Zionism is not Judaism

Letter from a Jewish Friend, and a Response

(March 7, 2003)

Dear Mike:

 I read your article at http://www.counterpunch.org/ladah03052003.html. The grief felt by those of us who are Orthodox Jews opposed to the abominable heresy of Zionism is multiplied in view of the implications of a war in Iraq rooted in the fact of Zionism being the source of all problems going on in the Middle East. As you will see from the websites indicated below, Zionism is a despicable heresy and desecration of Judaism in every single respect.

The Zionists do not represent anything Jewish, and are, in fact, the enemies of Judaism. They will have to account to G-d himself for all their crimes and sins against Jew and Palestinian. May G-d have mercy on all of us in these dark times. The websites are:

 www.nkusa.org, www.jewsagainstzionism.com, www.netureikarta.org,
www.jewsnotzionists.org, www.netureikartauk.org.

 Regards,

 David

 

March 8, 2003

 Dear David,

 Thank you for your message which you sent a few days ago in response to my recent article in Counterpunch.  It is always a pleasure to hear from a person true to his or her faith, especially to point out that Zionism is not Judaism.

Your comments and the comments contained in the various web sites that you recommended on Neturei Karta were a pleasure to read.  They reminded me of a time when I was in college in the early 1960s.  During those days, my heroes and favorite speakers on the Palestinian question were two Jewish scholars and one Palestinian scholar, all of whom had the greatest respect for Jewish opposition to Zionism.  The two Jewish Scholars were Rabbi Elmer Berger and Dr. Alfred Lilienthal; the Palestinian scholar was Dr. Fayez Sayegh.  These courageous men were not afraid to speak what they thought of Zionism and were not intimidated by the constant threats they received.  Even today I come across some writings by sometimes obscure, but at times prominent, Zionists who express nothing but contempt for these scholars because they spoke the truth and because of their stand against Zionism.

The literature exhibited on the web sites that you suggested, and for which you sent me the links, also reminded me of the Jews with whom my father grew up, lived and worked in Palestine.  You see, I was born in Palestine and my ancestors lived there for many centuries, perhaps millennia.  My father was a Christian.  Although he was not a Moslem like the majority of Palestinians, he respected and valued Islam as part of his culture and traditions, and loved his Moslem friends and neighbors.  He also respected and valued Judaism as part of the heritage of the Holy Land in which he lived, which he loved and under which soil his remains lie; he respected and loved his Jewish friends.   I invite you to read a few pages, excerpted from my book, about the way my father lived in Palestine with Moslems and Jews, and how he became a Palestinian refugee:

http://www.ladahfoundation.org/excerptsch1.htm

The information also confirms what I have always known about the difference between Judaism and Zionism, and reaffirms my love and admiration for the Jews that my father knew.  Unfortunately, the new generation of Palestinians and Arabs do not have the same understanding of or love for Jews, but only because the only Jews they encounter are Zionists who robbed their land, homes and dignity.  While many of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have encountered decent Jews who tried to protect them from the violence of the settlers during the olive harvest, who walked with them during the peace marches, who tried to stop the bulldozers from razing their homes, or who have spoken courageously against the Israeli establishment for the destruction of Palestinian society, many of them encountered a different kind of “Jew.”  Most Palestinians and Arabs have only encountered, or heard about, those Jews who are Zionists and the crimes these Zionists planned and committed against them and their parents and/or their grandparents.

 Most of the young generation Palestinians encounter every day, perhaps many times in a day, the young “Jew” at the checkpoint, a soldier of the Israeli occupation force wielding so much power over their lives and humiliating them, their mothers, their sisters and their fathers.  They see death and destruction all around them and feel trapped by the indifference of the world to their plight.  These young Palestinians feel betrayed by the world including by decent Jews who are not Zionists but simply sit on the fence, silently, not taking a stand for humanity.  They see them taking a decent and liberal stand and defending the oppressed every where except in Palestine because they are afraid of, or have a mixed feelings about, the Zionists and what they represent.

 I hope you don’t mind my sending a copy of this message to all of my friends with a recommendation that they frequent the web sites you suggested so they can learn about Jewish activism against Zionism:

http://www.nkusa.org
http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com
http://www.netureikarta.org
http://www.jewsnotzionists.org
http://www.netureikartauk.org

David, you and I have a lot of work to do to salvage the reputation of the “Jews” among these young Palestinians from the damage that the Zionists have inflicted on your faith, just as we have to work together to salvage the reputation of decent Moslems from the damage that the Moslem extremists have inflicted on Islam.

Notwithstanding what the Zionists are doing in Palestine and elsewhere, and like many Palestinians and Arabs, I still have faith in the goodness of this earth and know that decent people everywhere, like the Jews you represent, will continue to speak louder and louder, and break the taboo of criticizing Israel and its policies toward innocent Palestinians and their institutions.

Thank you for writing and I hope we can keep in touch regularly.

With best regards,

Mike