Zionism was supposed to be realization of spiritual and cultural ideals and rebuttal of cruel power politics and petty nationalism. The most thoughtfully tortured of the idealists was the philosopher Martin Buber. Buber had known Weizmann and Jabotinsky when they were all young Zionists, but unlike them, he didnt think Zionism had to be mostly about matters of power. On the contrary, if Zionism ended up merely reproducing the power plays of the rest of the world, all of its achievements would be merely self defeating. For Buber, a true national revival had to be based on Judaism and the principals of Judaism that matter most to him was simple-DO NO DO UNTO OTHERS WHAT IS HATEFUL TO YOU. The acid test of that fundamental Jewish principle, Martin Buber said, was how Jews treated Arabs of Palestine. -Simon Schama in The History of Jews
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 16:01:04 +0000
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