The European Christian fight for anti-Semitism was always a fight to grant Christians superior rights to Jews and to institutionalize that superiority as racial and religious supremacy.

In response, the European Jewish fight against anti-Semitism was and remains a fight against the reduction of the rights of Jews (if not their elimination altogether in the case of the Nazis), against the project to render European Jews an inferior species of citizens, and against white European Christian supremacy.

This has been a historical fight that multitudes of non-Jews have joined on both sides. However, ultimately it was European Jewish fighters against anti-Semitism and their gentile allies who won this key battle against inequality, oppression, racial and religious discrimination and genocide.

The European Jewish and Protestant fight (the latter preceded the former by three centuries) for Zionism, in contrast, has been and remains a fight to grant European Jews more rights than non-Jews (and non-European Jews) on a religious, ethnic and racial basis.

This superiority would be granted especially vis-à-vis Palestinian citizens of the Jewish settler-colony (if not eliminating their rights altogether as many Zionist Jews call for), as well as eliminating the rights of the Palestinians in the territories Israel occupied and colonized since 1967 and those it expelled and exiled since 1948 outside the borders of their homeland.

Multitudes of Jews and non-Jews have also joined this historical fight for racism, discrimination and colonialism. The Palestinians and their Jewish and non-Jewish allies refuse to give up and continue to resist Zionism’s insistence that European (and other) Jews must have superior and supremacist colonial, racial and religious rights in Palestine.

The Jewish fight for Zionism (which has never included and still does not include all Jews) is the exact opposite of the Jewish fight against anti-Semitism (which also never included all Jews); the former is a fight for European Jewish supremacy while the latter is against European Aryan and Christian supremacy.

This in a nutshell exposes the outright Zionist lie that claims that the struggle against anti-Semitism and the struggle for Zionism are one and the same.

Recruiting Jews to kill Palestinians

This is important to consider when we examine the international Zionist Jewish brigades that have volunteered to join the Israeli colonial army with much eagerness to kill Arabs and Palestinians. This has been a successful project in light of the mobilizational Zionist and Israeli Jewish propaganda in the last seven decades among the Jewish communities of the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia and Argentina, to name the most prominent Jewish communities outside Israel.

This propaganda campaign aimed at transforming members of these communities from fighters against white Christian supremacy into fighters for European Jewish racial and colonial supremacy.

The dissemination of racist Israeli Jewish culture internationally goes hand-in-hand with Zionism’s pan-Jewishism, whereby, just as anti-Semitism speaks against all Jews, Zionism claims to speak for all of them — and reassures Jews that Israel is their country and that they should move to colonize it, failing which it would function as a spare country awaiting their arrival on a need to colonize basis.

That the major North American and European organizations that claim to speak for Jews have endorsed Israel’s right to speak for them and have been the major conduits for the hateful racist Israeli Jewish propaganda against the Palestinian people makes them fully complicit in the ongoing slaughter and oppression of the Palestinians. This is especially so given that they openly support anti-Palestinian Israeli colonial policies and urge their respective governments and media to do the same. (We must keep in mind these organizations and their wealthy leaders are not elected by members of the Jewish communities but appoint themselves as their representatives and speak for them in these organizations’ newspapers, which constitute what is referred to as the “Jewish” press.)

This is not to say that members of the Jewish communities are not pro-Israel and fervently anti-Palestinian, which they are in their majority, but it is to say that polls have shown them to be less murderous and hateful than the organizations claiming to represent them.

Thus, Israel has created a hegemonic racist Jewish culture that does not only dominate Israeli Jewish communities but also Jewish communities in Europe and its settler colonial extensions (in the Americas, in Australia and in South Africa). This, however, was never sufficiently successful to produce millions of Jewish volunteers for Israel’s colonial cause (no matter how much European and American Jews support Zionism and Israel, few would want to fight or die for it). But it did create the conditions for thousands of young Jewish (mostly male) fighters for European racial supremacy to join the Israeli colonial army seeking to prove the superiority of European Jewishness (and a concomitant European Jewish manliness) by slaughtering Palestinians.

