Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism
By Yossi Schwartz, Internationalist Socialist League (RCIT Section in Israel / Occupied Palestine), 16 November .2018, http://www.the-isleague.com
Anti–Semitism among the masses, as the socialist August Bebel put it, is the socialism of the fools. Today, Anti-Semitism in the world is on the rise. This ugly phenomenon is proof that the Jewish question will be solved only through a global socialist revolution. Zionism as we will show in this article is not the solution but merely part of the problem.
Anti-Semitism is not a new phenomenon; Jews have been victims of this form of racism in different periods of history. In its modern form it began in the 19th century as a pseudo-scientific theory that Jews are racially inferior. The term Anti-Semitism was coined in 1879 by the German writer Wilhelm Marr. The term, however, is a misnomer, because it implies a discrimination against all Semites. Arabs, for example, among others are also Semites. A better term would be Judeophobia. However, for the sake of clarity we will use the term Anti-Semitism in the context of Jew-hatred.
The modern form of Anti-Semitism draws its inspiration from centuries of Christian theology that blamed the Jews for the betrayal and execution of Jesus. The first historically documented pogrom against Jews took place in 1096 following an economic crisis and the first crusade. [1]
After the 11th century Jews were accused of the ritualistic use of Christian children’s blood for making Passover Matzo. Jews in the Middle Ages were restricted in Christian Europe in their choice of occupations and places of residence, being forced into money lending positions. As a result, they were perceived as usurers, forced to use special clothes and to live in ghettos.
During economic, social or political crisis, Jews were used as convenient scapegoats. Some rulers of Europe sometimes killed or expelled Jews in an effort to avoid paying debts. In the 19th century an Anti-Semitic political movement emerged in Europe which reached its peak in Nazi Germany. Following WWII Anti-Semitism was repressed but did not disappear. Many former Nazis tried to hide their Anti-Semitism, but in some cases they passed it on to their children.
Anti-Semitism Today
It surfaced again with the xenophobia following the September 11 and it became stronger with the economic crisis of 2008; that among other things strengthened far right parties that blamed immigrants and refugees for the suffering of the masses. Part of this hate has been directed against Jews.
The crimes of Israel against the Palestinians and other Arabs also fanned the flames of anti-Jewish sentiments as most Jews around the world identify with Israel. If in the past, Jews were perceived as outsiders in the US, they are perceived now as part of the establishment.
In this period of polarization and the lack of a strong revolutionary pole, a section of society is moving to the right blaming minority groups for their misery. In this context, the election of Trump as president shouldn’t be surprising. Under his presidency Anti-Semitism is once-again on the rise in the US.
Anti-Semitism in the USA is, also, not a new phenomenon. Virulent Anti-Semitism in the US began 50 years after the Civil war. It intertwined with white supremacy, the restrictive immigration laws of 1921 and 1924, written by eugenicists and cheered by white supremacists, came a decade before the Nazi Party took power in Germany. These laws were still on the books in the 1930s and 1940s, severely limiting the number of Jews who would be able to find refuge from Nazism. [2]
In action, Anti-Semitism takes the form of damage and desecration of property and grave sites, beating up Jews, Holocaust denial, swastikas smeared on Jewish homes, slogans against Jews like in the case of Charlottesville Virginia, where the racists shouted “Jews will not replace us” and even cases of killing Jews.
The latest tragic result of Anti-Semitic hatred has been the massacre in Pittsburgh on 27 October 2018. A right-wing fanatic supporter of Trump, who hates Jews as well as Muslims, opened fire inside a synagogue, killing 11 congregants.
A greater economic crisis is just around the corner and the polarization will grow and with it also Anti-Semitism.
Fighting all forms of racism is in the interest of the international working class. Joining this struggle is the interest of all minorities. Unfortunately for the Jews, the Israeli government and many Zionist leaders prefer to join the far right in the crusade against Muslims. Some Zionists went so far as forming their own group within the far-right German political party the AFD. The Zionist reports on the rise of Anti-Semitism are misleading as they include manifestation of Anti-Zionism directed against the crimes of the Israeli state against the Palestinians and not Jews in general.
An investigation by The Electronic Intifada in 2017 unveiled new links between far-right anti-Muslim group Britain First and the pro-Israel movement. Photos and video obtained by The Electronic Intifada show that Britain First’s leader in London, Paul Besser, picketed July’s Palestine Expo alongside other anti-Palestinian protesters, including former Zionist Federation vice chair Jonathan Hoffman. In the video, one of the organizers of the picket says the Zionist Federation printed their leaflets and gave them Israeli flags. [3] In a blog post, Hoffman thanked the group for their help: “the other good news was the resistance to the event, led by the StopPalExpo Coalition”. [4]
The Zionists are pushing for the acceptance of the IHRA document (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) as the standard test for Anti-Semitism. This document begins with correct definition: “Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of Anti Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
Yet the guide of this document includes the defense of Israel: “Manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic but denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor. Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation is Anti-Semitism.”
