From the Jewish Virtual Library
Zionism, the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel, advocated, from its inception, tangible as well as spiritual aims.
Thus, only Jews can be sovereign in Israel. By definition, all other groups are excluded. Therefore Zionism, a political ideology, is at its core racist and nationalist.
Zionism represents itself as a political movement concerned principally with the establishment of a state in Palestine to be controlled by and for Jews. It began in the late 19th Century and attained its stated objective with the creation in 1948 of the state of Israel by the United Nations (at the insistence of the United States and without the agreement of existing Middle Eastern states). Subsequently Israel doubled the amount of territory it controlled by means of its illegal occupation of the West Bank in the 1967 and 1973 wars.
Zionism is separate from being Jewish. It’s a political movement. Saying someone is anti-Jewish because they oppose Zionism is like saying someone is anti-Christian because they oppose the policies of George Bush. It’s a rubbish argument.
Zionism should not be equated with Judaism. The contemptible treatment of the Palestinians by the Israeli government is supported and approved of by most Israeli Jews but not by all Jews. Here are three websites which express this position:
Not in my NameԚ (Different group from the US antiwar organization)
The great gulf Between Zionism and Judaism
Criticism of Zionism is criticism of a particularly ugly political movement, not criticism of a religion or of the adherents of a religion. One may be critical of Zionism and of Zionists while at the same time being quite tolerant of, or well-disposed toward, or even an adherent of, the Jewish religion (as we see from the websites cited above)
The State of Israel with its Zionist policies could not have been created and maintained without huge military and financial aid from the US and other western countries. Israel is a client state. They do not tell the US what to do.
In order to get the aid it needed, Israel offered its services in the interests of Western imperialism. The Sept. 30, 1951, issue of the Hebrew-language daily Ha’aretz offered the following commentary: “Strengthening Israel helps the Western powers to maintain equilibrium and stability in the Middle East. Israel is to become the watchdog. There is no fear that Israel will undertake any aggressive policy toԚ wards the Arab states when this would explicitly contradict the wishes of the U.S. and Britain. But if for any reason the Western powers should sometimes prefer to close their eyes, Israel could be relied upon to punish one or several neighboring states whose discourtesy towards the West went beyond the bounds of the permissible.”
An agreement that continues to this day. Israel is the designated enforcer for western imperialist interests in the Middle East.
[tags]Zionism[/tags]