The Israeli colonial army advertises several programs to accommodate international Jewish volunteers for the oppression of the Palestinians. It provides them with the option to serve in the Israeli army in “full combat and support roles,” namely in its “Mahal” program, to fulfill their commitment to the Zionist cause of European Jewish supremacy without necessarily having to become Israeli citizens.

There is also the smaller “Marva” program in which young teenage Jewish recruits for Zionist Jewish supremacy can participate “in this immersive army program, serving alongside fellows from countries around the world.”

Israel’s killing machine proudly declares that “over 300 Jewish teens from all around the world volunteer to serve” in the Israeli colonial army annually as part of the four thousand “Jewish and non-Jewish” volunteers who “fly to Israel and volunteer in the IDF [Israeli military] for several weeks.” These may not be impressive numbers, but there are more.

One of the programs engineered to recruit Jewish youth for racial and religious supremacy is the “Garin Tzabar” project. Garin Tzabar means “cactus seed,” or “Sabra seed,” in reference to Palestine-born Israeli Jews, hence the importance of this program as a reproductive and masculinist project aimed at populating the Jewish settler-colony with more Zionist Jews committed to the superiority of European (and other) Jews over Palestinians.

Garin Tzabar, according to the Israeli colonial army, has “already helped over 1,500 teens from all around the world join the IDF and approximately 70 percent of the immigrants have stayed in Israel after their service.”

Garin Tzabar is not the only volunteer program. There are others like the “Sar-El” program, which claims that it has brought between 1983 and 2011 “more than a hundred thousand volunteers to Israel … 
Staying in Israel for several weeks, the participants share a true IDF experience on IDF bases” (Israel refers to these European and American volunteers for Jewish racial supremacy as “lone soldiers”).

The Israeli military claimed that in 2012, “5,500 lone soldiers” were serving in its colonial forces whereas today it claims to have 4,600 volunteers, one-third of whom are Americans.

In the ongoing barbaric slaughter of Gaza Palestinians, two of the Palestinian baby-killing Jewish soldiers (as I’ve written previously, targeting and killing Palestinian children is an old Zionist tradition) who were killed by the Palestinian resistance were American Jewish volunteers for Jewish racial and colonial supremacy.

They quickly became heroes for the American press, “Jewish” and “gentile” alike. Indeed an article appeared in The Washington Post to show how these baby-killers are different from Muslim foreign fighters who volunteered to overthrow the Afghani communist government and more recently several Arab governments (“‘Foreign Fighters’ for Israel,” David Malet, 22 July 2014). Few, however, mention the White European and American Christian mercenary foreign fighters who have served tyrannies around the word since the Second World War.

Colonial recruitment

These Israeli volunteer programs build on the legacy of the four thousand Jewish volunteers who came to fight the Zionist colonial war of 1948 that captured Palestine and expelled its population and established the European Jewish-supremacist settler-colony. Known as Mahal, the main volunteer program included American Jews as prominent and important members assisting in Israel’s colonial conquest.

They included Mickey Marcus, an American Jewish US Army colonel who became Israel’s first brigadier general. Marcus’ Second World War experience was instrumental in breaking the 1948 “siege of Jerusalem.”

Other important Jewish volunteers included the Canadian officer Ben Dunkelman and US pilot Milton Rubenfeld, as well as British Jewish Major Wellesley Aron who helped in the recruitment of American Jews for Zionism’s colonial war. European and American Christian Zionist mercenaries also helped, especially in the Zionist air force. These colonial volunteers fighting for racism, especially from the UK, constituted almost two-thirds of the settler-colony’s air force during the 1948 war.

David Ben-Gurion, the Jewish settler-colony’s first prime minister, was so thankful to them that he stated that “the Mahal [volunteer] Forces were the Diaspora’s most important contribution to the survival of the State of Israel.” Indeed they were: 123 of them died in that colonial war.

