zionism

[Forstater, Mathew]

settler colonialism is one kind of colonialism. direct rule and indirect
rule. yes, like the U.S., Australia, South Africa, Rhodesia, Kenya,
Algeria, etc.  Israel as a settler colonial state must be understood as
developing out of *european* attempts to colonize vast parts of the
'rest of the world'. so-called population transfers within Africa have
nothing to do with this. on the Boer analogy, the Boer saw themselves as
also being given land by God, etc. see the Church scene in the novel
TIME OF THE BUTCHERBIRD for a chilling glimpse into the Boer/Zionist
ideological similarities.

-----Original Message-----
From: Nathan Newman
To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
Sent: 7/12/01 2:11 PM
Subject: Re: zionism

----- Original Message -----
From: "Forstater, Mathew" <ForstaterM at umkc.edu>


>the 'analogy' (or general category, really) for political zionism is
not
>'third world' nationalism (of which modern Pan-Arab nationalism is one
>manifestation), but colonialism. third world nationalism was a reaction
>against colonialism, while pol. zionism was colonialism itself.

Ridiculous unless "colonialism" is stretched to mean every form of
population transfer in history.  Settlement is not colonialism.  Most
colonialism was never about mass settlement but about maximum economic
exploitation with minimum settlement.

The reasonable analogy to Israel is the Afrikaners, who notably battled
both
indigenous peoples and the British as well.  Or the analogy to the US
itself
in displacing native americans while again battling the British.  Or
hispanic Spanish settlers in the 19th century who were dispossessing
indigenous people of their rights and property even as they gained
independence from Europe.  Africa was wracked with ethnic migrations
where
entering populations then dominated the former occupants, creating
states
oppressing minorities upon "decolonization."

Every form of third world nationalism, tied to colonial borders and
colonial-influenced population migrations, is then as much a form of
colonialism as Zionism was.  Now the particular history of Jews fleeing
to
Palestine has unique aspects but then so do most peoples' stories.  And
in
the context of the Cold War, Israel end up allying with the US and
European
powers, so there is a history of left animus to it, but to collapse the
latter-day Cold War issues into earlier colonial phenomena makes little
sense either.  The Middle East is littered with states that are
manifestations and have been shaped by earlier European colonialism and
by
post-war Cold War maneuvering; Israel is no different from Jordan,
Kuwait or
Saudi Arabia on that basis.   And notably, Kuwait has an even more
recent
history of mass expulsion of Palestinians - after the Gulf War - that is
rarely mentioned by many activists who maintain the uniqueness of
Zionism.

-- Nathan Newman