Zionist Ideology: Obstacle To Peace

http://www.al-bushra.org/zionism/rabbiburger.htm

Zionist Ideology: Obstacle To Peace
By Rabbi Elmer Berger, 1981

Excerpts (for full essay go Here)
[.......]
VII. HOW IT [The Institutionalized Discrimination against Israeli-Arab Citizens of Israel] WORKS

Sabri Jiryis is a Palestinian lawyer who practised in Israel and is now living in Beirut. In his definitive book, THE ARABS IN ISRAEL (17) he provides a number of examples of how the system works. Tobacco is a major crop of Arab farmers. As in many countries, the marketing of tobacco is regulated by the government. Arab tobacco bought by "jewish" colmpanies, was paid for at a rate of 64.4% less than what was paid "Jewish" farmers. The difference is accounted for by the fact that "Jewish" farmers dispose of their crop to Alei Tabac. Alei Tabac is owned by the Jewish Agency/WZO. According to Jiryis,
The Jewish Agency does not deny the practice, claiming that it was created to help Jews and no one else.(18)
Jiryis says the same condition prevgails for two other important crops, olives and olive oil. In a state where by law the government is a partner with an institutional infrastructure committed to serving one part of the population on the basis of its religious faith it is not surprising that discrimination is not limited to the market place. Social and political attitudes are also affected. In a Forward to the Jiryis book, Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics at MIT provides an acurate summary:
Responsibility for development is assigned in large measure to the Jewish Agency (JA)....that operates in the intersts of Jews with a budget on roughly the scale of the development budget of the government. By such means as these, the state has succeeded in directing resources to Jewish citizens WITHOUT TECHNICALLY INTRODUCING LEGAL DISCRIMINATION, THOUGH IN FACT...SEGREGATION AND OTHER DISCRIMINATING PRACTICES ARE FOUND IN THE LEGAL SYSTEM ITSELF.(19)
In the Zionist state, as indeed in many countries, application of "law" is not always determined by the language employed in "the legal system." Administration of the law can, and very often does, bend the intent of the system, even where the intent is to distribute the benefits and powers of teh state equitably among its citizens. In the Zionist state the very intent, BY DEFINITION, is to favor the maintenance and reinforcement of the "Jewish character" of the society. The treatment of the Arabs in the Galilee is one of the most flagrant examples. The demographic facts, including the higher birthrate among Arabs than among Jews, presented a grave threat to the continued domination of the state by Zionist ideology, with its primary concern for "Jewish people" nationaolity. Israel's Northern District Commissioner of the Ministry of Interior noted that in 1976 " the natural growth of the Arab population is Israel is 5.9% in comparison with 1.5% of the natural growth of the Jewish population per annum (20) Ominously, for planner of a ZIONIST state, with this disparity in the growth rate, "the Arabs will constitute more than 51% of the population of the district in 1978." [Note the grave concern almost two decades ago, and the same concern now.-Z] The Koenig Plan recommended several strategies for making the lives of the Arabs of the Galilee SUFFICIENTLY DIFFICULT TO ENCOURAGE THEIR EMIGRATION. One of these was "to limit the number of Arab employees to 20%" in any "factory....in critical regions." (21) Another stragey was to be applied in the field of education:
To make it easy for the Arabs to go abroad for studying and to make it difficult for them to return and to find a job, that policy might help their emigration.(22)
The economy and the educational system of the Zionist state are heavily subsidized by the WZO/JA funds from abroad. They are allocated, according to the Status Law and the Covenant, by the prescribed combination of representatives of the government and the Agency. The government is, therefore, party to such recommendations offered by one of its appointed officials. The cities of Acre, and Nazareth, with concentrated Arab populations presented the most imminent threats to Zionist-state lanners. In Nazareth, the government/ZO combined, using discriminatiory allocation of ZO/government funds, put in place some of the most seere forms of discrimination against Arabs. SOME ISRAELIS SPEAK QUITE CANDIDLY OF THE RESULTS AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF "JUDAIZATION OF THE GALILEE". The keystone of the plan to "Judaize" the Galilee was to build what came to be called "Upper Nazareth". In 1948-49, Nazareth was almost totally an Arab city. UPon the hills surrounding the old city, the government and the JA employed Zionist funds, designated for the aparently harmless purpose of building "Jewish" housing, to construct the new city.
