The Zionist establishment is clearly worried that its long-held dominance of the public arena is coming to an end. After decades of supporting Israeli occupation policies and brutality against the Palestinians, a growing number of Jews and non-Jews are rejecting these figures. Isi Leibler articulates the fear:
World Jewry is also experiencing a general decline. Despite a revival among the Orthodox, the vast majority of Diaspora Jews are undergoing unprecedented levels of assimilation and snowballing intermarriage. Anti-Jewish prejudice in the media and in society at large continues to escalate. More and more assimilated younger Jews are distancing themselves from Israel, some even becoming part of the anti-Zionist chic.
These trends are paralleled by a general decline in Zionism’s fortunes. Thirty years ago Jewish communal bodies all accepted the centrality of Israel in Jewish life and a strong commitment to Israel was a prerequisite for anyone with Jewish leadership aspirations. There was also a consensus that Diaspora Jews, whose lives were not on the line, were obliged to exercise restraint in relation to criticism of Israel’s security policies.
Today, that no longer applies. The influence of Israeli diplomats on Jewish communities has drastically receded. The Jewish Agency and its international Zionist affiliates have, with few notable exceptions, withdrawn from the political arena and concentrate almost exclusively on fundraising. The beneficiaries of these changes are the major American donors, who today dominate the agenda.
In recent years the situation has further deteriorated. Jews previously relegated to the margins of Jewish life are emerging from the closet to attack Israel with unprecedented hutzpa. When disowned by mainstream groups, they shriek that they are being denied freedom of expression…
Indeed, if one follows the UK media one may be forgiven for reaching the conclusion that marginal anti- Israel Jewish groups and personalities have become more effective than the mainstream Jewish organizations.
A more humane Judaism is coming to the fore, one that proudly speaks in public with a less militant voice. First-wave Zionism has failed to secure Israel’s future or establish a Palestinian state. It is therefore more than time to supersede them and shun them appropriately.
We are having a major effect.
Wow, tell it to the 660 Palestinians slaughtered last year, or the 1300 Lebanese last summer based on a pre-planned lie of a war.
Try telling it to the 1700 Palestinians recently made homeless in Beit Hanoun or the families of the children slaughtered in Beit Jbeil.
What about the 12 year old Bedouin girl shot in the head, or the 15 year old boy shot in the leg and left to die last month.
What about the wall, who protests the dreadful wall and who is not afraid to shout Ilan Pappes’ revelations of the ethnic cleansing from the roof tops and scream out loud “forgive us, we know not what they do”.
How about them apples then.
I finally read a book by a Palestinian after many months of reading books by Jews and he had an extraordinary story which I have had confirmed by an Iraqi who was 15 at the time and remembers being shocked to his core.
ON 5 June 1967, just before the “war” that has become the big myth, the Israeli’s blew up all the planes belonging to the arab states, left them undefended and then attacked on the 6th pretending that they had been attacked,
Nothing really changes does it as they try to hang onto what is not theirs and steal more and more of it.
He of course completely misses all salient points:
1. Jews are giving up being Jewish because it is now associated with a State which ignores human rights, commits war crimes and which conducts one of the most vicious occupations and colonisations in modern history.
2. Jews no longer need to hold together because it is perfectly safe to be Jewish and live anywhere in the developed world. Just as it is safe to be Catholic or Anglican these days.
3. Israel has become such a pariah in the world that any person of conscience who can, will remove themselves from association. At least until it changes its behaviour.
4. Young people are more informed and less religious. Judaism is a religion. Its only raison d’etre is religious. My ancestors gave up their Jewishness shortly after arriving in Australia. Because they could. If you are not religious then why define yourself by a religion.
5. No modern democracy can be established on racist lines. Israel cannot remain a Jewish State if it is to be a member of the developed world. Ergo, Israel is increasingly meaningless to Jews who do not live there, simply because they do not believe they need a safe reguge to which they can run and because it is simply not safe.
6. Israel was established and has survived because of the holocaust industry. As the older generation dies out less and less people remember or care about that particular holocaust. One would hope that consciousness of all holocaust experiences are kept alive but one should not be more important than any other and it should most certainly not be justification for the dispossession and subjugation of others,ie the Palestinians. So the less ‘real’ the Jewish experience of holocaust becomes for people, the less relevant Israel becomes. That is not to say Israel will not survive but it will not survive as a Jewish State nor as an Occupier and coloniser.