The Jewish people - like any other people - have a collective right to self-determination and the historic Jewish connection to the land of Israel makes that the right place for our nation-state.
Look forward to your series. I just signed the J St. call for our Representatives to sign on to a letter to the President. On your subtitle, Jeremy, I would say "for a nation-state in which Jews have a prioritzed right to immigrate," just as there clearly needs to be a State of Palestine.
Both states however shoud be multinational and multilingual democracites, with equal rights for all, and living side by side, with peace and with security, and with negotiated people and land swaps leading to interntionally recognized borders.
Certainly don’t agree with everything (a lot!) of what J Street and you say and do. But on this point; we pretty much agree about #Zionism. (Imagine you’ll get more flack in this point from Anti-Zionists Jews and non-Jews alike!)
Well I promise to read each part of the package! )As I've noted elsewhere; hopefully J Street will continue to comp me to attend the annual J Street Conferences (which I've attended all of going back to your first 15 years ago!)
A much needed articulation with reference to history and to Jewish values of "freedom, justice and peace for all." Thank you for saying it so very well!
It's more important to define what Zionism is going to be in the future. That future needs to be based on reconciliation and coexistence, beginning with a Zionist apology for the Nakba. Progressive Zionist Movement. www.pzmove.org
Thanks. My plan is to define that future through the totality of these 10 posts. Hope you’ll read the whole series over time and then let me know what you think.
Memory is often not as accurate as data: 1st Zionist Congress 1897; between 1897 and 1918, 21 years—only 56,000 Jews could be persuaded to go to what later became Israel; from 1918 to 1946, 28 years, over 600,000 Jews immigrated to Israel despite British restrictions; Hitler and the Third Reich were the primary driver of 10 X numbers of Jewish immigrants; the post war driver was still Hitler’s legacy, 1948 to 1951, 600,000 Jewish population. Zionism failed to motivate a sufficient number of Jews to go to Israel prior to World War II.
And while your data is accurate - no dispute from me - your analysis on the other hand, I would argue, is a little off. British restrictions on Jewish immigration predated the Third Reich and immigration to Palestine would have been a lot higher post WWI and pre-Hitler were it not for British limits. I don't agree that "Zionism failed to motivate a sufficient number of Jews to go to Israel." I would say that sadly the fact that not enough Jews (including my mother's family) left Europe in the mid-late 30s/early 40s was due to (a) failure to recognize, at first, the threat that was looming and (b) the doors being closed to Palestine and the US/much of the rest of the world.
First, a somewhat academic point. I'm unaware of any evidence (outside of the Bible) for the biblical story of Jewish enslavement in Egypt and the Exodus.
{From Copilot): Some scholars argue that the lack of direct archaeological evidence doesn't necessarily disprove the Exodus; it might simply mean that the event was smaller in scale or that the evidence hasn't been found yet. Others believe that the story is more mythological or symbolic rather than a historical record.
There is evidence that Jews/Hebrews lived in the Land during or near the purported time of the Exodus, but not for a return from any mass slavery in Egypt. Of course, if Jews did live continuously in the Land during those times that probably strengthens the Jewish claim--except that it weakens the linkage to divine intervention.
Second. Let's be honest. The Holocaust had a lot to do with the creation and early survival of the State of Israel. Certainly, Jewish settlement and the establishment of the semiautonomous Yishuv
predate the Holocaust. But absent WW II, there probably wouldn't have been a UN to authorize the state. Absent the Holocaust, there would not have been the influx of desperate refugees after the war and the imperative to establish a real Jewish state wouldn't have been nearly as strong. Absent the Holocaust, relatively tepid support (moral, political, and financial) for Zionism among American Jews might not have have grown into a bedrock principal of our community, and US recognition would have been a lot more doubtful. Finally, absent the Holocaust, Israel would not have received the large reparations payment that helped it survive its early years. So, yes, the Jewish State wasn't provided as "compensation" for the Holocaust, but niether were the two things unrelated.
A must needed explanation - I hope to be followed by an explanation of the difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism!
That one is coming! I think it is part 10!
