[image: Mahatma Gandhi] <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5810891.Mahatma_Gandhi> “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs... Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home” ― Mahatma Gandhi <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5810891.Mahatma_Gandhi> tags: arabia <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/arabia>, arabs <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/arabs>, israel <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israel>, palestine <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/palestine>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism>, zionist <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionist> 249 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/113996-palestine-belongs-to-the-arabs-in-the-same-sense-that> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new>
[image: Isaac Asimov] <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16667.Isaac_Asimov> “I am frequently asked if I have visited Israel, whereas yet, it is simply assumed that I have. Well, I don’t travel. I really don’t, and if I did, I probably wouldn’t visit Israel. I remember how it was in 1948 when Israel was being established and all my Jewish friends were ecstatic, I was not. I said: what are we doing? We are establishing ourselves in a ghetto, in a small corner of a vast Muslim sea. The Muslims will never forget nor forgive, and Israel, as long as it exists, will be embattled. I was laughed at, but I was right. I can’t help but feel that the Jews didn’t really have the right to appropriate a territory only because 2000 years ago, people they consider their ancestors, were living there. History moves on and you can’t really turn it back. (#92 *ff.*)” ― Isaac Asimov <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16667.Isaac_Asimov>, Asimov Laughs Again: More Than 700 Jokes, Limericks and Anecdotes <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/41349> tags: history <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/history>, israel <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israel>, israeli-palestinian-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israeli-palestinian-conflict>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 114 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/304343-i-am-frequently-asked-if-i-have-visited-israel-whereas> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> [image: Christopher Hitchens] <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3956.Christopher_Hitchens> “Actually—and this was where I began to feel seriously uncomfortable—some such divine claim underlay not just 'the occupation' but the whole idea of a separate state for Jews in Palestine. Take away the divine warrant for the Holy Land and where were you, and what were you? Just another land-thief like the Turks or the British, except that in this case you wanted the land without the people. And the original Zionist slogan—'a land without a people for a people without a land'—disclosed its own negation when I saw the densely populated Arab towns dwelling sullenly under Jewish tutelage. You want irony? How about Jews becoming colonizers at just the moment when other Europeans had given up on the idea?” ― Christopher Hitchens <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3956.Christopher_Hitchens>, Hitch-22: A Memoir <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/8987023> tags: arabs <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/arabs>, britain <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/britain>, colonialism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/colonialism>, europe <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/europe>, holy-land <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/holy-land>, irony <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/irony>, israel <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israel>, israeli-palestinian-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israeli-palestinian-conflict>, jews <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jews>, land <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/land>,palestine <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/palestine>, religion <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/religion>, turkey <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/turkey>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 97 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/268031-actually-and-this-was-where-i-began-to-feel-seriously-uncomfortable-some> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> [image: Noam Chomsky] <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2476.Noam_Chomsky> “People who call themselves supporters of Israel are actually supporters of its moral degeneration and ultimate destruction.” ― Noam Chomsky <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2476.Noam_Chomsky> tags: israel <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israel>, israeli-palestinian-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israeli-palestinian-conflict>, politics <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/politics>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 47 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/832506-people-who-call-themselves-supporters-of-israel-are-actually-supporters> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> [image: Tariq Ali] <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/46247.Tariq_Ali> “If every single Jew born anywhere in the world has the right to become an Israeli citizen, then all the Palestinians who were chucked out of Palestine by the Zionist Government should have the same right, very simple.” ― Tariq Ali <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/46247.Tariq_Ali> tags: citizenship <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/citizenship>, israel <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israel>, israeli-palestinian-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israeli-palestinian-conflict>, jews <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jews>, palestinians <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/palestinians>, right-of-return <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/right-of-return>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 27 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/834011-if-every-single-jew-born-anywhere-in-the-world-has> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> [image: Christopher Hitchens] <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3956.Christopher_Hitchens> “I