Jews in the struggle against Israeli racism

But unlike Jews inside Israel, Jewish communities in Europe, North and South America, and even in Australia, live in cultures that are not fully controlled by Zionist propaganda and therefore are not fully under the sway of the racist culture that Israel seeks to impose on them. It is this that explains how an increasing number of prominent members in the Jewish communities of the US and the UK, among intellectuals and academics, are in the forefront of the struggle against Israeli Jewish racism and colonialism (in contrast with apartheid South Africa which had a substantial number of white anti-racist activists and intellectuals, only a few Israeli Jewish intellectuals have been able over the decades to escape Israeli racist brainwashing — a feat unto itself).

Today many American Jewish luminaries in academe oppose Israeli policies unreservedly. Whereas once Noam Chomsky was a lone Jewish academic voice critical of Israel, he is today joined by scores of Jewish academics and intellectuals in opposing Israeli policies (of course these Jewish academics along with anti-Zionist gentile academics remain a minority and are outflanked by the much larger Jewish and gentile academics who are militant enemies of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims).

Some, like the prominent American Jewish philosopher Judith Butler, have surpassed Chomsky in their opposition to Zionist and Israeli racism and colonialism, and are vocal supporters of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement and call for a one-state solution, both of which Chomsky does not support. In fact, a few Palestinian-American academics have also opposed both of these important positions or remained “neutral” on them (some used the rhetorical strategy, of “on the one hand this and on the other hand that”). Though in the last year some, fearing being left outside the leftist mainstream which has adopted these positions, have decided to show a belated “courage” in adopting these positions more than a decade after everyone else has.

And this is not limited to Jewish intellectuals but extends also to Jewish activists, especially groups like Jewish Voice for Peace (which, among many of its anti-racist activities, played an important role in helping Palestinians and others persuade the Presbyterian Church USA to divest from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation), and the countless Jewish students joining, and in a good number of cases, leading groups like Students for Justice in Palestine based on their commitment to fight racism and colonialism, values that are the diametrical opposite of Zionist colonial racism and fascist tribalism.

It is these Jewish fighters against Zionism and Israeli colonialism and racism that are continuing the Jewish fight against anti-Semitism but who remain unsung heroes in the American “Jewish” and “gentile” press that prefers to celebrate baby-killing Zionist Jewish volunteers for Israeli Jewish supremacy instead.

These Jewish fighters against racism have joined the Palestinian people and their international allies (Jewish and gentile alike) in fighting this ongoing historical battle against the forces of racial supremacy and colonial conquest. They understand well, as the Palestinian national movement has always understood, that the fight for Palestinian rights and liberation from the Jewish settler-colony is the latest phase of the historic fight against anti-Semitism and that the fight for Zionism is part of the war for European racial supremacy and colonialism.

The carnage that Israeli Jewish soldiers and international Zionist Jewish brigades of baby-killers are committing in Gaza (and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, let alone against Palestinian citizens of Israel) is but the starkest reminder of this unshakeable conviction.

Joseph Massad is professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University. He is author of the forthcoming Islam in Liberalism.

Tags

• anti-semitism
• racism
• colonialism
• anti-colonialism
• zionism
• Mahal
• Marva
• Garin Tzabar
• Sar-El
• Mickey Marcus
• Ben Dunkelman
• Milton Rubenfeld
• Wellesley Aron
• anti-Zionism
• Noam Chomsky
• Judith Butler
• Jewish Voice for Peace

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Comments

European Jewish exceptionalism

Permalink Num Sabo replied on Tue, 08/05/2014 - 16:53

Zionist and Israeli exceptionalism come from European exceptionalism - European and their descendants in colonies have a hubristic right to oppress, abuse and subjugate people from other ethnicities around the world. Zionist Jews and supporters of Israel should realize that before anything else, they are European and their Jewishness does not matter in the present context of world matters. Should their history not be entangled with European history and be a big part of it, they would not have a right to stolen land outside Europe.

England, another European settler was in Palestine before Israel, and stealing land from the natives for European Jews, was like taking candy from a child, being that Europeans have been doing this for centuries, with total impunity.

Obama may be President of the US, but its foreign policies continue to be of Caucasian supremacy and have not changed one bit, since his term began.

When this Eurocentricity is over and I'm still on this earth, I'll be more than happy to say good riddance and may us forever be free from narcissistic and arrogant empires and conceited notions of supremacy of one ethnicity over all the others.

