Log in

View Full Version : A Short Essay About Zionism



Blasphemy
6th April 2003, 15:20
I handed in this essay in hebrew to my history teacher. I translated it so i can post it here.

---
The claim of Zionism that it wishes to "emancipate the Jewish people" is nothing but a meaningless slogan. The Jews, like the Christians in Europe, were not one single unit, and they belonged to different socio-economic classes. Jews from different classes had different goals, just like Christians from different classes had different goals. Zionism tried to blur the immense differences in the goals of Jews from different Classes, and create the illusion that the entire Jewish people has common goals because of the single factor which unites it - blood.

The Jewish working class, which was the majority among the Jews, had common goals - achieving social rights, economical security and the like. The Jewish bourgeious, on the other hand, had completely different goals. The Jewish bourgeios aspired to expand his fortune, extend his assests and increase his influence on the European economy. The goals of the Jewish worker and the Jewish bourgeios did not coincide, but contradicted. This led to sturggles between Jewish workers and Jewish bourgeios.

The goals of the Jewish Proletariat were, actually, identical to those of the Christian Proletariat in Europe. The Christian workers fought for social rights as well, and the Jews were a part of this fight. On the other side were the bourgeois, who were fought against by the workers. The Jews took part on both sides. In Russia, for example, the Jews played an important role in the struggle of the Russian workers for emancipation. It is impossible to imagine the Russian revolutionary movements without the Jews. The Jews also played a deciding role among the bourgeois. The Rotschield family is one example of a Jewish family which belonged to the financial elite in Europe.

Since the Jewish Bourgeois and the Jewish Proletariat had completely different goals, they cannot be both emancipated at the same time. That is why the emacipation of the Jews should focus on the emancipation of the Jewish Proletariat, which formed the absolute majority among the Jews. Selective emancipation of workers is impossible. The Jewish Proletariat cannot be emancipated without the entire European Proletariat. That is why the liberation of the Proletariat through Socialism includes the liberation of the Jewish Proletariat. It is impossible to liberate the workers without liberating the Jews, or liberating the Jews without liberating the rest of the workers. Zionism created the illusion that because of the common (and fictitious) goals of the Jewish Proletariat and the Jewish Bourgeois, the most cooperate, while the Jewish worker should actually be cooperating with the Christian worker.

Zionism did not give answers to the Jewish plight during the end of the 19th century because it defiend the "Jewish problem" as universal for both the Jewish Proletariat and the Jewish Bourgeois. The plight of the Jewish workers was a direct consequence of the struggles between the Proletariat and the Bourgeois in Europe. The Bourgeois were the ones to earn from the blood-based segregation Zionism created between workers, and that is why Zionism grew from the Jewish Bourgeois, not the Proletariat. Zionism wished to copy the class struggle in Europe to the Land of Israel. The class struggle between the Proletariat, which included both Jews and Christians, and the Bourgeois, which also included both Jews and Christians,will be copied to Israel. The seperation Zionism created among workers weakened the struggle of the Proletariat. Today we see the consequences of that segregation. The Israeli Proletariat, which is composed mainly of Jews, is the one losing in the class struggle.

Unity among the workers is a neccessary condition in order to liberate the Proletariat from the Bourgeois. The segregation created by Zionism gave an advantage to the Bourgeois, which wished to put an end to the workers' struggle. In order to liberate the Jews, the Jewish Proletariat must be liberated, and this can only be done through liberating the entire Proletariat.

---

革命者
6th April 2003, 21:08
i don't think that you really can make the distinction proletariat - bourgeois in this context.

Scotty.

革命者
6th April 2003, 21:11
a shame i don't have mod powers-- than i could move this to the IL-forum. if it's okay to publish it in the IL, that is.

Reuben
6th April 2003, 21:26
Good essay blasphemy, really enjoyed reading.

I believe the best solution for the Jewish workers stemmed from the Bund. They recognised that zionism was counter productive in that it seperated the struggle of jewish workers from that of ther oppressed elements in the society, yet at the same time hey recognised that in addition to class oppresion the jewish workers suffered specific oppression on account of their ethnicity. They could have been a major political force.

Great essay anyway

Blasphemy
7th April 2003, 08:46
Thank you Reuben. Scotty, what do you mean by saying that i can't make the distinction?

anyway, i don't belong to the radical anti-zionist group. i don't think that zionism is fascism, and nazism, and all that. i just think it is counter-productive to the goals of the workers. that is why jewish workers should oppose it.

Show me the Money
7th April 2003, 09:06
not all bourgeois can influence economies abroad, that's all.