Fw: [PalestineDiary] ZIONIST IDEOLOGY: Obstacle to Peace by Rabbi Elmer

----- Original Message -----
From: griley <griley@netrax.net>
To: Robert Younes <younes@hcef.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 22, 2000 10:41 PM
Subject: [PalestineDiary] ZIONIST IDEOLOGY: Obstacle to Peace by Rabbi Elmer
Berger (1)


This is another from Bill Friend (which is the 1st of a series) on Zionist
Ideology.  If you want to read the others, please let me know so I can
forward them to you.   You may want to subscribe to PalestineDiary on line,
but I want to warn you that Bill can really get STRONG at times on Zionist
issues.  However, he lays it "on the line", for those who want to know.   In
peace, Ginger

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Friend <zevei@optonline.net>
To: Palestine Diary <PalestineDiary@egroups.com>
Date: Thursday, August 24, 2000 6:20 AM
Subject: [PalestineDiary] ZIONIST IDEOLOGY: Obstacle to Peace by Rabbi Elmer
Berger (1)


>ZIONIST IDEOLOGY: OBSTACLE TO PEACE by Rabbi Elmer Berger.
>
>(This essay by the late Rabbi Elmer Berger, longtime executive director of
>The American Council for Judaism was written in 1978.  It could have been
>written yesterday.  The ACJ is still the only existing SECULAR anti-Zionist
>Jewish Organization in N. America with a membership that meets regularly.
>The ACJ publishes a quarterly magazine and a newsletter which are
>distributed to members.   The editor of both is Mr. Alan Brownfeld who is a
>frequent contributor to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
>   I was introduced to Rabbi Berger in 1978 by Alfred M. Lilienthal, the
>author of The Zionist Connection.   Rabbi Berger was gracious to me and
gave
>me free use of his extensive library containing many rare and often
>unobtainable books.  In 1978 I crossed the "red line". - Z )
>
>I. "THE MISSING LINK"
>
>It is a platitude - after more than 30 years - to describe the so-called
>"Arab/Israel" confrontation with discouraging adjectives such as
 "stubborn,"
>"intractable," "resistant to normal diplomacy".   More pessimistic
observers
>often use depressing terms like, "insoluble", "irreconcilable",
> "irrational."   U Thant, when he was SecGen of the UN, called it a new
>"hundred years war."  Whichever of these usual descriptions is preferred is
>eloquent testimony to failed diplomacy - of all kinds, good and bad - the
>the search for a formula to terminate the hostilities.  "The Camp David
>Process" is the latest peformance.  It was launched with great eclat in
>1978-79 [ Note: Change the title to Oslo and change the dates and it reads
>exactly the same. Z].  IT IS NOW CLEAR THAT EVEN IF "THE PROCESS" PRODUCES
>THE MUCH HERALDED  "COMPREHENSIVE PEACE" IT WILL BE ONLY AFTER PROFOUND
>ALTERATIONS OF THE FORMULA BLUE-PRINTED AT THE RENOWNED PRESIDENTIAL
>HIDE-AWAY.
>
>Despite this dreary record of three decades of failure the conventional
>diplomats persist in promoting formulas which, for the most part, are
warmed
>over versions of previous failures.  Hope seems to spring eternal that
>drawing a border here rather than there, a quibble for some vague
>amelioration of the Palestinians (called "refugees" by the more mendacious
>or innocent), some re-cycled system of guarantees for Israel's "security"
or
>some internal political transformation in either the Zionist state or one
of
>the confrontation Arab states will be the magic formujla.  In other words,
a
>careful study of the dozens of formulaas and modalities with which some
>serious and some cynical statesmen hae attempted to substitute peace for
the
>continuing war, provides evidence that when all the sales talk is
>illuminated by knowledge of the historic, organic causes of the problem,
>nothing new has been added.  The same old pieces have simply been moved
>about on the same old board.  All the games so far have ended as a draw.
>
>One element common to all these failures is THAT NONE HAS FORMALLY INCLUDED
>ZIONISM IN THE AGENDA OF ISSUES TO BE NEGOTIATED.  This is a strange
>oversight because, from the very beginning of the Palestine problem, IN THE
>BALFOUR DECLARATION ERA, the Zionist Organization [ henceforth referred to
>as the ZO or WZO - Bill] was party to the negotiations.  The ZO/JA (Jewish
>Agency) for Palestine negotiated with theUN during the partition debate in
>1947-8.  The "Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel"
>specifies "the Zionist movement" as one of the "establishers".  And the
>organic relationship of the government of the state and the WZO is evident
>in the daily coordination of activities of the two AND IS DETAILED IN
>FORMALLY ENACTED ISRAELI LAW. [EB. Note 1. "The Word Zionist
>Organization/Jewish Agency for Israel (Status) Law" enacted by the Knesset
>in 1952 and a "Covenant" between the Zionist Organization and the
>governbment adopted in 1954.]
>
>One of the reasons for this diplomatic reticence about Zionism is that the
>WZO (the progenitor of the Zionist State of Israel) sedulously cultivated
>confusion about several different and often contradictory varieties of the
>phenomenon.
>
>Undeniably, "Zion" (and not necessarily Zionism) is one of the SANCTA of
>traditional or Orthodox Judaism.  This Zion, in its authentic, orthodox
>meaning, is a THEOLOGICAL - not a political/nationalistic - concept.  In
God
>'s wisdom, when "the people" morally merited it, God would usher in the
>millenium by sending the messiah to lead "the children of Israel" back to
>Zion.  Distilling this "future hope" out of a correec interpretation of
>relevant biblical texts, these orthodox Jews understood the ancient
>Israelites and Judeans lost the Holy Land BECAUSE THEY HAD SINNED.   They
>had gone "whoring" after other gods and engagted in a long list of
>injustices towards fellow humans.  JUDAISM IS A "COVENANT" RELIGION.  THE
>COVENANT CHANGED FROM AGE TO AGE, BUT IT WAS ALWAYS A CONTRACT BETWEEN "THE
>PEOPLE" AND GOD.  GOD "PROMISED" THE LAND AND WOULD PROSPER THEM IN IT   -
>IF  -   "THE PEOPLE" RIGOROUSLY FULFILLED THE PRECISE MORAL AND ETHICAL
>STIPULATIONS OF THE COVENANT AS IT WAS INTERPRETED BY "GOD'S PROPHETS" in
>any particular age.    MICAH spoke for all the prophets when he warned
(III:
>9-10:12), "Zion will be plowed" and "Jerusalem shall become a heap" because
>the people "abhor justice and pervert all equity."  Only God - not men or
>any combination of men - could make the judgment of whether or not the
>conduct of the peole had reached the point of moral excellence to repair
the
>covenant and so clear the way for God to restore them to the land.
>
>Interpreted in this accurate sense, NOT EVEN THE ENORMOUS TRAGEDY OF THE
>HOLOCAUST COULD AUTHENTICATE "THE RETURN".  THE ZIONIST EXPLOITATION OF THE
>TRAGEDY PERPETRATED BY NAZISM IS A BETTER-THAN-AVERAGE EXPEDIENT TO EXPLAIN
>THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ZIONIST STATE. BUT IT IS A HUMAN EXPLANATION, not
>the fulfillment of Divine purpose.  And the established state IS ANYTHING
>BUT "A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLES" (Isaiah LXVI:7)
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>