It was built upon thousands of acres of land which were expropriated high handedly...taken by force from the Arab settlements, particularly Nazareth and neighbouring Rana."(23)
Not a single unit of habitation has been built in Arab "old Nazareth" since 1966. In Uper Nasareth meanwhile, JA/government funds have constructed a plethora of new housing. No Arab is permitted to purchase or rent any of the units despite the fact that, at least until recently, a number of them have been uninhabited. In old Nazareth, by contrast, "there is a grave and chronic housing crisis." The government even "offered publicly to buy any flat in Upper Nazareth which 'becomes empty' at any price offered for it so it will not fall into Arab hands."(24) Consequently, "old Nazareth" has become a virtual slum. The condition is intended to be a "persuader" helping to dislocate Arabs from one of their more concentrated population centers in the Galilee. And, ever conscious of "public relations", the contrast between "Jewish" Upper Galilee and the old city is an example of Arab "inferiority" which ZEALOUS TOUR GUIDES DO NOT HESITATE TO MAKE CLEAR TO THE INNOCENTS ABROAD IN THE "HOLY LAND". Despite this built in bias, which is consistent with the Covenant and the Status Law's commitment to "ingather the exiles," the state is failing in the attinment of its "central task" Emigration, not immigration figures are at a peak. In August of 1980 YEDIOT AHARANOT, a popular Israeli newspaper, reported that there are "100,000 Israeli passpport holders living in Los Angeles, Ca. alone". "A senior consular offical" of Israel in that city complained because 2,000 emigres arrive "each month". (25) An AP story datelined Tel Aviv, reported in December that,
Jewish immigration, a cornerstone of Israel's existence, has fallen to the lowest level in 12 years and the number of Jews leaving Israel is on the increase. (26)
The same report noted the official figures of the MNinistry of Immmigration revealed that 22,000 immigrants "are expected this year, 1980," compared with "37,200 in 1979". A lengthy article in Ma'ariv, usually considered to be Israel's most conservative newspaper, and perhaps the most widely read, on September 10th, inventoried some of the benefits offered "Olim" (Jewish immigrants) in an effort to increase JEWISH immigration. (1) Supplementation of up to 90% of the average wage in the market for one year after entry and in most cases for five years or more. (2) Housing benefits held out as bait for new immigrants (27) (3) Rental of flats to olim at rates way under market value (28)
In a monograph published in 1969, Jiryis detailed other exajmples of Zionist discrimination against Israeli Arabs during thyears 1948-1966.(29) (1) Failure ot extend electicity lines to Arab villages. (2) Failure to provide post offices to most Arab villages while ome Arab vilages have no postal service whatsoever. (3) Only 1/4 of all Arab villages had telephone service. (4) Inferior health care services.
In a more complete study published in 1976, Jiryis admists some improvements had been made for some Arabs in some of these services but the fundamental disparity remains. Jiyis consludes the later volume, saying"
A basic fact that emerges from a study of the history of the last quarter century is that the Arab in Israel has been and continues to be a "different" citizen, "non-Jewish", belonging to the goyim and excluded from the rights enjoyed by Jewish citizens. This distinction, which affects every aspect of Arab life, has bben OFFICIALLY IMPLEMENTED from the establishment of Israel to the present.(30)
The Zionist state, in other words, consistently puts a higher national interest priority on absorption of "the Jewish eople", those who have already come from a wide disparity of national backgrounds as well as those still to be recruited from "exile" than upon equality for the "non Jewish people" nationals who remained in the state after 1948-49. And this "central task" of the WZO/governmetn combine is certtainly rated a highert national priority than the inalienable right of any of the displaed Palestinians, now scarttered among many nations in enforced "exile." Jiryis sees this declared central purpose of teh Zionist stateas a major factor which has
helped to keep the Palestine problem alive both inside and outside Israel. The Palestine question seems to have returned to its point of origin, prving to the Arabs in Israel that their problems cannot be solved until the case of Palestine as a whole is resolved. (31)
VIII.THE SOURCE OF THE CONFLICT

