also increases the powers of so-called “admissions committees” that block Palestinian citizens from living in hundreds of communities that control most of Israel’s land.

Threat to peace talks

In addition, critics are concerned that the legislation is intended to stymie prospects of reviving peace talks with the Palestinian leadership in the occupied territories. US President Donald Trump is due in the region later this month in what is widely assumed to be an attempt to kick-start a long-stalled peace process.

Netanyahu, however, has already indicated that he will insist on a precondition that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, recognise Israel as a Jewish state. The new bill effectively sets out the terms of the state Abbas is expected to recognise.

Netanyahu said this week that all Zionist parties in parliament would be expected to support the legislation. “The bill establishes the fact that the State of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people in our historic homeland,” he told supporters of his Likud party.

He added: “There is no contradiction at all between this bill and equal rights for all citizens of Israel.”  However, leaders of Israel’s large Palestinian minority strenuously disagreed.

‘We won’t disappear’  

Ayman Odeh, head of the Palestinian-dominated Joint List party in the Israeli parliament, warned that the legislation would ensure “the tyranny of the majority over the minority”.

Under the bill, Hebrew alone will be an official language, with Arabic accorded only “special status”. Palestinian citizens already complain that most public services and official documents are not provided in Arabic.

“The aim is to portray institutional racism in Israel as entirely normal, and make sure the apartheid reality here is irreversible,” Haneen Zoabi, a Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament, told Al Jazeera.

“It is part of the right’s magical thinking – they are in denial that there is an indigenous people here still living in their homeland. We are not about to disappear because of this law.”

Superior rights

In strictly legal terms, the Jewish Nation-State Bill offers limited changes. Since its founding in 1948, Israel has defined itself as a state of the Jewish people rather than of all the country’s citizens, including its Palestinian minority.

The Law of Return of 1950 allows only Jews to immigrate to Israel and receive citizenship. Adalah, a legal rights group, has documented dozens of laws that explicitly discriminate against Palestinian citizens.

But the new legislation is significant for reasons beyond its immediate legal implications.

Not least, it gives Israel’s self-definition as the nation-state of the Jewish people something akin to constitutional standing, observed Ali Haider, a human rights lawyer and former co-director of Sikkuy, an organisation lobbying for equal citizenship rights.

The bill, if passed, will join a handful of Basic Laws intended to provide the foundation for any future constitution. Such laws take precedence over ordinary laws and are much harder to repeal.

“This is a very dangerous step because it makes explicit in a Basic Law that all Jews, even those who are not citizens, have superior rights in Israel to those citizens who are Palestinian,” he told Al Jazeera.

Intimidation of judges

An alternative draft of the new law that promised equal rights to all citizens was effectively blocked by the government in January when it came up for consideration.

Haider said the new version would provide the constitutional foundation to justify a tide of other laws intended to marginalise Palestinian citizens and erode their rights as citizens.

An Expulsion Law passed last year gives Israeli parliament the power to expel Palestinian MPs if they make political statements the Jewish majority disapprove of. Another bill before the parliament, the Muezzin Law, silences the Muslim call to prayer.

Such laws are almost certain to be challenged in Israel’s supreme court. “The judges will be much more reluctant to intervene if the Jewish Nation-State Bill is in force,” Haider said. “They will feel under pressure to ignore basic democratic principles and give priority to Israel’s Jewish character.”

He added that there would be little opposition from the Jewish public. A survey by the Israel Democracy Institute last December found that more than half of Israeli Jews wanted any citizen who rejected Israel’s definition as a Jewish state stripped of basic rights.

Preparations for annexation

Another key goal of the bill for the Netanyahu government is its likely impact on any moves to revive peace talks with the Palestinians. Abbas and Donald Trump met last week.

Netanyahu’s government no longer pays even lip service to the idea that it might agree to a Palestinian state. Most debates in the Israeli cabinet focus instead on intensifying settlement building and preparations for annexing areas of the West Bank.

Zoabi noted that since Netanyahu came to power in 2009, he has worked tirelessly to persuade Washington to accept a new precondition for talks: that the Palestinian leadership must first recognise Israel as a Jewish state.

Sacrificing refugees’ rights

The new bill would place Abbas in a tricky position, allowing him to enter talks with Israel only if he first agrees to sacrifice the rights both of Israel’s Palestinian citizens to equal citizenship and of millions of Palestinian refugees to return to their former homes.

“This law is aimed not only at Abbas but at Trump,” said Zoabi. “It gives him a map instructing him exactly what can be negotiated over and what the terms of a solution must look like.”

Avi Dichter, a member of Netanyahu’s party who drafted the bill, indicated the diplomatic use it would be put to.

He told the Israeli website Ynet: “The Palestinian aspiration to eliminate the Jewish people’s nation-state is no longer secret”. He added that Israel must make “demands of its enemies to recognize it as the nation-state of the Jewish people”.

Netanyahu echoed Dichter, saying this week that the bill was “the clearest answer to all those who are trying to deny the deep connection between the people of Israel and its land”.

Apartheid regime 

It is probably not coincidental that the Nation-State Bill is being fast-tracked as far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s government have drafted separate legislation to apply Israeli laws in the West Bank. 

This is a key component of efforts by settlers and their supporters in government to annex the West Bank by stealth.

Marzuq al-Halabi, a Palestinian journalist writing for the Israeli website 972, warned this week that on the back of the Nation-State Bill the government would seek to redraw Israel’s borders to include parts or all of the West Bank.

The resulting “apartheid regime” would then “create… ‘justified crimes’ against the Palestinian people, such as population transfer or removal,” he wrote.

A Haaretz editorial agreed that Netanyahu was laying the groundwork for annexing the West Bank without conferring rights on its Palestinian population.

The new law, it said, was intended as “the constitutional cornerstone for apartheid” in Israel and the occupied territories, allowing Israel to “maintain control over… a Palestinian majority living under its rule”.