[lbo-talk] Religious vs National struggles...

[Colin Brace]

Fascinating piece, Johanna; thanks for posting it. It begs the
question though: if the original Zionists didn't define themselves in
religious terms, by their religions practices, what then formed the
ideological basis for their project? How else could one define a Jew
except by religion? They had no common language at the time, nor a
distinctive racial identity, not even a over-arching culture (cf, the
synagogues in 17th century Amsterdam; separate ones for Sephardic and
Ashenazi Jews) And these avowed "atheists" established a nation whose
citizenship is defined by one's mother having been "Jewish"? What
right did they have to settle in Palestine except that established in
a two-thousand year old religious text? Based on what Avnery says,
Zionism sounds at best like a cynical land and power grab, at worst a
kind of atavistic tribalism.

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  Colin Brace

  Amsterdam