Zionism, Zionists Quotes

He also expressed his pleasure with the British Balfour Declaration granting the Jews their own country in part of Palestine ({594001}). Wilson had earlier committed himself to support the Zionist claim for Palestine. See {585124}.

The President was referring to the fact that most Arab governments constantly attacked Israel with an end of “wiping them off the face of the map” or “pushing them into the sea.” When Palestine was partitioned into Jewish and Arab states, the Israelis developed their part into a modern industrial democracy with the highest standard of living and political freedom in the Middle East despite having to fight off repeated Arab attacks who resented the fact that non-Arabs controlled any land of the area and that their dictatorships and monarchies were always embarrassed by the success of this “foreign” and “European” force in their midst.

There were Arabs living in Palestine since Roman times. However, there was no concept of Palestinians as a separate people from Jordanians or other Arabs in the Middle East. There had never been a Palestinian government separate from the other Arabs in the region and separate from the Kingdom of Jordan. At the birth of Israel, all the Arab Armies of the region attacked the new state, which managed to defend itself but in the process the Arab governments had told the Arabs of Israel to leave the Area so their Armies would be able to attack all others. After the Arab victory, they could return and could have their land and the Jewish land. The victory never happened and the Arabs who left have been refugees outside of Israel and describe themselves as “Palestinians” which have had a quasi government in the PLO. The Palestinians who stayed in Israel became full citizens of the Jewish State. Other Palestinian refugees left the area and emigrated throughout the Middle East and elsewhere.

The advocacy of the Jewish Return to the Holy Land was not first suggested or stated by European Jewish Zionists. Brightman was not only the first Christian to urge the return of the Jews, but the secon person of any faith to suggest it. He was only preceded by a Jewish refugee from the Spanish Inquisition--Joseph Nasi in 1561.

Nasrallah claims to be descended from the Prophet Muhammad. Unlike some other Muslim fundamentalist terrorists and politicians who regard the Jews in Israel as enemies, Nasrallah is anti-Semitic and wants to kill all Jews, not just free the “holy land” from the Jewish presence. See {585746}. This quotation was used by the Israeli Prime Minister when addressing the U. S. Congress in March of 2015.

Jabotinsky was a strong advocate of the Jewish Zionist movement not concerning itself with moral lapses and excessive zeal as many of the idealistic Zionists did, looking for a kind of Jewish Utopia. He argued that the British had done awful things when their national interest was threatened and the Arabs were far worse than almost any group of peoples. Therefore, the Zionists were entitled to use the methods of the other nations and Jews should not be the only people on earth that should be castigated for conquering a land and people. He particularly thought that even the United States which was better than almost all other nations had killed the Indian and driven him out of his own land. Why not the Jews? There has always, since he wrote this, been a minority of Zionists and Israelis who agree with the Jabotinsky view, but his view has never become a majority position of policy of Zionism or Israel.

This quotation is very surprising for most people. Reading the text alone, most of us would assume that it came from someone when the Zionist movement was fighting for a Jewish homeland in what is now Israel. Or just before the UN decision in 1947 to partition Palestine. However, it came from one of our founding fathers in Colonial times. Adams was by no means the only Founding Father with this point of view. Fundamentalist Protestants have put much credence in God’s granting the area for the Jewish People—then as today.

Because of the classic historical anti-Semitism and discrimination, Jews were barred from land ownership and as a result few were farmers or had agricultural experience in their families. They were tradesmen, artisans, professionals in Europe. So amongst Jews and non Jews alike the notion of Jews settling the land of Palestine and farming it or trapping, the way the Boers had in South Africa or the French in Canada, was not a very credible image. The Zionists, realizing this potential weakness, placed strong emphasis on agriculture, developed the agricultural kibbutz concept and encouraged Jews to become farmers. The effort was so successful that almost all the leading early Zionist immigrants to Palestine became farmers. When independence came to Israel, the Jewish agriculture was more productive than most of that in Europe and almost on a par with small farms in the United States. The Israelis were known for “making the desert bloom.

At that time Jews in Palestine were in the minority. The issue of how to obtain the land was hotly debated amongst Jewish groups. Jabotinsky was at one extreme—colonize and take the land just as the Arabs had done to the Jews when there was a Jewish majority. His view did not however prevail. The policy was to buy the land from individual Arabs and Jewish land up to 1948 was obtained that way. In that year the UN partitioned Palestine and 11 Arab armies attacked the new state of Israel and asked the Arab civilians to leave the area so that the Army could cleanse it of Jews. Many did not, and they or their descendants are still on their land or have sold it. The Arabs who left, were suspected of being possible collaborators or terrorists, and they have never been paid for their land or allowed to return. Compensation is still in dispute. At the same time Jews driven out of Arab countries by law and the military have never been compensated or given any right of return either.

This is the first statement of a Jewish nation since Biblical Times.

Muslim extremist terrorism was rampant, even before Israel was established. A few of the early Zionists took the Biblical view and responded in kind using the same terrorist tactics of the Arabs. Ben Gurion argued against that. The debate has continued in Israel ever since. With relatively few exceptions the Israelis have not engaged in terrorism although the Arabs and their supporters have defined terrorism against them as Israel using modern weapons of war within the international rules of war. Also, the Arab terrorists argue that this is the only weapon that they have available that can equalize the conflict and further if it is in “defense of Islam” terrorism or any other act is allowed by the Koran. Ben Gurion also was prescient in that the assassins of some key Israelis leaders over the years were Jews who advocated terrorism against the Arabs just as most of the victims of Islamic Terrorists have been Muslims.