As for Marijuana, I'd just like to say that Zoroaster (the guy who started Zoroastrianism, a major Asian religion once boasting a hundred million followers) had a list of medicinal herbs. Of the 1000 or so on the list, MJ was number one. Also, the first 10 presidents of the US all are documented as having smoked/grown it, and it was a staple in the whitehouse garden up until after the civil war. George Washington even contributed articles to farmers magazines about how to grow it better, and how to cross-breed it with an Australian strain. Not to say I've ever partaken, I haven't. But it should be legal nonetheless.

But I'm really posting about Zionism. I wrote this long, detailed, and annotated post about Zionism when it first came up for discussion. My computer ate it, and I haven't had a chance to devote that much time to it again. I'll try to make this post as good.

First, Zionism was first coined as a term by a evangelical Christian preacher in the 1830s. He, claiming divine interpretation of the books of Mark and John, had seen the light about how to bring forth the coming Rapture. Seeing the imminent Civil War as a major sign from Revelations, the one thing that he knew needed to happen before the Apocalypse was that the Temple in Israel needed to be rebuilt. He coined the term Zionism (returning to Zion, Israel) to describe his idea that America should, as a Christian nation, move Jews, preferably all Jews, to Israel, so they can rebuild the temple. Then jesus can come again. His movement caught some force, especially as the Ottoman empire was in the midst of collapse, and Jews were flooding to America from the anti-Jewish tsarist Russia. By the time he died in the 1870s he had created a strong following that believed it was their job to "help Jesus return" by facilitating the rebirth of the Temple. There was already a movement in Europe at the time, among Jews, to have a mass migration and create a new Jewish state. The main two places considered were Argentina and the United States. Large numbers did move to both places, and of course some talked about creating a state in Palestine, old Israel, as they had for centuries and centuries.

The first time Zionism hit the world stage it was with the ultra-racist Woodrow Wilson (for an interesting look at Christian Racist Zionism look up Pat Robertson's view of it. He subscribes to the rebuilding the Temple view, scarily, so does G.W.). He bought into the whole rebuilding the temple thing, and after World War I, the creation of a new Israel was one of his goals in the peace deals. At that point the Jewish population in Palestine was about 10% (http://www.wrmea.com/html/focus.htm). It had been about 5% for the last several hundred years, but the Zionist movement was beginning in earnest. The 5% Jews had not been persecuted by the Palestinians because the Ottoman empire, a Islamic Empire, was one of the most Religiously tolerant Empires ever. Jews and Arabs had been living side by side for centuries, with Zoroastrians and even a few African Christians.

Of course, World War II changed everything, and a hundred thousand Jews were relocated to Israel after the war. This changed things drastically; the tentative balance of power between he British, the Zionists, and the Palestinians that were more and more becoming a subjugated class, was overturned. The Israeli government did not recognize the legal rights of non Jews in Israel (reason #1 why Zionism is racist). Israel also took the initiative to cut off Palestinian access to all fresh water lakes, rivers and streams, tantamount to putting the Palestinian state into a desert with no water. When Palestinian Natives tried to fight for their rights as land owners, they were placed into concentration camps outside the cities, many of which grew into the slums that sponsor terrorism to this day. Israel claimed to the UN that it was only following the precedent of the US and it's treatment of Blacks / Japanese. Israel was later held in violation of something like 80 UN resolutions, or about 5 times as many as Iraq ever violated.

The main reason that Zionism is inherently racist is because it presupposes Jewish rights to the land. Olga, you claimed that Zionism cannot be racist against Palestinians because they are not a race, this is a misconception about what racism is. Racism is generally a belief that one race is Superior to another. Zionism holds that, for whatever reason, Jews have more right to a strip of land than other groups. This belief to me cannot be anything but racist. If a White European claimed that he had an Inherent right to America because of Columbus, that would be racist. Land does not inherently belong to anyone.

This is all history, however. None of it matters too much in practice. Deep down Olga is about as pro-Palestine as I am. We both want the fighting to stop, and we both agree that the PLO and the Israeli government are fighting in the wrong directions. Suicide bombings are atrocious, and the fact that Israel has killed literally Ten Times as many civilians as the suicide bombings, through missiles and mortars, is even worse. Deep down I most be a socialist, because I am positive that if everyone in Palestine/Israel was given equal access to food, housing, water, and work, there would be no more fighting. People with something to lose do not become revolutionaries.

posted by john owens-ream   [12:36 AM]

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