I am a Zionist – Juliet
Why I am a Zionist
Zionism wasn’t always such a negative term. Today it has many negative connotations associated with crimes against humanity including fascism, racism, apartheid, and colonialism. But the truth is that Zionism is none of these things.
So what is Zionism?
Zionism is the belief in the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their historic homeland, Israel.
The Jewish people are the indigenous people of Israel. The archaeological ruins, the artifacts, the scriptures, literature, and genetics all prove that Israel is the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people. The first kingdom in Israel was established over 3,000 years ago. Since that time, the Jewish people have been ruled by successive occupiers of the land which have included the Romans, the Babylonians, and since the 7th century, the Arabs.
The Jewish people always had a presence in the land and Jewish people outside the land always prayed towards and yearned for the re-establishment of a sovereign homeland.
In 1947 the United Nations voted to realize the Jewish people’s aspiration for a national homeland. The United Nations also voted for the Palestinians to have their own homeland in 1947 although they were just known as the Arabs who were living in that area, not as the ‘Palestinians’. However, the Arab people declined the opportunity while the Jewish people accepted the opportunity even though it fell short of what they hoped for. Therefore, the United Nations offered a two-state solution seventy years ago and the Arabs turned it down.
Almost every country in the world has been established through war, negotiation or colonialism. Therefore, Israel, as a nation-state, has more legitimacy than almost any other country in the world, if not every other country in the world since the nation was formed for the Jewish people by the United Nations.
There is a misconception that Israel was built on stolen Palestinian land. Tell a people a lie often enough and they will start to believe it. Palestinians have never had sovereignty in the land. There was never a government-run country with the name Palestine. The Arab Palestinian people have been offered several opportunities by the United Nations and Israel to have sovereignty and part of the land but have declined all those offers.
Furthermore, between 1948 and 1967 the Arab Palestinians were under occupation by Jordan. Jordan never created an independent state for the Arab Palestinians. To say that Israel was built on stolen Palestinian land is simply not true. Compare the Palestinian flag with the Jordanian flag and you’ll see that the Palestinian flag which was created by the PLO in 1964 is simply the Jordanian flag with its white star removed. It is also interesting to note that the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) which was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States government, was headed by Yassar Arafat who was born and raised in Egypt, not in Palestine.
Jews have a tragic history of persecution. If there is any people in the world that have a need for self-determination, it is the Jewish people. They have suffered through Pogroms, ghettos, the Holocaust, the Spanish Inquisition. They have been forcibly converted to other religions, culturally assimilated, exterminated, and assaulted for as long as we can all remember.
Israel is a modern democracy which has been delegitimized and demonized like no other country in the history of the world. Israel welcomes and accepts all people, regardless of their race, nationality, religion, or gender.
Jews throughout the world need to know that Israel is there to escape to should the need arise, just like it’s been there for many thousands if not millions of other Jews since it’s establishment.
I am a Zionist.
Whether you are Jewish or not, you can support the right of the Jewish people to a homeland in Israel.
Stanford Student Adviser out after Threatening ‘Zionists’
Hamzeh Daoud, an international student from Amman, Jordan and a residential student adviser chosen by Stanford University to lead other students in a residential environment that allows “all views (popular and unpopular)” to be voiced, heard and explored is out of a job after threatening online to “physically fight” Zionists. The American Center for Law and Justice brought the issue to the attention of Stanford officials. […]
In his original post, Daoud wrote, “I’m gonna physically fight Zionists on campus next year if someone comes at me with their ‘Israel is a democracy’ bullshit. And after I abolish your ass I’ll go ahead and work every day for the rest of my life to abolish your petty ass ethno-supremacist, settler-colonial state.”
“It is important to note that, according to a recent report by the FBI, the majority of religiously motivated hate crimes in the United States were committed against Jewish people – and this despite Jews making up less than 2 percent of the population. In fact, since the FBI began reporting these statistics in 1993, there has not been a single year in which Jewish people were not the victims of the majority of religiously motivated hate crimes.”
Daoud sent an apology email to the Stanford Jewish community mailing list on Monday stating that he was not apologetic for his stance on Israel but rather for any pain his original post may have caused within the Jewish community.
“I never intended, and will never intend, to cause any harm to the Jewish community,” Daoud wrote. “I respect the Jewish community, the beauty and resilience of the Jewish religion and people, and the power that Jewish students bring to campus.
Stanford University said in a statement that after an extensive review of the case, they determined that Daoud “does not pose a physical threat to other members of the community”
Sources:
- Stanford student adviser out after threatening ‘zionists’
- https://www.stanforddaily.com/2018/07/22/norcliffe-ra-threatens-to-physically-fight-zionists-in-facebook-post/
- https://unitedwithisrael.org/muslim-stanford-student-who-threatened-zionist-students-resigns/
- https://www.wayup.com/profile/Hamzeh-Daoud-7d6be56407/
Israel Celebrates 70 Years Today, May 14 2018!
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Live Stream
Israelis marked the 70th anniversary of their independence on Thursday, May 14, with celebrations taking place across the nation of nine million.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US President Donald Trump,
“What a glorious day. Remember this moment!” Netanyahu entreated the applauding crowd. “President Trump, by recognizing history, you have made history. All of us are deeply moved. All of us are deeply grateful.”
“Last December, President Trump became the first world leader to recognize Jerusalem as our capital, and today, the United States of America is opening its embassy right here in Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said. “Thank you President Trump, for having the courage to keep your promises!”
“The US will always be a great friend of Israel and a partner in the cause of freedom and peace,” Trump said. “We extend a hand in friendship to Israel, the Palestinians and to all of their neighbors. May there be peace. May God bless this embassy. May God bless all who serve here and may God bless the United States of America.”
Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, took the stage. to declare that “When President Trump makes a promise, he keeps it.”
“By moving our embassy to Jerusalem, we have shown the world once again that the US can be trusted. We stand with our friends and our allies, and above all we’ve shown that the US will do what’s right, and so we have,” Kushner said.
“The US stands with Israel because we both believe in freedom. We stand together because we both believe in human rights. We stand together because we both believe that democracy is worth defending. And the US stands with Israel because we know that it’s the right thing to do.”
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