Anything less than a comprehensive peace, including the right of the Palestinian nation to an independent state of its own, is also to invite increasing disorder instead of security for the Zionist state. Given the legislated commitment of the state of Israel to the fundamental concept of primacy for Zionism's "Jewish People" nationality, there is no way the state can implement human rights in any of the commonly accepted definitions of the term. And violence inexorably follows violations of human rights if the consequent injustices are not eradicated by peaceful proceses and established by law. When the deprived victims are of one ethnic group, with familial and national or ethic ties to neighboring states, the violence has great potential for internationalization. Conceptually THIS IS THE KERNAL OF THE Zionist/Palestinaian/Israeli/Arab confilct. It is a sad commentary that for all this time, the reputed statemen of the world have iether accepted, or appeared to accept, at face value the standard ZIONIST APOLIGETICS offered to justifiy Israel's Zionist commitment for any given period of its history. The most prevalent excuse today attributes ISRAEL'S AGGRESSIVE EXCLUSIVISM to the STATE'S NECESSITY FOR BOTH INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL SECURITY. But hisstory supplies abundant evidence to the contrary. Nationalist territorial Zionism's dehumanizing of Arabs has NOT been in response to or defense against Arab inhumanity to Jews. The accurate statement of the equation is quite the other way around. IT has been the sometimes gradualist, sometimes cataclysmic translation nto practice of Zionism's IDEOLOGY which has GENERATED ARAB HOSTILITY. Arabs are humans, capable of rational thought and the determination of self interest. It follows that the delared source of THEIR SUSTAINED HOSTILITY is no mere political rationalization to disguise sinister designs or to make some inherent racial or religious prejudice appear more palatable. Nor was the conflict originally spawned and later nourished by disagreements over merely territory or about the possible deographic mix of "Arabs" and "Jews" in what MIGHT HAVE BEEN AN INDEPENDENT PALESTINIAN STATE. THE SOURCE OF CONFLICT WAS ALWAYS ZIONISM. There was Arab resistance to Zoionist agression from the earliest days of the WZO/JA's implementation plans when the majority population was Arab, and there was no dispute about territory as such. NO FORMULA has ever worked peace in Palestine. From the very beginning, starting with the first Zionist Commission which went to Palestine EVEN BEFORE THE MANDATE legitimized the Balfour Declaration. ALL FORMULAS HAVE FAILED BECAUSE OF ZIONISM'S INSISTENCE UPON IT'S HARD CORE RACIST AND OR THEOCRATIC YARDSTICKS TO DETERMINE FULL PARTICIPATION IN THE SOCIETY WHICH ZIONISM CONTEMPLATED. Unless the above is understood, a "peace" formula which might otherwise be regarded to offer rationally acceptable compromises on territory or on a form of Palestinian autonomy, may simply allow the paranoid abnormal ideology of Zionism to seep into crevices instaed of being heavy handedly imposed in the style of Mr. Begin. A specific example is the APPARENTLY innocent demand that "Jews" be permitted to trade in land and reside in the West Bank. Zionists want the world to believe this demand represents only a simple problem of HUMAN RIGHTS in which an individual's RELIGIOUS FAITH should create no social or political disabilities. BUT SUCH SIMPLICITY IS NOT THE WHOLE TRUTH. The rest of the truth is that the appellant making this demand is the very one which declares every Jew is a constituent of "the Jewish People", POSSESSING NATIONALITY RIGHTS AND OWING NATIONALITY OBLIGATIONS TO THE ZIONIST STATE. Even in ideal conditions of peace, no state is legally or morally obligated to ACCPET INHABITANTS WHO ARE PRESUME TO HAVE SUCH OPERATIV FOREIGN ATTACHMENTS. The objectionable character of the demand is aggravated when those foreign attachments are saturated with an ideology as XENOPHOBIC, AS PARANOID,AS RACIALLY OR THEOCRATICALLY EXCLUSIVIST AS ZIONISM IS TODAY. There has not been an American President, and perhaps no statesman of other nationality, who has not needed TO BE TOLD, that this ideology, WITH ITS BUILT IN PARANOIA and INHERENT ANTI-ARAB COMMITMENT, is at the root of Arab Inability to make further compromises about either territory or the "inalienable rights" of the Palestinians. Statesmen and dipomats of all kinds have needed, and still need, to be impressed with both the character of this ideology and its central role in determining Israeli policies. Only one American Sec. of State ever approached an exposition of the obstacle to Middle East peace which is INHERENT in ZIONIST IDEOLOGY. When JOHN FOSTER DULLES returned fro the Middle East in 1953, he advised the American people "the Arabs fear Zionism more than Communism". His Asst. Sec. HENRY BYROADE, expanded on the idea in two statements which are unique in all the official American rhetoric and among declarations by authorities of other nations. BYROADE advised Israel TO BECOME A MIDDLE EASTERN STATE AND TO "CEASE REGARDING ITSELF THE CENTER OR NUCLEUS OF A WORLD WIDE GROUPING OF PEOPLE OF ONE RELIGIOUS FAITH". The savagery of the Zionist/Israeli attack on Byroade measured how close he came TO THE RAW NERVE of THE INDEFENSIBLE IDEOLOGY of the Zionist State. Anti-Zionists applauded the effort to distinguish between A NORMAL ISRAEL and A ZIONIST ISRAEL. Nor, judging by the available records, have "Arab" statesmen or diplomats competently and consistently informed the world of the dimensions of the obstacle to peace which Zionist ideology presents. Perhaps because they have been most egregiously injured by Zionism, some Palestinian spokemen have addressed the issue. In an authoritative article in the Journal of Palestine Studies (32), Sabri Jiryis, who is also a member of the PLO National Council, candidly wrote:
The Palestinians may, in certain circumstances, be ready to seek a settlement in the area to which Israel is a party. But they are not prepared to conclude an agreement RECOGNIZING THE LEGITIMACY OF ZIONISM; no palestinian Arab can ever accept as LEGITIMATE a doctrine THAT HE SHOULD BE EXCLUDED FROM MOST PARTS OF HIS HOMELAND, because he is a Christian or Muslim Arab, WHILE ANYONE OF THE JEWISH FAITH ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD IS ENTITLED TO SETTLE THERE. Realism may require recognition of the existence of a Jewish state in Palestine and that this fact be taken into account in seeking a settlement. BUT THIS CAN NEVER MEAN APPROVING THE EXPANSIONIST AND EXCLUSIVIST TENDENCIES OF ZIONISM.
IX. "Twas ever Thus"

