The union of the old and the new
Zionist beliefs created the modern-day state of Israel,
recognized 48 years agoBy Roxane Marquez
JERUSALEM — It’s about the size of Massachusetts. It’s existed
for a mere 48 years … or since Creation, depending who you talk
to.
It’s the nation of Israel, and since the country’s formal
inception by the United Nations in 1948, response to its very being
has ranged from dancing in the streets to daytime bus bombings.
As recently as yesterday, two suicide bombings killed 25 people
and injured dozens more. One exploded in downtown Jerusalem and
another detonated in the coastal town of Ashkelon.
Stirring in the lifeblood of Israel is Zionism, a controversial
ideology advocating the cultural and spiritual renewal of Judaism
in conjunction with guaranteed security for Jewish people. This is
only possible, Jews believe, in Israel – a land that they believe
is their divine inheritance.
"Leviticus:19 tells us that everything in Jewish life – church,
state, social life, economic life – is religious," explained Tzvi
Marx, a rabbi and a noted Israeli scholar. "Everything is a
religious precept."
This includes the country’s precise location, Marx continued.
Since the Jews lost ownership of Israel to the Roman Empire in 63
B.C., their culture has survived in part through their hope of
returning to their native soil. This is despite 2,000 years of
discrimination and outright persecution, Marx added.
However, the actual concept of Zionism emerged in the late 1800s
when Theodore Herzl, a German Jew, witnessed a resurgence of
anti-Semitism during the trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew accused of
selling French military secrets to Germany.
This event, coupled with the persecution of Jews via the
policies of Russian Czar Alexander II, prompted Herzl to author
"Der Judenstaat," in which he called for the formation of an
official Jewish state in order to provide Jews a shield against
anti-Semitism.
Herzl’s ideas gathered serious momentum in the aftermath of the
Nazi Holocaust of World War II, in which an estimated six million
Jews were murdered.
"Such persecution motivated the struggle for a Jewish state
because Jews realized that you can’t assimilate when you’re a guest
for too long in a host country," Marx explained. "We realized that
the saying, ‘Next year in Jerusalem’ should not be just words, but
an aspiration," he noted.
But since 1948, the small parcel of land has opened a Pandora’s
box of foreign relations conflicts in the Middle East. Opponents
alleged that Zionism is really a form of narrow, racist nationalism
used to justify the expulsion of Palestinians from their
homeland.
"Racism is where you specifically say that one group is better
than another, and. the doctrine of Zionism is based on that fact in
that they think that the Jews have more right to that land than the
indigenous people," countered Omar Ezzeldine, a third-year
physiological science student specializing in education.
"To say that they have more right to a land than one group is a
form of racism, but to say that they have more right to it than
indigenous people makes it an even stronger form of racism,"
Ezzeldine added. "But history will be the judge."
Ezzeldine cited the 1975 United Nations General Assembly
resolution which stated that Zionism was "a form of racism and
racial discrimination" as evidence that some already recognized
Zionism’s faults.
This clash of ideologies has manifested itself in Israel’s
perpetual state of conflict with both neighboring countries and
Palestinians living inside the nation.
But with the advent of the Middle East peace process since the
1993 Oslo Accords, proponents of Zionism witnessed a schism in
their own ranks. Orthodox and some conservative Jews believed that
then-Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin’s settlement with Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat was simply inconsistent with the basic
tenets of Zionism.
"You can’t rely on the goodwill of Arafat and his friends,"
argued Silvan Shalom, a conservative party member in Israel’s
parliment. "Arafat said he’d stop terrorism. He didn’t do it. He
said he’d stop terrorism in mosques. They’re burning our flags. It
hasn’t changed. So I’m very doubtful," Shalom concluded.
Not all members of Israel’s government held such a pessimistic
view.
"Israel must be Jewish and democratic," said a member of
Israel’s more leftist Labor party who spoke on the condition of
anonymity. "I’m not for apartheid, but we must keep Israel
Jewish."
Under this model, he continued, the Arab population could not be
absorbed. Therefore, the only practical solution would be the
formation of a separate Palestinian state. he added.
But some far-right citizens of Israel believed that acquiescing
any land to the Palestinians constituted too much of a compromise.
One such individual was Israeli graduate student Yigal Amir, who
assassinated the late Rabin last November.
Rabin’s death has caused some Israelis to question how
compatible Zionism is with modern reality.
"When you grow up in a situation of war, learning to commemorate
every memory, knowing that when you’re 18 you’ll join the Israeli
army, that you might die for it and that you should be proud of
that, it’s hard to change your attitudes," said Tamar Axelrad, a
veteran of the Israeli army who currently works as a tour guide in
Jerusalem. "But Yigal Amir – he crossed the line.
"The assassination tells us that we still have this argument
over Zionism, this debate," Axelrad continued. "We’re asking
ourselves, what does it mean to live democracy, not just talk about
it. What are the steps we’re going to take to show that violence
and hatred are not a part of our lives here?"
Still to come: On Wednesday, an analysis of the Intifada and the
resurgence of Palestinian nationalism. On Friday, the struggle of
two peoples claiming hereditary rights over Israel. Next Tuesday,
security issues in the region and their role in land settlement.
Next Thursday, the future of the Middle East in light of
immigration and the fragile peace accords.ROXANE MARQUEZ/Daily
Bruin
(From top to bottom): Fish, traditional Jewish symbols, decorate
the Church of the Heptapegon near the Sea of Galilee; old vs. new
transportation; "Golden Arches" are written over in Hebrew in
Jerusalem.Comments to webmaster@db.asucla.ucla.edu