SECTION 1: [Continuation]
H: When
Zionists defend Zionism
One of the most
risible things about Zionists, supremacists, racists, imperialists, and
colonialists is when they rise to their own
defense. One such example is of President
George W. Bush who declared the United States is not a �torturer nation,� while
his occupation force has been actively engaging in torturing and killing
hundred of thousands of Iraqis since the first day it invaded Iraq; the other,
when Condoleezza Rice compared the imperialist takeover of Iraq to the
�American Civil War.�
In her sheer
shallowness, Rice overlooked that Americans fought the Civil War among
themselves. In Iraq, American imperialists invaded it not to liberate it from
�dictatorship� or to take part in an Iraqi civil war that did not exist but to
conquer its oil wealth, partition it, elevate Israel to absolute military power
in the Middle East, and use Iraq as a territorial springboard for further
American expansion in Asia.
Similarly, Zionists
deny that Israel is structurally violent, racist, and supremacist. Or, when
Zionists do admit their racism, they blame the victim: �it is the fault of the
people that they despise!� For example, at ynetnews: �The Association
for Civil Rights� poll,
which showed a high incidence of racism within Israeli society, accurately
reflects the attitude of the majority of the public to Israel�s Arabs. However,
the reason for it does not stem from a racist attitude on the part of the Jews,
but rather, it stems from security-based hostility and political disagreements.
When Arabs convey the message that they do not accept us here as a majority in
a Jewish state and in control of the Land of Israel, this is the result.� [1]
An example of
propaganda put forward in defense of Zionism is by the Zionist website Zionism and Israel Information Center.
After stating that Zionism is not racist, the website proceeds to declare that
everything negative written against Zionism is untrue, and that quotations
attributed to Zionist politicians and theoreticians are either false or taken
out of context. The website then continues by giving universally banal examples
of �falsifications against Zionism.�
To prove its
contention, the website reports benign quotes by Israeli politicians and
founders. In essence, the site editors try to substitute the objective reality
of Zionism as the world witnessed it with rhetorical statements without merit.
It is only conceivable but also eminently believable that everything said or
analyzed about the criminal nature of Zionism is true except that the Israelis
eat the livers of Arab babies at Yom Kippur. Said the editors of the website:
Scattered around the Web are numerous pages of "Zionist
Quotes" that show Zionism as an evil, racist conspiracy. Many of the
quotes are forgeries and inventions. There was never any Ariel Sharon interview
with a "General Ouze Merham," and there was never any General Ouze
Merham either. Amos Oz did not interview Ariel Sharon in 1982 or at any other
time and denies that he interviewed Ariel Sharon. If you see any of those
quotes, you can know the "information" on that page is a fake, and
the people who present them are careless or liars. The intent of the doctored
quotes is to "prove" that "Zionism is Racism." and that
'Zionists' planned the transfer of Arabs from Palestine from the start. This
false thesis is advanced by fabricating quotes in interviews that never took place,
or by altering real quotes and taking them out of context. [2]
Refutation: We are willing to consider such
a statement by Zionists, if they agree to consider that anti-Zionist or
anti-Jewish quotations attributed to Nazi leaders were just false Nazi quotes.
However, even in the
absence of quotations and despite Zionists protestation to the contrary, facts
on the ground and the history of the Zionist entity in the past 59 years (since
statehood in 1948) speak powerfully and irrefutably about the racism of the
state of Israel. While Zionist quotations help to focus the attention on the
guiding mentality of Zionists, the history of racism and violence by Zionist
Israelis, on the other hand, is universal by its unique barbarity and
pathological intensity. A limited sampling include,
- The
Irgun (headed by Menachem Begin) and Stern�s (headed by Itzhak Shamir)
massacre of villagers at Deir Yassin, 1948, [3]
- The
massacre of Palestinians refugees at Sabra and Shatila in 1982 by
rightwing Lebanese Christian militia under the order of Ariel Sharon [4]
- The Apartheid
Wall in the occupied West bank (see photo at [5])
- The
occupation and frequent bombardment of refugee camps in all of the
occupied West Bank and Gaza
- The
Jenin Massacre (read a debate
on the issue by David Edwards of Media Lens [6])
- The
destruction of Lebanon and the U.S. proxy wars against the Arab and Muslim
states, and so on.
Special Note
Certain websites vigorously pursue denunciation of
false quotations attributed to Zionists. That some websites would publish
loosely researched or unverified quotations of Zionists is sloppy and stupid.
It undermines social activism on behalf of Palestinians and ultimately helps
Zionist aims. Establishing the veracity of information is important, but to engage
in denying racist quotations without denouncing the instances of verifiable
racist comments presents an inescapable conclusion: the websites are not
interested in fighting racism. These websites have another agenda, and that
agenda is acting as cover for Zionist racism. These websites are, therefore,
guilty of perpetuating racism.
Readers must be vigilant and consider information
with sufficient skepticism. Readers should be skeptical of unsupported claims.
Readers should demand that writers make known the sources upon which they made
their claims.
Next:
Part 11 of 12
NOTES
[1] Yitzhak Levy, �Arabs are to blame,� ynetnews, 8 December 2007.
[2] Zionism and Israel Information Center, Zionist Quotes
[3] Deir Yassin Website, Deir Yassin remembered
[4] Palestine Facts, What
happened at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982?
[5] Vermonters
for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel, Israel's Wall
in the West Bank
[6] David Edwards, How To Fool The
Whole World, Machiavelli, ZNet,
10 May 2002.
Kim Petersen is co-editor
of Dissident Voice and B.
J. Sabri is an Iraqi-American antiwar activist Email them at Petersen_sabri@yahoo.com.