regard anti-Semitism as ineradicable and as one element of the toxin with which religion has infected us. Perhaps partly for this reason, I have never been able to see Zionism as a cure for it. American and British and French Jews have told me with perfect sincerity that they are always prepared for the day when 'it happens again' and the Jew-baiters take over. (And I don't pretend not to know what they are talking about: I have actually seen the rabid phenomenon at work in modern and sunny Argentina and am unable to forget it.) So then, they seem to think, they will take refuge in the Law of Return, and in Haifa, or for all I know in Hebron. Never mind for now that if all of world Jewry *did* settle in Palestine, this would actually necessitate further Israeli expansion, expulsion, and colonization, and that their departure under these apocalyptic conditions would leave the new brownshirts and blackshirts in possession of the French and British and American nuclear arsenals. This is ghetto thinking, hardly even fractionally updated to take into account what has changed. The important but delayed realization will have to come: Israeli Jews are *a part of* the diaspora, not a group that has escaped from it. Why else does Israel daily beseech the often-flourishing Jews of other lands, urging them to help the most endangered Jews of all: the ones who rule Palestine by force of arms? Why else, having supposedly escaped from the need to rely on Gentile goodwill, has Israel come to depend more and more upon it? On this reckoning, Zionism must constitute one of the greatest potential non sequiturs in human history.” ― Christopher Hitchens <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3956.Christopher_Hitchens>, Hitch-22: A Memoir <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/8987023> tags: american-jews <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/american-jews>, antisemitism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/antisemitism>, argentina <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/argentina>, atheism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/atheism>, britain <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/britain>, british-jews <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/british-jews>, colonialism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/colonialism>, expansionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/expansionism>,fascism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/fascism>, france <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/france>, french-jews <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/french-jews>, gentiles <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/gentiles>, haifa <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/haifa>, hebron <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/hebron>, history <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/history>, israel <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israel>, israeli-palestinian-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israeli-palestinian-conflict>, israelis <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israelis>, jewish-diaspora <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jewish-diaspora>, jews <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jews>, law-of-return <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/law-of-return>, nuclear-weapons <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/nuclear-weapons>, palestine <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/palestine>, religion <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/religion>, united-states <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/united-states>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 25 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/268033-i-regard-anti-semitism-as-ineradicable-and-as-one-element-of> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> [image: Benjamin Netanyahu] <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/171941.Benjamin_Netanyahu> “We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attacks on the twin towers and the pentagon and the American struggle in Iraq. These events swung American public opinion in our favor” ― Benjamin Netanyahu <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/171941.Benjamin_Netanyahu> tags: iraq <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/iraq>, israel <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israel>, terrorism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/terrorism>, war-on-terror <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/war-on-terror>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 18 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/45845-we-are-benefiting-from-one-thing-and-that-is-the> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> [image: Victor Klemperer] <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/90845.Victor_Klemperer> “To me the Zionists, who want to go back to the Jewish state of A.D. 70 (destruction of Jerusalem by Titus) are just as offensive as the Nazis. With their nosing after blood, their ancient "cultural roots," their partly canting, partly obtuse winding back of the world they are altogether a match for the National Socialists. That is the fantastic thing about the National Socialists, that they simultaneously share in a community of ideas with Soviet Russia and with Zion.” ― Victor Klemperer <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/90845.Victor_Klemperer>, I Will Bear Witness, Volume 1: A Diary of the Nazi Years: 1933-1941 <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/247288> tags: israel <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israel>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 13 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/725084-to-me-the-zionists-who-want-to-go-back-to> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> [image: Hassan Nasrallah] <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1671798.Hassan_Nasrallah> “We will consider every hand who will try to take our weapons, as an Israeli hand.” ― Hassan Nasrallah <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1671798.Hassan_Nasrallah>, Voice of Hezbollah: The Statements of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/731381> tags: hezbollah <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/hezbollah>, israel <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israel>, terrorism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/terrorism>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 