The Three Ds of Natan Sharansky
It is not difficult to trace these definitions to the three Ds of Natan Sharansky. He immigrated to Israel after 13 years in a Stalinist prison after he was charged with spying for the US. He was considered in Israel a persecuted hero. He received in 1986, the United States Congressional Gold Medal and in 2006, US President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, medals which confirm the allegations against him.
In Israel he became a politician serving as a Minister of Industry and Trade (1996–1999). He resigned from the cabinet in April 2005 to protest plans to withdraw Israeli settlements from the Gaza Strip.
In a Haaretz interview, he stated: “Jews came here 3,000 years ago and this is the cradle of Jewish civilization. Jews are the only people in history who kept their loyalty to their identity and their land throughout the 2,000 years of exile, and no doubt that they have the right to have their place among nations—not only historically but also geographically. As to the Palestinians, who are the descendants of those Arabs who migrated in the last 200 years, they have the right, if they want, to have their own state … but not at the expense of the state of Israel.” [5]
A statement of a truly right wing nationalist that among other things denied that Arabs have lived in this country for more than 1300 years.
His Three Ds are as follows:
The first “D” is the test of demonization. When the Jewish state is being demonized; when Israel’s actions are blown out of all sensible proportion; when comparisons are made between Israelis and Nazis and between Palestinian refugee camps and Auschwitz – this is anti- Semitism, not legitimate criticism of Israel.
The second “D” is the test of double standards. When criticism of Israel is applied selectively; when Israel is singled out by the United Nations for human rights abuses while the behavior of known and major abusers, such as China, Iran, Cuba, and Syria, is ignored; when Israel’s Magen David Adom, alone among the world’s ambulance services, is denied admission to the International Red Cross – this is anti-Semitism.
The third “D” is the test of delegitimization: when Israel’s fundamental right to exist is denied – alone among all peoples in the world – this too is anti-Semitism.
These 3 Ds are aimed at white wash the crimes of Israel against the Palestinians and not a scientific definition of Anti-Semitism:
As to the first D: “when Israel’s actions are blown out of all sensible proportion?” According to Israel, the blockade of Gaza, the largest Ghetto in history, is reasonable. In reality the siege has left medical facilities struggling to operate due to severe lack of electricity and essential drugs, medical disposables, and equipment. This blockade is a crime, but calling the blockade a war crime would be considered by Israel and the Zionists around the world a form of Anti-Semitism.
Killing of more than 200 protesters and injuring many thousands in Gaza since march 30th who demand to return to their lands stolen from them during the Nakba are, according to Israel, proportional and reasonable, an act of self defense defending its national borders. Referring to Israeli forces’ repeated use of lethal force in the Gaza Strip since March 30th, 2018, against Palestinian demonstrators who posed no imminent threat to life, as war crimes, would be considered by this D test as Anti-Semitism.
According to this test the condemnation of the massacre of Sharpeville by the racist regime in South Africa was a form of racism against white people. Condemning the massacre of the Indians in Amritsar, India, a massacre that took place on April 13th 1919, will be considered as Anti-English. Condemning the massacres of the native nations in North America will be considered Anti-White. Comparing Israel’s crime to the Nazi crimes is wrong, but comparing Israel’s crimes to the crimes of the Apartheid regime of South Africa, the twin sister of Israel, is accurate. Comparing Palestinian refugee camps to Auschwitz is wrong, but comparing Gaza to the Ghettos is accurate.
As to the second D: “When Israel is singled out by the United Nations for human rights abuses while the behavior of known and major abusers, such as China, Iran, Cuba, and Syria, is ignored […]”
This is simply a lie that Israel is singled out by the UN. The UN has condemned the abuse of human rights by many countries. To give a few examples: this September the U.N. Security Council condemned Iran. In August the U.N. accused the Nicaraguan government of widespread rights violations. In 2018, the UNHRC declared that six generals in Myanmar should be prosecuted for the genocide against the Rohingya Muslims. The UN Security Council resolution 1244 adopted on 10 June 1999, after recalling resolutions 1160 (1998), 1199(1998), 1203 (1998) and 1239 (1999), authorized an international civil and military presence in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and established the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. The UN condemned Assad for killing civilians.
