Editorials
Anti-Zionism Re-visited
Volume 28 Issue 4, 5 & 6 | Posted: June 30, 2014
Readers may have noticed in our last issue, a lengthy reflection by Masin Al Nahawi based on his experience and understanding of the roots of how he and his Palestinian family were treated over that last 65 years of banishment due to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1947.
It was a cleverly researched piece where he only cited the early founders of modern Zionism about their attitude and plans for the fellow Palestinians they would have to displace in setting up the State of Israel. The candour of these leaders did not reveal a very flattering picture, especially not in terms of Christian idealism.
Readers may have noticed in our last issue, a lengthy reflection by Masin Al Nahawi based on his experience and understanding of the roots of how he and his Palestinian family were treated over that last 65 years of banishment due to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1947.
It was a cleverly researched piece where he only cited the early founders of modern Zionism about their attitude and plans for the fellow Palestinians they would have to displace in setting up the State of Israel. The candour of these leaders did not reveal a very flattering picture, especially not in terms of Christian idealism.
The reaction was representative. Some felt it was the best thing we ever ran, others that we have fallen prey to the ‘new antisemitism’ that our current prime minister never seems to tire of warning the world about. This would have been standard fare if that was all that happened. Readers can find some of the letters published under the Letters To The Editor tab.
The odd twist in the tail came a little later when I got a call from Rabbi Harry Brechner of Congregation Emanu-el in Victoria. Someone had taken the liberty of placing a copy of the article on the windshields of those attending the synagogue on the previous Sabbath. Whoever it was had no trouble identifying the cars because the Synagogue issues cards to be placed on the dashboard asking the ticketing commissionaires for understanding because the worshippers are not supposed to do financial transactions on the day of worship, which is Saturday rather than Sunday when the parking is free.
I told Harry that I had not known about the action and would not have sanctioned it but that I needed to make a few calls to see what I could find out. Since it more less had to be someone who was well acquainted with the synagogue’s parking policy, I thought I knew who it might be – a secular Jewish person with an ultra-activist bent who always wants to facilitate the edification of those he feels are in need of political re-education.
He had once generously brought me a copy of a book in a plain brown wrapper which showed how true Christian theology was Marxist in nature. I was already well acquainted with the liberation theology text and even had it in my library. So he wasn’t only ‘picking on’ Jews if that is how his good intentions were deemed to be designated.
Harry had guessed the same person, so we knew that while the community certainly felt ‘targeted,’ it had happened at the synagogue before and did not represent anything more than a nuisance situation.
We did not spend too much time on the telephone talking about the issue, as the depth of discussion needed to really air the problem would require sitting down person to person, or in a small group; which would still be interesting to do.
He did ask me how I would feel if my faith community was confronted and targeted in this same manner, which I took to mean across left-right political lines. He objected that the left-right thinking was too superficial and did not serve the dialogue potential well, or the nature of true spirituality as he saw it.
I have heard this political versus spirituality distinction before but since I subscribe to a political spirituality known as prophetic Catholicism, it was not very convincing.
I feel he is both right and wrong. The issue will never be resolved until we get beyond the crass left-right divide and arrive at a spiritual perspective that unifies the discussion. But, in the meanwhile, to be realistic, this same divide is tearing the world apart and going into denial about the roots of the issue will only make it worse.
The reason we ran the article by Masin was precisely to get to the roots of the issue. His article which has a scholarly deliberation and purpose, and yet bears the passion that the problem deserves, sat on my desk for a number of years.
I always was struck and impressed with its content but it was not until I saw him interviewed on Jack Etkins’ ‘Face to Face’ in-depth interview format program on Shaw cable that I made up my mind. I could see it was entirely defensible both in itself and by the author in his sensible, realistic and reasonable arguments based both on irrefutable experience and systematic reasoning
In summary, as suggested, the article attempts to hoist the more extreme voices of Zionism on their own petard. And it succeeds by any measure of rational discourse. He prints the exact statements of the early Zionist leaders that lead to the current situation.
He shows it was not an accident of history but a deliberate plan which reveals not only the intent of the planners and establishers of the State of Israel but reveals how they were used and manipulated by the great superpowers of the day (and since) to gain a strategic foothold in the so-called Middle East.
The ‘Middle East’ is precisely that strategic zone which so many identify with the biblical dynamics of Armageddon and the literal Second Coming of Christ. This is a haven of arcane thinking inhabited by the right-wing Christian evangelicals of whom our current prime minister just happens to be a member. This occult reasoning includes the premise that the return of all Jews to Israel will bring about this day of final judgement which will exonerate their right wing interpretation of history and The Scriptures. It is entirely a fictitious fantasy posing as church doctrine.
The Christian left, on the other hand, has always sided with the underdogs in this situation, the Palestinian voices represented by Mr. Al Nahawi etc. The current pope is squarely facing the problem by utilizing his current cache to invite the opposing political leaders to dialogue at The Vatican.
The polarities are intriguing. My own view is that local Jewish synagogues would be much better off criticizing Israel as a loyal opposition just as newspapers like ICN criticize The Vatican.
It would make for a much healthier milieu rather than falling lockstep in synch with the extreme Zionist views currently ruling Israel and trying to defend the indefensible which will only continue to provoke defected members into trying awkward manners of politically re-educating the congregation with material ICN incidentally provided.