"Zionist Jews and supporters

Permalink Eugene replied on Wed, 08/13/2014 - 01:42

"Zionist Jews and supporters of Israel should realize that before anything else, they are European and their Jewishness does not matter in the present context of world matters." Don't people have a right to decide their own identity? Why would Zionist Jews born in Israel have to 'realize' that they are European before anything else? European is not even a nationality, much less a form of identity that people take even in European nation-states. The idea itself of a supra-national identity is only in its beginning stages.

"Should their history not be entangled with European history and be a big part of it, they would not have a right to stolen land outside Europe."

If Jews stole this land in the mid-20th century, how did Muslims come about in acquiring it? Was that a peaceful transition that happened 1200 years ago? Let's stop talking about stolen land and start talking about solutions. This is getting people nowhere. The state of Israel has been recognized by almost every country in the world - this is a fact. It was even recognized by the Palestinian Authority. I'm sorry you cannot see the error of your judgement.

I know being a Jew means the

Permalink Num Sabo replied on Wed, 08/13/2014 - 17:46

I know being a Jew means the world to a Jew, but to everybody else, it's South Africa all over again and mainly white settlers taking land from the natives.

Do you think it mattered to the blacks in South Africa, which European country the white settlers came from? It only mattered to the whites themselves. The main problem was that these Europeans were coming from far away to take land from the natives, expel or subjugate them. And the world saw it from the point of view of the blacks.

What happened 1200 years ago in middle east has nothing to do with white Jews from all over Europe. It's just another excuse among so many, that Zionists use to justify their criminal actions.

That this aberration of a so called 'state' has been recognized and has embassies in other countries is what's called Eurocentrism. Europe (and the US) orchestrated and pushed for this from the very beginning and the world has to accept it. Maybe it's too late to roll back the Americas and restore all the damage done to the natives, for the population has grown immensely, and all we have now is indigenous Evo Morales as president of Bolivia.

Fortunately, it's not too late for Palestinians to get control back of their land and resources, and that's the only good thing about all this. They are the majority still.

Without elaborating due to

Permalink Caise Diab replied on Thu, 08/14/2014 - 01:19

Without elaborating due to lack of time, I would disagree. Jewish supremacism has a history that goes back a long time, to the time of the pharisees. Classical Judaism preaches a deep hatred against non-Jews. It was opposed by Jews of the enlightenment such as Spinoza and Heine who argued that values are universal to humanity. Zionism and other forms of Jewish racism re-emerged as a reaction to this integration, and was fed both by secular and religious figures. Until we confront this aspect of Jewish racism as a phenomenon of its own, we will never understand Israeli Jewish savagery.

Zionism and racism

Permalink John Reimann replied on Wed, 08/06/2014 - 19:03

Zionism never had the support of the great majority of European Jews until the twin crises of capitalism (and the rise of Hitler) and that of Stalinism. That lack of support was due to the fact the European Jews were never really a true nation, in that they were scattered all over, spoke different languages, etc. That's exactly why Jewish nationalism - Zionism - had the unique position of establishing a "Jewish state" outside of where most Jews lived and also under the protection of and in league with the world's major imperialist power of the day - British colonialism. It's also why Zionism was a totally reactionary movement right from its start, as opposed to most nationalist movements. For a socialist perspective of the rise of Zionism, see: http://oaklandsocialist.com/20...

"...That lack of support was

Permalink Num Sabo replied on Thu, 08/07/2014 - 15:39

"...That lack of support was due to the fact the European Jews were never really a true nation, in that they were scattered all over, spoke different languages, etc. That's exactly why Jewish nationalism - Zionism - had the unique position of establishing a "Jewish state"..."

Well guess what? That's called religion. Catholics are also scattered all over the world, having different languages and cultures, but I've never heard anything about making a nation that unites all catholics, from all over the world, and certainly not with a middle eastern territory, where most are Muslims.

Tell me where in the world is there a constitution or legislation, saying that everybody born in that country is a national, except for Jews. If you're born in a country where your parents live, whatever religion they may follow, you're a citizen of that country. Rosa Luxembourg was Jewish and when asked about her nationality, she would answer "Poland", if I'm not mistaken.

