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Posted By admin on October 21, 2019

Perhaps the easiest way to understand why colonialism was so horrific is to imagine it happening in your own country now. It is invaded, conquered, and occupied by a foreign power. Existing governing institutions are dismantled and replaced by absolute rule of the colonizers. A strict hierarchy separates the colonized and the colonizer; you are treated as an inconvenient subhuman who can be abused at will. The colonists commit crimes with impunity against your people. Efforts at resistance are met with brutal reprisal, sometimes massacre. The more vividly and accurately you manage to conjure what this scenario would actually look like, the more horrified you will be by the very idea of colonialism.

One would think this revulsion was now universally shared. But that is far from being the case. The majority of British people are still proud of colonialism and the British Empire. Americans continue to show an almost total indifference to the lasting poverty and devastation inflicted on the countrys indigenous population. Being pro-colonial is no bar to success in academia; Harvard historian Niall Ferguson has long defended the British Empire as a force for good in the world. And now, Princeton PhD and Portland State University professor Bruce Gilley has published an unapologetic Case for Colonialism in Third World Quarterly, a respected academic journal.

Gilleys article takes a very clear stance: not only was colonialism a force for good in the world, but anti-colonial sentiment is preposterous. Whats more, Gilley says, we need a new program of colonization, with Western powers taking over the governing functions of less developed countries. Gilley says he intends to overturn or revise three lines of criticism directed against colonialism: that it was objectively harmful (rather than beneficial), that it was subjectively illegitimate (rather than legitimate), and that it offends the sensibilities of contemporary society. Thus he is not just concerned to prove that colonialism was good and should be revived. He also wants to prove that it was legitimate, i.e. that there is nothing inherently unjust about invading and dominating a people.

Gilleys article is a truly extraordinary piece of work. Its hard to believe, at first, that it isnt a Sokal-esque satire intended to prove how normalized abhorrent opinions are. But it appears to be sincere. And because it appeared in a mainstream journal, and the sentiments it expresses are somewhat common, its worth responding to the case Gilley makes.

Gilleys argument is, roughly: opposition to colonialism is reflexive rather than reasoned. This has caused terrible consequences, because postcolonial governments have hurt their people by attempting to destroy beneficial colonial institutions. The civilizing mission of colonialism was valuable and had a positive effect. Colonialism was legitimate because it helped people and many populations were willing to tolerate it. Anti-colonial arguments are often incoherent, blaming colonial governments for all ills rather than examining what would have occurred in the absence of those governments. And colonialism should cease to be a dirty word; in fact, it should be re-instituted, because many developing countries are incapable of self-government. Gilleys article is brief, so he does not elaborate much on each of these points. But the thrust of the article is that a commitment to factual rigor requires an unbiased assessment of colonialism, and that such an assessment will reveal colonialism to be a good thing for the colonized. Anti-colonialism is a destructive and irrational ideology that should be abandoned.

I suppose to those unfamiliar with the history, Gilleys argument could appear superficially persuasive. But a moments examination of the record reveals why the case he makes is abhorrent. Gilley says he is simply asking for an unbiased assessment of the facts, that he just wants us to take off our ideological blinders and examine colonialism from an empirical perspective. But this is not what he has done. Instead, in his presentation of colonialisms record, Gilley has deliberately excluded mention of every single atrocity committed by a colonial power. Instead of evaluating the colonial record empirically, he has distorted that record, concealing evidence of gross crimes against humanity. The result is not only unscholarly, but is morally tantamount to Holocaust denial.

First, Gilley says he is making a case for colonialism, to rescue Western colonial historys bad name. But he restricts his examination to the early nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. He does so because if he were to include the first 300 years of Western colonialism (i.e. the majority), it would be almost impossible to mount any kind of case that the endeavor benefited indigenous populations. The civilizations of the Americas were exterminated by colonialism, through disease, displacement, resource depletion, one-sided warfare, and outright massacre, and their populations suffered a catastrophic collapse. Since it is impossible to spin this as benefiting the inhabitants, Gilley avoids mentioning that it even happened. This, in itself, in an article defending colonialism, should sufficiently prove that Gilley is unwilling to consider evidence that contradicts his case, by discussing colonialism generally while selecting only the cases in which native populations were not extinguished.

Next, Gilleys method of defending colonialism is through cost-benefit analysis, in which the harms of colonialism are weighed against the improvements in living conditions and better governance. (Gilley even proposes greater business confidence as a potential benefit of a neo-colonial project.) He quotes his standard of measurement:

[I]n times and places where colonial rule had, on balance, a positive effect on training for self-government, material well-being, labor allocation choices, individual upward mobility, cross-cultural communication, and human dignity, compared to the situation that would likely have obtained absent European rule, then the case for colonialism is strong. Conversely, in times and places where the effects of foreign rule in these respects were, on balance, negative compared to a territorys likely alternative past, then colonialism is morally indefensible

We should observe here that this is a terrible way of evaluating colonialism. It is favored by colonialisms apologists because it means that truly unspeakable harms can simply be outweighed and thereby trivialized. We can see quickly how ludicrous this is: Yes, we may have indiscriminately massacred 500 children, but we also opened a clinic that vaccinated enough children to save 501 lives, therefore the case for colonialism is strong. We dont allow murderers to produce defenses like this, for good reason: you cant get away with saying Yes, I killed my wife, but Im also a fireman. We must also be careful about using hypothetical counterfactuals: examining whether colonialism is better than what would have happened in its absence. Im reading Great Expectations at the moment, and so Ill call this the Pips sister defense: Pips sister justifies her cruelty and physical abuse by constantly reminding Pip that if it were not for her, he would be in an even worse situation. Its an argument frequently deployed by abusive and exploitative individuals in order to justify their acts. And the point is that whether or not its true is immaterial to the evaluation of the persons crimes. Gilley and other colonial apologists, like the husband telling his wife that while she may not like being hit, she should remember who provides for her, try to exonerate colonial powers by suggesting that enough economic growth could somehow make a strong case for colonialism even if there had been constant mass rape and torture. (By the way, I think even committed opponents of colonialism may sometimes fall into this trap. They may feel as if it is necessary to deny that colonialism ever brought any benefitswhich, as Gilley points out, even Chinua Achebe doesnt think. Instead, its important to point out that building power lines and opening a school doesnt provide one with a license to rob and murder people. Furthermore, nobody should be surprised if performance on certain economic and political metrics did end up declining in the postcolonial era, since reconstructing a functioning country after decades or centuries of subjugation is not easily done.)

But even if we assume that cost-benefit analysis is the correct way to examine colonialism, Gilley has to distort the evidence in order to prove his case. For example, Gilley cites the fact that since gaining independence, Congo has never had at its disposal an army comparable in efficiency and discipline to that it had under the Belgians, commenting that Maybe the Belgians should come back. If one knows anything about the history of the Belgian Congo, one knows that this statement is equivalent to saying Maybe the Confederacy should come back to the American South. Belgian King Leopold created possibly the most infamous colonial regime in history. Contemporaries called it legalized robbery enforced by violence, and Leopold turned his Congo Free State into a massive labour camp, made a fortune for himself from the harvest of its wild rubber, and contributed in a large way to the death of perhaps 10 million innocent people. Belgian rule in the Congo was a reign of terror that scandalized the world:

Much of the death toll was the result of killing, pure and simple. Villages were dragooned into tapping rubber, and if they refused to comply, or complied but failed to meet European quotas, they were punished. The hands of dead Congolese were severed and kept by militias to account to their quartermasters for spent ammunition. And, as Morel said, the practice of mutilation was extended to the living. By far the greatest number of deaths, however, were caused by sickness and starvation. The effect of the terror was to drive communities from their sources of food.

Below is one of the most disturbing pictures I have ever seen (WARNING), taken by English missionary and journalist Alice Seeley Harris, who exposed the Belgian abuses. It depicts a man looking at the severed hand and foot of his murdered daughter, who had been killed after the man failed to meet his daily rubber harvesting quotient:

It is shocking that Gilley could discuss Belgian colonialism without so much as mentioning any of this in his cost-benefit analysis. But then, despite promising to weigh negatives against positives, he doesnt really discuss any negatives. He says British suppression of the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya was better than the alternative, but doesnt discuss what it involved, namely mass detention and human rights abuse. Kenyans were put in camps where they were subject to severe torture, malnutrition, beatings. The women were sexually assaulted. Two of the men were castrated. The most severe gruesome torture you could imagine. Gilley doesnt deal with or refute this, he simply writes all allegations off as scolding. (Even Niall Ferguson admits that When imperial authority was challenged the British response was brutal.) Likewise unmentioned is what happened in India under British rule: the horrific Amritsar massacre, the mass faminesthatkilled millions, and the horrors of the partition. French crimes in Algeria: unmentioned. German genocide in Namibia: unmentioned. Heck, Gilley doesnt even mention racism, or the various psychological wounds inflicted on colonized people by a dehumanizing ideology (as explained byAim Csaire, Frantz Fanon, and Albert Memmi, all of whom also go unmentioned.) One of the cruelest aspects of colonialism is the way it forces the colonized into servility and obedience, yet this doesnt even count as a cost.

In Shooting an Elephant, while conceding the prejudices he had developed against the Burmese, George Orwell expressed the revulsion that he felt about participating in the colonial project:

I hated it more bitterly than I can perhaps make clear. In a job like that you see the dirty work of Empire at close quarters. The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey, cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been flogged with bamboos all these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt.

I say, then, that Gilleys article is morally tantamount to Holocaust denial because if you say you are performing a cost-benefit analysis of colonialism, and you ignore colonial atrocities, you are fabricating history. Gilley says that anti-colonialism is just leftist ideology, that it doesnt take account of the facts, but its his article that depicts a factually false version of colonial history, one in which colonists acted out of benevolent and civilizing motives, and primarily devoted themselves to opening schools and hospitals, and imposing efficient government. The worst he will say about colonialism is that it was not an unalloyed good.

