Liberalism stands for equality and individual rights; Zionism, by contrast, aims to maintain Jewish sovereignty in an area populated predominantly by Palestinian Arabs. It is impossible to square this circle: granting exceptional privilege to one group on the basis of their historical experiences and membership in an ethnic, national or religious group is inherently at odds with a political philosophy premised on universal equality and individual rights. It is illogical to claim that everyone is equal, yet some are more equal. A state founded by and for the Jewish people, living both within and outside of its territory, cannot also be a democratic state for all its citizens within territorial limits. These contradictions undermine the neat spatial and temporal delineations of liberal Zionists who characterize Israel as illiberal only beyond the “Green Line” and liberal within it. As the Israeli political geographer Oren Yiftachel asserts, portrayals of the existence of “Israel proper” within the “Green Line” as “Jewish and democratic” are both “analytically flawed and politically deceiving.” Instead, he argues that the whole entity, territorially and politically, ought to be characterized as an ethnocracy rather than a democracy…. I say to liberal Jews who are genuinely committed to equality: Stop just hugging and wrestling. Recognize that assumptions about the possibility of a Jewish democracy have rested on sloppy or wishful thinking, with devastating consequences. Confront the logical impossibility of “liberal Zionism.” Demand civil rights for all. Go left. As a former liberal Zionist, I proudly claim the only mantle that makes any kind of humanistic sense: Equality-ism (h/t Judah Magnes and Martin Buber). If you’re a former liberal-or-otherwise Zionist and ready to come out of the closet as an Equality-ist, please stand up and be counted here in the comments, and/or in the comments on Steinfeld’s piece. P.S. – To the liberal Zionists who would still grasp at the two state straw in order to preserve Israel as a privileged ethnocracy on part of the land… “Two state solution” is nothing more than a talking point for the Israeli government, a P.R. smokescreen which if repeated enough times (“We want a two state solution. We want more negotiations without preconditions,”) is a way to buy time, avoid prosecution at the International Criminal Court for war crimes and human rights violations, maintain Israel as a state in good standing in the international community . . . and steal more land. In a time of moral crisis, staying neutral is not an option, and if you insist on staying put where you are and advocating for a two state non-solution, you will just be carrying water for the colonial regime’s agenda of naked aggression and conquest. mondoweiss.net/2014/05/solution-zionists-ethnocracy.html
Posted on: Thu, 08 May 2014 02:00:12 +0000
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