It's the Jews making themselves 'unique' but other religions and ethnicities have been persecuted and had no special treatment. It takes a different tone, because they're white from all over Europe and Europe is not the entire world, although they call their wars World War I and II.

We live in a white supremacist world right now and that's the only reason Israel exists: European rulers wanted to get rid of European Jews, and of course this had to be done with somebody else's land, one of the colonies of non-whites. I suspect Zionists know very well their Jewish playing card only works on Europe and US and for the rest of the world, it's just white supremacy all over again.

Zionism, colonialism & capitalism

Permalink John Reimann replied on Fri, 08/08/2014 - 14:39

Num Sabo quotes me but leaves out the key phrase: the unique position of establishing a Jewish state "outside of where most Jews live." What other nationalist movement has ever taken that position? The reason doesn't lie in anything unique about Jews or white people; it lies in the very laws of motion of capitalism itself, which drive every capitalist state towards imperialism with the more powerful ones being the greatest imperialists. Zionism would never have gotten off the ground were it not for the support of British imperialism, which wanted to import European Jews to serve as a base of support in Palestine. That is exactly how they used the Protestants in Ireland, and in fact one representative of British imperialism referred to these Jews as "our loyal little Jewish Ulster." As for racism and murder: How is it any different from what the Buddhist communalist monks in Sri Lanka are stirring up against the Sinhalese (except for the fact that they don't have the tanks, bombs, etc. that the State of Israel has)? Or the Hindu Shiv Sena in India, which led the slaughter of tens of thousands of Muslims in that country in bloody communal riots? (Incidentally, the new president of India has connections to those riots.) Sure, Israel is a racist, terrorist state, but they are not anything unique. It's just what capitalism does when and where it has to. See, by the way: http://oaklandsocialist.com/20...

British Imperialism and the Balfour Declaration

Permalink Jeff Blankfort replied on Sat, 08/09/2014 - 17:59

While it is certainly true that the Zionists would not have been allowed to plant their colony in Palestine without the support of British imperialism, that the British did it because they believed a Jewish base in Palestine would enhance its position in the region is not born out by the facts. Rather, a stronger argument can be made that awarding Palestine to the Zionists was their payment for what the British believed was their role, particularly that of Woodrow Wilson confidante, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, the top US Zionist, in getting the US to join the war on the side of Britain, without which it could not have won the war. The Jewish colony in Palestine proved to nothing but a headache for the British from beginning to end which is born out by documents from its Foreign Office that were published in "The Palestine Papers: 1917-1922," by Doreen Ingram.

Documents in that book and elsewhere also point to the British belief that without the Zionists' help they could not have won the war and when the British issued their White Paper in 1939, limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine, Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann and Samuel Landsman, who was one of the Zionist negotiating the Balfour agreement in the year before it was issued, wrote articles in the British press accusing the government of having double crossed them, articles that were no doubt translated and reported in the German press which did little to help the German Jews who were already being subjected to its repressive Nuremburg laws. Placing the Protestants in Ireland was a very different situation as Britain's interests were significantly different in both places. History has shown the Zionist project to have been unique both in its formation and its "success."

"The Jewish colony in

Permalink Eugene replied on Sun, 08/10/2014 - 14:07

"The Jewish colony in Palestine" -- what an ignorant thing to say. As if the Jews have not been living there since before Muslims arrived! How could that possibly be a colony?

Do you prefer European Jewish Colony?

Permalink Jeff Blankfort replied on Sun, 08/10/2014 - 20:20

Perhaps, I underestimated the sensitivities of some of EI's readership and should have said "European" or "Ashkenazi" Jewish colony in Palestine. The Zionists themselves referred to what they were doing as colonizing and, for the most part, they had nothing to do with the Mizrahi (Middle Eastern) Jews who had long been living there nor did they consult the Mizrahim anywhere else in the region in forming their plans, which included the eventual ethnic cleansing of the the Mizrahim's Muslim and Christian brethren with whom they had more in common..