7 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/111490-we-will-consider-every-hand-who-will-try-to-take> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> [image: Christopher Hitchens] <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3956.Christopher_Hitchens> “One of my first reservations about Zionism was and is that, semiconsciously at least, it grants the anti-Semite's first premise about the abnormality of the Jew.” ― Christopher Hitchens <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3956.Christopher_Hitchens>, Hitch-22: A Memoir <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/8987023> tags: antisemitism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/antisemitism>, jews <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jews>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 7 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/268035-one-of-my-first-reservations-about-zionism-was-and-is> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> “The paradox of anti-Semitism is that it is invariably up to the Jews to explain away the charges. The anti-Semite simply has to make them.” ― Jack Bruce <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/163009.Jack_Bruce> tags: anti-semitism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/anti-semitism>, hatred <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/hatred>, israel <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israel>, jews <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jews>, racism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/racism>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 6 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/776364-the-paradox-of-anti-semitism-is-that-it-is-invariably-up> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> [image: Hassan Nasrallah] <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1671798.Hassan_Nasrallah> “If you want to judge if a party is a Lebanese enough, let me say we take up arms and fight against the occupation of our land, is that Lebanese enough?” ― Hassan Nasrallah <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1671798.Hassan_Nasrallah>, Voice of Hezbollah: The Statements of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/731381> tags: hezbollah <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/hezbollah>, iran <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/iran>, lebanese <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/lebanese>, libanon <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/libanon>, occupation <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/occupation>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 3 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/109907-if-you-want-to-judge-if-a-party-is-a> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> [image: Simon Sebag Montefiore] <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/371093.Simon_Sebag_Montefiore> “The European upper-class could not decide if the Jews were a noble race of persecuted biblical heroes, everyone a King David and Maccabee, or a sinister conspiracy of mystically brilliant, hook-nosed, hobbits with almost supernatural powers.” ― Simon Sebag Montefiore <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/371093.Simon_Sebag_Montefiore>, Jerusalem: The Biography <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/14362911> tags: anti-semitism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/anti-semitism>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 3 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/898562-the-european-upper-class-could-not-decide-if-the-jews-were> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> [image: Yasmina Khadra] <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/71181.Yasmina_Khadra> “But she was so happy in her gilded cage, wasn’t she? She ate well, slept well, enjoyed herself She lacked nothing. And then, look, a bunch of mental cases turn her away from her happiness and send her to -- how did you put it? -- to ‘blow herself away’?. The good doctor lives next door to a war but he doesn’t want to hear a word about it. And he thinks his wife shouldn’t worry about it, either. … We’re at war. Some people take up arms; others twiddle their thumbs. And still others make a killing in the name of the Cause. That’s life. … Your wife chose her side. The happiness you offered her smelled of decay. It repulsed her, you get it? She didn’t want your happiness. She couldn’t work on her suntan while her people were bent under the Zionist yoke. Do I have to draw you a picture to make you understand, or do you refuse to look reality in the face?” ― Yasmina Khadra <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/71181.Yasmina_Khadra> , The Attack <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1193391> tags: happiness <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/happiness>, israeli-palestinian-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israeli-palestinian-conflict>, suffering <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/suffering>, terrorism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/terrorism>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 3 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/6768608-but-she-was-so-happy-in-her-gilded-cage-wasn-t> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> “In the end both people realized something so utterly simple and yet horrifyingly distant- by removing the ‘otherness’ from their respective identification, they can embrace a land that animates their historical sense of purpose and direction. They can embrace fate by embracing each other as joint caretakers of a historical location that witnessed rivers of blood and the silent weeping of those who dream of a New Jerusalem.” ― R.F. Georgy <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8088104.R_F_Georgy>, Absolution: A Palestinian Israeli Love Story <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/41766916> tags: arab-israeli-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/arab-israeli-conflict>, israel <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israel>, jewish <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jewish>, palestine <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/palestine>, palestinian-israeli-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/palestinian-israeli-conflict>, peace <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/peace>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 2 