The constancy of Zionist ideology as the ultimate fermentation-agent of Israeli policy is illustrated in recently published English translations of parts of Moshe Sharett's diaries. MOSHE SHARETT was Israel's first Foreign Minister and, for a brief period, its Prime Minister. He was regarded as a "dove" by many innocents in the days when Ben Gurion was considered the number one hawk. But the diaries dispute this theory. Sharett's objectives were ESSENTIALLY THE SAME as those of the flamboyant Ben Gurion. Sharett simply favored different, more gradual, more sublte tactics. He filled diaries with agonizing and indecision as well as with reflections of his reluctance to engage in public debate with the charismatic first Prime Minister. The time is 1955. The setting is that the U.S. is still interessted in cultivating Abdel Nasser's friendship. The U.S. was prepared to offer Israel a security guarantee coupled with an attempt to persuade Nasser to make peace. On 8/14, Nasser indicated he was interested in "normalizing relations with Israel." In other words, conditions were favorable for a settlement. BUT THE ZIONIST IDEOLOGUES DID NOT WISH A SETTLEMENT. An important consideration in the sequence of events is that the Israeli population ws enjoying a growing sense of prosperity and security. This did not suit the Zionist ideologues who believed the people's teeth should be set on edge so that when the opportunity came, the country might be ready for Israel's next move to expand. The immediate territorial target was GAZA. The political objective was to disrupt the growing rapport between the U.S. and Nasser. Sharett's diary, for 5/26/55 records the thinking of some of those who orchestrated Israeli attitudes and also influenced world opinion. The principal spokesman for the opponents of the possible peace was Dayan. And the diary reports:
We do not need (Dayan said) a security pact with the U.S., such a pact will only constitute an obstacle for us. We face no danger at all of an Arab advantage of force for the next 8-10 years. Even if they receive massive military aid from the west, we shall maintain our military superiority thanks to an infinitely greater capacity to assimilate new armaments. The security pact will only handcuff us and deny us freedom of actrion, and this is what we need in the coming years. Reprisal raids which we couldn't carry out if we were tied to a security pact are our vital lymph. First (the reprisal raids) make it imperative for the Arabgoernmentsto tkae strong measures to protect the borders. Second, AND THAT'S THE MAIN THING, THEY MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO MAINTAIN A HIGH LEVEL OF TENSION AMONG OUR POPULATION AND THE ARMY. Without these actions we would cease to be a combative people and WITHOUT THE DISCIPLINE OF A COMBATIVE PEOPLE WE ARE LOST....We will have to cry out that the Negev is in danger SO THAT ANGRY MEN WILL GO THERE.
Sharett then adds his own comments"
The conclusions from Dayan's words are clear" This state has no international worries, no economic problems. THE QUESTION OF PEACE IS NON-EXISTENT. IT must calculate its steps narrow-mindedly AND LIVE ON ITS SWORD. It must see the sword as the main, if not the only instrument with which to keep its morale high and to retain its moral tension. Towards this end it may, no, IT MUST, INVENT DANGERS AND TO DO TIHIS IT MUST ADOPT THE METHODOF PROVOCATION AND REVENGE....and above all, let us hope for a new war with the Arab countries so that we may finally GET RID OF OUR TROUBLES AND ACQUIRE OUR SPACE...Ben Gurion himself said it would be worth while to pay an Arab a million pounds to start a war. (33)
The eternal, Zionist dialectic again! If the people are not obsessed with fear, create conditions to frighten them. If there are no visible enemies - create them! Ignore any hand outstretched in friendship, for the friendship CAN DISSOLVE THE IDEOLOGY. The analogy to recent Israeli conduct is obvious. Conventional compromises of the conventional issues of peace will achieve nothing more than another precarious armistice. Arabs were the victims of Zionism before there was Zionist sovereignty over territoryand before law, canonized in the Zionist state, formalized Zionism's racism into Israeli nationalism. Arabs know besst in al the world the essence of this bitter conflict. But they have been unable, or unwilling, to articulate their concern and to identify this parochial, Zionist ideology as the malignancy metastasizing into every one of the more ephemeral issues and making them unresponsive to normal diplomatic treatment. This Arab failure, plus the resistance of Western "statesmen", refusing to hear or see for political reasons, plus the persistence, inventiveness and opportunisim of Zionist/Israeli propaganda have produced in much of the world a one-dimensional judgment of the Arab/Palestinian?Israeli/Zionist conflict. In the west MOST OF WHAT THE AVERAGE CITIZEN KNOWS ABOUT "ARABS" HE KNOWS FROM ZIONIST, OR ZIONIST-INDOCTRINATED SOURCES. It is symbolic of the false dilemma into which this knot-hole vision of the conflict has directed the world that the Palestinian aspiration of a democratic, secular,unitary state is commonly viewed with trepidation, if not outright abhorrence. Theunspoken reason, of course, is not tht Jews would be exterminated or "driven into the sea." The reason is that such a state would exorcise Zionism and its synthetic "Jewish people" nationality together with its expansionist, extra-territorial claims to part or all of Palestine. That the democratization of any society and the elimination of extra-territorialism are regarded generally as desirable attainments in normal international relations never seems to trouble the myopic supporters of Zionist/Israel. Paradoxically, this ETHNOCENTERED, EXCLUSIVIST, AGGRESSIVE IDEOLOGY has been widely accpeted as a benevolent, liberating, progressive phenomenon. Not until its true character is fully understood and the wider horizons of the human dimensions of the total confrontation with "the Arabs" are adequately perceived,will the ever "smaller range of consciousness" be repolaced with the elevated vision needed to create the so far elusive but eminently desirable "just and enduring peace."