The portions of Gilleys article alleging that colonialism was legitimate adopt reasoning that cannot possibly be taken seriously. Gilley says that alien rule has often been legitimate in world history because it has provided better governance than the indigenous alternative. If this logic were accepted, anyone could establish totalitarian rule over anyone else if they could govern them better than they can govern themselves; Gilley doesnt provide any reason why we should accept that theory, he just says it. Gilley also says colonized populations engaged in relatively voluntary acts like send[ing] their children to colonial schools and hospitals and fight[ing] for colonial armies that legitimized the enterprise, and that the rapid spread and persistence of Western colonialism with very little force relative to the populations and areas concerned is prima facie evidence of its acceptance by subject populations compared to the feasible alternatives. Somehow, obtaining compliance from an indigenous population means obtaining legitimacy, which is like saying that a man with a gun to his head has voluntarily decided to give you his wallet. As evidence that colonizers were not attempting to pillage the colonized, he says Despite cries of exploitation, colonialism was probably a money loser for imperial powers, reasoning that would lead us to believe that if a company loses money it must not be seeking profit.

I go into this level of detail because I think its crucial to show that Gilleys article is not a serious work of scholarship. I think the gut reaction of many people will be that Gilleys arguments are self-evidently absurd. But apparently this is not the case, because the Third World Quarterly chose to publish them. I dont know why they made that decision; frankly, its very strange. The board of TWQ is stocked with anticolonial lefties like Vijay Prashad and Noam Chomsky, and while Prashad has said that they didnt see the article before publication (and threatened to resign if its not retracted), its odd that the editors themselves thought an essay suggesting that the Belgians should recolonize the Congo was a useful contribution to scholarly discourse.

But while TWQs motives remain inscrutable, I suspect I understand Gilleys. This article does not read as if it is attempting to be taken seriously. Its tone toward critics of colonialism is polemical and mocking (these scholars have a metropolitan flaneur culture of attitude and performance). Gilley must intend to provoke people to rage: postcolonial countries should be like Britain, which embraced and celebrated its colonisers; anticolonial thought was about advocacy rather than accuracy; colonialism was not just legitimate but highly legitimate; and we should build new Western colonies from scratch and colonial states should be paid for their services by the colonized.

I expect Gilley wants the following to happen: people will be outraged. They will call for the article to be retracted. Then, Gilley will complain of censorship, and argue that lefties dont care about the facts, and that his points has been proved by the fact that theyd rather try to have his article purged than have to refute its claims. This is a dynamic that has occurred many, many times. Its what Milo Yiannopoulos did: he would say things that were truly upsetting and outrageous (including bullying and mocking individual students), then when people got upset and outraged and tried to shut him down, he would complain that SJWs were trying to censor him because they cant deal with facts and arguments. The same thing happened when conservative law professors recently published an op-ed blaming the rap culture of inner-city blacks for cultural decline, with one of them lauding the superiority of white European culture. People got upset, for obvious reasons, and students objected to having to be taught by a white supremacist. But when one of the professors went on FOX News, he declared that there were no allegations that anything we said was incorrect. (There were plenty of such allegations.)

Its a predictable pattern: A conservative publishes something that is both factually duplicitous and morally heinous. The liberal reaction focuses on the moral heinousness. The conservative says that the liberal doesnt care about facts. I have a sneaking fear that Bruce Gilley is going to end up on Tucker Carlsons show, whining that the left wants his article retracted because they refuse to confront the true facts of colonialism and because they are biased against white Europeans.

And so Im worried about how the response to this article may play out. I am not signing the petition to have it retracted, because I believe that the journal shouldnt retract it simply because there was public pressure. I am also very concerned that this could be a PR coup for the right, as so many of these things are. Its tough, of course, because for the reasons Ive outlined above, the article shouldnt have been published. Gilley did not meet the standards that should be expected of an academic. He falsified history. When evaluated by a fair standard, he has not upheld the honesty and rigor that should be expected of someone in his position, and the article is a factual disgrace as well as a moral one. But it would be very easy to fall into a certain predictable trap, where the left calls Bruce Gilley a racist, and Gilley declares that they simply cant handle the truth. And while Im sympathetic to the argument that we should avoid that by Not Even Addressing Such Rubbish, bad arguments fester when they go unaddressed. (This is why I put myself through the ordeal of readingThe Bell Curve.)

I think, then, that all responses to this article should be rigorous and careful. I think everyone should try to read the full thing, to know what Gilley argues and what he doesnt argue. And we must repeatedly emphasize that the reason Gilleys piece is so wretched is not just because it advocates something that contradicts our sense of justice, but because he has deliberately produced a false version of history. I am sick and tired of people on the right saying those of us on the left simply Cant Respond To Their Arguments. Ive read their arguments, and theyre bad.

UPDATE, June 2018: Sure enough, Gilleys behavior was exactly was expected. In an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education, he confirmed that he was trying to provoke a reaction, saying that if you want to be widely read you need to know what a good headline is. And The Case for Colonialism was a good headline. He said that academia is highly illiberal and intolerant of my viewpoint and rejects his work because of their ideological slant. He did not address any of the substantive criticism made. He didnt have to, since the reaction of certain critics (such as filing a harassment claim against him) allowed him to point to the supposed absurdities of the left and avoid the most serious criticisms. He did briefly address the comparison of his argument to a defense of genocide, and its worth quoting what he said:

Genocide, I think everyone would agree, is a moral wrong.Theres absolutely no plausible philosophical argument that one group of people establishing authority over another is an inherent moral wrong. Human history is all about alien rule. The Crees ruled most people in the Midwest. The Muganda controlled most of the people in central Africa. Alien rule is how history has always worked, and its how its continued to work in postcolonial periods.

Once again, we can see just how poor Gilleys actual argument is. Once again, he erases the long history of colonial crimes. But he also refuses to engage in a serious argument. He cites examples of situations in which one people has ruled another in order to prove that human history is all about alien rule and that there is no plausible philosophical argument that conquering, colonizing, and subjugating people is wrong. In fact, there are PLENTY of philosophical arguments that conquest is wrong and that self-determination is valid; the essence of the case for democracy is that people are entitled to determine their own destinies. Taxation without representation is an argument against being ruled by an external power without consent. Perhaps Gilley thinks the Declaration of Independence is bunk, and its true that you cant PROVE the philosophical case for self-rule any more than you can prove the case for treating people decently. But to say that because people have conquered each other in the past, conquering people is okay is both logically fallacious (naturalistic fallacy) and ignorant of the foundations of the democratic idea.

Its clear then, that when Gilley has to actually defend his ideas on their merits, they fall apart instantly. Notice, however, that the Chronicles interviewer does not reply to Gilley by asking How does the existence of prior conquests invalidate the moral case for autonomy? Rather, the interviewer responds What was life like for you on campus during this time? (So much for the liberal media!) I think this confirms what I said: when we on the left react in ways that seem to confirm the idea that we dont want to debate the issues, such as by trying to censor people and get them fired, we ultimately help their cause, or at the very least distract attention from the underlying point, which is that people like Bruce Gilley have indefensible viewpoints.

Continued here:

A Quick Reminder of Why Colonialism Was Bad | Current Affairs

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Posted By admin on October 21, 2019

[1] The Heritage Foundation has previously cited the Los Angeles airport ticket-counter shooting in 2002 as a successful terrorist attack. Due to the fact that there remains very little information about the motivations of the perpetrator of this attack, Heritage has decided not to include this incident in this report.

[2] This Special Report uses a definition of homegrown terrorism also used by the Congressional Research Service: homegrown or domestic describe terrorist activity or plots perpetrated within the United States or abroad by American citizens, legal permanent residents, or visitors radicalized largely within the United States.

[3] Pam Belluck, Crew Grabs Man; Explosive Feared, The New York Times, December 23, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/23/us/crew-grabs-man-explosive-feared.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[4] Fergal Parkinson, Shoe Bomber Defiant After Life Sentence, BBC, January 31, 2003, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2712445.stm (accessed May 10, 2011), and Maria Ressa, Sources: Reid Is Al Qaeda Operative, CNN, December 6, 2003, http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/southeast/01/30/reid.alqaeda (accessed May 5, 2011).

[5] Shoebomb Plotter Given 13 Years, BBC News, April 22, 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4474307.stm (accessed September 1, 2011).

[6] Jose Padilla v. C. T. Hanft, U.S.N. Commander, Consolidated Naval Brig., United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, No. 05-6396, September 9, 2005, http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/padilla/padhnft90905opn4th.pdf (accessed May 5, 2011).

[7] Profile: Jose Padilla, BBC, August 16, 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2037444.stm (accessed May 5, 2011).

[8] Rumsfeld v. Padilla, 542 U.S. 426 (2004).

[9] Kirk Semple, Padilla Gets 17 Years in Conspiracy Case, The New York Times, January 23, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/us/23padilla.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[10] Nathan Koppel, Appellate Court Rules Jose Padillas Terrorist Sentence Too Lenient, The Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2011, http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/09/19/appellate-court-rules-jose-padillas-terrorist-sentence-too-lenient/ (accessed April 17, 2012).

[11] Paula McMahon, Broward Terror Plotters Resentencing Date Delayed Again, Sun Sentinel, March 1, 2013, http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-03-01/news/fl-jose-padilla-sentencing-delayed-20130301_1_terrorism-plotter-jose-padilla-punitive-term (accessed June 7, 2013).

[12] Peter James Spielmann, ACLU Seeks OAS Probe of Padilla Case, Associated Press, December 11, 2012, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/11/aclu-seeks-oas-probe-padilla-case/?page=all (accessed July 3, 2013).

[13] Michael Powell, No Choice But Guilty, The Washington Post, July 23, 2008.

[14] Roya Aziz and Monica Lam, Profiles: The Lackawanna Cell, PBS Frontline, October 16, 2003, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/sleeper/inside/profiles.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[15] Lou Michel, U.S. Gives Half of the Lackawanna Six a Fresh Start, The Buffalo News, August 20, 2010, http://www.buffalonews.com/incoming/article159216.ece (accessed September 2, 2011).

[16] Lackawanna Six: Ten Years Later, WGRZ TV, video, September 14, 2012, http://www.wgrz.com/news/article/181654/1/Lackawanna-Six-Ten-Years-Later (accessed June 7, 2013).

