Why Study Pre-State Zionism?

A Cornucopia of Modern Historical Process

by Joachim Martillo (ThorsProvoni@aol.com)

 

From Historiography of Pre-State Zionism (a lecture from 2002).

 

Genuine pre-state Zionist histories should investigate issues of

·         development of a sense of ethnic identity,

·         fabrication or obliteration of "national" memory and

·         the creation of an imagined community.

As these processes take place in the case of Zionism particularly late in the history of European nationalism and with copious documentation, the study of pre-State Zionism can perhaps provide insight not only into the specifically European phenomena but also into general global phenomena or at least into some similar non-European situations like the development of Sikh ethnonational identity in Punjab.

Besides any global or generalizable implications, the study of pre-State Zionism provides a unique window onto Central and Eastern European politics at one of the most critical periods in modern history as well as a magnifying glass on a racist Eastern European settler colonist movement and on the Eastern European settler colonists themselves in their interactions with a non-Western population.  Not only may analysis of the history of Zionist aggression in Palestine aid in understanding Czarist colonial imperialism and Russian expansionist aspirations in Central and Southwest Asia, but comparison with Zionist settlement activities may serve to illuminate French colonialist imperialist endeavors in Algeria.

Better histories of Zionism could have predictive value in the current Palestine conflict.  Zionists have never been particularly imaginative.[ii]  The treatment of Arafat today parallels the Zionist demonization of al-Haj Amin al-Hussayni, the Mufti of Jerusalem during the Mandatory period.  Zionist propaganda transformed the rather compliant Hussayni into a bogeyman.  As a result Zionists could avoid dealing with any of the difficult ethical questions of their aggression against the native population because dealing with the bogeyman took precedence.  The Barghouti trial is merely an attempt to reprise the trial of Eichmann, a Nazi war criminal, who was captured by Israeli spies and then brought to Israel to be tried.  That case could have been concluded within two weeks, but Ben-Gurion wanted to make a show trial to mobilize world opinion and the Israeli Jewish population.  The Barghouti trial has the same purpose.  Even the election of Sharon himself shows the inability of Zionists to develop new ideas in response to new situations, for the Israeli Jewish electorate facing difficult questions has chosen to depend on a member of the generation of ethnic cleansers from 50 years ago and not to rely on their current leadership.[6] 

Sharon himself simply follows the logic of the "Iron Wall" that Jabotinsky, one of the primary pre-State Zionist leaders, articulated from 1916 through 1923.  This idea assumes "What is impossible is voluntary agreement."  Zionists must work for "the establishment in Palestine of a force that will in no way be influenced by Arab pressure.  In other words, the only way to achieve a settlement in the future is total avoidance of attempts to arrive at a settlement in the present."  This strategy, as first clearly articulated by Jabotinsky 80 years ago[iii] and as reiterated by Sharon today is, completely incompatible with the goal of globalization as espoused and supported by the USA.

It is hard for an educated American even to notice the recourse of Israeli Jews to outmoded and failed strategies. Because of the laziness of textbook writers or because of Zionist manipulation, in the USA the historiography of the ME at least at the high school and to a large extent at university level conforms to Zionist ideology.  American academic description of the history of Zionism has little factual basis and even less interpretive value.  One could say that the discourse on the ME in the USA is Zionist through and through.  It is a serious problem in a republic that must depend on an informed citizenry.

As long as US strategic foreign policy is hitched to Israel, whether an American citizen supports the alliance between the USA and Israel or opposes it, he must be distressed by the inadequacy of Jewish studies in America because a good background in Judaica is necessary in order to make an informed judgment on this policy.  The discipline of Jewish studies, which is dominated by racists, tribalists and Zionists, has simply failed the obligation to educate Americans.[iv]  The wrong issues are debated while important questions are not posed.

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