João Silva Jordão argues that the Zionist project is a realisation of European anti-semitism. Getting Israelis to understand this reality, is a high priority for pro-Palestine movements.
The Gaza Genocide Has Set a Precedent Even More Terrifying than the Holocaust
Nazi Germany did everything it could to hide its genocide. The State of Israel however seems to be doing everything it can to make sure that the whole world watches as it maims, tortures, butchers, humiliates and rapes the Palestinian people.
There is a brilliant concept often used by feminists regarding rape, which is victim blaming. Victim blaming is when you look at a situation where there is a clear aggressor and a victim and turn the situation on its head by blaming the victim. Well, Israel, pretty much since its inception, has managed to perform this trick with incredible efficacy. But the Gaza genocide has made it much more difficult, if not practically impossible, for Israel to continue playing the victim.
And if the live-streamed genocide is horrible, the figure that the rest of the world is cutting is somehow even worse; an abhorrent spectacle of a cowardly, cynical world gone simultaneously raving mad, and yet somehow, somehow managing to display incredible structure and method in their selfishness. The world is sinking into sheer madness as they watch the genocide and either ignore it, or merely comment on it with an absolute lack of a sense of the proper tone that the gravity of the situation requires. The genocide is used by artists to sell their product and prove their artistry, by “humanitarians” to prove their morality, by political analysts to prove their knowledge, and by curious onlookers to prove their curiosity. Meanwhile, the agonizing genocide continues, while we use it mainly for the purposes of memes and commentary.
What a despicable demonstration of cynicism and cowardice.
“Hell…”
Indeed, “hell is empty, and all the devils are here” (Ariel, The Tempest, Act 1 Scene 2 “Shakespeare”, 1610-1611).
Israel’s Foundational Narrative is Crumbling
Most pro-Palestinian and/or anti-Israeli activists claim to thoroughly question the Israeli state’s narratives, while in fact they generally only do so superficially. When the state of Israel claims to be a haven of democracy in a region that is otherwise despotic, activists point to Israel’s apartheid policies. When the Israeli “Defence” Army claims to be the most moral army in the world, activists point to the plethora of human rights violations, such as the infamous broken bones policy of past decades, the use of white phosphorous, the murder of children, among many others. However all these arguments are rather secondary to the core narrative of the Israeli state, which presents the following thesis: Israel is simultaneously a home, a representative and a vehicle for Jewish people and Jewish values. And it is precisely this narrative which, finally, is coming under severe questioning. More and more critics of the state of Israel reject it as the representative of the Jewish people, just as more and more not only criticize its values (or lack thereof) from an objective perspective, but criticize its actions as being in contradictory to Jewish values.
The latest attack on the Gaza Strip has generated unprecedentedly wide and loud cries of condemnation across the world. There are several reasons for this, one of them being the effect of the brutality of the violence unleashed by Israel’s army on Gaza and social media’s ability to spread the evidence of this savagery on a scale previously unattained and unsought by the mainstream media. This information comes not only in the form of news and articles, it comes in pictures, in videos; it shows brutality in a brutal way. Those who see it have little alternative to being outraged, or at least, alienated from those perpetrating it. The violence of the images not only questions Israel’s narrative that it has the ‘world’s most ethical army’ and that it represents a sanctuary of tolerance and restraint in a region plagued with barbaric regimes, it actually ends up convincing many that it is one of, if not the single most dangerous state in the Middle East.
However, it is not only this particular narrative that is being slowly but surely eroded during the genocide on Gaza. There is a more profound, underlying narrative that Israel invokes for its legitimacy and which is the very central pillar to Israel as a state and political construct – the idea that Israel is a Jewish state, supported by the world’s Jews and offering a besieged population a safe haven from persecution. Many are now challenging this view, suggesting that Israel results in less, not more safety, for the world’s Jews.