[17] United Press International, Inc., Feds: Yemen Holds Lackawanna Six Suspect, January 21, 2010, http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/01/21/Feds-Yemen-holds-Lackawanna-Six-suspect/UPI-30701264128869/(accessed May 5, 2011).

[18] Pakistani on US al-Qaeda Charge, BBC, August 8, 2003, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3136547.stm (accessed April 17, 2012), and Julia Preston, Man Helped Qaeda Figure, Jury Here Finds, The New York Times, November 24, 2005, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/24/nyregion/24terror.html (accessed April 17, 2012).

[19] Idress Bakhtiar, Saifullah Parachas Continued Detention at Gitmo a Mystery, Dawn.com, June 23, 2011, http://dawn.com/2011/06/23/secret-us-cables-accessed-by-dawn-through-wikileaks-saifullah-parachas-continued-detention-at-gitmo-a-mystery/ (accessed April 14, 2012).

[20] Eric Lichtblau and Monica Davey, Threats and Responses: Terror; Suspect in Plot on Bridge Drew Interest Earlier, The New York Times, June 21, 2003, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/21/us/threats-and-responses-terror-suspect-in-plot-on-bridge-drew-interest-earlier.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[21] Eric Lichtblau, Trucker Sentenced to 20 Years in Plot Against Brooklyn Bridge, The New York Times, October 29, 2003, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/29/us/trucker-sentenced-to-20-years-in-plot-against-brooklyn-bridge.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[22] Ibid.

[23] Student Convicted in Plot to Assassinate President Bush, Fox News, November 23, 2005, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,176409,00.html (accessed April 17, 2012).

[24] American Al-Qaeda Gets Life in Prison for Bush Plot, Agence France-Presse, July 27, 2009, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gvn6aq8ZB9yWuVbhKuVtqsFSsRwQ (accessed April 13, 2012).

[25] Jerry Markon and Mary Beth Sheridan, Indictment Expands Va. Jihad Charges, The Washington Post, September 26, 2003, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2730-2003Sep25.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[26] Jerry Markon, Teacher Sentenced for Aiding Terrorists, The Washington Post, August 26, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/25/AR2006082500460.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[27] Markon and Sheridan, Indictment Expands Va. Jihad Charges, and News release, Virginia Jihad Member Sentenced to 121 Months in Prison, U.S. Attorneys Office, Eastern District of Virginia, July 24, 2007, http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae/Pressreleases/07-JulyPDFArchive/07/20070724benkahlanr.html (accessed May 5, 2011). Royer was sentenced to 20 years in prison, al-Hamdi to 15 years, Kwon to 11.5 years, Hasan to 11.5 years, Aatique to 10 years and two months, and Surratt to three years and 10 months. Khan was sentenced to life in prison, Chapman to 65 years, and Abdur-Raheem to 52 months.

[28] News release, Randall Todd Royer and Ibrahim Ahmed al-Hamdi Sentenced for Participation in Virginia Jihad Network, U.S. Department of Justice, April 9, 2004, http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2004/April/04_crm_225.htm (accessed May 5, 2011).

[29] News release, Ohio Man Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Terrorists, U.S. Department of Justice, July 31, 2007, http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2007/July/07_nsd_568.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[30] Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Ohio Mall Terrorism Defendant Deported to Somalia, Associated Press, November 19, 2012, http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ohio-mall-terrorism-defendant-deported-somalia (accessed June 7, 2013).

[31] Bomb Scare Has Echoes of Earlier Plots, CNN, June 30, 2007, http://edition2.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/06/29/uk.plots/index.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[32] Al-Qaeda Plotter Jailed for Life, BBC, November 7, 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6123236.stm (accessed May 5, 2011).

[33] Dirty Bomb Mans Sentence Cut, BBC, April 16, 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6661371.stm (accessed April 19, 2010).

[34] Al-Qaeda Bomb Plot Commanders Team Follow Him to Prison, The Sunday Times, June 16, 2007, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1940271.ece (accessed May 5, 2011).

[35] News release, Shahawar Matin Siraj Convicted of Conspiring to Place Explosives at the 34th Street Subway Station, U.S. Attorneys Office Eastern District of New York, May 24, 2006, http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nye/pr/2006/2006may24.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[36] Ibid.

[37] Potential Lone Wolf Attackers Concern Police, Associated Press, August 9, 2005, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8888865/ns/us_news-security/t/potential-lone-wolf-attackers-concern-police/ (accessed May 10, 2011).

[38] Jarrett Murphy, 2 Men Snared in Missile Sting: Mosque Leaders Charged with Trying to Buy Missile from Government Informer, CBS News, August 5, 2004, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/05/terror/main634339.shtml (accessed May 5, 2011).

[39] United States of America v. Yassin Muhiddin Aref and Muhammed Mosharref Hossain, United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, August 5, 2004, http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/albany/usaref80504cmp.pdf (accessed May 10, 2011).

[40] Adam Liptak, Spying Program May Be Tested by Terror Case, The New York Times, August 26, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/us/26wiretap.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[41] News release, Hamid Hayat Sentenced to 24 Years in Connection with Terrorism Charges, U.S. Department of Justice, September 10, 2007, http://justice.gov/opa/pr/2007/September/07_nsd_700.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[42] U.S. v. Hamid Hayat and Umer Hayat, criminal complaint, FindLaw, June 7, 2005, http://news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/terrorism/ushayat607056.html (accessed September 1, 2011).

[43] Carolyn Marshall, 24-Year Term for Californian in Terrorism Training Case, The New York Times, September 11, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/11/us/11lodi.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[44] Sam Stanton, Denny Walsh, and Stephen Magagnini, Divided Appellate Panel Upholds Terrorist Conviction of Lodis Hamid Hayat, The Sacramento Bee, March 14, 2013, http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/13/5260764/divided-appellate-panel-upholds.html (accessed June 7, 2013).

[45] Four Charged with Hatching Prison Terror Plot: California Inmates Allegedly Created Extremist Muslim Gang Behind Bars, MSNBC, August 31, 2005, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9148467 (accessed May 5, 2011).

[46] Rachanee Srisavasdi, Man Sentenced for Role in Plot to Kill Jews, Attack Military Bases, The Orange County Register, August 17, 2009, http://www.ocregister.com/news/samana-168436-months-carney.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[47] U.S. Man Sentenced to 30 Years in Plot to Blow Up Pipelines, International Herald Tribune, November 6, 2007.

[48] Jeremy Grad, Reynolds Gets 30 Years in Terror Plot, Times Leader (WilkesBarre, PA), November 7, 2007.

[49] U.S. Man Sentenced to 30 Years, International Herald Tribune.

[50] Grad, Reynolds Gets 30 Years in Terror Plot.

[51] U.S. Man Sentenced to 30 Years, International Herald Tribune.

[52] United States of America v. Mohammad Zaki Amawi, Marwan Othman El-Hindi, and Zand Wassim Mazloum, The United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Western Division, February 16, 2006, http://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/indictment_22006.pdf (accessed September 1, 2011).

[53] Ibid.

[54] Grand jury indictment for United States v. Mohammed Zaki Amawi et al., January 19, 2007, http://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/indictment_22006.pdf (accessed May 10, 2011).

[55] Mike Wilkinson and Christina Hall, 3 Charged in Terror Plot; Local Suspects Planned Attacks in Iraq, U.S. Says, Toledo Blade, February 22, 2006.

[56] News release, Three Sentenced for Conspiring to Commit Terrorist Acts Against Americans Overseas, U.S. Department of Justice, October 22, 2009, http://www.nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/US_v_Amawi_dojprsent.pdf (accessed May 5, 2011).

[57] Attempted Murder Charges in UNC Hit-and-Run, ABC Local News, March 4, 2006, http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=3960899 (accessed June 11, 2013).

[58] State of North Carolina v. Taheri-Azar, Mohammed Reza, The Investigative Project on Terrorism, http://www.investigativeproject.org/case/176 (accessed June 11, 2013).

[59] Trial Looms for U.S. Suspect in Alleged Jihad Plot, Associated Press, May 31, 2009, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,523578,00.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[60] Bill Rankin, Atlanta Terrorism Suspect Seeks to Represent Himself, The Atlanta JournalConstitution, March 3, 2009, http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2009/03/03/terrorism_suspect.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[61] Bill Rankin, Ex-Tech Student Found Guilty on Terrorism Charge, The Atlanta JournalConstitution, June 10, 2009, http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2009/06/10/terrorism_trial_tech.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[62] News release, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee Receives 17 Years in Prison; Co-Defendant Syed Haris Ahmed Receives 13 Years, U.S. Department of Justice, December 14, 2009, http://www.nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/US_v_HarisAhmed_dojprsentencing.pdf (accessed May 5, 2011).

[63] Indictment: Suspects Wanted to Kill All the Devils We Can, CNN, June 24, 2006, http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/23/miami.raids/index.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[64] Peter Whoriskey, Man Acquitted in Terror Case Faces Deportation, The Washington Post, March 2, 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/01/AR2008030101566.html (accessed May 10, 2011).

[65] Julienne Gage, 2nd Mistrial in Liberty City 7 Case, The Washington Post, April 17, 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/16/AR2008041603607.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[66] Sears Tower Bomb Plot Leader Narseal Batiste Jailed, BBC, November 20, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8371671.stm (accessed May 5, 2011).

[67] FBI Busts Real Deal Terror Plot Aimed at NYCNJ Underground Transit Link, Fox News, July 7, 2006, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,202518,00.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[68] Alison Gendar and Bill Hutchinson, Assem Hammoud, Suspect in Alleged New York Tunnels Plot, Released on Bail in Lebanon, The Daily News (New York), March 17, 2009, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/03/17/2009-03-17_assem_hammoud_suspect_in_alleged_new_yor.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[69] Lebanon: 2-Year Sentence in Plot to Blow Up Hudson River Tunnels, The New York Times, February 17, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/18/world/middleeast/lebanon-2-year-sentence-in-plot-to-blow-up-hudson-river-tunnels.html (accessed April 12, 2012).

