What Is Zionism

In defense of Zionist summer camp

The blogosphere is buzzing with meditations on Diaspora identity, specifically on how much Jewish and Zionist indoctrination is a good thing. None of this is surprising, since it’s the beginning of summer, which means the season of camp: the ultimate vehicle for transmitting collective identity to young Jews.

Usually around this time of year, I pine for my own childhood camp experiences at Camp Massad in Manitoba. I find myself brainstorming tunes for cabin songs I’ll never again write, and thinking up names of Maccabiah teams I’ll never again lead.

I have found myself hanging around my synagogue’s shabbat kiddush begging Camp Ramah-bound campers to take me in their suitcase, promising to bring with me a month’s worth of Lick-a-Maid.

This summer, I will bring my daughter to visit camp, hoping she will buy into summer 2012 at the best form of Jewish identity-building around . That afternoon I will try to focus on my daughter’s experience through the fog of my incurable nostalgia.

Which is why this month I have been thinking a lot about Allison Benedikt’s pledge to “never, ever” send her kids to the Zionist camp she grew up attending.

I understand Benedikt’s frustration. No intelligent, thinking parent wants to throw her kids into a lion’s den of brainwashing, where they are subtly (and not so subtly) taught to run in lockstep with mainstream community attitudes and to blindly support any and all Israeli policies.

But I can’t help thinking that these very critical faculties coupled with the ability to put together an impassioned plea - precisely what Benedikt demonstrates in her eminently readable essay - owe something to that kind of indoctrination, or at least to the kind of intensive cultural, cognitive and emotional immersion that Benedikt rails against.

If we want our kids to grow up offering antidotes for what they see as ailing what’s around them, they need to possess the cultural grammar of their communities. If we want them to be part of the conversation - even if and when they push back against the received wisdom - they need to have imbibed Jewish values, sung Jewish folk songs, spoken the language of their people, and - dare I say it - fallen in love with Israel.

Who are some of the most passionate defenders of Jewish values, values that often seem at odds with much of Israel’s current policies? I’m thinking of the leaders of groups like J Street, Ameinu, Peace Now, and the New Israel Fund, all of whom ask Israel tough questions for the sake of peace, democracy, equality and social justice. These leaders are independent, critical thinkers who often have to defend themselves against charges of being “outside the tent.” But they wouldn’t be fighting tirelessly for their vision of change had they not felt an eternal connection to Israel to begin with.

How Zionism will come to a close

What there was, was a situation where the resources available to sustain Apartheid were declining while those available to oppose it were increasing. Would there ever have come a point where there were more and better organized guns on the anti-Apartheid side than the pro-Apartheid side? Maybe in 100 years. That was the general direction or trend by the time Apartheid ended, but it was a trend that posed no threat of being reached in any near or medium term. Anti-Zionist groups will not need more guns that Israel overall to reach the point that they can shoot Israeli passenger airplanes from the sky from their territory. Once that point has been reached, Israel will either have to clear the area of Palestinians, accept that they just are not able to use airplanes the way everyone else in the world can, or negotiate a graceful end to Zionism. Of course, they are going to choose the third option. The example of shooting down airplanes is just one way that comes to mind that a hostile population with unmet demands can make it impossible for an oppressing population to enjoy a reasonable standard of living. It is really not even a good example, but it illustrates that given resources, which would be very available if the United States did not maintain a US/Zionist colonial structure to deny political power to the people of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan, Kuwait and others, there are a lot of ways the Palestinians could it just not worth it for Israel to maintain a necessarily majority Jewish state for its 5.7 million Jews. This is not even a difficult state to reach. The United States has expended trillions of dollars directly and indirectly preventing the outcome of anti-Zionist forces having the resources necessary to fundamentally disrupt the quality of life of Jewish people in Palestine. If not for that, Zionism would not have lasted even as long as Apartheid did. Could Israel use its nuclear forces as a deterrent? Can Israel say to Egypt, to an accountable Republic of Arabia, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and/or Iraq that if anyone pays or otherwise helps equip the Palestinians with Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian or French-made anti-aircraft weapons, Israel will mount a nuclear response? Who would believe that threat? The threat just is not credible. Let's say that despite their threat not being credible, Israel actually carried it out. Let's say Israel kills 10 million Muslims in retaliation for the three hundred Jewish passengers on that airplane.

What Is Zionism?, Two Chapters from "Zionism and the Jewish Future"

What is Zionism?, a discussion on Zionism and the Jewish problem

What is Zionism?

What is Zionism

What is Zionism?, history of, theory of, arguments against