>Israeli nationalism as
>completely different from other kinds of nationalism. In a sense, all
>nationalism is a form of racism, but then that should be the issue, not
>Israel specifically.
I agree that nationalism should be an issue, but Zionism is different from other kinds of nationalism in that the claims of membership in the nation are different from most. How is it that someone born in Brooklyn can claim a piece of subsidized land in Israel based merely on being Jewish? There are claims of common ancestry but they go back so far as to be practically phantasmic. No one spoke modern Hebrew until about 50 years ago, so the claim of language is out. There's a claim of common culture, but what does that mean? Latkes? Freud? Seinfeld? There's religion, but Zionists have historically been mostly secular, and the religious are a minority in Israel. And how many other nationalisms have centered their claims on religion? I wouldn't say it's completely different - there are some commonalities, and Zionism sprung up at the same time as a lot of romantic, mostly reactionary, nationalisms in 19th century Europe - but it is a pretty odd duck.
Doug