Look forward to your series. I just signed the J St. call for our Representatives to sign on to a letter to the President. On your subtitle, Jeremy, I would say "for a nation-state in which Jews have a prioritzed right to immigrate," just as there clearly needs to be a State of Palestine.
Both states however shoud be multinational and multilingual democracites, with equal rights for all, and living side by side, with peace and with security, and with negotiated people and land swaps leading to interntionally recognized borders.
Certainly don’t agree with everything (a lot!) of what J Street and you say and do. But on this point; we pretty much agree about #Zionism. (Imagine you’ll get more flack in this point from Anti-Zionists Jews and non-Jews alike!)
Who knows? Maybe when I’m done, we’ll agree on more than you expected, taking the package as a whole!
Well I promise to read each part of the package! )As I've noted elsewhere; hopefully J Street will continue to comp me to attend the annual J Street Conferences (which I've attended all of going back to your first 15 years ago!)
Have circulated.
A much needed articulation with reference to history and to Jewish values of "freedom, justice and peace for all." Thank you for saying it so very well!
Excellent. I’m at the gym and was thinking we needed someone to define Zionism and this popped up! Thx!
It's more important to define what Zionism is going to be in the future. That future needs to be based on reconciliation and coexistence, beginning with a Zionist apology for the Nakba. Progressive Zionist Movement. www.pzmove.org
Thanks. My plan is to define that future through the totality of these 10 posts. Hope you’ll read the whole series over time and then let me know what you think.
Memory is often not as accurate as data: 1st Zionist Congress 1897; between 1897 and 1918, 21 years—only 56,000 Jews could be persuaded to go to what later became Israel; from 1918 to 1946, 28 years, over 600,000 Jews immigrated to Israel despite British restrictions; Hitler and the Third Reich were the primary driver of 10 X numbers of Jewish immigrants; the post war driver was still Hitler’s legacy, 1948 to 1951, 600,000 Jewish population. Zionism failed to motivate a sufficient number of Jews to go to Israel prior to World War II.
And while your data is accurate - no dispute from me - your analysis on the other hand, I would argue, is a little off. British restrictions on Jewish immigration predated the Third Reich and immigration to Palestine would have been a lot higher post WWI and pre-Hitler were it not for British limits. I don't agree that "Zionism failed to motivate a sufficient number of Jews to go to Israel." I would say that sadly the fact that not enough Jews (including my mother's family) left Europe in the mid-late 30s/early 40s was due to (a) failure to recognize, at first, the threat that was looming and (b) the doors being closed to Palestine and the US/much of the rest of the world.
Exceptional discussion of the very challenging history of the creation of the state of Israel.
Jeremy’s analysis is, unsurprisingly, clear, concise, complete, and 100% fair and accurate.
Two comments:
First, a somewhat academic point. I'm unaware of any evidence (outside of the Bible) for the biblical story of Jewish enslavement in Egypt and the Exodus.
{From Copilot): Some scholars argue that the lack of direct archaeological evidence doesn't necessarily disprove the Exodus; it might simply mean that the event was smaller in scale or that the evidence hasn't been found yet. Others believe that the story is more mythological or symbolic rather than a historical record.
There is evidence that Jews/Hebrews lived in the Land during or near the purported time of the Exodus, but not for a return from any mass slavery in Egypt. Of course, if Jews did live continuously in the Land during those times that probably strengthens the Jewish claim--except that it weakens the linkage to divine intervention.
Second. Let's be honest. The Holocaust had a lot to do with the creation and early survival of the State of Israel. Certainly, Jewish settlement and the establishment of the semiautonomous Yishuv
predate the Holocaust. But absent WW II, there probably wouldn't have been a UN to authorize the state. Absent the Holocaust, there would not have been the influx of desperate refugees after the war and the imperative to establish a real Jewish state wouldn't have been nearly as strong. Absent the Holocaust, relatively tepid support (moral, political, and financial) for Zionism among American Jews might not have have grown into a bedrock principal of our community, and US recognition would have been a lot more doubtful. Finally, absent the Holocaust, Israel would not have received the large reparations payment that helped it survive its early years. So, yes, the Jewish State wasn't provided as "compensation" for the Holocaust, but niether were the two things unrelated.