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       #Post#: 265--------------------------------------------------
       Under Zionism, Jewish lives have always mattered more
       By: Starling Date: July 11, 2020, 11:09 pm
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       [font=Arial]Under Zionism, Jewish lives have always mattered
       more
       [/font]
  HTML https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2020/07/Herzl-on-a-Boat-1000x668.png
       Herzl, front center, with his cohorts in 1898
       ---HIGHLIGHTS---
       In late June, The Forward published an article by Moshe Daniel
       Levine under the headline “Zionism Is the Jewish Black Lives
       Matter.” In the article, Levine, the senior Jewish educator at
       Orange County Hillel, calls on Jews to support the Black Lives
       Matter movement as an extension of their Zionism.
       ------
       Zionism is, therefore, Levine writes, “the ultimate claim that
       Jewish lives matter. Jews have come to the difficult but
       important realization that we need to occasionally thrust aside
       universalism in favor of particularism.
       -----
       Levine is arguing, in short, is that Jewish support for Black
       Lives Matter is an imperative, precisely because Jewish support
       for Zionism is an imperative.
       -----
       The problem is that Levine’s reasoning effectively legitimizes a
       slew of racist practices that Zionism enabled — practices that
       devalued the lives of others. Levine is, in other words,
       whitewashing history.
       -----
       In particular, his description misses out one crucial factor:
       Herzl’s admiration for colonialism. Today, any association of
       Herzl and colonialism is likely to raise strong objections from
       Zionists such as Levine. Yet Herzl’s Zionism was indeed rooted
       in his wish to imitate the European colonialism of his period.
       Herzl’s diary mentions a letter that he sent to Cecil Rhodes in
       1902, a British businessman and one of the most famous
       colonialists of his period.
       -----
       Herzl writes to Rhodes: “You are being invited to help make
       history. It doesn’t involve Africa, but a piece of Asia Minor;
       not Englishmen but Jews… How, then, do I happen to turn to you
       since this is an out-of-the-way matter for you? How indeed?
       Because it is something colonial.”
       Apologists for Herzl may well argue that he was a man of his
       time. Yet colonialism was, in fact, considered controversial
       even as it was unfolding — not just retroactively, and not just
       among its victims.
       -----
       Herzl’s decision to approach Rhodes was far from coincidental.
       -----
       In his 1896 pamphlet “The Jewish State,” Herzl’s plan for the
       creation of the state hinges on the creation of a “Jewish
       Company.”
       -----
       The model for the operation of Herzl’s Jewish Company turns out
       to have been Rhodes’ British South Africa Company, the major
       party responsible for gold-digging in the Transvaal region of
       South Africa — at the expense of Africans and their resources.
       -----
       Under Herzl’s plan, native Palestinians, or whoever happened to
       live in the territory chosen for colonization, would be forced
       to forgo their land, just as South African minerals ended up in
       the hands of Rhodes. Herzl predicted that the natives may “feel
       threatened” by this arrangement, but put his trust in a European
       power to resolve the issue.
       -----
       ...unlike what Levine claims, Zionism was never simply about the
       idea that Jewish Lives Matter: from the beginning, it meant the
       lives of Jewish colonists would be valued more than the lives of
       indigenous groups — from Herzl’s time, until today.
       -----END-----
       #Post#: 6686--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Under Zionism, Jewish lives have always mattered more
       By: 90sRetroFan Date: May 25, 2021, 2:45 am
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  HTML https://twitter.com/genevievejoelle/status/1392561867483086852
       [quote]Here is @NDP leader Jagmeet Singh demanding that Canada
       commit to an arms embargo against #Israel
       Trudeau’s response is to blame "both sides", and commit to
       nothing.
       Cowardly inaction from a fellow settler colonial state.
       #GazaUnderAttack #SaveSheikhJarrah[/quote]
       Always good to see more people picking up our way of talking.
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