The Origins of Zionists vs. Palestinian

At last week's rally, I had an interesting conversation with the Palestinian intellectual, Prof. Rashid Khalidi. He has a thesis about where Zionism went wrong.

Zionist immigration from Europe to the Land of Israel is understood as distinct waves of arrivals, or aliyot. The first aliya in the early 1880s was precipitated by the reactionary and punitive policies of Russian Tsar Alexander III. According to Khalidi, the Zionists of the first aliya wished to be integrated into the multi-cultural Ottoman Empire, of which Palestine was a part. Our Eastern European forbears were famously multi-lingual.  Living in the multi-ethnic Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires was good training for life within the Ottoman Empire.

Not so, the second  - and much larger - aliya that began in the wake of the pogroms of 1905-6. These young men and women built the institutions that culminated several decades later as the State of Israel. David Green (Ben-Gurion) was just one of the leaders who emerged from the second aliya.

This group sought to impose a separate national, Jewish identity on Palestine. According to Prof. Khalidi, this was the beginning of Jewish domination at the expense of the majority, native population of Palestinians.

The relationship between mono culture, nationalism and language is of interest here. The battle for the supremacy of Modern Hebrew began, in earnest, with the second aliya. Interestingly, while the first aliya, launched an early version of spoken Hebrew (with the iconic myth of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda as the father of Modern Hebrew), their version of Hebrew was superseded by that of the second aliya. Hebrew culture in Europe had continued to develop independently of Palestine. These second aliya Zionists brought with them their own Hebrew, which, due to their numbers, overtook that of the first aliya.

There is a debate among left of center Jews about where Zionism went wrong. Liberal Zionists usually point to 1967 and the Occupation of the West Bank. Progressives, such as Martin Buber and his followers today date the souring of the Zionist project to the 1940 and Ben Gurion's so-called "statist" agenda.

But there were others such Martin Buber's disciple and Zionist executive, Hans Kohn, who saw the writing on the wall in the 1920s. They were concerned that Zionism had no plans for engaging the indigenous Palestinians in a common vision for sharing Palestine. Kohn resigned his post at the Zionist Jewish Agency in Jerusalem and moved to the United States. He said: "my children will be American." Buber disagreed, and when he fled Germany in 1938, he moved to Jerusalem. Even though he campaigned against Ben Gurion in the late 1940s, Martin Buber chose to stay and live out his days in the State of Israel.

I expect Hans Kohn would agree with Rashid Khalidi's judgement of the second aliya.

Chile and Judeo-Christian Israel

Israel has invited the rescued Chilean miners to spend Christmas in Israel. "All expenses paid." The Israeli itinerary includes visits to Christian holy sites.

Israel enjoys strong ties to Christians around the world. This close relationship has marked the course of Zionism in Palestine. The Jewish Zionist movement developed alongside Christian ambitions for the Holy Land. It was the British victory over the Islamic Ottoman Empire in World War I that led to the creation of the State of Israel. In 1917, the Christian Zionist British Prime Minster Lloyd George authored the Balfour Declaration, the document that sanctioned Zionist, political aspirations in Palestine. Ironically, this Christian support for political Zionism was met with Jewish opposition:  Edwin Montague,  the only Jews in Lloyd George's Christian cabinet was the sole opponent of the Balfour Declaration.

Even earlier, Jewish Zionism existed and developed within the Christian Zionist world. British journalist, Victoria Clarke in her comprehensive history of Christian Zionism   Allies for Armageddon  documents the relationship between Christian- and Jewish-Zionism over a period of 350 years. Her fascinating  - and very readable  - history links contemporary Christian Zionism back to the mid-17th century to the re-admittance of Jews to England and to the beginnings American Exceptionalism.

American Zionism in Palestine started in the mid-19th century. One of the legacies of that period, the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem, is the preferred accommodation of the international press corps in Jerusalem.

Beginning somewhat earlier in the 19th century, British Zionism was characterized by the influx of Christian missionaries, including former Jews. The beautiful convent (now including a wonderful Bed & Breakfast) of Notre Dame de Sion in the picturesque village of Ein Karem was founded by two French, Jewish brothers who converted to Catholicism.

Similarly, the neo-Gothic church inside of Jerusalem's Jaffa Gate was built by the Solomon Alexander,  the first Protestant Bishop of Jerusalem. This former Galitzianer Jew moved to England. became a provincial rabbi, then abandoned Judaism and converted to Christianity. He re-entered the clergy this time as an Anglican priest,  and was sent to Palestine to head the Christian mission in Jerusalem as its first bishop.

The foundational impact of the mid-19th century Christian settlement in Palestine is evident to this day. The German Templars helped turn the village of Haifa into the major city it is today. They shaped the city's architecture. In Jerusalem, the Templars' "German Colony" is the trendy, hotspot in West Jerusalem. The templars are credited with the famous, or, infamous depending on your point of view) Jaffa orange brand.

Political Zionism developed in Christian Europe and is guaranteed today by Christian America. Christian Evangelicals famously back Israel and, the Israeli settler movement in particular. Israel, her emissaries and representatives around in American, nurtures this image of Israel as the Christian ally in the Middle East.

The European-American Christian context for Jewish Zionism explains an anomaly in Israeli policy. If Israel is truly the ally of Christians in the face of perceived Islamic encroachment, why are Palestinian Christians subject to the same discrimination, humiliation and intimidation as their Muslim neighbors?

The answer lies in the kinship Israel feels, not with Christians as Christians but as extensions of the Western world which Israel longs to be a part of.

 A case in point, is Israel's harsh response - through the agency of American Jewish organizations - to the Palestinian Christian

statement of principles

on human rights in Palestine. This Christian document was lambasted as anti-Semitic by such groups as the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

             High on the itinerary of the Chilean Christians will undoubtedly be the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. As Bethlehem is officially under Palestinian control, and the Old City of Jerusalem is internationally recognized as part of the Palestinian West Bank, the Palestinians, were understandably unhappy when Israel neglected to put their names on the Chilean invitation.

                                                      Entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Old City of Jerusalem

I'd love to see the Chilean miners go to Israel, bid adieu to their official, Israeli minders and do a photo-op with the Palestinian custodians of Bethlehem and Jerusalem's holy Christian sites. The courtyard in front of the Church of the Holy Speluchre in the Old City of Jerusalem would make a great backdrop: representatives of all the churches that maintain a presence in the church, together with the Muslim family that holds the keys to he church, some Jewish clergy from Rabbis for Human Rights, and the 31 miners  - plus their families.