[Marxism] A Genuine Peace Movement Cannot be Zionist

[Louis Proyect]

A Genuine Peace Movement Cannot be Zionist
August 19, 2008 By Jason Kunin

"Radical simply means 'grasping things at the root.'" - Angela Davis

It's common practice among those of us outside Israel who have been 
frustrated by the hostility and intimidation we encounter whenever we 
voice criticism of Israel to point to the fact that there is greater 
freedom to criticize Israel in Israel. "Look at the critical articles 
published in Ha'aretz," we will say. "Look at the Israeli peace 
movement. Look at Peace Now and Gush Shalom." Tactically, this is a 
useful point to make in an argument. I know because I've used it myself.

The truth is, unfortunately, that this much vaunted criticism within 
Israel - by the liberal media, by the so-called Israeli Left - is 
overwhelmingly inclined to blame the oppression of Palestinians 
merely on specific leaders or policies. Uri Avnery, for example, the 
founder of Gush Shalom and one of the most far-left public figures in 
Israel, writes a regular syndicated column in which he blasts the 
brutality of this or that general, the cruelty of this or that 
politician, the unfairness of this or that law. He's often quite 
incisive and witty. Avnery, like most of the Israeli left, is a 
Zionist - a critical one, to be sure, but a Zionist nonetheless who 
believes that a good movement has been corrupted by bad leaders and 
who periodically scans the horizon for the leader who can finally set 
Israel on its righteous path. [1]

Israeli violence and oppression, however, is rooted not simply in a 
few laws or politicians, but in the ideological foundations of the 
state itself. The problem, in short, is Zionism. Any opposition to 
Israel rooted in Zionism can only seek to mitigate Israeli apartheid 
and racism, not end it, because apartheid and racism are what Zionism 
- and by extension, the Israeli state - are all about. Zionism is 
rooted in the fundamental premise that the state be a Jewish state 
and that it occupy the physical space of an ancient Arab Christian 
and Muslim culture. Because it is impossible to achieve these two 
goals simultaneously without violence and racist oppression, you 
cannot have a genuine peace movement that is Zionist.

full: http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/18478