Mark Elf from Jews Sans Frontières posted an interesting and disturbing article from Haaretz on the connection between zionism and the concept of 'pure race' and what early zionist leaders and thinkers thought to make of the biological concepts of their time and where one can discover that there is more than one connection between zionism and nazism...
''Religious Jews saw themselves as a biological entity, as the descendants of the patriarch Abraham, but also accepted converts into their midst. But from the late 19th century on, the Zionists defined Jews in a biological sense with no connection necessarily to religion or culture. This was for the sake of uniting the Jews and saying: Look, we're a race that is also a nation, and like any other nation and race, we deserve our own piece of land. In his writings, Martin Buber, who was liberal and enlightened, defined a nation by means of what the Germans called Blut und Boden (blood and soil). The Zionists also had a concept of 'blood and soil.' Not in the way it developed with the Nazis, but Zionism was certainly a national movement that took people's biology into account."
''Dr. Max Nordau, Herzl's associate and a physician and publicist, also adopted the eugenic theories. Nordau contended that for the Jews, life in exile as a separate ethnic group had led them to a state of degeneration in body and soul. He recommended that Jews live in nature and pursue a more physical culture - that Judaism build up some muscles. "He thought that the biology of the Jews needed to be changed via eugenics. That is, to improve the Jewish race by means of selection as is done with plants and animals to ward off degeneration," says Falk. ''
It is difficult to still think that Israel's elimination of Palestinians and its treatement of the remaining Palestinian population has nothing to do with Racism and cannot be compared to the Nazis obessive extermination of Jews. Both Nazism and Zionism are Racists. However, they were able to exercise their racist practices from differemt perspectives. Israel's one is a long term perspective, discriminating and killing on a less wider scale but aiming at negating and eliminatimg Palestinians nonetheless. Can we still think that numbers and time only qualify horrible acts as genocide ? Or are we ready to recognize that the main component of genocide are race and planning the elimination of the other race. This article shows very clearly that race is an issue for zionists and while there is no apparent deliberate planning of the elimination of the other race there is definitely a negation of the other revealed in the savagery of the discriminations and the killings Israel is exercising on palestinians in front of the whole world silenced by the memory of the holocaust. And don't tell me that Israel has an Arab population. Clearly they don't enjoy the same rights as other citizens and they are kept a minority, early zionist figured out a 60 % Jewsih ratio to maintain a Jewish state and never dreamed of the 80 % the actual state of Israel is keeping for the Jewish population by all sorts of non declared and declared racial measures, the most celebrated being the Jewish right to the soil over all races which many profit from by making their Aliyah to Israel.
My thoughts go especially to the Palestinian refugees of Iraq who are in critical conditions in the new 'liberated Iraq' and are at pain to find a second exile while Jews from all over the world enjoy such a right. Is Zionism the new Nazism ?
Here is the original Haaretz article
''My people decide the truth in sixty countries every morning. And in every one it's different.''
Since March 29th 2006
14 comments:
It is an old Jewbaiter's trick to compare Israel to Nazis. As you know, Nazis praised a SINGLE Aryan ideal.
But Israel is very racially mixed. Israelis from Russia, France, Iran, Syria, Yemen, USA, and India all look different. They comprise MANY races.
While you read this, a Muslim just killed another innocent person somewhere (Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, take your pick.)
RE: early zionist... never dreamed of the 80 % the actual state of Israel is keeping for the Jewish population .....
REALITY: Early zionists never imagined that Poland's Jewish community would be killed and erased.
Early Zionists never dreamed that Arab countries like Iran and Iraw would force out Jews who lived there as second class citizens for thousands of years.
Early Zionists never dreamed that France would become a haven for hateful Jew-killing Arabs.
Eandyfx,
Go and read someone else's blog.
I think this is a very, very disingenuous piece of yours. The Zionism/Nazi analogy is very, very poor, as well as being in poor taste. Comparing anyone to the Nazis is really terribly offensive, to Jews in particularly.
The comparison is also used in relation to Muslims: Islamonazis, Islamofascists etc, in equally poor taste.
Your use of the Ha'aretz article is also completely misleading: you snip what is useful to support your feeble thesis and discard the rest. I wonder if you've actually read the whole piece...