[70] Rachel Martin, U.S. Uncovers Advanced Bomb Plot; U.S. Targeted, NPR, August 10, 2006, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5632570 (accessed May 5, 2011).

[71] U.S. Bomb Suspects Radicalised Quickly, The Age (Melbourne, Australia), January 25, 2007, http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/UK-bomb-suspects-radicalised-quickly/2007/01/25/1169594404433.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[72] 3 Accused U.K. Airline Liquid Bomb Plotters Found Guilty, Associated Press, September 8, 2008, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,418643,00.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[73] Ibid.

[74] Liza Porteus, Feds Arrest Man They Say Planned to Detonate Grenades in Illinois Shopping Mall, Fox News, December 9, 2006, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,235518,00.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[75] 35-Year Sentence for Mall Grenade Plotter, CBS News, September 30, 2008, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/30/national/main4490504.shtml (accessed May 5, 2011).

[76] Ibid.

[77] Top 9/11 Suspects to Plead Guilty, BBC, December 8, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7770856.stm (accessed May 5, 2011).

[78] Look in the Mirror, The Washington Post, December 13, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/12/AR2010121203421.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[79] Jason Ryan and Huma Khan, In Reversal, Obama Orders Guantanamo Military Trial for 9/11 Mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, ABC News, April 4, 2011, http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/911-mastermind-khalid-sheikh-mohammed-military-commission/story?id=13291750 (accessed May 10, 2011).

[80] NewsCore, Court Date Set for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, myFox Houston, April 10, 2012, http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpps/news/khalid-sheikh-mohammed-court-date-dpgonc-20120410-fc_19068360 (accessed April 17, 2012); Luis Martinez, Pre-Trial Hearings for 9/11 Plotters End With Few Decisions, ABC News, October 20, 2012, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/10/pre-trial-hearings-for-911-plotters-end-with-few-decisions/ (accessed June 10, 2013); and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 9/11 Hearing Delayed After Refusing to Respond to Judges Questions, New York Daily News, January 28, 2013, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/khalid-sheikh-mohammed-9-11-hearing-delayed-article-1.1249689 (accessed June 10, 2013).

[81] Dale Russakoff and Dan Eggen, Six Charged in Plot to Attack Fort Dix, The Washington Post, May 9, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/08/AR2007050800465.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[82] Ibid.

[83] News release, Three Brothers Sentenced to Life Prison Terms for Conspiring to Kill U.S. Soldiers, April 28, 2009, http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/April/09-nsd-401.html (accessed May 5, 2011), and Judge Sentences Two More in Ft. Dix Conspiracy, Los Angeles Times, April 30, 2009, http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr/30/nation/na-ftdix30 (accessed May 5, 2011).

[84] Anthony Faiola and Steven Mufson, N.Y. Airport Target of Plot, Officials Say, The Washington Post, June 3, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/02/AR2007060200606.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[85] Ibid.; JFK Terror Plot Foiled in Planning Stages, WNBC (New York), April 12, 2009; and U.S.: Unthinkable Terror Devastation Prevented, Associated Press, June 3, 2007, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18999503 (accessed May 5, 2011).

[86] News release, Russell Defreitas Sentenced to Life in Prison for Conspiring to Commit Terrorist Attack at JFK Airport, U.S. Attorneys Office, Eastern District of New York, February 17, 2001, http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2011/russell-defreitas-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-conspiring-to-commit-terrorist-attack-at-jfk-airport (accessed May 5, 2011).

[87] News release, Imam from Trinidad Convicted of Conspiracy to Launch Terrorist Attack at JFK Airport: Defendant Plotted to Explode Fuel Tanks and Pipeline at Airport, U.S. Attorneys Office, Eastern District of New York, May 26, 2011, http://www.justice.gov/usao/nye/pr/2011/2011may26b.html (accessed September 2, 2011).

[88] Nate Raymond, Court Upholds Convictions of New York Airport Bomb Plotters, Reuters, May 31, 2013, http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/31/us-usa-security-jfk-idUSBRE94U0XO20130531 (accessed June 10, 2013).

[89] Lloyd de Vries, Ex-Sailor Accused of Supporting Terrorism, CBS News, March 8, 2007, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/08/terror/main2546508.shtml (accessed May 5, 2011); Mark Spencer, Hassan Abu-Jihaad, Former U.S. Sailor Who Leaked Navy Secrets Sentenced to Ten Years, Hartford Courant, April 4, 2009; and Kareem Ibrahim Sentenced to Life in Prison for Terror Plot to Firebomb JFK, The Huffington Post, January 14, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/14/kareem-ibrahim-sentenced-to-life-for-jfk-terror-plot_n_1206388.html (accessed April 17, 2012).

[90] NY Appeals Court OKs Ex-Sailors Terror Conviction, CBS New York, December 20, 2010, http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/12/20/ny-appeals-court-oks-ex-sailors-terror-conviction (accessed September 2, 2011).

[91] Robert Wielaard, Court: UK Must Delay Extraditing Britons to US, Bloomberg Businessweek, July 8, 2010, http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9GQSMO00.htm (accessed May 5, 2011).

[92] News release, Ohio Man Sentenced to 20 Years for Terrorism Conspiracy to Bomb Targets in Europe and the United States, Federal Bureau of Investigation, February 26, 2009, http://www.fbi.gov/cincinnati/press-releases/2009/ci022609.htm/ (accessed May 5, 2011).

[93] Michael Powell, U.S. Recruit Reveals How Qaeda Trains Foreigners, The New York Times, July 23, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/nyregion/24terror.html (accessed April 17, 2012).

[94] Sebastian Rotella and Josh Meyer, U.S.-Born Militant Who Fought for Al Qaeda Is in Custody, Los Angeles Times, July 23, 2009, http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jul/23/nation/na-american-jihad23 (accessed April 17, 2012).

[95] Al-Qaida Fighter Possible Witness at NYC Trial, NPR, April 13, 2012, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=150573613 (accessed April 13, 2012).

[96] Jonathan Dienst, FBI, NYPD Arrest 4 in Alleged Plot to Bomb NY Synagogues, NBC, May 21, 2009, http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/FBI-Bust-Plot-Foiled.html (accessed May 5, 2011).

[97] Robert Gearty, Judge Gives Men Convicted in Bronx Synagogue Bomb Plot 25 Years in Prison but Lambasts Government, The Daily News (New York), June 29, 2011, http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-06-29/news/29737288_1_james-cromitie-bronx-synagogues-onta-williams (accessed September 2, 2011).

[98] Former Rockland Man Laguerre Payne Gets 25 Years in Newburgh Four Terror Case, LoHud.com, September 8, 2011, http://www.lohud.com/article/20110908/NEWS01/109080352/Former-Rockland-man-Laguerre-Payen-gets-25-years-Newburgh-Four-terror-case (accessed April 17, 2012).

[99] Joseph Abrams, Little Rock Shooting Suspect Joins Growing List of Muslim Converts Accused of Targeting U.S., Fox News, June 2, 2009, http://www.foxnews.com/story/2009/06/02/little-rock-shooting-suspect-joins-growing-list-muslim-converts-accused/ (accessed June 11, 2013).

[100] Ibid.

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60 Terrorist Plots Since 9/11: Continued Lessons in ...

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Posted By admin on October 19, 2019

There is a vile lie, which stalks the Jewish people across the globe. It is a lie so heinous, so far from the truth, that it can only gain popularity due to the complicity of powerful forces in the "mainstream" media and educational establishment.

It is a lie which has brought many innocent people untold suffering and if unchecked has the potential to create extraordinary tragedy in the future. It is the lie that declares that Judaism and Zionism are identical.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Judaism is the belief in revelation at Sinai. It is the belief that exile is a punishment for Jewish sins.

Zionism has for over a century denied Sinaitic revelation. It believes that Jewish exile can be ended by military aggression.

Zionism has spent the past century strategically dispossessing the Palestinian people. It has ignored their just claims and subjected them to persecution, torture and death.

Torah Jews the world over are shocked and pained at this short-lived dogma of irreligiosity and cruelty. Thousands of Torah scholars and saints have condemned this movement from its inception. They knew that the pre-existing good relationship between Jews and Muslims in the Holy Land was bound to suffer as Zionism advanced.

The so-called "State of Israel" stands rejected on religious grounds by the Torah. Its monstrous insensitivity to the laws of basic decency and fairness appall all men be they Jewish or not.

We of Neturei Karta have been in the forefront of the battle against Zionism for over a century.

Our presence here is to refute the base lie that the evil, which is Zionism, in some way represents the Jewish people.

The reverse is true.

We are saddened day in and day out at the terrible toll of death emanating from the Holy Land. Not one of them would have occurred if Zionism had not unleashed its evil energies upon the world.

As Jews we are called upon to live in peace and harmony with all men. We are exhorted to be law abiding and patriotic citizens in all lands.

We condemn the current Zionist atrocities in the Holy Land. We yearn for peace based upon mutual respect. We are convinced that this proposed mutual respect is doomed to fail as long as the Israeli state exists. We welcome its abolition in a peaceful manner.

May we be worthy of true redemption when all men will join in brotherhood in His worship.

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What is Zionism? Judaism versus Zionism - nkusa.org

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Inaccuracy: Zionism is a racist ideology.Response

Zionism is the Jewish national movement of rebirth and renewal in the land of Israel the historical birthplace of the Jewish people. Rooted in the liberal principles of freedom, democracy, equality, and social justice, Zionism is fundamentally incompatible with racism.

The yearning to return to Zion, the biblical term for both the Land of Israel and Jerusalem, has been the cornerstone of Jewish religious life since the Jewish exile from the land two thousand years ago, and is embedded in Jewish prayer, ritual, literature and culture. Zionism is an ideology that celebrates the Jewish national connection to Israel. It does not discriminate against or judge other religions or nationalities.

The false and biased charge of racism is a deliberate effort to delegitimize the right of Jews to a national homeland and undermine the Jewish nationalist movement.