END

" If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight or no light. If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls I will write always I will capture right all over the world and bring them to you. The streets lie,the sidewalks lie, everything lies You can try and read it but you're gonna get it wrong... all wrong. The summer evenings burn and melt and the nights glitter but you're gonna get it wrong And it's gonna sink its teeth into your flesh and pull you to the bottom"

(17) Monthly review press NY and London 1976. See esp p. 161ff
(18) Ibid: p.216
(19) Monthy Review Press, NY and London, l197 p. XII.
(20) This report is unofficially known as "The Koenig Plan", after Israel Koenig, the comissioner of the district. The report was supposed to have been secret, but ws leaked to the press in Israel. The complete text, in translation, has been published in a pamphlet "Palaces of Injustice".
(21) Ibid. p 11
(22) Ibid p 13
(23) For details see The Non-Jew in the Jewish State, p. 73. This is a collection of articles published in the Israel press, edited and prepared and privated distributed in translationk, by Dr. Israel Shahak. Prof. of Chemistry at the Hebrew University.
(24) Ibid. p 74
(25) Yediot Aharonot 8/29/80
(26) AP 12/16/80
(27) Uris Davis and Walter Lehn, "And the Fund Still Lives", Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 1978 op. 23
(28) At the time of writing the Israeli poiund = 2-3 cents of American money, with an inflation rate of 135% per year. (29) Sabri Jiryis, The Arabs in Israel
(30) Ibid p. 235
(31) Ibid p. 239
(32) SABRI JIRYIS, Political Settlement in the Middle East, Journal of Palestine Studies, Autumn, 1977, Vol. VII, No. 1, pp.3-25