It is true that the UN is controlled by the imperialists so that their or their client states crimes are never condemned (Saudi Arabia for example), but Israel is the last country to complain about the UN, after all the UN partition allocated 55% of Palestine to the Zionist state at a time that Jews constituted 650,000 and 40% to the native Arabs that were 1,200,000, which was a gross injustice. Israel never complied with the resolution calling for the return of the Palestinians refugees and the UN has not enforced this resolution. Furthermore, any concrete action against Israelis has been blocked by the US. Should Israel not have been protected by the US and other imperialist states, its leaders would have been prosecuted by international criminal courts long ago. In the real world, those who were tried by said courts were leaders of semi-colonies that somehow offended the imperialists.
As to the third D – the test of delegitimization: “When Israel’s fundamental right to exist is denied – alone among all peoples in the world is sheer hypocrisy.”
The existence of the Israeli state is founded on the denial of the right of self determination of the native Palestinians, and it is impossible to support the Palestinian right of self determination and at the same time to support the existence of the Zionist state.
Israel is denying even a small Palestinian state in the lands occupied in 1967. Israel is in the process of becoming an openly apartheid state from the river to the sea. This has been proven lately by the new Nation Law. Thus, to support the existence of Israel is to accept the legitimacy of an Apartheid state.
The Campaign against the Left in the Labor Party
In the last two years, we have witnessed a campaign against the left wing of the Labor party with allegations of anti-Semitism directed at Jeremy Corbyn. We have seen widespread assumption that Anti-Semitism is a problem exclusive to the Labour Party. Alan Sugar, one of the most famous faces in British business, tweeted a photo of the Labour leader sitting next to Hitler. The Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, known for his equation of anti-Zionism with Anti Semitism has been held as an expert on the alleged Anti-Semitism of the left wing of the Labour Party.
The Labor Party has been called “anti-Semitic” because it has refused to adopt the entirety of a disputed definition of “anti-Semitism” – the code of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), that the capitalist media call “internationally recognized” definition. The IHRA code considers any description of the Israeli State as a “racist” to be anti-Semitic. The Labor Party that until recently rejected this clause has been portrayed as a party that rejects the UN bill of human rights, which is a blatant lie.
Not too many British are aware of how the Israeli state was formed. They do not know how, in 1948, three-quarters of a million Palestinian Arabs were forcibly evicted, with British backing, off their own land. To recognize this as racist, in the words of the IHRA code, would be “Anti-Semitic”.
The mainstream media has won and the Labour party has to re-formulate its definition of anti-Semitism to fit the one currently used by the conservative government. This development is dangerous for the working class, the pro-Palestinian groups and for democratic Jews. It is dangerous for all Jews as it push them to ally themselves with their real enemies – the far right and the ruling class – instead of allying themselves with the working class and the struggle against racism.
The far right that today present themselves as the friends of Israel may one day come to power and the Jews who will be unprepared will find themselves in a similar situation they faced during WWII. In addition, this document identifies all Jews as Zionists. The quarter of a million British Jews are in no way accountable, nor should ever be held accountable, for the actions of the Israeli state. Nor should they all presumed to be supporters of Israel’s crimes.
Anti Zionism can be a veiled anti-Jewish, for example the claim that the Zionists controlled the world or the US, but in most cases Anti-Zionism of the left expresses the opposition to the repression of the Palestinians by Israel, which is a form of anti- racism and not of Anti-Semitism. The Zionists and their supporters purposely confuse Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism in order to shield Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians.
On the Formation of Israel
The Zionists claim that if the Palestinians had agreed to the partition plan of 1947 they would have had a state already in 1948. In reality while the Zionists said at the time that they agree to the partition, they never agreed to a Palestinian state. In 1947, Golda Meir met with King Abdullah of Jordan in order to agree how to divide between Israel and Jordan the lands allocated by the partition plan to the Palestinians.
