Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Now Even the Basel Program is Anti-Semitic!

"It's time we acknowledged that Oxford's student left is institutionally antisemitic," declares Aaron Simons in The Guardian (It's time we acknowledged that Oxford's student left is institutionally antisemitic, 17/2/16).

So anti-Semitic, in fact, that the "co-chair" of the Oxford University Labour Club, Alex Chalmers, has resigned!

Apparently, wails Aaron, "the radical left interprets Israeli politics through the 'settler-colonial' paradigm," which makes Israel look more like "a skull-capped Cecil Rhodes" than "a Jewish holocaust refugee," which is sooo anti-Semitic!

Well, Aaron, if applying the settler-colonial paradigm to Israel is now anti-Semitism, I guess that makes the daddy of all Zionist programs, the 1897 Basel Program, anti-Semitic.

Since you obviously weren't paying attention back in Zionism 101, here's the text of the Basel Program, issued by the First Zionist Congress, chaired by none other than the daddy of political Zionism, Theodor Herzl:

"Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Eretz Israel secured under public law. The Congress contemplates the following means to the attainment of this end:
1. The promotion by appropriate means of the settlement in Eretz Israel of Jewish farmers, artisans, and manufacturers.
2. The organization and uniting of the whole of Jewry by means of appropriate institutions, both local and international, in accordance with the laws of each country.
3. The strengthening and fostering of Jewish national sentiment and national consciousness.
4. Preparatory steps toward obtaining the consent of governments, where necessary, in order to reach the goals of Zionism."

Don't even get me started on Herzl's 1901 Jewish-Ottoman Land Company for the "for the settlement of Palestine and Syria."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The well trodden path is now open for Aaron Simons to become a NEO-Conservative without changing any of his core beliefs or allegiances, just his label.