Anti-Zionism is not anti-semitic
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alanjjohnstone wrote:http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-44099540I'm not defending Livingstone but i have difficulty in tracing any BBC fact check on his claims, surely a news agency if they wish to be balanced does it own history research and can judge who is more correct, Livingstone or his critics.
On Livingstone this might be of interest mondoweiss.net/2017/04/twisting-livingstones-zionism/
An informative read, Robin. This is what i would expect from a news agency that claims to lack bias as the BBC often declares itself to be but rarely demonstrates.But you do know that the Mondoweiss website is classified as "fake news" so for those who wish to demonise Livingstone and the Labour Party, despite the article's accuracy, it will be dismissed as defending anti-semitism.In my recent googling on the topic i found, there is no black/white representation but great areas of greyI always have wondered why the term "self-hating jew" frequently expressed against non-zionist Jews and critics of Israel is not proscribed as a hate-word. Is there self-hating Christians, self-hating Muslims?Little is said of the once-influential Association of German National Jews, that was for assimilation and was anti-Zionist but being right-wing also anti-Bundist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_German_National_JewsBetter to erase their existence from history since they endorsed much of Hitler's programme in particular, the anti-worker aspects.But here we are told that those organised Jews who confronted anti-semitism were "spurned" by the Zionist movementhttp://weimar_republik.enacademic.com/115/Central_Association_of_German_Citizens_of_Jewish_Faith
I am disappointed with Shami Chakrabarti, I expected better from her.
Jonathan Cook, journalist and resident of Palestine writes frequently on this subject. This is his latest with a useful reminder of Britains' history in Palestine – now israel it seems – and context for current protests (and massacres) on the anniversary of the Nakhba.https://www.globalresearch.ca/balfour-declaration-britain-broke-its-feeble-promise-to-the-palestinians/5616271
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/15/islamophobia-semantics-word
Quote:Defending his bigotry, the far-right activist Tommy Robinson declared: “I’m not talking about Muslims, I’m talking about Islam.” … there are some who hide behind “criticism of Islam” as they attempt to legitimise their bigotry…Islamophobia is real, normalised in many sections of our society and appears to be on the rise in all its forms….t 31% of young children think Muslims are taking over England; the fact that 37% of Brits would support a political party that would reduce the number of Muslims in the UK; the fact that Muslim men are 76% less likely to be employed than their white Christian counterparts…George Soros was born in Budapest in 1930 as Gyorgy Schwartz to a secular upper-middle class family who changed their name to the less Jewish-sounding Soros in response to rising Hungarian anti-Semitism. When Nazi Germany occupied Hungary in 1944, the family procured fake documents indicating that they were Christians, saving themselves from possible murder in the Holocaust. Soros' father is also credited with saving the lives of a number of other Hungarian Jews.His foundations have supported peace initiatives in the Middle East, and he is no great fan of Israel. Once he told New Yorker magazine: "I don't deny Jews the right to a national existence, but I don't want to be part of it." The Israeli foreign ministry has attacked Soros for "continuously undermining Israel's democratically elected governments" by funding groups that "defame the Jewish state and seek to deny it the right to defend itself."Soros contributes to the New Israel Fund, a left-leaning clearinghouse for Israeli civil rights groups, which in turn funds organizations that oppose the deportation of African refugees from Israel. Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg said that Hungary has been “carrying out an antisemitic campaign against Soros” for the past year, a campaign which she said the Foreign Ministry has warned against, and which Hungarian Jews fear. “Netanyahu’s decision to light a fire around that antisemitic campaign and to join it is a direct continuation of the dangerous ties that exist between the Likud and the extreme right-wing parties in Europe,” she said.https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Netanyahu-blames-Soros-for-Israel-anti-deportation-campaign-540640Even critics of Soros like NGO Monitor acknowledge that the hostility toward him has been "disturbing" and included "anti-Semitic components", playing on anti-Semitic stereotypes."From Lithuania to Croatia, from Hungary to the Ukraine, some of Israel’s best new friends are actively engaged in rewriting history, diminishing the Jewish Holocaust and absolving their people of rendering assistance to the murderous Nazi machine…Netanyahu is placing himself and his party shoulder to shoulder with anti-Semitic scum. "https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-zeroing-in-on-soros-netanyahu-is-side-by-side-with-anti-semitic-scum-1.5792539 The Israeli foreign ministry endorsed a Hungarian ad campaign singling out Soros, despite widespread criticism (including by the Israeli ambassador to Hungary) of the campaign’s anti-Semitism. Netanyahu’s own son Yair posted a conspiratorial, anti-Semitic image to Facebook featuring Soros dangling the world before a reptilian predator. The spectacle of the Israeli government endorsing anti-Semitic tropes is a bizarre new feature of our world. Soros embodies a Diasporic Jewish archetype that right-wing Zionism has defined itself against. He is a reminder that another model of Jewish identity and even Jewish power exists divorced from nationalism, and as such, he is a big threat to the Zionist right.Soros learned from the Holocaust not that Jews needs a nation-state, but that the world needs less nationalism. Mairav Zonszein wrote back in July, “Soros’s humanitarianism and universalism represent an expression of post-Holocaust Jewish identity that is anathema to the hard-line nationalism of Mr. Netanyahu’s governing coalition.” The hatred of African refugees — or as they are called in Israel today, “infiltrators” — flows directly from this angry, exclusivist nationalism. Minister of Culture Miri Regev, deems Israeli culture insufficiently nationalist, said, “The Sudanese are a cancer in our body.” Netanyahu adheres to the classic Zionist mission that sought to end anti-Semitism and diaspora existence by gathering all Jews in the historic land of Israel. As in this case with Hungary, Mr. Netanyahu is increasingly aligning Israel with illiberal, autocratic states. The ultimate cynicism of such alliances is visible in Netanyahu’s willingness to tolerate the anti-Semitism of the global right-wing nationalist camp if it will bolster the Greater Israel…For Netanyahu, ideally there would be no daylight between Jewish identity and Israeli identity. Soros represents an obstacle to this project because he is such a high-profile figure among the communities of the Jewish diaspora that do not necessarily have a strong identification with Israel — or worse, that are critical of it movement. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/opinion/george-soros-israel-hungary.htmlhttps://forward.com/opinion/394011/netanyahus-hatred-of-soros-is-a-rejection-of-diaspora-jews/
That's a brilliant article from the New York Times so here's a direct link to it:https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/opinion/george-soros-israel-hungary.html
Quote:Mr. Soros’s humanitarianism and universalism represent an expression of post-Holocaust Jewish identity that is anathema to the hard-line nationalism of Mr. Netanyahu’s governing coalition, which adheres to the classic Zionist mission that sought to end anti-Semitism and diaspora existence by gathering all Jews in the historic land of Israel. As in this case with Hungary, Mr. Netanyahu is increasingly aligning Israel with illiberal, autocratic states like Russia, Turkey and Egypt. The ultimate cynicism of such alliances is visible in Mr. Netanyahu’s willingness to tolerate the anti-Semitism of the global right-wing nationalist camp if it will bolster the Greater Israel movement.So, the longstanding anti-Zionist tendency amongst Jews is still alive (and in Israel too). Anti-Zionism is indeed not anti-semitism.In the meantime, incidentally, Soros's instiute has been driven out of Hungary and has had to move to Berlin.Forgot to add that Hungary was one of the states represented at the ceremony to celebrate the moving of the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
I think this thread has actually done enough to not just only confirm that anti-Zionism is not anti-semitism but to also charge the Zionist ideology itself with having been anti-semitic, with roots far deeper than Ken Livingstone's example.Some may think i over-egg the pudding with that assertion and i admit i am not widely read but what i have learned of the Jewish Bund and Yiddish, certainly opened my eyes to a whole new aspect of Jewish history that is rarely revealed.Regard Soros, many criticised Livingstone's accusations of collaboration as unjustified in the context of what was happening and what was required to survive. Soros, too, is said to be a nazi collaborator…albeit as a 14 year old boy…smears eagerly circulated by the right-wing.And of course, those who believe in the Illuminati and that stuff, demonise him as a Jewish banker at the centre of the web.
alanjjohnstone wrote:I think this thread has actually done enough to not just only confirm that anti-Zionism is not anti-semitism but to also charge the Zionist ideology itself with having been anti-semitic, with roots far deeper than Ken Livingstone's example.Some may think i over-egg the pudding with that assertion and i admit i am not widely read but what i have learned of the Jewish Bund and Yiddish, certainly opened my eyes to a whole new aspect of Jewish history that is rarely revealed.Regard Soros, many criticised Livingstone's accusations of collaboration as unjustified in the context of what was happening and what was required to survive. Soros, too, is said to be a nazi collaborator…albeit as a 14 year old boy…smears eagerly circulated by the right-wing.And of course, those who believe in the Illuminati and that stuff, demonise him as a Jewish banker at the centre of the web.A capitalist criticise capitalismhttps://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1990s/1999/no-1136-april-1999/capitalist-criticises-capitalismMany conspiracists continue playing the same old songs about the Illuminati, the so-called Jewish conspiracy, the Bolsheviks conspiracy, the world dominated by the bankers, but they never hit the proper target which is the capitalist market, our world is not controlled by bankers, our world is controlled by the capitalist market. Banks and bankers are not productive. For most of them, the world is controlled by one person or one family. If bankers control the world why were they bailed out by the states in 2008?
Jewish anti-Zionists in Israelhttps://972mag.com/the-untold-history-of-israeli-anti-zionists/134500/
There's a sympathtiser whose father was a Party members who told me that when Israel was established in 1948 his father was beaten up by some of his Jewish fellow-workers in the East End of London for, as a socialist, refusing to endorse this. The Zionists are nasty nationalists but then they are not the only nationalists to behave in this way.
alanjjohnstone wrote:what i have learned of the Jewish Bund and Yiddish, certainly opened my eyes to a whole new aspect of Jewish history that is rarely revealedSteve Coleman once explained that there are two Jewish traditions, one based on Hebrew (a revived religious language) and Yiddish (a European language, written in Hebrew letters), with the first tending to be religious and the second tending to be secular. Naturally, all the Jewish people who have joined the Party over the years have been from the Yiddish tradition. Mind you, this didn't stop Steve being berated once in Hyde Park for being a Cohen (apparently a priesly caste in Judaism) who couldn't speak Hebrew.
i think the Party still has some members from a Jewish background, so it would be interesting to have their input.
I think you will find that some members in this position won't regard themselves as Jews because this is a religion and as Socialists they reject religion. It would be like me staying I was a Plymouth Brethren just because two of my grandparents were. This was the position taken up by members of the Wspus even though they sometimes exchanged insults in Yiddish at their conferences.
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