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1258208-in-the-end-both-people-realized-something-so-utterly-simple> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> [image: Golda Meir] <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/223411.Golda_Meir> “There is no Zionism except the rescue of Jews.” ― Golda Meir <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/223411.Golda_Meir> tags: human-rights <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/human-rights>, israel <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israel>, jewish-human-rights <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jewish-human-rights>, jews <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jews>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 2 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/3228712-there-is-no-zionism-except-the-rescue-of-jews> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> [image: Abba Eban] <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/100757.Abba_Eban> “There is no difference whatever between anti-Semitism and the denial of Israel's statehood. Classical anti-Semitism denies the equal right of Jews as citizens within society. Anti-Zionism denies the equal rights of the Jewish people its lawful sovereignty within the community of nations. The common principle in the two cases is discrimination." New York Times, 1975” ― Abba Eban <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/100757.Abba_Eban> tags: human-rights-for-jews <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/human-rights-for-jews>, israel <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israel>, jewish <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jewish>, jewish-pride <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jewish-pride>, judaism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/judaism>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 1 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/3228715-there-is-no-difference-whatever-between-anti-semitism-and-the-denial> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> “It is indispensable for us to undermine all faith, to tear out of the mind of the "goyim" the very principle of god-head and the spirit, and to put in its place arithmetical calculations and material needs” ― Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7880728.Protocols_of_the_Learned_Elders_of_Zion> tags: conspiracies <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/conspiracies>, elite <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/elite>, jews <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jews>, new-age <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/new-age>, spirituality <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/spirituality>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 1 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1062064-it-is-indispensable-for-us-to-undermine-all-faith-to> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> “My identity as Jewish cannot be reduced to a religious affiliation. Professor Said quoted Gramsci, an author that I’m familiar with, that, and I quote, ‘to know thyself is to understand that we are a product of the historical process to date which has deposited an infinity of traces, without leaving an inventory’. Let’s apply this pithy observation to Jewish identity. While it is tempting to equate Judaism with Jewishness, I submit to you that my identity as someone who is Jewish is far more complex than my religious affiliation. The collective inventory of the Jewish people rests on my shoulders. This inventory shapes and defines my understanding of what it means to be Jewish. The narrative of my people is a story of extraordinary achievement as well as unimaginable horror. For millennia, the Jewish people have left their fate in the hands of others. Our history is filled with extraordinary achievements as well as unimaginable violence. Our centuries-long Diaspora defined our existential identity in ways that cannot be reduced to simple labels. It was the portability of our religion that bound us together as a people, but it was our struggle to fit in; to be accepted that identified us as unique. Despite the fact that we excelled academically, professionally, industrially, we were never looked upon as anything other than Jewish. Professor Said in his book, Orientalism, examined how Europe looked upon the Orient as a dehumanized sea of amorphous otherness. If we accept this point of view, then my question is: How do you explain Western attitudes towards the Jews? We have always been a convenient object of hatred and violent retribution whenever it became convenient. If Europe reduced the Orient to an essentialist other, to borrow Professor Said’s eloquent language, then how do we explain the dehumanizing treatment of Jews who lived in the heart of Europe? We did not live in a distant, exotic land where the West had discursive power over us. We thought of ourselves as assimilated. We studied Western philosophy, literature, music, and internalized the same culture as our dominant Christian brethren. Despite our contribution to every conceivable field of human endeavor, we were never fully accepted as equals. On the contrary, we were always the first to be blamed for the ills of Western Europe. Two hundred thousand Jews were forcibly removed from Spain in 1492 and thousands more were forcibly converted to Christianity in Portugal four years later. By the time we get to the Holocaust, our worst fears were realized. Jewish history and consciousness will be dominated by the traumatic memories of this unspeakable event. No people in history have undergone an experience of such violence and depth. Israel’s obsession with physical security; the sharp Jewish reaction to movements of discrimination and prejudice; an intoxicated awareness of life, not as something to be taken for granted but as a treasure to be fostered and nourished with eager vitality, a residual distrust of what lies beyond the Jewish wall, a mystical belief in the undying forces of Jewish history, which ensure survival when all appears lost; all these, together with the intimacy of more personal pains and agonies, are the legacy which the Holocaust transmits to the generation of Jews who have grown up under its shadow. -Fictional debate between Edward Said and Abba Eban.” ― R.F. Georgy <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8088104.R_F_Georgy>, Absolution: A Palestinian Israeli Love Story <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/41766916> tags: arab-israeli-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/arab-israeli-conflict>, colonialism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/colonialism>, identity <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/identity>, imperialism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/imperialism>, israel <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israel>, jewish <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jewish>, jewish-identity <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jewish-identity>, jews <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jews>, palestine <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/palestine>,palestinian-israeli-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/palestinian-israeli-conflict>, peace-and-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/peace-and-conflict> , zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 0 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1334293-my-identity-as-jewish-cannot-be-reduced-to-a-religious> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> “The imperialist found it useful to incorporate the credible and seemingly unimpeachable wisdom of science to create a racial classification to be used in the appropriation and organization of lesser cultures. The works of Carolus Linnaeus, Georges Buffon, and Georges Cuvier, organized races in terms of a civilized us and a paradigmatic other. The other was uncivilized, barbaric, and wholly lower than the advanced races of Europe. This paradigm of imaginatively constructing a world predicated upon race was grounded in science, and expressed as philosophical axioms by John Locke and David Hume, offered compelling justification that Europe always ought to rule non-Europeans. This doctrine of cultural superiority had a direct bearing on Zionist practice and vision in Palestine. A civilized man, it was believed, could cultivate the land because it meant something to him; on it, accordingly, he produced useful arts and crafts, he created, he accomplished, he built. For uncivilized people, land was either farmed badly or it was left to rot. This was imperialism as theory and colonialism was the practice of changing the uselessly unoccupied territories of the world into useful new versions of Europe. It was this epistemic framework that shaped and informed Zionist attitudes towards the Arab Palestinian natives. This is the intellectual background that Zionism emerged from. Zionism saw Palestine through the same prism as the European did, as an empty territory paradoxically filled with ignoble or, better yet, dispensable natives. It allied itself, as Chaim Weizmann said, with the imperial powers in carrying out its plans for establishing a Jewish state in Palestine. The so-called natives did not take well to the idea of Jewish colonizers in Palestine. As the Zionist historians, Yehoshua Porath and Neville Mandel, have empirically shown, the ideas of Jewish colonizers in Palestine, this was well before World War I, were always met with resistance, not because the natives thought Jews were evil, but because most natives do not take kindly to having their territory settled by foreigners. Zionism not only accepted the unflattering and generic concepts of European culture, it also banked on the fact that Palestine was actually populated not by an advanced civilization, but by a backward people, over which it ought to be dominated. Zionism, therefore, developed with a unique consciousness of itself, but with little or nothing left over for the unfortunate natives. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if Palestine had been occupied by one of the well-established industrialized nations that ruled the world, then the problem of displacing German, French, or English inhabitants and introducing a new, nationally coherent element into the middle of their homeland would have been in the forefront of the consciousness of even the most ignorant and destitute Zionists. In short, all the constitutive energies of Zionism were premised on the excluded presence, that is, the functional absence of native people in Palestine; institutions were built deliberately shutting out the natives, laws were drafted when Israel came into being that made sure the natives would remain in their non-place, Jews in theirs, and so on. It is no wonder that today the one issue that electrifies Israel as a society is the problem of the Palestinians, whose negation is the consistent thread running through Zionism. And it is this perhaps unfortunate aspect of Zionism that ties it ineluctably to imperialism- at least so far as the Palestinian is concerned. In conclusion, I cannot affirm that Zionism is colonialism, but I can tell you the process by which Zionism flourished; the dialectic under which it became a reality was heavily influenced by the imperialist mindset of Europe. Thank you. -Fictional debate between Edward Said and Abba Eban.” ― R.F. Georgy <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8088104.R_F_Georgy>, Absolution: A Palestinian Israeli Love Story <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/41766916> tags: arab <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/arab>, arab-israeli-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/arab-israeli-conflict>, colonialism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/colonialism>, imperialism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/imperialism>, jewish <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jewish>, jews <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jews>, middle-east <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/middle-east>, palestine <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/palestine>, palestinian-israeli-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/palestinian-israeli-conflict>, peace-and-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/peace-and-conflict> , zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 0 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1334262-the-imperialist-found-it-useful-to-incorporate-the-credible-and> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> “Peace is not determined by the signage of treaties or the wishes of leaders. Peace is not a discrete event; rather it is a renewable proposition, filled with affirmations designed to mitigate against the collective distrust of two people who knew little beyond hatred, suspicion, blame and counter blame, intellectual gamesmanship, fear, paranoia, historical necessity, retribution, and a host of other deeply engrained emotional projections that are constantly lurking beneath the surface.” ― R.F. Georgy <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8088104.R_F_Georgy>, Absolution: