Allan C. Brownfeld on conflating Judaism with the state of Israel

After Israel's creation, the organized Jewish community embraced it and made it "central" to Jewish identity.  Israeli flags were displayed in synagogues, lobbying groups were created to promote Israel's interests, making it the largest recipient of U.S. aid in the world.  The Palestinians were displaced and, in 1967, their land was occupied.  In reality, the Palestinians have become the last victims of the Holocaust, for which they bear no responsibility whatever. 

What we have witnessed since 1948 can only be considered a form of idolatry, making the State of Israel, not God and the Jewish moral and ethical tradition, "central" to Jewish identity.  This is reminiscent of the story of the Golden Calf in the Bible. 

[...]

Where the future will lead is impossible to predict.  One hopeful possibility is that the movement toward universalism and the rejection of nationalism which proceeded dramatically in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - and was interrupted by the rise of Nazism, World War II, and the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine - will once again move forward in the future.  There is now every indication that this will be the case.  The current divisions in American Judaism certainly point in this direction.

~ Allan C. Brownfeld, American Council for Judaism, introduction to Coming to Palestine, pp. vii-viii

 

Dave Smith on the creation of the state of Israel

In 1947 - this is right in the aftermath of World War II and the British empire was basically crumbling and they had been ruling the territory of Palestine under a Mandate - they basically washed their hands of the situation.  There had been issues for years already and they kicked it over to the United Nations and the United Nations was a brand new organization - a year old or something like that - and they had no authority to create states out of nowhere.  It was a recommendation.  They go "We recommend this partition plan" that would've given 56% of the land to the Jews for a Jewish state and 44% of the land to the Arabs to have an Arab state.  And at the time, the Jews, the Zionist settlers there, they owned about 10% of the land.  And so this recommendation was that they get 56% of the land.  And so immediately, the Zionist settlers accepted.  They went "Yes, great deal, we'll take 56% of this."  And the Arabs were like "No, that's not a fair deal at all."

There's a great book by Sheldon Richman called Coming to Palestine if you're interested in the topic.  Immediately after that, a bunch of essentially Zionist militias started kicking Arabs off of the land, like "Hey, the UN said this part's ours."  And at first a civil war broke out, and in this process hundreds of thousands - between 1947 and 1948 the total number's around 750,000 - Arabs who were forced out or fled.  And then in 1948, Israel declared independence.  And then, in response to that, outside Arab nations invaded, got involved in the fight.  Israel won and then after Israel won the war, they seized about 80% of the land.

So they were offered 56%... they won a war and took 80%...  At the end of the war, the portion that is Palestinian territories today, that was the West Bank and East Jerusalem, that was controlled by Jordan and Gaza was controlled by Egypt.  And then in 1967, Israel launched a preemptive war and they won again.  And then the just took 100% of it.  And then they just took control of the West Bank, all of Jerusalem and Gaza.  And they've had it ever since.

~ Dave Smith, "Joe Rogan on NAKBA 1948 with Dave Smith," JustForPeace, 4:40 mark, November 23, 2023

Sheldon Richman on the plight of the Palestinians

Realization of the [Zionist] dream of a Jewish state logically entailed the dispossession and expulsion of the Palestinians, who by the common standard of justice were legitimate owners of their land.  Those who remained were made third-class citizens or even worse in an apartheid state.  The countless micro offenses against those individuals were compounded by a macro offense: the destruction of their flourishing culture, communities, and country...  [H]ere's one thing advocates of universal freedom and justice can say: The rights of the Palestinians must not be plastered over by irrelevant claims about the Jewish State's right to exist.

~ Sheldon Richman, Coming to Palestine