Israels Law of Return, which some critics of Israel accuse of being racist, is for Jews a potent testimonial to the safe and free haven they will always have in the State of Israel after centuries of persecution and isolation. Israels uniqueness as a country which grants automatic citizenship to Jews (as well as their non-Jewish immediate family members) who seek to settle there is not racist. Individuals ineligible for automatic citizenship under the Law of Return are eligible for Israeli citizenship under regular procedures equivalent to such requirements in other countries. Indeed, the State of Israel is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society, comprised of Jews and non-Jews from at least 100 different countries from diverse ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds.

The equation of Zionism equals racism has its origins in the passage of the Arab and Soviet-sponsored United Nations resolution of November 10, 1975 which declared Zionism a form of racism and racial discrimination. The highly politicized resolution was aimed at denying Israel its political legitimacy by attacking its moral basis for existence. The resolution, which former-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan described as a low point in the history of the UN, was finally repealed on December 16, 1991.

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Response To Common Inaccuracy: Zionism is Racism

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Posted By admin on October 19, 2019

Zionism is the nationalist movement to create a homeland for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. This movement resulted in the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. The word "Zionism" comes from Zion, which means Jerusalem. Theodor Herzl started the Zionist movement. At the time, Palestine was controlled by the Ottoman Empire.

Some evangelical Christians believe that the migration of Jews to Palestine is linked to the apocalypse and prophecy, and therefore support it.

Theodor Herzl is considered the founder of the Zionist movement. In his 1896 book Der Judenstaat, he envisioned the founding of a future independent Jewish state during the 20th century.

The delegates at the First Zionist Congress, held in Basel, Switzerland (1897)

Lord Shaftesbury's "Memorandum to Protestant Monarchs of Europe for the restoration of the Jews to Palestine", published in the Colonial Times, in 1841

The Great Synagogue of Rishon LeZion was founded in 1885.

Palestine as claimed by the World Zionist Organization in 1919 at the Paris Peace Conference

Yitzhak Ben Zvi speaking at the opening meeting of the Fourth Parliament

David Ben-Gurion proclaiming Israel's independence beneath a large portrait of Theodor Herzl

Jewish zones in Palestine in 1947

Israeli author Amoz Oz, who today is described as the 'aristocrat' of Labor Zionism

Israeli youth from the Socialist Zionist youth movement No'al, meeting with Jewish resistance fighter Simcha Rotem. Founded in 1924, No'al is one of the largest Zionist Youth movements.

Kibbutznikiyot (female Kibbutz members) in Mishmar HaEmek, during the 1948 ArabIsraeli War. The Kibbutz is the historical heartland of Labor Zionism.

Ze'ev Jabotinsky, founder of Revisionist Zionism

Two Neturei Karta members join in a large anti-Israel demonstration in Berlin, 2014

Israeli Druze Scouts march to Jethro's tomb. Today, thousands of Israeli Druze belong to 'Druze Zionist' movements.

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Zionism Facts for Kids

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The hope for the redemption of the Jewish peoplethe end of exile and the return to the Land of Israelis a central component of Jewish religious belief. The transformation of this religious belief into a political ideology at the end of the 19th century led to the creation of the Zionist movement.

For Jews, the dominant issue of the day was the so-called Jewish Problem, the anti-Semitism and outsider status Jews faced in Europe. The Zionists perceived this problem as one that could only be solved by a Jewish national home. Early Zionism was divided into four major streamsreligious, political, cultural, and labor-socialist. All except the first constitute the different types of secular Zionism.

Most of us associate Theodor Herzl with the founding of the Zionist movement. This is true in that Herzl succeeded in bringing together under one organizational roof various Zionist groups; however, there was significant Zionist activity before Herzl came onto the scene.

More than 20 new Jewish settlements were established in Palestine between 1870 and 1897 (the year of the first Zionist Congress). These were built by various groups, most notably Hovevei Zion (lovers of Zion), a network of local Zionist groups in Eastern Europe. Hovevei Zion joined together secular and religious Jews who shared the goal of colonizing the Land of Israel and did so in a proactive and organized way that set a precedent for the future.

Leo Pinsker, a doctor from Odessa, became one of the leaders of Hovevei Zion. In reaction to growing anti-Semitism in Russia and the pogroms of 1881, he wrote an important pamphlet, Auto-Emancipation (1882), in which he said the Jewish people were a nation long since dead. The Jew, a ghost, was hated by all, cursed to live out the millennia along with anti-Semitism, which would continue as long as the Jew walked among the nations.

To Pinsker, the answer was what he called Auto-Emancipation: The Jewish people had to organize, revive itself as a nation, and remove itself to a new land. We need nothing but a large piece of land for our poor brothers; a piece of land which shall remain our property, from which no foreign master can expel us, he wrote. Pinsker did not believe that this land had to be the Land of Israel (though this was preferable), but first and foremost a refugegranted by the nations of the worldthat would save and rehabilitate the Jews.

Theodor Herzl, an assimilated Jew who lived in Vienna, independently came to similar conclusions, which he explained in his pamphlet The Jewish State (1895). Herzl, a well-known correspondent for an important Viennese newspaper, showed little interest in Jewish subjects until the early 1890s. His experiences with anti-Semitism, both in university and in later life, convinced him that the world needs the Jewish State; therefore it will arise.

Herzl set out a plan: The nations of the world should come together and grant the Jews their natural right to a state. He envisioned the creation of a Society of Jews that would be charged with the administration of the land that would be granted (hopefully Palestine, but the society would take whatever it is given and whatever Jewish public opinion favors). The Society would set up a Jewish Company that would liquidate Jewish property in the Diaspora and reinvest in building the new homeland. Herzl even discussed which professions should emigrate first and the kinds of buildings that should be erected.

In the first Zionist congress in 1897, Herzl championed his vision of a Jewish state, noting that if colonization efforts continued at the small rate they were moving, it would take 900 years to gather all of the Jews to the land. At first, Herzl and the Zionist movement entertained the possibility of other lands (Argentina, Uganda), but from 1905, the only land considered by the Zionists was the Land of Israel.

To thinkers like Herzl and Pinsker the main stage was the political stage, with the ultimate goal being the creation of Jewish sovereignty in a land granted by the nations, followed by mass Jewish emigration. Notions of a Jewish social and cultural revolution were not central in their writings.

Not everyone applauded Herzl as they listened to his speeches during the first Zionist Congress in 1897 in Basle.

Asher Zvi Ginsbergbetter known as Ahad Ha-am (One of the Nation) and also known as the Agnostic Rabbiwas horrified by Herzls answer to the Jewish Problem. According to Ahad Ha-am, the redemption of the Jewish people would come only from a Jewish cultural and spiritual revival, not the creation of a political state.

Ahad Ha-am did not believe that the Ingathering of the Exiles should be the goal of Zionism. While a politically sovereign state could be a possible outcome of the colonization efforts, it could not supercede the spiritual and cultural revival which must be at the center of the effort. The revival of Hebrew language, literature, art, music, and Jewish study within an organic, natural Jewish environment in the original homeland were not dependent on Jewish sovereignty, but on a small, talented, and committed core of pioneers.

Ahad Ha-am wanted not merely a State of Jews but a really Jewish state, which would be the center of the worldwide Jewish revival, from which the spirit of Judaism would radiate to the great circumference, to all the communities of the Diaspora.

Although he represented a minority in the movement and was often a gadfly, he remained highly respected. When he moved to Tel Aviv (where he died in 1927), the street upon which he lived was closed during his naptime, and on Friday nights, many residents of Tel Aviv would gather there for the Oneg Shabbat celebration, a secular observance of the Sabbath Eve.

In many ways, the labor-socialist Zionists succeeded in synthesizing the political and cultural streams through their ambitious colonization projects, social vision, and ideology of cultural and social revolution.

Many Jewish Marxists were committed to Zionism and the return to the Land of Israel, but they faced an inherent conflict between communisms internationalist focus and Zionisms nationalist focus. Jewish Marxists, therefore, worked to reformulate the Communist Manifesto to fit into a Zionist context. The most important of these thinkers was Ber Borochov, who interpreted the Jewish Problem in class terms and held that the emancipation of the Jewish people either will be brought about by Jewish labor, or will not be attained at all (Our Platform 1906).

According to Borochov, immigration to the Land of Israel, if planned and executed properly, would transform the Jewish people from a petty bourgeoisie society into a healthy society, based on Jewish workers who would forgo their shops and clerkships for the fields and factories of the new Jewish homeland. Marxist-Zionist ideology, stemming from Borochovs formulations, was the basis of the kibbutz movement (which built communal villages and farms) and was a dominant force in Israeli politics for many years.

An important leader of the socialist Zionist movement who acted upon Borochovs ideals was Berl Katznelson. When he came to the Land of Israel in 1909 from Russia, Katznelson worked as a farm laborer and eventually became the leader of the socialist Zionists, until his death in 1944.

As the founder and editor of the labor-socialist newspaper, Davar, the entire cultural and ideological program of the workers in the Land of Israel were under his influence. His love of Jewish culture, the Hebrew language, and commitment to social justice are apparent in all of his writings. Katznelsons greatest contribution was his call for contemporary Jews to reinterpret ancient Jewish values for the modern secular worker. He urged his fellow revolutionaries to find ways to integrate newly interpreted Jewish values and culture into their lives and not relate to the Zionist revolution as one that destroys the old world entirely.

An example of how he used his influence: In 1936 Katznelson wrote an article in which he criticized his partys youth movement for holding a celebratory campfire on Tisha BAv, the day for mourning the destruction of Jerusalem. He urged the youth and their leaders to find innovative and meaningful ways to adapt the old traditions to the new reality, reinterpreting traditional Judaism for the modern Hebrew worker (beyond campfires and sing-alongs). In modern Israel, the words of Katznelson remain relevant for many secular Jews who struggle to find ways to connect to Judaism outside the framework of religious beliefs and traditional observance.

Each of these secular ideologies brought a unique worldview that enriched Zionist discourse and brought fresh ideas into the conversation. Often these ideas clashed, sometimes they found common ground. The dynamism and diversity of Israel is rooted in the rich ideological soil from which the state grew.