A Palestinian Israeli Love Story <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/41766916> tags: arab-israeli-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/arab-israeli-conflict>, israeli <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israeli>, palestine <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/palestine>, palestinian-israeli-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/palestinian-israeli-conflict>, peace <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/peace>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 0 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1258204-peace-is-not-determined-by-the-signage-of-treaties-or> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> “No Zionist element, right or left, understood the Fascist phenomenon. From the first, they were indifferent to the struggle of the Italian people, including progressive Jews, against the blackshirts and Fascism's larger implications for European democracy. Italy's Zionists never resisted Fascism; they ended up praising it and undertook diplomatic negotiations on its behalf. The bulk of the Revisionists and a few other right-wingers became its enthusiastic adherents. The moderate bourgeois Zionist leaders --Weizmann, Sokolow and Goldmann-- were uninterested in Fascism itself. As Jewish separatists they only asked one question, the cynical classic: 'So? Is it good for the Jews?' which implies that something can be evil for the general world and yet be good for the Jews.” ― Lenni Brenner <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/146678.Lenni_Brenner> tags: history <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/history>, jews <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jews>, nazism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/nazism>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 0 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/3193332-no-zionist-element-right-or-left-understood-the-fascist-phenomenon> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> “Palestinians and Israelis were connected by a fatalistic dialectic, whose movement was punctuated by violence and directed towards an apocalyptic conclusion. One might argue that this dialectic enveloped a land, mythical and actual, spiritual yet earth-bound, ancient yet very much poised towards unfolding actualities.” ― R.F. Georgy <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8088104.R_F_Georgy>, Absolution: A Palestinian Israeli Love Story <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/41766916> tags: arab-israeli-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/arab-israeli-conflict>, israel <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israel>, palestine <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/palestine>, palestinian-israeli-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/palestinian-israeli-conflict>, peace <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/peace>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 0 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1258202-palestinians-and-israelis-were-connected-by-a-fatalistic-dialectic-whose> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> “It used to be a universally accepted axiom that the Palestinian Israeli conflict is an intractable and immovable impasse of epic proportion. Its Sisyphean nature cemented its reputation as an insoluble focal point of hatred and endless violence. Such universal truths, of course, derive their power and resonance from within the constraints of geography, ideology, and the construction of the imagination that is always trapped under the feeble nature of temporal movement. One can certainly say that Jewish history is filled with the grotesquery of blind hatred; that Jews were singularly reduced to an alienated other. Their disjointed and fractured identity was preserved only by the portability of a religion that would help them survive the darkest hours.” ― R.F. Georgy <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8088104.R_F_Georgy>, Absolution: A Palestinian Israeli Love Story <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/41766916> tags: arab-israeli-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/arab-israeli-conflict>, israel <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israel>, palestine <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/palestine>, palestinian-israeli-conflict <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/palestinian-israeli-conflict>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 0 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1258201-it-used-to-be-a-universally-accepted-axiom-that-the> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> “But he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves. He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever. He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the nursing ewes he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance. With upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand.” ― Bible Studies <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7758734.Bible_Studies> tags: god <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/god>, israel <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/israel>, jerusalem <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/jerusalem>, judaism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/judaism>, peace <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/peace>, zion <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zion>, zionism <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/zionism> 0 likes <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/3228716-but-he-chose-the-tribe-of-judah-mount-zion-which> Like <http://www.goodreads.com/user/new> “Part of Sykes's motive was rooted in religiosity. A devout Catholic, he regarded a return of the ancient tribe of Israel to the Holy Land as a way to correct a nearly two-thousand-year-old wrong. That view had taken on new passion and urgency with the massacres of the Armenians. To Sykes, in that ongoing atrocity, the Ottoman Empire had proven it could never again be trusted to protect its religious minority populations. At war's end, the Christian and Jewish Holy Land of Palestine would be taken from it, and the failure of the Crusades made right.” ― Scott Anderson <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/96252.Scott_Anderson> , Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/23859199> -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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