MJ Rosenberg claims Israelis are 'invented people'
Writing in al-Jazeera (because no one else would publish such anti-Semitic drivel?), the insufferable MJ Rosenberg claims that 'Israelis' are as much an 'invented people' as 'Palestinians.' The singular triumph of the Zionist movement is that it invented a state and a people - Israel and the Israelis - from scratch. The first Hebrew-speaking child in 1900 years, Ittamar Ben-Avi, was not born until 1882. His father, the brilliant linguist Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, created a modern language for him to speak by improvising from the language of the Bible.Rosenberg is mistaken. Zionism without Judaism is like a body without a soul.
The founder of the Israeli state was Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), an assimilated Viennese writer who was convinced by the Dreyfus trial in France - and the horrendous right-wing anti-Semitism that resulted from it - that Jews had to get out of Europe.
In 1897, he wrote the book that would essentially inaugurate the Zionist movement. It was called Der Judenstaat (meaning "the Jews' state" or "the Jewish State"), which was his proposal for moving the Jews out of Europe and into their own country.
He didn't specify where the Jewish homeland should be. He was more concerned about quickly obtaining territory anywhere for Jews to seek refuge.
Later, he decided that Palestine made the most sense because that was where the Jewish people both began and exercised self-determination in ancient times, and where there already was a small minority of Jews. But he also spoke of finding a place in Africa or the Americas if Palestine was unavailable.
The reaction to Herzl's idea was primarily that he was a bit crazy. Jews committed to assimilation insisted that Jews were not a nation, but a religious faith. Their nationalities were French, German, Polish, Iraqi or American - not some imaginary Jewish nationality that had not existed for 1900 years.
In the first 100 pages or so of his book, The Jewish State (yes, the same title as Herzl's), Yoram Hazony demonstrates conclusively that Israel is the Jewish state and is grounded in Jewish customs, history, values and lore. Hazony shows that David Ben Gurion himself was a key proponent of making our country a Jewish state and not an 'Israeli state' despite the fact that Ben Gurion was - for the most part - not a practicing Jew.
Over the past 60 years, there have been many attempts to substitute 'Israeliness' for Judaism, just like Rosenberg is trying to convince us was done. They have all failed because not only is Israel not an 'Israeli state,' there is no such thing as 'Israeliness.' If we are Israelis and not Jews, then we are doomed to failure.
And where does that leave the non-Jewish residents of the State of Israel? As non-Jews living in a Jewish country, but without the persecution that goes with being - for example - non-Muslims in a Muslim country. Israel is not a 'state of all its citizens' - as much as the Left has tried to make it into one. It is a Jewish state with a Jewish calendar and Jewish traditions. For example, the kids are all on vacation this week because it's Chanuka.
Oh and by the way, Herzl's idea to put the Jewish state in Africa (specifically in Uganda) was rejected by the rest of the Zionist leadership. That's because they knew that the land to which the Jewish people is connected, the land whose deed belongs to the Jewish people per the Bible, is the Land of Israel.
Labels: David Ben Gurion, Israel is a Jewish state, Theodore Herzl, Yoram Hazony
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:48 PM
3 comments