According to a CIA report: “just days before Israel will declare its independence, Golda Meir, then Head of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency traveled to Amman to meet with King Abdullah of Transjordan. This was the second meeting between the two, with the first occurring in early November 1947 at Naharayim on the banks of the Jordan River[…] Abdullah shared the Zionist leadership’s fear of a Palestinian state led by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al Husayni emerging as a result of the UN Partition decision. […] The British announcement that they will end the Mandate and turn the Palestine issue over to the United Nations gives King Abdullah renewed hope that he will be able to expand his empire by taking over the Arab areas of Palestine. In the November 1947 meeting with Golda Meir, he states his intention to annex the Arab parts of Palestine. Meir responds that the Zionist leadership will not oppose that plan if it means that there would be no clashes between Jewish and Jordanian forces.” [6]
Gershom Gorenberg in an article titled “The Mystery of 1948. Did Israel actually plan to expel most of its Arabs in 1948? Or not?” in which he claimed that the Zionist leaders did not plan the mass removal of the Palestinians, nevertheless wrote:
“In October 1947, telegram from Moshe Shertok was sent to David Ben-Gurion. Shertok was the “foreign minister” of the Jewish Agency, part of autonomous government of the Zionist settlements in Palestine; Ben-Gurion was head of the Agency. Shertok was in New York, where the final version of the partition plan was being hammered out. The plan allowed Arabs living in the Jewish state to opt for citizenship in the Arab state or the Jewish state, and for Jews living in the Arab state to do the same. Jerusalem residents could also choose to be citizens of one of the states. Were the U.N. plan to include a population transfer, that would be ideal, Shertok implies, but this was not in the cards. Since the Arabs would stay put, it would be best if they chose citizenship in the Arab state, so that they would not be able to vote in the Jewish one. Meanwhile, the Jewish political majority would be boosted by Jews living outside the state”.
It should be no surprise that Zionist leaders thought about the forced uprooting of men, women and children in order to create ethnically homogenous state. It was part of the Zeitgeist. The original British proposal for dividing Palestine, submitted by the Peel Commission in 1937, (that was accepted by the Zionist leaders) included transfer of Arabs out of the Jewish state, and cited the forced exchange of 1.3 million Greeks and 400,000 Turks in 1923 as a positive precedent. [7]
Were the Zionists committed to the partition plan they would have allowed the Palestinian refugees to return at least to the lands allocated for a Palestinian state not to speak of returning to their lands occupied already before 1948. Instead they killed any Palestinian that tried to return to his land.
“By early May 1948, Shertok was speaking of the “astounding” and “unforeseen” Arab exodus, as if describing an unexpected inheritance. Going back to the status quo ante was unthinkable, he said. When Israel’s provisional government discussed the issue in June, the consensus was to prevent the refugees from returning. The policy was partly defensive, to avoid a fifth column. But in the June cabinet meeting, Shertok also described all “the lands and the houses” as “spoils of war,” and as compensation for what Jews had lost in a war forced on them”. [8]
While the official line of the Zionists is that their land grabbing was done in self defense against the Arab armies that attacked Israel in May 1948, the Zionists were by far the more powerful and better organized force, and by May 1948, when the state of Israel was formally established, about 300,000 Palestinians already had been expelled from their homes or had fled the fighting, and the Zionists controlled a region well beyond the area of the original Jewish state that had been proposed by the UN. Now it’s then that Israel was attacked by its neighbors – in May 1948; it’s then, after the Zionists had taken control of this much larger part of the region and hundreds of thousands of civilians had been forced out, not before. [9]
Far Right’s Infatuation with Israel
The Zionist definition of Anti-Semitism is, by design, aimed at silencing and demonizing any opposition to Israel’s crimes by the left. History teaches us that this is very dangerous for Jews, as well as other minorities deemed “undesirable”, because it disarms them against the far right and the fascists who currently hate Muslims and Jews while admiring Israel.
For example, a German neo Nazi group calling itself National Socialists for Israel, stated: “A strong nation is worthy of life; an ailing nation deserves death,” […]. “Deportations, pogroms and inquisitions were all understandable acts which were carried out by nations merely trying to defend themselves. That is also the context in which the event called the ‘Holocaust’ must be viewed… This does not justify it. Instead of destroying the Jews we should have taken every measure possible to support the Zionist movement. The group distributed stickers in Berlin with Israeli soldiers on them and the words, “A 2000-year struggle for survival. Respect those who have earned it.” Another sticker has a picture of senior Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich, and under the words, “As a Nazi, I’m a Zionist.” [10]
The British BNP’s leader Nick Griffin – formerly of the Holocaust denying National Front – in 2009 claimed that he had brought the party “from being, frankly, an anti-Semitic and racist organization into being the only political party which… stood full square behind Israel’s right to deal with Hamas terrorists”.
The English Defense League founder Tommy Robinson in 2011 recounted warmly that “in our first demonstrations… we flew the flag of Israel, the Star of David. In the first public speech I ever gave, I wore the Star of David in Leeds.”
