Vol. 73/No. 14      April 13, 2009

The article reported that Sandler said, “Class-conscious workers should drop the term Zionism,” in the current context. “There is no Zionist movement today. The reality is, it has become an epithet, not a scientific description; a synonym for ‘Jew’ that helps fuel Jew-hatred, which will rise as the capitalist crisis deepens.”

Is Israel a product of Zionism, or a product of the policy of London and Washington in the region from the Balfour Declaration onward? Is saying the root of the problem in Palestine is Zionism an escape from a class analysis of the struggle within the borders of Israel and the occupied territories?

“Zionism” is certainly an epithet. No doubt about it. Does it fuel Jew-hatred? I think one thing that fuels Jew-hatred today is the capitalist media testing presenting the “Madoff mentality” as a root of the economic crisis. Madoff = Rothschild?

Is anti-Zionism anti-Semitic? No. Do pro-Israel partisans equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism? Of course. But I think anti-Zionists have more and more effectively countered this, especially as more Jews have come to oppose the actions of Israel.

Jay Rothermel
By e-mail

Is ‘Zionist’ an epithet? II
I think the position expressed by Norton Sandler in the Militant that “There is no Zionist movement today” is mistaken. This reactionary European colonial-settler national movement still exists, and has as its maximum expression the state of Israel, as well as organized expressions in other countries in the form of groups to organize or lobby for aid to Israel and so on.

Unfortunately, Sandler’s statement leads him to further say that Zionism “has become an epithet … a synonym for ‘Jew’ that helps fuel Jew-hatred.” This is a completely unwarranted concession to those who say any criticism or opposition to the state of Israel is automatically anti-Semitic.

Finally, while the Militant projects a “perspective” of a united struggle by all working people in the region for a democratic, secular Palestine, that cannot be a substitute for expressing unconditional solidarity with and support to the just national struggle of the Palestinian people, something which unfortunately is not mentioned in the article.

Joaquín Bustelo
Atlanta, Georgia
 
 
Related articles:
Israeli air strikes in Sudan meant as warning to Iran
Atlanta campus debates ‘Israeli apartheid’
‘Zionism,’ its use today, not in 1948  
 
 
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