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Secular Zionism | My Jewish Learning

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Posted By admin on October 19, 2019

Asa modern political movement, Zionism was created to achieve political independence for the Jewish people in the Holy Land. Although scholarly literature is divided about the exact origins of the movement, this summary begins with the history of Zionism from its roots in the ibat Tsiyon period (18811897). This section is followed by an account of five additional stages of Zionist development and activity in Eastern Europe: the period of political growth from the First Zionist Congress (1897) to World War I; the interwar years; the Holocaust; the cold war era; and the fate of Zionism after the fall of communism in 1989 through the year 2000.

While members of local ibat Tsiyon (Love of Zion) organizations were not the first to advocate that Jews from Eastern Europe settle in Ottoman Palestine, the movements growth after the pogroms of 18811882 marked the advent of modern Zionist organization and action. Inspired, in part, by Lev Pinskers Autoemancipation (1882), several Zionist organizations were instrumental in establishing the towns of Rishon le-Tsiyon, Gederah, Rosh Pinah, and Zikhron Yaakov by the end of 1882. Among the most prominent were the student group BILU (which took its name from the Hebrew initials of the biblical verse House of Jacob, let us go up); several ibat Tsiyon groups centered in Biaystok, Vilna, and Warsaw; and the Eretz Israel movement in Romania. This latter group, led by Samuel Pineles (18431928) and based in Bucharest and Galai, convened for the first time in Focani, Romania, on 1112 January 1882.

Jewish Colonial Trust stock certificate for one share issued to Bar. Mer. Schapiro, Kalvarija, Russia (now in Lithuania), 1901. The Jewish Colonial Trust, the predecessor of Bank Leumi, was founded by Theodor Herzl in 1899 to serve as a financial instrument for the Zionist movement. Investors money went toward the purchase of the right to land settlement in Palestine from the Ottoman authorities. (YIVO)

Most of these colonies faltered and some of the settlements soon found themselves supported by Baron Edmond de Rothschild. In response to the difficultiesof establishing new settlements in Palestine, Pinsker, Mosheh Leib Lilienblum (18431910), and others organized a meeting of various ibat Tsiyon organizations and supporters in the Silesian city of Katowice from 6 to 11 November 1884. Representatives from approximately 20 ibat Tsiyon organizations chose Pinsker to be the organizations chair, Lilienblum as secretary in Odessa, and Shaul Pinas Rabbinowitz (Shefer; 18451910) as head of the Warsaw branch. ibat Tsiyon continued its organizational efforts with a second conference in Druskieniki, on 28 June1 July 1887, and a third in Vilna, on1315 August 1889. The second conference witnessed the increased influence of religious supporters who were able to elect rabbis Shemuel Mohilewer (18241898), Naftali Tsevi Yehudah Berlin (Netsiv; 18171893), and Mordekhai Eliasberg (18171889) to the six-member executive board.

The organization attained legal status in April 1890 and was officially known as Vaad ha-evrah li-Temikhat Bene Yisrael Ovde Adamah u-Vaale Melakhah be-Suryah uva-Arets ha-Kedoshah (Society for the Support of Jewish Farmers and Artisans in Syria and Palestine). Representatives of 26 ibat Tsiyon organizations met on 27 April 1890 to choose an executive committee. Known as the Odessa Committee, the body was led by Pinsker until his death in 1891; by Avraham Grnberg (18611906) until 1906; and finally by Menaem Ussishkin (18631941) until 1919 when the committee was abolished. Despite early hopes, the Odessa Committee failed to create a mass political movement. Handicapped by governmental restrictions and flustered by organizational difficulties and the opposition of more traditional Jewish leaders, its membership numbers never exceeded 5,000 in an empire that was home to more than 5 million Jews. Commenting on the organizations lackluster performance in a letter to Leo Motzkin (18671933), Shemaryahu Levin (18671935) wrote, The disappointment from its activities grows from day to day.

The First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897 marked a new beginning for the Zionist movement under the leadership of Theodor Herzl. Forty-four delegates from the Russian Empire and some 20 students studying in the West represented different societies in the Russian Empire. The Congress led to a subsequent explosion of Zionist activity in Eastern Europe and to the establishment of more than 1,100 societies (as opposed to approximately 40 local organizations before 1897) and more than 60,000 shekel holders (dues-paying members of the World Zionist Organization) by 1900. Activities culminated in the first legal convention of Russian Zionists in Minsk from 22 to 27 August 1902. With some 500 delegates and 200 guests, the Minsk Conference represented a new high for the fledgling movement.

Simat Torah flag, Bobruisk, Russia (now in Belarus), 1902. Lithograph by Sh. M. Sokhor, published by the bookstore of Yaakov ha-Kohen Gintsburg. Zionist leaders Theodore Herzl and Max Nordau are depicted and the reverse carries an excerpt from Hatikvah (Hope), the song that is now Israels national anthem. (Gross Family Collection)

After the initial burst of excitement, Herzls demand for a sweeping political solution to the Jewish Question, his leadership style, and the growing gap between Jews from Eastern Europe and those from the West led to a degree of discontent among supporters in Eastern Europe. The creation of the Democratic Faction in December 1901 by Chaim Weizmann (18741952) and others, as well as the subsequent founding of the religious Zionist Mizrai movement in February 1902 in Vilna under the leadership of rabbis Yitsak Yaakov Reines (18391915) and Avraham Yaakov Slutsky (18611918) were early expressions of this protest. By calling for the creation of a new, secular cultural center for Judaism in Palestine, Ahad Ha-Am (Asher Ginzberg) and his disciples from the Bene Mosheh movement were also constant sources of dissent within the Zionist movement. In a letter to Herzl (6 May 1903), Weizmann spoke openly of his own frustration regarding our failure to secure the support of but an insignificant fraction of the youth. For years this mass of human material has yielded only a small number of really useful, dedicated workers and all because of Zionisms superficial approach....

Such protests gained momentum in 1903 when more than 170 out of a total of almost 600 delegates to the Sixth Zionist Congress (2328 August), most of whom were representatives of the Russian Empires delegation, walked out of the Congress to protest Herzls proposition regarding the creation of a Jewish colony in East Africa. Inspired, in part, by what came to be called the Uganda Affair, three different organizations calling for the immediate establishment of a Jewish autonomous colony outside of Ottoman Palestine merged during a conference of 30 July1 August 1905; this amalgamated group formed the Jewish Territorial Peoples Organization (later, the Jewish Territorial Organization; ITO). The numbers of territorialists grew quickly during the Revolution of 1905 as Zionism faced what very well may have been its political nadir. More radical Poale Tsiyon organizations also began to flourish in both theRussian and Habsburg empires as thewritings of the young Ber Borokhov (18811917), advocating a synthesis of Jewish nationalism, socialist values, and a commitment to settle in Ottoman Palestine, attracted hundreds of Jewish youths to various cells. One testament to Zionisms fading popularity was the temporary closure in 1906 of the flagship daily, Naum Sokolows Warsaw-based Ha-Tsefirah.

Members of the Zionist movement He-aluts from Poland and Russia on the way to Palestine, Constana, Romania, 1923. (The Ghetto Fighters Museum/Israel)

As one of the few legal Jewish movements at the time, Zionism reentered the political arena during the election campaign for the First Russian Duma in the spring of 1906. Together with Jewish liberals and, at times, in cooperation with other national minorities in the Pale of Settlement, the Saint Petersburgbased Soiuz dlya Dostizheniia Polnoporiviia Evreiskogo Naroda v Rosii (Society for the Attainment of Equal Rights for Jews) helped elect 12 Jews (5 of whom were Zionists). This led many supporters to reevaluate Zionisms long-standing opposition to political and cultural work in the Diaspora. From 4 to 10 December 1906 some 80 delegates from 56 centers convened in Helsingfors (the Swedish name for Helsinki) and approved the Helsingfors Program advocating Gegenwartsarbeit, the adoption of work in the present. Even die-hard Zionists realized that the eventual success of their precarious political plans demanded an end to this opposition to political and cultural work in the present. Despite these steps, and as a result of a split between Jewish liberals and Zionists, only one Zionist was among the 6 Jews elected to the Second Duma in early 1907. Prime Minister Petr Stolypins coup dtat of 3 June 1907 marked the end of the Russian Empires experiments with democratic reforms; at this time, many of Zionisms early successes as a broad-based political party also came to an end.

Zionism and other Jewish parties in Austrian Galicia witnessed a simultaneous explosion of political activity. Taking advantage of expanded male suffrage, Zionists in Galicia founded the Jdischen Politischen Nationalpartei (Jewish National Party) in July 1906. Of the 62,609 votes cast for various Jewish parties in Galicia, 24,274 went to Zionists, 17,581 to Socialists, and 18,885 to the Polska Organizacja ydowska (Polish Jewish Organization).

Chart: Zionist Parties and Events in Eastern Europe to 1939

Disappointed with the lack of concrete political achievements in the Russian and Austrian Empires, many young Jews migrated from Eastern Europe to Palestine aspart of the much-celebrated Second Aliyah (19031914). Despite the arrival of some 35,000 immigrants in Ottoman Palestine, however, the vast majority of Jews either remained in Eastern Europe or migrated to various locales in the New World from Chicago to Sydney.

Mishloa Manot: The people of Israel to the Land of Israel. Fund-raising coupon issued by the Keren Kayemet (Jewish National Fund) during Purim. On the Jewish holiday of Purim, it is customary to send mishloa manot (food baskets) to friends, family, and the poor, and to make charitable donations. A donor from Vilna received this coupon in exchange for a donation of 1,000 marks. (YIVO)

The interwar period was the heyday of Jewish and Zionist politics in Eastern Europe. With radically redrawn borders and increasingly exclusive concepts of Polishness, interwar Poland provided ideal conditions for the growth of Zionist schools, youth groups, political parties, and cultural activities. Despite anti-Jewish violence and pogroms in Lww, Pinsk, Vilna, and other cities and towns during the various wars of 19181919, much hope was inspired by the Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917, the Paris Peace Conference (19191920), and the Minorities Treaty of June 1919.