The signs are everywhere, from the popularity of videos of Orthodox Jews criticizing the Israeli state in ways that would make some Hamas members blush, to social media campaigns of former Israeli soldiers denouncing the military’s tactics, to messages of Israelis who refuse to serve in the military. Israel’s claim to be the representative for global Jewry is losing its appeal. Instead, it is the Jews of the world who are now out in the public square not only accusing Israel of war crimes, but questioning its very Jewish identity. Some go as far as to accuse Israel of identity theft, of pretending to represent Judaism while actually going against its very principles and teachings. It was recently reported that support for Israel among the USA’s Jewish communities is dwindling. Recently, when Netanyahu went to the American Congress saying that he would do so as a “representative of the entire Jewish people”, many Jews voiced their opposition.
Perhaps more important even than the already hugely important debate over whether already existing Jewish privileges over non-Jews in the state of Israel should be written into law, is the question of whether the Jews and non-Jews of the world accept the state of Israel as being essentially Jewish in its identity and whether it is a legitimate representative of the Jewish people worldwide. And even though some may still argue that that is the case, it would be hard to deny that an increasing number of Jews and non-Jews question Israel’s Jewish identity. Some, indeed many Orthodox Jews, outright accuse the state of Israel of being guilty of identity theft. Moreso, some propose that the efforts of the state of Israel in trying to equate itself with Judaism and Jews leads to an inevitable association between its acts and Judaism, hence imputing by association any negative acts of the state to Jews as well. And given the despicable treatment that the state of Israel has consistently handed out to Palestinians, some then go on to say that its very attempt to identify itself as being essentially Jewish increases anti-Semitism. This means not only that Israel’s foundational narrative is being increasingly questioned but also that its supposed purpose and its actual effect are, in the eyes of some, the exact opposite. Whereas it is supposed to be a Jewish state meant to harbour and protect Jews, Israel is increasingly seen as a state that lacks the essential moral fibre of Judaism and whose actions put Jews at risk.
In this respect, there are more similarities between ISIS and the state of Israel than immediately meets the eye. Both over-emphasize their respective religious affiliation in an attempt to co-opt and recruit those who profess the respective religion and end up generating increasing distrust and at times outright condemnation from those who seek to distance themselves from actions they see as being reprehensible and incompatible with their religion. Both behave in a particularly vindictive manner towards their enemies and this vindictiveness polarizes the people they seek to recruit.
The very erosion of this narrative as well as the grand implications it brings to the state of Israel is, for now, still largely hidden beneath the large quantity of words, pictures and videos coming from Gaza which flood the media. However, the appeal of this particular angle of criticism aimed at the state of Israel among friends and long-time foes alike is gaining traction, and it is appealing and effective because it goes to the very heart of Israel’s existential identity, its very raison d’être.
The threat posed by this emerging angle, which questions Israel’s very identity as it has come to be defined by its own institutions, is one even more menacing to its very existence. While those who call for its dismantling legitimize its obligatory military service, its huge military spending and its generally aggressive foreign policy, and those who are anti-Semitic legitimize its argument that the world’s Jews need a safe homeland exclusively of their own, those who question its Jewish identity propose an argument that is at the same time simple to propose and difficult to refute. Its effect is to turn a nation that could be united against its intransigent enemies into a state wondering whether it has what it takes to unite its people around its foundation principle. If Israel’s claim to be a Jewish state loses its credibility, it risks losing much of the support it now receives from abroad, both from Jews and non-Jews alike.
For now, Israel’s waning support among the world’s Jews as well as from those who question its Judaic identity is being partially hidden from public sight and scrutiny; this potential catastrophe is being suffocated beneath the rubble of Gaza, hidden behind the smoke of the bombs. But it could very well be the threat that Israel’s spin-doctors and politicians ought to look out for the most. When the rubble and the smoke have cleared, Israel may have to deal with a threat much greater than that posed by Hamas’s rockets, by the greater cooperation between political enemies, or even from an ever-greater rallying of public opinion against its policies. It could very well face an unprecedented identity crisis and subsequent existential threat leading to a collapse from within, rather than giving way to the oft-exaggerated military threat from without. If Israel is no longer seen as being supported by Jews, nor of representing Judaism, nor much less of providing a safe haven for Jews, then it could face a more humiliating future than military defeat – it could very well be ousted as a fraud about to crumble under the weight of its own underlying contradictions.
