11/01/2004
What The Boston Globe Won't Print About Israel by John Spritzler
My Op-Ed piece made the following simple points to refute the dogma.
1) Prominent Jews like Albert Einstein and Judah Magnes (the first Chancellor of Israel's Hebrew University) opposed the idea of a Jewish state.
2) What makes Israel a Jewish state is that it officially declares the ultimate sovereign authority in Israel to be "the Jewish people" rather than all Israeli citizens regardless of their religion.
3) One fifth of Israeli citizens are non-Jews and therefore are officially second class citizens as long as Israel remains a Jewish state. (The word limit on the Op-Ed prevented it from pointing out that this second class citizenship is the basis for discrimination against non-Jewish Israeli citizens in their ability to own, buy and lease land, live in certain neighborhoods, gain access to public services and government benefits, marry a Jewish person, and so forth – the kind of discrimination which the ADL would denounce as anti-Semitic if directed against Jews in the United States.).
4) The founder of the World Zionist Organization, Theodor Herzl, in 1896 rejected the principle of democracy -- that a state's legitimacy derives from the consent of all whom it governs, not just those of a favored religion or race or ethnicity. Herzl argued, instead, that the Jewish state's authority would derive from the need of Jews for a state to be their guardian, even if Jews were a minority of its citizens.
5) In 1948 when Zionist leaders founded the state of Israel as a Jewish state they knew that it could only gain legitimacy by purporting to be a democracy. But this required that Jews make up the overwhelming majority of the citizenry. And this in turn required ethnic cleansing, which -- as documented by pro-Zionist Israeli historian Benny Morris and others -- Israel's new leaders did indeed carry out, resulting in the Palestinian refugees whom Israel continues to bar from returning to their homes in Israel.
6) Far from being anti-Semitic, opposition to the idea of a Jewish state is the only way to consistently embrace the universal values of equality and democracy.
7) Exactly the same arguments apply to a Muslim, a Christian, a Black or a White state.
1) Prominent Jews like Albert Einstein and Judah Magnes (the first Chancellor of Israel's Hebrew University) opposed the idea of a Jewish state.
2) What makes Israel a Jewish state is that it officially declares the ultimate sovereign authority in Israel to be "the Jewish people" rather than all Israeli citizens regardless of their religion.
3) One fifth of Israeli citizens are non-Jews and therefore are officially second class citizens as long as Israel remains a Jewish state. (The word limit on the Op-Ed prevented it from pointing out that this second class citizenship is the basis for discrimination against non-Jewish Israeli citizens in their ability to own, buy and lease land, live in certain neighborhoods, gain access to public services and government benefits, marry a Jewish person, and so forth – the kind of discrimination which the ADL would denounce as anti-Semitic if directed against Jews in the United States.).
4) The founder of the World Zionist Organization, Theodor Herzl, in 1896 rejected the principle of democracy -- that a state's legitimacy derives from the consent of all whom it governs, not just those of a favored religion or race or ethnicity. Herzl argued, instead, that the Jewish state's authority would derive from the need of Jews for a state to be their guardian, even if Jews were a minority of its citizens.
5) In 1948 when Zionist leaders founded the state of Israel as a Jewish state they knew that it could only gain legitimacy by purporting to be a democracy. But this required that Jews make up the overwhelming majority of the citizenry. And this in turn required ethnic cleansing, which -- as documented by pro-Zionist Israeli historian Benny Morris and others -- Israel's new leaders did indeed carry out, resulting in the Palestinian refugees whom Israel continues to bar from returning to their homes in Israel.
6) Far from being anti-Semitic, opposition to the idea of a Jewish state is the only way to consistently embrace the universal values of equality and democracy.
7) Exactly the same arguments apply to a Muslim, a Christian, a Black or a White state.
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