Against Zionism, for Israel.

We would like to ask the question: is it possible to be in favour of Israel and against Zionism? For us, the answer is a simple yes. Many Israelis, and we suspect that many Palestinians follow this line of thought, perhaps without even noticing it. Within Israel, the West Bank and in Gaza until a few years ago, ordinary Arabs who interact in their day-to-day with Israel enjoy a level of comfort, of freedom and of access to universities, hospitals and to the advances of the modern Western world than their brethren in neighboring countries. On the other hand, a large part, if not most, of the Israeli Jews are fed up with the permanent state of siege in which their country finds itself. They want a life that does not involve the constant demands of its army, especially when these requirements deal with conflicts that do not endanger the survival of the State of Israel, such as this latest operation in Gaza.

However, the shadow of the insoluble war hangs over their existence: in the current situation, it is impossible to reach an agreement: there are only two proposals on the table: the one that says that Israel should continue to exist in peace with its neighbors and the other one that states that Israel should disappear entirely. The two are mutually exclusive and irreconcilable. Because of this impasse, the most exalted elements in both parties guarantee the permanence of a conflict that has been going on for more than sixty years. Who pays the bill are the ordinary citizens. However, few pay attention to a third proposal that happens just under their noses, an intermediate space where the locals live their daily lives, where the individuals tolerate each other and carry on with their lives.

Is this war insoluble? Will only ultimate victory guarantee peace? This is the question that everyone should ask himself or herself. If they are honest, they will admit that the solution exists but not within the current tools and not within the current rhetoric. To dismantle this labyrinth of hatred, prejudice and spilled blood everyone who is involved must stop to think and choose a new way, a new discourse.

The characters of this tragedy are the great-grandchildren of a situation born in the second half of the nineteenth century when the nationalist ideologies took over Europe. At the time, in order to mobilize their populations against the spirit of social changes stemming from the recent French Revolution and to convince young people to enlist in their armies and fight for their countries, the Europeans came up with theories connecting the individual to its land and its origins. Legends of glorious pasts convinced millions of Europeans to fight to the death in two world wars, and this outcome sealed the end of nationalism in the old continent.

Zionism was born at the same time as European nationalism. It was with the best of intentions: the thought was, if all these Europeans exclude us from their nations, we Jews must promote our nationality and establish our own State. The aim of this article is not to describe the history of Zionism, just to say that not only – by the way – a minority of Jews took this idea to heart but also, for several reasons, so did the British Empire and the Evangelical movements in the United States.

Although completely atheist, Zionism pointed to the promised land as the logical place for the Jewish homeland, an idea which had the support of many power brokers behind the scenes in the allied countries as well as in parishes around the world. The rest of the story is familiar regardless of the side on which we stand in this conflict.

The relevant fact for our days is that Israel has this outdated ideology, Zionism, as a cornerstone of its existence. It is this ideology that maintains its support network, which does not consist exclusively of Jews but, among others, of Evangelicals, of the United States’ foreign policy, of the interests of major corporations and of a silent majority in the Western world who believes that Israel is the front line in the war against Radical Islam. Many are afraid that should Israel renounce its exclusively Jewish character, the country would collapse and the Islamic tide would quickly swallow it.

This fear is not unfounded since radicalism has taken hold of both the Sunni and Shia sides of the Muslim world. From Algeria to Pakistan, clerics oversee the sinking of their population’s hopes while preaching backwardness and many times hatred. Both the opposing Islamic factions have made it clear that they see the West, its social and technological conquests and its culture as something inherently evil to be destroyed in the name of Good, starting with the State of Israel. The fact that the two parties are at war, and that they see each other worse enemies than the West, is fortunate for both Israel and the West.

However, this state of affairs strengthens the Israeli right-wing who, by injecting fear into its population, are able to elect militaristic Governments that reach increasingly lower depths of competence and of ethics, and present policies that not only shock the world but also make a disservice to Israel in the long run. Why disservice? Because the partially imaginary state of siege is unsustainable in the long-term, not only in terms of international image, but also in terms of financial and military implications as well as civilian exhaustion. It is not possible to keep a country for decades on end without friends, surrounded by fanatic enemies, spending enormous amounts of money on armaments and without the prospect of a light at the end of the tunnel.

In the long run, peace interests Israel much more than war. This is a tiny country with more published scientific papers, more inventions used worldwide, more people with master’s degrees, and with a greater industrial and technological capacity than all of its neighbors put together. Similarly to South Africa in the days of apartheid, Israel nowadays attracts Arabs from all sides to go work there, not counting the huge influx of African refugees who choose Israel as a destination because of the opportunities that its economy provides. Israel has a lot to offer to its surroundings and because of this, its best survival tools for stem from its technology and its knowledge and not from their fighters or from their tanks of war, as good as they may be.

Someone said that Zionism invented at the same time the Israelis and the Palestinians. We fully agree with this statement. When that piece of land belonged to the British Empire it was contested primarily by Jordanians, but also by the Egyptians, by Lebanese and by the Syrians. If it were not for Zionism the land would have most likely would have been shared between the current Israel’s neighbors; the appetite of these stronger countries would have swallowed the national aspirations of Palestinians. This underlying reality remained in the shadows during the more than 60 years of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and explains why although always outnumbered, Israel has managed to prevent its neighbors from wiping it off the map. Perhaps this also explains why most of the aid that the Palestinian authorities receive comes from the European Union and the United States rather than from its Arab “brothers”.

The secular-religious discourse that the Jews must have ownership of a territory which God gave through Moses, and from where they were expelled 2,000 years ago, has been proven historically incorrect and is opposed by many Orthodox Rabbis who won’t admit atheist Jews commanding the nation and who will only accept the land when the Messiah arrives. This antiquated positioning is not only toxic in relation to the other inhabitants of the region but also for the Jews as it is divisive and transforms them into a nation always at war.

What Israel needs right now is to be Biblical by being a light to the Nations, instead of entering the whirlpool of radicalism that is taking over the Middle East because of an erroneous self-image. It is necessary to say loud and clear that nobody wants wars anymore. Both sides need to grow up and value what really matters; living normally, caring for children, getting old in peace, having space to enjoy life, in other words peace. Zionism has no space for this as it is exclusivist, it says peace for the Jews, but forgets that it takes two to Tango. The desire for peace must be dealt with objectively, if there is to be peace we have to forget the past and move on to enter an unknown territory. Germany buried Nazism and managed today, to lead the European economy. South Africa buried apartheid, and the life of the whites has not changed substantially. It is high time for Israel and for the Palestinians to take the same course: bury the “isms” and the dogmas and pave a new path. It may seem Utopian at the moment, but this does not mean to say that this is not the only viable way out of this mess. The everyday life of most people living in Israel and in the Palestinian territories shows that, despite everything, this is a reality ready to come to the fore.