You know I strongly support the Palestinian cause but this is no way to do it: by calling Jews Nazis you are only contributing to further polarisation. Offending people never makes them more amenable to seeing your point of view...
Gert,
I read the whole article. I also know very well these issues, it is my background.
I don't count you as someone who support the Palestinian cause. You only support the cause from the point of view of a zionist which is contradictory in my opinion.
Gert,
I also challenge you to sort out from what I wrote in this post which is not backed by facts. Except my conclusion may be equating Zionism to Nazism ? Well I think the burden of the proof on this one is up to history and to Zionists.
Gert,
I have much more respect for the victims of the Holocaust than those who are doing wrong in their names and even using them in scientifc experimentation.
Gert,
You also took the liberty of distorting what I wrote. I never equated the jews with Nazis. I asked hte following question: Is Zionism the new Nazism ? Obviously you choose to equate the zionits with the Jews. Some Jews will be very very offended by that.
Randyfx,
You seem very unimformed! First, Iran is not an Arab country. Second, If you read your history of thousands of years correctly, you would realize that Persian kings (From Achamenid dynasty) up to the last one overthrown by the Islamic revoultion, were protector and supporter of the Jews.
Even Islamic republic of Iran did not kick any jews out of the country, because I happened to go to university with a few of them!
Thirdly, there is NO command in Islam or in Koran that suggests discrimination against Jews. In fact, Judaism and Christianity are well accepted and recognized by Islam.
But no one really likes being bullied by a spoiled brat state; be it Jewish or Arab or Chinese or whatever!
I don't understand why the Jewish skin is so thin!
Anonymous
Jewish skin is senstivie?
The Pope makes innocent comment and Arabs go crazy. But Pres. of Iran says stupider stuff every day.
As you know, since Ayatollah came to power, Iran has long history of oppressing Jewish community, including the Jewish teens Iran arrested as "spies" for sending innocent emails to Israel.
We pity the remaining Jews in Iran. Do you think they freely practice their religion in an Islamic State?
It's true that no one likes to be bulllied. Who is bigger bully, Saddam Husssein or Ehud Olmert? Who raped and killed more innocent Arabs? Saddam or Sharon? Hussein killed 20 times more.
So brother, Arab world is struggling and all you can do is blame Jews? We must clean Arab house before we can ask Jews to trust us.
Sophia,
Please don't delete E's comments, he is truly amusing! And One does need a bit of laughter from time to time!
I suggest since your time's too valuable to comment on his posting, he can be declared as the satirist of this blog! A big electronic smile :)
Cheers
Arab world wake up,
Re. Iranian regime (not a part of Arab world; and one that is perhaps disliked by all of the Arab world minus Hezbollah and Iraq's Shiites, who like them because of their financial support and not so much the ideological one) yes they do arrest and harrass anyone who sends any kind of information to Israel; whether they are Muslim or Jewish.
Re. Saddam being a bully, yes of course he was a bully but let's remember that this bully was dearly endorsed by uncle Sam when he attacked Iran and used chemical bombs first omn Iranians and then later on on Kurds in Iraq!
Re. Pope versus Iranian president: Iranian president is elected by a meager 6 million people in Iran and speaks rhetorical nonesense to stir controversy and get attention. This is his non-bloody version of suicide bombing! But Pope speaks to a much larger audience of devoute Christians who hold his word at high esteem.
Re. whose skin is thinner. I don't think Jewish thin skin is mutually exclusive from Arab's thin skin. I think thin skin is characteristic of any group of people who lives in uncertainty and under threat. But what I find puzzling is why people who assumes "chosenness" and praise their own achievements in democracy does not tolerate any criticism.
Re. Arab world's struggle and me blaming Jews, I did not. I think both Muslims and Jews have to lighten up a bit. I can't speak for Arabs; I know little about them.
Your article is so full of holes I wouldn't know where to start to rebut it. It's also very, very badly written.
Your four comments in defence are like the proverbial hole you are digging for yourself: keep at it!
You're a partisan "thinker" who'll never rise above her own abominable prejudices and rather Manichean thinking. With hindsight I'm glad we parted ways: posts like this one I find truly embarrassing.
If this is the level you have to stoop to, then it doesn't come as a surprise that your support for the Palestinian cause doesn't amount to much more than a loony fringe...
Gert,
We have exchanged links in the past not vows of marriage.
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