Groups like the EDL and BNP have their roots in the neo-Nazi and fascist street gangs who have often been involved in attacks on people of color and immigrants. Many were, or are, also virulently anti-Semitic. For such groups to embrace the “Jewish state” is not so much of a contradiction as it may first appear. After all, the mission of Zionism was to remove Europe’s Jews from Europe – something anti-Semites also sought. [11]
Trump is known to be a strong supporter of Israel. Last year a mass far right demonstration took place in Charlottesville Virginia. Trump said about them and about those who oppose them “very fine people on both sides”. Thus he equated neo-Nazism with those fighting for racial equality. In his colloquy with the press, he was not calling neo-Nazis great folks but said that many of the Confederate-statue-loving protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, were not neo-Nazis at all. Somehow, these “fine people” got mixed in with white supremacists shouting, “Jews will not replace us.” [12]
The Israeli Government’s Infatuation with the Far Right
It is not only that the far right, including some Neo Nazis organizations love Israel, but the Israeli government and the Zionist movement endorse these right wing organizations.
In November 2017, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) hosted a gala dinner in New York City honoring Stephen Bannon, US President Donald Trump’s then-chief strategist. Bannon and his media outlet Breitbart News were, and still are, seen by many as anti-Semitic was of no consequence to Zionist leaders from the US and Israel, who were in attendance. [13]
In Europe, Israel is actively pursuing alliances with far-right groups and parties as a state policy. During the Ariel Sharon government in the early 2000s, Italian post-fascist Gianfranco Fini paid a visit to Israel. At that time Fini, the leader of the Movimento Sociale Italiano (Italian Social Movement), the ideological successor of the anti-Semitic Fascist Party, was trying to change the image of his movement. He started by changing the name to the “National Alliance” and then, to solidify its new image, he embarked on a trip to Israel, in the company of Amos Luzzatto, the head of the Italian Jewish community.
This party was replaced by the far-right League Party under the leadership of the Matteo Salvini. Salvini too went through the same political baptism by Israel as Fini did. In March 2016, he came to Tel Aviv to launch his political career.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has also been in the process of establishing solid ties with Israel, despite its racist views.
“[T]he party derided for anti-Semitic, xenophobic views redolent of the Nazis is also staunchly supportive of Israel,” reported the Times of Israel. “[It is] one of a number of right-wing populist parties in Europe that have tried to make common cause with Israel’s tough stance toward terror and self-styled position as a forward bulwark against Islamic extremism.” The AfD, enthusiastically launched a campaign pushing for the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.” [14]
In Eastern Europe, Israel has also reached out to Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, who for the past few years has been leading a vicious political campaign against the Jewish Hungarian American financier, George Soros. Accusations of anti-Semitism against Orban and his party did not deter PM Benjamin Netanyahu from visiting him in Budapest in July last year. Israel has also armed the Azov battalion, a neo-Nazi paramilitary organisation in Ukraine. [15]
Another great friend of Israel is the president of the Philippines Duterte who drew outrage in 2016 when he compared his anti-drug campaign to the Nazi genocide of Jews in World War II and said he would be “happy to slaughter” 3 million addicts. He was officially welcomed by Minister of Communications Ayoob Kara who said:
“Welcome to the Land of Israel and to Holy Jerusalem—the capital of Israel. The people of Israel love you because you are a supporter of Israel. Your country was the only one in the East that supported Israel’s independence and sided with us at the UN and UNESCO throughout the years.” [16]
It is not only the right wing government of Israel that endorse racist and far right parties and governments, but Yitzhak Rabin, the left wing Zionist, when he was a prime minister, supported the apartheid regime in South Africa. In 1976, Israel invited the South African prime minister, John Vorster – a former Nazi sympathiser and a commander of the fascist Ossewabrandwag that sided with Hitler – to make a state visit.
The National Party (NP) in the early 1950s, introduced legislation reminiscent of Hitler’s Nuremberg laws against Jews: the population registration act that classified South Africans according to race, legislation that forbade sex and marriage across the color line and laws barring black people from many jobs.
For decades, the Zionist Federation and Jewish Board of Deputies in South Africa honored men such as Percy Yutar, who prosecuted Nelson Mandela for sabotage and conspiracy against the state in 1963 and sent him to jail. Yutar went on to become attorney general of the Orange Free State and then of the Transvaal.
He was elected president of Johannesburg’s largest orthodox synagogue. Some Jewish leaders hailed him as a “credit to the community” and a symbol of the Jews’ contribution to South Africa. Vorster’s visit laid the ground for a collaboration that transformed the Israel-South Africa axis into a leading weapons developer and a force in the international arms trade. Liel, who headed the Israeli foreign ministry’s South Africa desk in the 1980s, said that the Israeli security establishment came to believe that the Jewish state may not have survived without the relationship with the Afrikaners.
