Let's remember I disputed the thesis that zionism and/or Israel was founded on a racial identity. I do not dispute that many zionists practice racism in regard to other groups, nor that such practices are embodied in Israeli law.
"Max Nordau: "The Jew posseses a greater enterprising spirit and greater abilities than the average European, to say nothing of all those Asian or Africans." Max Nordau to His People, New York, 1941."
mbs: Odious and racist in reference to others, but not an affirmation that Jews are a race.
Vladamir Jabotinsky: "Palestine should belong to the Jews. The application of suitable methods aimed at the creation of an ethnically pure Jewish state will always be necessary and topical. The Arabs know only too well, even now, what we intend to do with them and what we desire from them. We should constantly create situations of fait accomplis, as well as exaplin to the Arabs that they must leave our lands and withdraw to the desert." cited in B. Rainov The Roads of Zionism, Sofia, 1969.
mbs: Odious but 'ethnically pure' does not necessarily connote race.
Moses Hess, a prominent Zionist precursor to Herzl, uses the term "race" consistently and intentionally: "The Jewish race is one of the primary races of mankind, and it has retained its integrity despite the influence of changing climatic conditions." (in Hertzberg's The Zionist Idea, New York, 1959)
mbs: that's one.
Jacob Klatzkin: "Judaism rests on an objective basis: to be a Jew means the acceptance of neither a religious not an ethical creed. We are neither a denomination nor a school of thought, but members of one family, bearers of a common history. Denying the Jewish spiritual teachings does not place one outside the community, and accepting it does not make one a Jew. In short, to be a part of the nation one need not believe in the Jewish religion or the Jewish spiritual outlook." (ibid)
mbs: back to the distinction between longitude and latitude. Jews are defined in terms of ancestry, but not much on what they are supposed to have in common. They may all come from Jewish mothers, but they don't come from the same mother. Not much hint of race here. Could talk the same way about Italians, or sons of New Jersey.
Richard Gottheil (First President of Federation of American Zionists): "We believe that the Jews are something more than a purely religious body; that they are not only a race, but also a nation; though a nation without as yet two important requisites--a common home and a common language." (first official statement by the Federation)
mbs: that's two.
The Jewish Agency (Constitution adopted, 1929): "Land is to be acquired as Jewish property... [and] held as the inalienable property of the Jewish people. The Agency shall promote agricultural colonization based on Jewish labor, and in all works or undertakings carried out or furthered by the Agency, it shall be deemed to be a matter of principle that Jewish labor shall be employed."
mbs: Odious but no hint of racial identity here either.
Uri Avnery (editor of Ha'olam Hazeh, leading Israeli newsweekly): "Hebrew Labor meant, necessarily, No Arab Labor. The "redemption of the land" often meant, necessarily "redeeming" it from the Arab fellahin who happened to be living on it. A Jewish plantation owner who employed Arabs in his orange grove was a traitor to his cause, a despicable reactionary who not only deprived a Jewish worker of work, but even more important, deprived the country of a Jewish worker. His grove had to be picketed, the Arabs had to be evicted by force. Bloodshed, if necessary, was justified." (Israel without Zionists, New York, 1968).
mbs: Odious but where is race?
Joseph Weitz (Deputy Chairman of the Board, JNF): "Among ourselves it must be clear that there is no room in this country for both peoples together...With the Arabs we shall not achieve our aim of being an independent people in this country. The only solution is Eretz Israel, without Arabs,..and there is no other way but to transfer the Arabs from here to the neighboring countries, to transfer all of them; not one village or tribe should remain." (Davar, September 29, 1967)
mbs: as above.
I don't think chauvinism = racism, nor that racism in regard to others signifies pretensions of being a superior race. You could say that language that demeans Asians implicitly upholds the race of which Jews are a part -- the "white race" -- but that is not what I objected to originally, namely the thesis that the Jewish state was founded on a racial identity.