-Caveat Lector-
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: June 5, 2007 7:57:56 AM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Accidental Israel
Israel: Mythologizing a 20th Century Accident
Gabriel Kolko Jun 02, 2007
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/kolko.php?articleid=11058
One of the many quirks of the nineteenth century's intellectual
heritage was the great intensification of nationalism and – to
quote one expert – the creation of "nation-ness," the consequences
of which have varied dramatically all the way from the negligible
to the crucial (as in the case of Israel) to war and peace in a
vast strategic region. There was, of course, often a basis for
various nationalisms to build upon, but the essentially artificial
function of forming nations from very little or nothing was common.
Wars were the most conducive to this enterprise, and the emergence
of what was termed socialism after 1914 – which had a crucial
nationalist basis in such places as China and Vietnam – was due to
the fact that foreign invasions greatly magnified nationalism's
ability to build on ephemeral foundations to merge socialism and
patriotism. For a vital component of nationalism, often its sole
one, was a hatred of foreigners – "others" – giving it largely a
negative function rather than an assertion of distinctive values
and traits essential to a unique entity. Myths, often far-fetched
and irrational, were built. Zionism is the focus of this discussion
but it was scarcely alone.
Vienna was surely the most intellectually creative place in the
world at the end of the 19th century. Economics, art, philosophy,
political theories on the Right as well as Left, psychoanalysis –
Vienna gave birth or influenced most of them. Ideas had to be very
original to be noticed, and most were. We must understand the
unique and rare innovative environment in which Theodore Herzl, an
assimilated Hungarian Jew who became the founder of Zionism,
functioned. For a time he was also a German nationalist and went
through phases admiring Richard Wagner and Martin Luther. Herzl was
many things, including a very efficient organizer, but he was also
very conservative and feared that Jews without a state – especially
those in Russia – would become [Marxist-Leninist] revolutionaries.
A state based on religion rather than the will of all of its
inhabitants was at the end of the 19th century not only a medieval
notion but also a very eccentric idea, one Herzl concocted in the
rarified environment of cafes where ideas were produced with scant
regard for reality. It was also full of countless contradictions,
based not merely on the conflicts between theological dogmas and
democracy but also vast cultural differences among Jews, all of
which were to appear later. Europe's Jews have precious little in
common, and their mores and languages are very distinct. But the
gap between Jews from Europe and those from the Arab world was far,
far greater. Moreover, there were many radically different kinds of
Zionism within a small movement, ranging from the religiously
motivated to Marxists who wanted to cease being Jews altogether
and, as Ber Borochov would have it, become "normal."
In the end, all that was to unite Israel was a military ethic
premised on a hatred of "others" around them – and it was to become
a warrior-state, a virtual Sparta dominated by its army. Initially,
at least, Herzl had the fate of Russian and East European Jews in
mind; the outcome was very different.
Zionism was original but at the turn of the century its following
was close to non-existent. An important exception was the interest
of Lord Rothschild. Moreover, from its inception Zionism was
symbiotic on Great Powers – principally Great Britain – that saw it
as a way of spreading their colonial ambitions to the Middle East.
As early as 1902 Herzl met with Joseph Chamberlain, then British
Colonial Secretary, to further Zionist claims in the region
bordering Egypt, and the following year he hired David Lloyd George
– later to become prime minister – to handle the Zionist case.
Herzl also unsuccessfully asked the sultan of the Ottoman Empire if
he might obtain Palestine, after which he advocated establishing a
state in Uganda – although his followers much preferred the Holy
Land. Only the principle of a Jewish State, anywhere, appealed to
him – but mainly for Jews in the Russian Empire.
Herzl was only the first in the Zionist tradition of advocating a
state for others; he was never in favor of all Jews moving there.
Chaim Weizmann wrote Herzl in 1903 that the large majority of the
young Jews in Russia were anti-Zionist because they were
revolutionaries – which only reinforced Herzl's convictions. In
1913 British Intelligence estimated that perhaps one percent of the
Jews had Zionist affiliations, a figure that rose in the Russian
Pale – which contained about six million Jews – as the war became
longer.
It was scarcely an accident that in November 1917 Lord Arthur
Balfour was to make Britain's historic endorsement of a Jewish
homeland in their newly mandated territory of Palestine in a letter
to Rothschild. Some of these Englishmen also shared the Biblical
view that it was the destiny of Jews to return to their ancient
soil. Others thought that this gesture would help keep Russia in
the war, and that nefarious Jews had the influence to do so. Most
saw a Jewish state as a means of consolidating British power in the
vast Islamic region.