“We created the South African arms industry,” said Liel. “They assisted us to develop all kinds of technology because they had a lot of money. When we were developing things together we usually gave the know-how and they gave the money. After 1976, there was a love affair between the security establishments of the two countries and their armies. We were involved in Angola as consultants to the [South African] army. You had Israeli officers there cooperating with the army. The link was very intimate.”
Alongside the state-owned factories manufacturing for South Africa was Kibbutz Beit Alfa, which developed a profitable industry selling anti-riot vehicles for use against protesters in the black townships.
The biggest secret of all was the nuclear one. Israel provided expertise and technology that was central to South Africa’s development of its nuclear bombs. Israel was embarrassed enough about its close association with a political movement rooted in racial ideology to keep the military collaboration hidden.
“All that I’m telling you was completely secret,” said Liel. “The knowledge of it was extremely limited to a small number of people outside the security establishment. But it so happened that many of our prime ministers were part of it, so if you take people such as [Shimon] Peres or Rabin, certainly they knew about it because they were part of the security establishment. At the UN we kept saying: we are against apartheid, as Jewish people who suffered from the Holocaust this is intolerable. But our security establishment kept cooperating.”
So did many politicians. Israeli cities found twins in South Africa, and Israel was alone among western nations in allowing the black Bantustan of Bophuthatswana to open an “embassy”.
By the 1980s, Israel and South Africa echoed each other in justifying the domination of other peoples. Both said that their own peoples faced annihilation from external forces – in South Africa by black African governments and communism; in Israel, by Arab states and Islam. [17]
Israel has a long history of supporting military coups in Africa. “Israel itself helped install Amin in power, creating a monster who turned on his former patrons.” [18]
Israel aided the military regime that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, including by providing arms. This regime during the “dirty war” murdered left wingers with many Jews. [19]
Last year two Israeli women, Lily Traubman and her daughter Tamara Santos Traubman, who immigrated to Israel from Chile, demanded that Israel’s attorney general open a criminal investigation into Israeli officials who were involved in arms deals with the regime of Augusto Pinochet, for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity. The two women moved to Israel in the 1970s after being persecuted by the Pinochet regime, which also had Lily’s father disappear. [20]
Thus, while Israel accuses those who oppose it of Anti-Semitism, it itself has forged strong connections with the real Anti-Semites. Anyone who examines the history of the Zionist movement with the Anti-Semites will discover a horror story of collaboration.
Zionism as an Enemy of the Jews
The Zionists claim that they are the national liberation movement of the Jews. National liberations movements fight against imperialist control of their countries. Palestine was conquered by the British at the end of WWI. The Zionists rely on Balfour’s letter to Rothschild as proof of the legitimacy of Israel. What kind of national liberation movement relies on a letter of an imperialist foreign Minister?!
In October 2017, Israel celebrated the 100th anniversary of the conquest of Beersheba by the Australians. What kind of a national liberation movement celebrates the occupation of its country by the imperialists? The simple truth is that the Zionist movement is a movement of settler colonists that settled in Palestine with the help of the British imperialism.
The founder of the Zionist movement Theodor Herzl wrote in his Diary, page 68: “An idea rose on my heart to bring on anti-Semitism and to obliterate Jewish wealth.” In the complete diaries of Theodor Herzl (Vol. 1 / edited by Raphael Patai; translated by Harry Zohn) on page 83-84 we find:
“It would be an excellent idea to call in respectable, accredited anti-Semites as liquidators of property. To the people they would vouch for the fact that we do not wish to bring about the impoverishment of the countries that we leave. At first they must not be given large fees for this; otherwise we shall spoil our instruments and make them despicable as stooges of the Jews. Later their fees will increase, and in the end we shall have only Gentile officials in the countries from which we have emigrated. The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.”
Herzl went to Russia after the pogrom of Kishinev in an attempt to strike a deal with the Czar. He was received by Sergei Witte, then finance minister, and Viacheslav Plehve, minister of the interior who was behind the pogrom. Herzl told von Plehve that Zionism will solve the “Jewish problem,” as it will prevent Jews who from joining the revolutionary organizations. “Help me reach land sooner and the revolt will end. And so will the defection to the socialists.” [21]
The collaboration of the Zionists with the Nazi regime prior to WII is well documented by Leni Brener’s book Zionism in the age of Dictators. This collaboration has been exposed in Israel itself.
