[Marxism] Herzl's Nightmare

[Richard Menec <menecraj@xxxxxxx>]

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/26/1096137090518.html

Sydney Morning Herald   September 26, 2004

Herzl's Nightmare

Reviewed by Antony Loewenstein
The Sun-Herald

Herzl's Nightmare
Peter Rodgers
(Scribe, $22)

Are we approaching the end of the Zionist "dream"? The belief that the
Jewish people both deserve and need a homeland has had currency for more
than a century, though the continuing conflict between Israelis and
Palestinians signals a profound challenge to the state created in 1948 in
the ashes of the Holocaust.

Equally as important is the question of whether religious states are
relevant in 2004 and, if not, where does that leave Israel, the Muslim world
and Catholic countries? After all, are not an increasing number of people
praying at the altar of secularism?

Former Australian ambassador to Israel and commentator on Middle East
affairs Peter Rodgers articulates the origins of the most profound struggle
of our time. He explains how the creation of Israel formed less than half a
century after the father of Zionism, Theodore Herzl, had written the
underpinnings of the ideology brought two peoples, both historically
wronged, and unable to live together peacefully, into conflict.

Rogers writes: "It was a triumph achieved . . . on the bones of millions of
European Jews, and at the expense of Palestinian society and of Palestinian
nationalism. Whatever their emotional attachment to the land they [Jews] now
ruled, whatever their historical claim to it, the Jews of Israel had
supplanted another people who would not forget."

In Herzl's Nightmare, special focus is given to Israel post-1967, a period
marked by the occupation of West Bank and Gaza, described in 2002 by Michael
Ben-Yair (attorney-general in assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's
government) as "a colonial society. In effect, we established an apartheid
regime in the occupied territories immediately after their capture [in the
'67 war]. That oppressive regime exists to this day."

Rodgers understands that "settlements give Palestinians a tangible reason to
go on hating and attacking Israelis", and outlines the ludicrous
pronouncements of US presidents and Israeli leaders that peace could be
achieved while "almost every day, they [the Palestinians] saw more of the
one-fifth of Palestine that might have been their state consumed by
settlements". Recent tacit acceptance by US President George Bush of Israeli
leader Ariel Sharon's plan to expand settlement activity makes a mockery of
every so-called road map to peace.

Rodgers is also scathing about subsequent Israeli leaders who have shown,
without fail, a disdain and virulent racism towards Palestinians. Take the
example of Golda Meir, Israel's third prime minister: "Who are the
Palestinians? I am a Palestinian." Even the language of the dispute remains
in question, not dissimilarly to the current nonsensical war on terror. "The
violence of the other side was 'terrorism'," writes Rodgers, while "one's
own was legitimate 'self-defence': both positions often resting on a bedrock
of hypocrisy. Both Jews and Palestinians employed terrorism in pursuit of
their political goals." This endless list includes PLO leader Yasser Arafat
and every Israeli prime minister since 1948. It is the kind of terrorism
rarely discussed in the West, because much of it is in fact "our terrorism",
as John Pilger has said. How many believe that Western state-sponsored
violence, such as Israel's, is in fact terrorism at all?

The struggle for Israel's soul seems as far removed today as ever. Although
acknowledging that suicide bombing has harmed the Palestinian cause, along
with corrupt and ineffectual leadership, Rodgers's conclusions will make
unpleasant reading for supporters of the Jewish state. Labelling any
criticisms of Israel as anti-Semitism in an attempt to stifle debate should
no longer be acceptable to those who desperately want peace in the region.

This is an essential and immensely readable plea for understanding and will
open the eyes of intransigents on all sides. Allow a final word from Israeli
politician Avraham Burg, who wrote last year: "It turns out that a 2000-year
struggle for Jewish survival comes down to a state of settlements, run by an
amoral clique or corrupt law-breakers who are deaf both to their citizens
and their enemies."



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