I'm not naive and know there

Permalink Num Sabo replied on Sun, 08/10/2014 - 04:09

I'm not naive and know there are conflicts within every ethnicity, but the president of India does not and cannot take somebody else's land, far away from India, to resolve that country's conflicts. That's the exception I'm talking about, that only white settlers get away with total impunity - the world is their playground.

Besides that, having support from US and Europe rulers, can only fuel longer the crimes of Israel against Palestine and other Arab nations.

Regarding capitalism, I'm with you: it's evil, plain and simple. The genocide in Vietnam, the overthrow of democratic presidents and slaughter of innocents, repression with no end, all for the sake of some company like Chiquita or Shell....

But even with all the blood shed in the name of capitalism, European countries are 'allowed' to keep their socialist policies, namely, universal health care. Why was Norway never considered evil when it nationalized its oil? Why was there never a coup d'etat against its prime minister or no attempts to kill him by the CIA?

The leading advocate for capitalism is the US and although Obama is its black president, its policies continue to be the same white supremacist ruling. Inside the country there is 'stop and frisk' persecution of blacks and browns (I don't say latinos coz some are white and enjoy white privilege). Stand your ground, that apply double standards, according to race. Mass deportation and incarceration of non-whites.

In foreign affairs, US and Europe have supported South Africa and Israel, both during apartheid. There is no oil there, only white settlers.

As Omar Barghouti said

Permalink Num Sabo replied on Sun, 08/10/2014 - 04:12

As Omar Barghouti said something like, there are no super humans or sub humans, I don't consider whites special in any way, they're not less or more than everyone else. But when criminal acts get compensation over and over again, it stops being a crime and turns into business. And it's been that way since the Spanish conquistadores started pillaging the Americas and bringing back gold and silver to Europe.

That's my very simple view of things and it has more questions than answers.

"The state of Israel has been

Permalink Num Sabo replied on Thu, 08/14/2014 - 14:35

"The state of Israel has been recognized by almost every country in the world - this is a fact."

And this was done by state rulers, not by direct voting of the country's citizens. I know in my country (Brasil), in 1949 (before I was born) when Israel was recognized, there was no plebiscite or referendum, to consult the population about this very important decision. Most don't know about foreign matters, but once the population is informed. with for and against point of views, I'm quite sure the majority would vote against it.

Israel only exists because of state rulers, not by democratic unanimity. Were it to be decided by each country's referendum, it would never have been accepted.

As an American Ashkenazi Jew,

Permalink Rob replied on Thu, 08/14/2014 - 21:42

As an American Ashkenazi Jew, I don't understand why Massad needs to connect Israel's crimes to what he seems to see as some sort of monolithic white supremacist conspiracy. Israel is a racist state, I agree, but its racism has nothing to do with "whiteness." It's about Jewishness.

Observe party politics in Israel: who are the most racist political parties today? Shas (representing the Sephardic and Mizrahi Orthodox), the various Ashkenazi Haredi parties, and groups like Yisrael Beiteinu and Jewish Home, as well as the Likud. "Race" and religion are inextricably intertwined for these people, and as one commentator above noted, this notion of Jewish supremacy is as much rooted in the Tanakh and Talmud as it is in European racial ideologies of the 19th century. What Massad does, in effect, is to take a complex history of overlapping identities and simplify it into a West-vs.-Rest story. This narrative might be more easily digestible than the complex reality, but it is no less false for being so.

This is not to deny Labor Zionism's complicity in the crimes of 1948 and 1967, nor that people like Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir were patronizing in their attitudes towards non-Ashkenazi Jews and downright racist against Palestinians. But times have changed, as have the racial ideologies that sustain Israel. Most Jews-- including anti-Zionist Jews like myself--find the reduction of our identity to generic "whiteness" by the likes of Massad to be extremely offensive ignorant with regards to history. Only in America are Ashkenazim considered "white," and even then this was recently-achieved (in the 60s). Jews are not fully accepted as "white" in Europe to this day, as the success of neo-fascist parties attests (parties that are as much anti-Arab as they are anti-Jewish).

When I say "Not in my name!" to Israeli crimes, I am speaking as a both a Jew and as a human being, not as a "white person." If Massad wants to go beyond preaching to the choir, he needs to process that.