According to an article in Arutz Sheva in Israel from 26/12/2017.
“An auction will take place on Wednesday night at CollecTodo on the Bidspirit auction house’s website, in which rare and fascinating items from the Holocaust period will be sold. Among other things, a rare medal from 1934 called “Nazi in Palestine” will be sold: A medal minted on the occasion of a series of articles “A Nazi goes to Palestine” published in the Nazi journal Der Angriff (“The Attack”). The medal is a memento of cooperation between the Nazi Party and the German Zionist Association, in favor of the joint goal of bringing German Jews to Palestine (the “transfer”).
The center of one side sports a Star of David surrounded by the German caption “A Nazi going to Palestine” (Ein Nazi fährt nach Palästina). In the center of the other side is a swastika and the caption “and writes about it in Angriff” (Und erzählt davon in Angriff).
At the beginning of the period of Nazi rule in Germany, the Zionist movement tended to cooperate with the line taken by the Nazi regime at the beginning of its path – encouraging German Jewish immigration to Palestine. In the spring of 1933, the Union of German Zionists decided to contact elements within the Nazi party that might support the Zionist cause.
Kurt Tuchler, a German-Jewish jurist and judge who was a member of the German Zionist Association, appealed to Leopold von Mildenstein, head of the Jewish department of the SD (Nazi and SS Security Service), and asked him to write about the Jewish community in Palestine. In 1933 the two traveled together to Israel with their wives for a month, in order to allow von Mildenstein to be impressed by the flourishing Zionist enterprise.
On his return to Germany, von Mildenstein published a series of twelve articles accompanied with photographs about his tour of Palestine in the Nazi journal Der Angriff, the organ of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. The articles bore the title “A Nazi goes to Palestine.” Goebbels issued the medal on the occasion of the article series.” [22]
During those years the Zionists sold German commodities in the Middle East and opposed the boycott of Nazi Germany. During the war the Zionists opposed opening the gates to Jewish refugees in other countries as they wanted only Jewish immigration to Palestine.
In a letter to the New York Times from July 1987 we find: “In his review of Shabtai Teveth’s ”Ben-Gurion: The Burning Ground 1886-1948” (June 21) Martin Gilbert mistakenly reports that Mr. Teveth does not cite David Ben-Gurion’s controversial remark to a 1938 Mapai Central Committee meeting: ”If I knew that it was possible to save all the children of Germany by transporting them to England, and only half by transferring them to the Land of Israel, I would choose the latter, for before us lies not only the numbers of these children but the historical reckoning of the people of Israel.” The quotation does appear (in a slightly different translation) on pages 855-56 of Mr. Teveth’s text.” [23]
Anti-Semitic Anti-Zionists
There are Anti-Zionists who are at the same time Anti-Semites. In practice they are giving ammunition to the Zionists who use them to prove that Anti-Zionism is Anti–Semitism. Among them are Atzmon and Shamir.
Gilad Atzmon is a former Israeli paratrooper, a well-known jazz player. He wrote: “How is it that America failed to restrain its Wolfowitzes? How is it that America let its foreign policy be shaped by some ruthless Zio-driven think tanks? How come alleged American „free media‟ failed to warn the American people of the enemy within?” [24]
“The current mess in Iraq is the direct outcome of Jewish political domination of the West for the last two decades.” [25]
Israel Shamir wrote on his web site about Trump’s decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem:
“Jerusalem is first of all a symbol, and a potent one; the American recognition of Jewish sovereignty over the Holy City is a sign of the final Jewish victory over Christianity, and it is to be deeply regretted. Richard Coeur de Lion and Tancred would not understand this surrender of the city they fought for, but the times have changed. The Christians of yesteryear did not refer to Jews as their “elder brothers”. What began with Americans saying “Season greetings” instead of ‘Merry Christmas,’ ended with this shameful act of Christ denial.” [26]
However, these two are a minority among the left Anti-Zionists. As a matter of fact most left groups tend to capitulate to Zionism. In Israel, the Communist party supports the two states solution and Maavak Socialisti (the section of the pseudo-Trotskyist CWI) is calling for two “socialist” states. In other words they support the self-determination of the Zionists in spite of the fact that Israel’s very existence prevents the formation of a free Palestinian state while openly moving to create a single Apartheid state.
Anti-Jewish Sentiments Among Muslims
There are Muslims who manifest Anti-Semitism. However prior to the Zionist colonialists arrival to Palestine, Jews in the Muslim world were considered to be People of the Book and were given dhimmi status. They were afforded security against persecution but had to pay a special tax similar to the tax Muslim had to pay for helping the poor.