Migration has been one of the universal phenomena of world history
since time immemorial, and we know a great deal about its causes
and motives. People migrate mainly out of necessity, generally
economic, and they choose from existing options. They very rarely
go someplace for the "blessings of liberty," or ideology; if they
do such variable factors as economic deprivation or changes in laws
should not exist. But in the case of Palestine and Zionism, Jews
behaved like people everywhere and at most times.
It is a Zionist myth that there were many Jews who wished to go to
a primitive, hot, dusty place and did so. They did not – and all of
the available numbers prove this conclusively. After the Bolshevik
Revolution of October 1917 the Pale was abolished and a very large
number of the Jews in it moved to Russia's cities; many of them saw
the Bolsheviks as liberators and filled the ranks of the revolution
at every level. If they emigrated, and here the numbers are very
important, it was not – if they had a choice – to Palestine.
From 1890 to 1924 about two million of the 20 million immigrants to
the United States were Jews – overwhelmingly from East Europe.
Other nations in the Western Hemisphere also attracted about a
million Jews during this period, to which we must add Jewish
migration to South Africa, Australia, West Europe, and the like.
This does not mean that Jews were not "Zionists" but they had no
intention whatsoever of embarking on Aliyah – of going to Palestine
themselves. As Herzl believed, it was a project for others.
Jews in the Diaspora, like most ethnic groups, banded together in
numerous organizations and nostalgia – and confusion – soon
overwhelmed them. Organized Zionism grew in the U.S. as it had not
in East Europe – but it demanded only money, thereby ultimately
making Israel viable.
In 1893 there were an estimated 10,000 Jews in Palestine, 61,000 in
1920, and 122,000 in 1925. All of these figures are only the best-
informed estimates; there were censuses in 1922 and 1931 only, and
even the 1922 numbers are contested. But the general trend is
beyond doubt and very clear. For every Jew who went to Palestine
from 1890 to 1924, at least 27 went to [New York]. Relatively, the
Zionist project was the utopian dream of a tiny minority and it
would have failed save for two factors, the Holocaust and the much-
overlooked fact that in 1924 the U.S. passed a new immigration law
based on quotas using the nationalities distribution in the 1890
census as a basis, effectively cutting off migration from East and
South Europe to a mere trickle of what it had been.
In 1924, Jewish population in Palestine increased 5.9 percent but
in 1925 – the first year the American law went into effect – it
leaped 28 percent, and 23 percent in 1926. This was still a small
minority of the Jews who left Europe but this sudden spurt was
directly related to American policy. From 1927 to 1932 it never
grew more than 5.3 percent annually and in 1927 it was a mere 0.2%.
Very few Jews went to Palestine, and a small proportion of them
were ideologically motivated; the vast majority migrated elsewhere.
The British had always been in favor of Jewish migration and after
1933 it grew greatly – Jews were six percent of the Palestinian
population in 1912 but 29 percent in 1935 – but now it was
increasingly composed of Jews from Germany rather than Poland.
These Jews had to get out of Germany, where the Zionist movement
had always been very weak, and they were scarcely ideological
zealots. Had there been open migration to the U.S. they would have
gone there. Arab riots after 1935 compelled the British to reduce
the inflow and in 1939 they adopted a White Paper enforcing strict
restrictions on immigration.
What is certain is that Hitler's importance must always be set in a
larger context. Without him there never would have been a flow of
Jews out of Germany, and very probably no state of Israel, but also
crucial was the U.S. 1924 Immigration Act. Migrants went to
Palestine out of necessity, in the vast majority of cases, not choice.
Both of these factors were crucial, and trying to determine the
relative importance of [Hitler's persecution of the Jews versus
American immigration policy in the 1920s restricting the number of
European Jews immigrating to New York] is an abstract, futile
enterprise. But without [one or the other or both together], the
Zionist project of creating a Jewish state in Palestine would have
remained another exotic Viennese [fantasy], never realized, because
even though the Jews in the Diaspora were in favor of a Jewish
state, virtually none of the Jews living in safe nations would ever
uproot themselves to "return" to the ancient homeland. They had no
reason to do so.
There were many "promised lands," and Herzl's exotic ruminations
were scarcely the inspiration for the flow of Jews out of Europe.
Israel's existence was an unpredictable accident of history. The
past century has been full of them, everywhere. That is why the
world is in such a perilous condition.
See what's free at AOL.com.
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