While Yitsak Grnbaum (18791970) is the leader most often associated with Zionism and Zionist politics, Ozjasz (Yehoshua) Thon of Krakw (18701936) and others were also instrumental in Zionisms rise to communal influence and political power in interwar Poland. With impressive returns in the first Sejm elections of 1919, when 13 Jewish deputies, 6 of whom were Zionists, were chosen, Zionist parties were particularly popular in the regions of western Galicia and Congress Poland. Encouraged by this early popularity as well as by a growing sense of confrontation with Polish nationalists, Grnbaum led a coalition of Jews, Germans, Ukrainians, and other national minorities known as the Minorities Bloc in the Sejm elections of 1922. Although Zionist organizations in Galicia under the leadership of Ignacy Schwarzbart (18881961) chose not to participate in the bloc, the coalition was successful as 32 Zionist representatives and another 15Jewish deputies from other parties were elected. Ultimately, however, Grnbaums strategy led to an increased sense of confrontation between Jewish parties and the larger Polish public. In the end, the bloc produced few real political achievements.

Unlike Grnbaum, Zionists in the former Austrian Galicia preferred the politics of compromise. This policy led to the signing of the Ugoda (agreement) between Leon Reich (18791929), the leader of Zionism in eastern Galicia, and the Polish prime minister, Wadysaw Grabski, in 1925. Although the agreement granted rights in the cultural and religious spheres in exchange for open Jewish support for Polish national interests, the government later refused to honor many parts of the agreement and Galician Zionists had little to show for their political maneuvering. In addition to the General Zionists, other smaller Zionist parties and movements competed for thesupport of Polands 3.1 million Jews. These smaller parties included no less than six socialist Zionist or labor Zionist parties: the pro-Communist, Yiddishist Left Poale Tsiyon; Right Poale Tsiyon; the Zionist Socialists; Poale Tsiyon in eastern Galicia; Dror (Freedom); and the reformist, nonsocialist, pro-Hebrew party Hitaadut (Union).

Chart: Zionist Parties in Interwar Poland

The great expectations and bitter disappointments of Polish Zionism led to the sudden popularity of the Revisionist Zionist movement, known by its Hebrew name Ha-Tsohar, and its leader Vladimir Jabotinsky (18801940) in the 1930s. In 1935, when the party broke with the World Zionist Movement and formed the New Zionist Organization, it boasted some 450,000 supporters in Poland as both the right and the left grew during the troubling times.

Members of the local branch of Betar, the Revisionist Zionist youth organization, Sokoly, Poland, 1935. (Upper right) A girl holds a document or newspaper titled Ha-Medinah (The State). (YIVO)

Throughout the interwar era, many political parties sponsored youth movements. One of the most important was the radical, later Marxist, Ha-Shomer ha-Tsair (The Young Guard). Ha-Shomer ha-Tsair was followed by the settlement-oriented He-aluts (Pioneer), Gordonia (named after the labor Zionist hero Aharon David Gordon), Frayhayt (Freedom), and Betar (the Hebrew abbreviation for Berit Trumpeldor). Many scholars credit the popularity of youth movements to the growing sense of crisis among Jewish and non-Jewish youth, a youth without a future. Here too, however, Zionism proved ironically to be a dependent independence movement as government policies and economic factors often determined the course of Jewish politics, culture, and life. Less than 5 percent of Polish Jewry (139,756) emigrated to Palestine between 1918 and 1942.

Like many other Jewish political movements, Zionism turned to the realm of education to breed the next generation of activists and supporters. Backed by the General Zionists and moderate left-wing Zionist groups, the Tarbut school system proved to be one of Zionisms biggest successes in interwar Poland. Designed to turn Hebrew into a living language, the Tarbut schools, with 25,829 students in 1921 and 37,000 in 19341935, were particularly popular in the eastern borderlands. The Yavneh religious Zionist school system, sponsored by Mizrai, was also influential.

Yoysef Grinblat, a member of the Labor Zionist party Tseire Tsiyon, with a letter and a copy of Der yidisher emigrant (The Jewish Emigrant), 1910. Inscribed in Hebrew at upper left, To where? and on the back in Yiddish, Hard to decide which country to emigrate to. Photograph by M.K. Stavinski. (YIVO)

As was true of their neighbor Poland, the newly independent Baltic states of Lithuania and Latvia provided ideal environments for Zionist activity. Largely unfamiliar with Lithuanian culture and language, many Jews there gravitated toward specifically Jewish organizations. Zionists dominated the January 1920 all-Lithuanian Jewish conference and also led the Jewish National Council until its abolition in 1924. Additionally, Zionist leaders Jakub Wygodzki (18551941), Shimshon Rosenboim (18601934), and Max Soloveichik (Menaem Solieli; 18831957) served as ministers in early Lithuanian governments. Zionist educational activities also fared well as the Lithuanian government granted the local Jewish community a fair degree of nationalcultural autonomy. Tarbut schools were extremely popular with more than 15,000 students and more than 500 teachers in 18 kindergartens, 81 elementary schools, and 11 high schools in 19301931. The Mizrai school system, Yavneh, attracted approximately one-third of the students in Jewish schools. Part of this success was due tothe governments recognition and funding of Jewish elementary schools asstate institutions. In addition to the thrivingTarbut school system, Zionist youth movements such as He-aluts, Ha-Shomer ha-Tsair, Gordonia, and Dror were active in interwar Lithuania.

Although not as popular as in Lithuania, Zionist organizations were still influential in interwar Latvia. Zionist socialistswere able to elect at least one delegate to most of the Latvian parliaments before1934, and Rabbi Max (Mordekhai) Nurok (18791962), of Courland, became known as the leader of Latvias Mizrai movement. Latvia was also the birthplace, in 1923, of the Revisionist move-ment and its youth organization Betar. In addition to Betar, Ha-Shomer ha-Tsair, locally known as Netsa, was also very popular. Although Jewish-run schools flourished in Latvia, Yiddish schools proved more popular than the Tarbut schools.

Romania, as well, served as a fertile ground for Zionist activity and organization between the wars. Like Poland, the radically redrawn borders of independent Romania and the growth of Romanian nationalism created ideal conditions for Zionist organizations. Here, too, Zionism was strongest in new territories such as the former Russian area of Bessarabia and the ex-Austrian region of Bucovina; it was somewhat weaker in the Regat (Old Kingdom) that consisted of Moldavia, Walachia, and part of Dobrogea. Centered in the Jewish communities of the Regat, the non-Zionist Uniunea Evreilor Romni (Union of Romanian Jews; UER) dominated Jewish politics with a policy of moderation. After a series of political compromises and few successes, Jews in the new territories set off on their own. In1928, four Zionist deputiesTheodor Fischer and Iosif Fischer of Transylvania, Mayer Ebner of Bucovina, and Michael Landau of Bessarabiaformed the Jewish National Club in the Romanian parliament. The newly formed Jewish Party of Romania ran independently in the parliamentary elections of 1931 and received 64,175 votes and four mandates. A year later, the party received 67,582 votes and sent five representatives to parliament. However, this success was short-lived; by 1933 support for the party had dropped to 38,565 votes. Despite its spotty political record, the Zionist movement remained popular in Romanias new territories. By 1922, there were 75 Tarbut institutions in Bessarabia alone, including 20 kindergartens, 40 elementary schools, and 15 high schools. While Tarbut schools were less popular in Bucovina, youth movements such as He-aluts, Gordonia, and Ha-Shomer ha-Tsair thrived in both areas.

Members of Gordonia saying farewell to a comrade, Jakov Miler, at the railroad station, upon hisdeparture to Palestine, Kaunas, 1938. As the Hebrew inscription notes, the photograph was taken on the seventh day of Adar, on Thursday morning, 9:40 am. Photograph by Judelio Milero. (The Ghetto Fighters Museum/Israel)

Although Czechoslovakia in the interwar years was not as hospitable or conducive to Zionism as Poland or Romania, Zionism there was the strongest of any Jewish political movement. In January 1919, the idovsk Nodn Rada (Jewish National Council) in Prague voted to establish idovsk Strana, the Jewish Party of Czechoslovakia. Designed as an umbrella organization, the party remained under Zionist leadership and exhibited a pro-Zionist orientation throughout the period. The Jewish Party was able to secure impressive election returns with 79,714 votes in 1920; 98,845 in 1925; and 104,539 in 1929. As a result, the party wasable to elect two representatives to the Czechoslovakian parliament in both 1929 and 1935. Despite these electoral successes, the Jewish Party and Zionism met fierce opposition on the part of Orthodox groups in both Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus. However, this opposition did not impede the establishment of four Tarbut primary schools and one gymnasium (high school) in the latter region. The director of its Hebrew high school, ayim Kugel (18971966), was a leader of the Jewish Party and a parliamentary representative. While popular in Subcarpathian Rus, the Tarbut system failed to take off in either the Czech lands or Slovakia.

In interwar Hungary, unlike its neighbors, Zionism remained rather marginal as Jews in Budapest and other areas enthusiastically embraced Magyar culture and society. Shekel purchases before 1939 represented only 1 percent of Hungarys Jewish population, and just 1,100 Jews emigrated from Hungary to Palestine between 1933 and 1939. The truncated Hungarian state had relatively few national minorities other than Jews; consequently, Jews faced fewer dilemmas along the lines of those faced by Jews in Galicia, Bessarabia, or other borderlands where Jewish and other nationalisms often flourished.

In the Soviet Union, the study and publication of Hebrew material was prohibited soon after the Bolsheviks consolidation of power. Organized political activity was at risk and Zionist parties such as the Tseire Tsiyon (Labor Zionist party), He-aluts, the Zionist Socialists, and youth movements including Ha-Shomer ha-Tsair and Kadimah all operated in gray zones between legal and illegal realms. As a result, membership totals in most of these organizations rarely exceeded 10,000. Most were shut down by the early 1930s.