The Zionist occupation of Palestine and the wars between Israel and the Arab states created Anti-Semitic literature that tends to deny the Holocaust. Mahmoud Abbas the President of the PA in his book The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism wrote: “It seems that the interest of the Zionist movement, however, is to inflate this figure [of Holocaust deaths] so that their gains will be greater. This led them to emphasize this figure [six million] in order to gain the solidarity of international public opinion with Zionism. Many scholars have debated the figure of six million and reached stunning conclusions—fixing the number of Jewish victims at only a few hundred thousand.” [27]
However, his tune soon changes as soon as Abbas was appointed the Palestinian prime minister in 2003: “The Holocaust was a terrible, unforgivable crime against the Jewish nation, a crime against humanity that cannot be accepted by humankind” “When I wrote The Other Side … we were at war with Israel. Today I would not have made such remarks”. [28]
Anti-Semitism has increased in the wake of the Arab–Israeli conflict; there were pogroms against Jews prior to the foundation of Israel, including Nazi-inspired pogroms in Algeria in the 1930s, attacks on the Jews of Iraq and Libya in the 1940s.
In 1941, 180 Jews were murdered and 700 were injured in the anti-Jewish riots known as the Farhud. [29] Four hundred Jews were injured in violent demonstrations in Egypt in 1945 and Jewish property was vandalized and looted. In Libya, 130 Jews were killed and 266 injured. In December 1947, 13 Jews were killed in Damascus, including 8 children, and 26 were injured. In Aleppo, rioting resulted in dozens of Jewish casualties, damage to 150 Jewish homes, and the torching of 5 schools and 10 synagogues. In Yemen, 97 Jews were murdered and 120 injured. [30]
At the same time other Arabs protected Jews in North Africa under the rule of Italian Fascism. Robert Satloff discusses this question in his book Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust’s Long Reach into Arab Lands.
Today there are cases were some Islamists attack Jews in Europe because they hate Israel, but at the same time other Muslims denounce these attacks. For example, on April 27, 2018 Muslim women wore kippahs over their hijabs in solidarity with Jewish community after antisemitic attack in Berlin. [31]
In conclusion, Israel is not only an oppressive power that has ties to the far right in Europe, and its policies give ammunition to Anti-Jewish feelings, but in the long run a death trap for the Israeli Jews. To fight for the Palestinians right of self determination and at the same time for the safety of the Israeli Jews, another state must be founded through a revolution that will establish a democratic and red-socialist state from the river to the sea. A state that will open its arms to the Palestinian refugees. To fight Anti-Semitism it is necessary to fight against Zionism.
References:
[1] Steven Beller, Anti-Semitism A Short Introduction (New York: Oxford UP, 2007), 15
[2] https://tinyurl.com/y8p3hogu
[3] https://tinyurl.com/yapwo9fg
[4] http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/palexpo-outside-and-inside/
[5] http://www.jewage.org/wiki/en/Profile:P2079780777
[6] https://israeled.org/golda-meir-secret-meeting-king-abdullah-amman/
[7] https://tinyurl.com/y9gzma97
[8] ibid.
[9] https://tinyurl.com/yd7q9xpb
[10] http://jewcy.com/jewish-religion-and-beliefs/neo_nazis_love_israel
[11] https://tinyurl.com/yb85x3t3
[12] https://tinyurl.com/yadhtrvs
[13] ibid.
[14] https://tinyurl.com/yburcnsg
[15] ibid.
[16] https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5339909,00.html
[17] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/feb/07/southafrica.israel
[18] https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/idi-amins-israeli-connection
[19] https://tinyurl.com/yb3lrvbj
[20] https://tinyurl.com/yb9tsfal
[21] https://tinyurl.com/ybhx2y2q
[22] https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/239848
[23] https://tinyurl.com/yby2ktry
[24] Gilad Atzmon: The Wandering Who? Study of Jewish Identity Politics Winchester, UK: Zero, 2011.
[25] Gilad Atzmon, “Iraq, America and the Lobby,” Gilad.co.uk, June 15, 2014
[26] https://www.unz.com/ishamir/jerusalem-in-my-heart/
[27] Medoff, Dr. Rafael: “A Holocaust-Denier as Prime Minister of ‘Palestine’?” (The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies)
[28] Interview with Mahmoud Abbas by Akiva Eldar, Haaretz. May 2003
[29] Zvi Zameret: “A distorted historiography”, Haaretz, October 29, 2010
[30] ibid.
[31] https://tinyurl.com/y7v2dyar