Opponents of Israel’s war in Gaza who have set up encampments on college campuses across the country frequently denounce Zionism. Supporters of the Palestinian cause, including some Jewish students, say they are not anti-semitic but rather opposed to “settler colonialism” because it marginalizes the Arab population of, for instance, the West Bank. The protesters say the Zionists who created the state of Israel in 1948 never intended to co-exist with larger numbers of Arabs within the new state’s borders.
In this episode of History As It Happens, University of Pennsylvania political scientist Ian Lustick delivers a tour de force on the historical origins of the national liberation movement that drove European Jews to emigrate to the area to establish a homeland. Mr. Lustick also delves into the current crisis facing Zionism as millions of Palestinians live under Israeli military domination in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“Zionism offered certain groups of Jews ways of being Jewish that served their interests and attracted respect from the outside world. When traditional Jewish life in Europe began to break down in the 19th century … you had young Jews who wanted a new way of life and everyone around them the way to live a good, modern life is in your own nation, in your own nation-state, not in the Austro-Hungarian empire or the Russian empire,” said Mr. Lustick, who considers himself a lifelong Zionist but also a critic of Israel’s policies toward Palestinians.
The Zionist movement gained steam in 1881 after Russian revolutionaries assassinated Czar Alexander II. His son Alexander III blamed the Jews for his father’s death, and he re-imposed antisemitic policies his father had relaxed. The result was Jewish emigration from Russia, with some going to the region of Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire. Successive waves of Jewish migration from Eastern Europe, especially after World War I, sought to transform the land in the Zionist image. A majority of Arab land would be made into a Jewish majority state.
History As It Happens is available at washingtontimes.com or wherever you find your podcasts.