Sign for the Herzl Bar, Bucharest, ca. 1930s. The photographer wrote: In Bucharest, Zionism is so strong that Herzls portrait appears on tavern signs. Photograph by Alter Kacyzne. (Forward Association/YIVO)

As is true of many aspects of the history of the Holocaust, accounts of Zionism and Zionist movements in Eastern Europe during World War II are often tainted by the wisdom of hindsight. Revolts and acts of armed resistance by Zionist activists and organizations played an important role during the war years. Most prominent among such actions was the April 1943 revolt in the Warsaw ghetto, led by the young Ha-Shomer ha-Tsair leader Mordekhai Anielewicz (1919/201943) and the ydowska Organizacja Bojowa (Jewish Fighting Organization; OB). Additional uprisings and other forms of armed resistance in the Biaystok and Vilna ghettos as well as partisan actions were led by such Zionist figures as aykah Grossman (19191993) and Mordekhai Tenenbaum (19161943) in Biaystok and Abba Kovner (19181987) in Vilna. Less is known about the role of non-Zionist organizations such as the Bund and Jewish Communists as well as other nonviolent forms of resistance such as the Oyneg Shabes Archives in Warsaw led by the Left Poale Tsiyon activist and historian Emanuel Ringelblum (19001944). The exact roles and actions of Zionist leaders and others who cooperated with either Nazi forces or puppet regimes remains extremely controversial. Indeed, the role of Zionists, former Zionists, and others in the administration of different Judenrteincluding Jakob Edelstein (19031944) of Theresienstadt, Rezs Kasztner (19061957) of Vaadat Ezrah ve-Hatsalah (Relief and Rescue Committee) of Budapest, and Khayim Mordkhe Rumkowski (18771944) in dhas yet to be addressed adequately by scholars.

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Zionist activists and organizations concentrated their efforts on the mass emigration of Jewish survivors to British Palestine. Under the name of Beriah (flight), Zionist activists in Poland, including the indefatigable Adolf (Avraham) Berman (19061978) and the charismatic Yitsak (Antek) Zuckerman (19151981), helped organize the emigration of some 120,000 Jewish survivors and repatriates who had returned to Poland after the war.

Everyone who believes in the power of revival through Jewish labor on the landvote for the Zionist slate, No. 6 for the All-Russian Congress. Yiddish poster. Artwork and printed by Pivovarski, Petrograd, 1918. (YIVO) (YIVO)

Organized emigration to Palestine and later to the new State of Israel came to a halt with the Communist parties consolidation of power throughout the newly reconstructed Soviet bloc. By 1950, Zionist organizations had been shut down in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and the reannexed Baltic regions. In Prague and Moscow, prominent Jews were accused of crimes against the Czechoslovak and Soviet regimes. The Slnsk trial of November 1952 in Prague and the announcement of the Doctors Plot in January 1953 in the Soviet Union marked new lows for Jewish leaders and organizations in Eastern Europe. Although antisemitic show trials did not take place in Poland in the 1950s, Israels victory in the War of 1967 and Polish student protests of March 1968 helped pave the way for an antisemitic witch-hunt for Zionist agents and activists. As a result, some 20,00030,000 Jews and non-Jewish family members fledPoland for Israel, Sweden, and other countries. In all three cases, Zionism in postwar Eastern Europe proved to be more powerful as a political and cultural construct than as an actual movement.

The fallout of the War of 1967, the ensuing anti-Israel and antisemitic campaigns in both Poland and the Soviet Union, the emerging memory of the Holocaust, and the influence of the dissident movement throughout the Soviet bloc helped give birth to the Refusenik movement in the Soviet Union. Rooted in a desire to emigrate from the Soviet Union toIsrael, the movement was decidedly pro-Zionist as activists and their familiesrisked imprisonment, economic sanctions, and social ostracism for participating in illegal cultural and political activity. On the diplomatic level, the Refuseniks soon became bargaining chips as the Soviet Union and the United States waged a cold war in which human rights, sports, and space programs often served as surrogates for larger issues. As a resultof diplomatic pressure, more than 350,000 Jews and family members were allowed to leave the Soviet Union for Israel and other lands from 1968 to 1989. Although an important factor in the Soviet Union, the Refusenik movement did not gain much momentum in Poland, Hungary, or Czechoslovakia as Jewish activists often shied away from specifically Jewish causes and opted, instead, to join forces with local dissidents in national struggles against Soviet domination and Communist authoritarianism.

Az gret fldje (The Promised Land); Hungarian poster advertising the first Palestinian talking picture; artwork by Miskovitz; printing by Helicon, Timioara, 1930s. (Central Zionist Archives)

With the fall of the Soviet Union and its indirect control over Eastern Europe, new centers of Jewish and Zionist activity began to emerge both spontaneously and as a result of the activities of organizations such as the Jewish Agency and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. In addition to efforts on the part of these and other organizations, economic disintegration, political chaos, and uncertainty led to the emigration of nearly 1 million Jews and family members to Israel between 1990 and 2000. Although the degree of Jewishness and level of Zionist ideological fervor among many of these new immigrants is periodically questioned by pundits, politicians, and others, the vast majority of these new arrivals have integratedto one degree oranotherinto the economic, educational, and political spheres of Israeli society of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and with this integration have created a new phase in the ongoing relationship between Zionism and Eastern Europe.

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Throughout recorded history, there has always been a Jewish presence in the land of Israel. The basis for Jews to return to self-sovereignty in Israel appears in the Torah and Jewish tradition repeatedly. Moses is instructed by God to go before Pharoah and demand the freedom of the Jewish people to return to Eretz Israel. After the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem, the Jews were expelled and exiled to Babylon. Nearly one hundred years later, Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and issued a proclamation allowing all Jews to return to the land that had been taken from them, as foretold by prophets like Ezekiel.

Once most Jews were exiled into the Diaspora, Israel, and especially Jerusalem, became revered in Jewish tradition. Mass movements to return to Israel occurred throughout history, from a Jewish uprising in Kurdistan in 1160 to a large-scale emigration of Jews from Yemen in 1868. Prayers for Passover and Yom Kippur conclude with, "Next year in Jerusalem", and daily prayers include many references to the land of Zion.

Two ideological phenomena spurred Jewish action and created the Zionist movement as we know it today- nationalism and the Enlightenment.. Nationalism as an ideology began in the late 1770s with the rise of the modern nation state and the push for popular sovereignty, including rights for all citizens. France was the first country to grant Jews legal equality, and other European countries quickly followed. However, the other side of nationalism threatened Europe's Jews. Despite the rights they were granted, anti-Semitism flourished and violence against Jews continued. This led to the realization that whether or not Jews were literally ghettoized, they would also be outsiders in Europe. Jews in Middle Eastern countries did not fare much better. After the 1871 Odessa pogrom, Judah Leib Pinsker published a pamphlet, Auto-Emancipation, arguing that Jews could only be truly free in their own country.

One incident that highlighted the persistence of anti-Semitism in Europe was the Dreyfus Affair, in which a Jewish officer in the French army was falsely convicted of treason. This event inspired Theodor Herzl, an assimilated Jewish journalist from Austria, to write Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) and seek political recognition for a Jewish homeland.

Theodor Herzl is considered the founder of modern Zionism. He posited that Jews would face anti-Semitism wherever they were a minority and that the only way to create a Jewish state would be to secure legal sanction for Jewish immigration to Palestine by the Ottoman and, after World War I, the British authorities. The movement sought support for their goal from other world governments as well.

These efforts culminated in a few major moments in Zionist history. One was the First Zionist Congress, which was convened as a symbolic parliament in Basel, Switzerland in 1897. This conference created a central authority that could organize the movement and speak on behalf of Zionists around the world. Herzl worked with Baron Rothschild, one of the wealthiest men in England, to secure from UK Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour a statement declaring that the government "[viewed] with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object"

Meanwhile, many Jews were moving from Europe to Palestine in waves called aliyot.

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Many early Zionists who promoted the Jewish state in Israel, were also utopian Socialists.

Historically, Zionism and Communism have been closely linked, but it is a complicated history. Some of the early Communist leaders, notably Trotsky, were Jews, and that may have contributed to the idea of connections between Zionism and Communism. The early Zionists themselves imagined a socialist Jewish state -- the terms socialism and communism being roughly interchangeable until the early 20th century -- and drew directly on Marxist ideas in planning that state. Many Communists, however, especially in Palestine, were openly hostile to Zionism.

Political Zionism sought the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.

The Zionist movement, which began in the latter part of the 19th century, sought to establish a Jewish state in the historical land of Israel, under the sovereignty of Jews. Zionism, as a political movement, has its roots in Vienna, where Jewish writers and intellectuals, such as Nathan Birnbaum and Theodore Herzl, argued that Jews would always face anti-Semitism and be regarded as aliens and outsiders wherever they lived, and therefore needed their own national identity and state.

Karl Marx understood history as a movement towards revolution and a communist society.

Communism was a political and economic theory advocated most famously by Karl Marx. Communism argues for a socialist revolution toward creating a communal, classless state. Marx was Jewish, though his family had converted to Protestantism. One of Marx's early works, "On the Jewish Question," which expresses some anti-Semitic ideas, also addresses an issue important to the Zionists, namely political emancipation. It was a Jew and an early Zionist, Moses Hess, who introduced Marx to socialism in the first place.

Hess was an associate of Marx in Cologne, where he is credited with having contributed to Marx's views of socialism. Hess was also a forerunner of the Zionists, and argued for a socialist Jewish state. Later political Zionists, notably Nahman Syrkin and Herzl, also envisioned the new Jewish state as a socialist utopia, a cooperative society based on the use of science and technology to develop the land. Socialist Zionism, also called Labor Zionism, was the dominant form of Zionism during the period between the world wars, and was the precursor of the modern Labor Party in Israel.

Many early Communists were Jews, but Stalin himself was anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic.

Ironically, as the Labor Zionist movement grew in the 1930s and worked towards the creation of a socialist Israel, the Communist Party of Palestine expressed its concerns about Zionism, arguing that both the Zionists and the British were imperialists, and that their political and economic dominance in Palestine went against the communist movement, because it oppressed the Arab working class. In spite of the many theories in circulation today that regard Bolshevism and Communism as a Jewish political movement, Joseph Stalin and the apparatus of the Soviet state were hostile to Zionism and to Jews generally.

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