These new developments mean that the identity theft perpetrated by the state of Israel is no longer as widely accepted as if once was, and in this way the foundational narrative of Israel is crumbling, as people increasingly do not see it as representing and defending Jewish interests, but rather as simply an imperialist proxy-agent of the NATO gang. This is also a positive development insofar as it can start to breach the dominant paradigm/dichotomy that prevents Muslims and Jews from working together to stop such professional agents of discord who use religion as a cover for their all-too-worldly pursuits.
A Proposal for a Campaign to Demoralize the Israeli Nation and State Using Simple, Undeniable Fact
Israel is the Global Champion of Collective Punishment and Genocide
Israel is the world’s prime exponent of barbarism, genocide and human horrors, collective punishment and the genocidal response to the October 7 attacks are the most despicable and condensed example of that fact.
It’s undeniable, and has been for some time now. Israel’s response to the attack on October 7, 2023 was to use it as an excuse to enact a genocide, barely attempting to hide it and if anything, making sure to show the world its propensity for extreme violence as a sort of warning to the rest of the world. This amounts to an attempted, actually enacted and boastful genocide. The policy of mass killings is there. The policy of targeting any member of society that has any crucial role to play is there, so as to break the back of society and destroy it. Israel has targeted everyone: journalists, teachers, professors, nurses, doctors, aid workers, social media personalities, anyone and everyone, starting from the most influential in Gazan and Palestinian society at large, and then working down in an evil festival of death and destruction. The Al Shifa massacre was the worst and most shocking case of this policy, where they raped and executed medical staff and patients alike, with the horror of their genocidal actions now overshadowed by the massacre of Jabalia in the refugees camps of Gaza. Israel is also the only society on earth seemingly capable of mobilizing civil society to block aid efforts. It’s beyond monstruous, it’s a society beyond any possibility of redemption.
This has to be pointed out to Israelis at large, again and again and again, in a targeted and relentless manner. They have to know the nature of the society they have built. They too must realize that it’s a project beyond saving.
The main, foundational problem with the Israeli state is that it began only as a result on a foundational genocidal event, usually referred to as the Nakba, that was never reversed nor atoned for, but rather, continued and expanded. At this point it is interesting to note that there is an element within the Balfour Declaration that is not only present, but an absolutely key, central and indeed necessary part of the Declaration – the promise that the State of Israel shall be established without harming the rights of non-Jewish populations that lived within the Palestinian Protectorate. It is phrased thus (Balfour Declaration, 1917, retrieved from Yale Avalon Project):
“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
This makes a lot of sense. Who in their right mind, not least Jews fearing lack of safety within the homelands they inhabited, would want to migrate to a State that was built in a violent, belligerent way, which would naturally result in further conflict, war, lack of safety, indeed, that would guarantee the very same conditions, if not even worse, than those they were trying to escape?
Strategically speaking, it would have been beneficial for the tiny State of Israel and nation, population and overall culture, to seek to befriend the Arabs and Muslims at large, since by very definition, regardless of any expansion, it was, and always will insofar as it continues to exist, be a state that is geographically surrounded by Arab and Islamic majority countries. Instead, Israel has chosen the path of absolute belligerency against its fellow nations, as well as relentless campaigns to defame Arabs and Muslims, on top of the Nakba and its continued theft, plunder, rape, murder and genocide of the Palestinian population, thus virtually guaranteeing the animosity of large swathes of the 400 million Arabs and virtually two billion Muslims worldwide. It has managed to guarantee, though most probably only temporarily, the allegiance or connivance of key Arab and/or Muslim majority nations and states, which it absolutely needs for its immediate survival, through cynicism, realpolitik, blackmail and pure political conspiracy. However, in the medium to long term this only aggravates, instead of reducing, the absolute disdain, if not outright hatred, that the population of these countries, and indeed the majority of the populations of the world, have for Israel. Israel has practically guaranteed that its continued existence will only become harder to sustain in the medium to long term with these disastrous strategic choices. Furthermore, it must be noted that at the very core of the Zionist project was the promise of safety and welfare, a promise that is not only elusive 75 years on, but which indeed seems further away than ever before. The Jews who accepted to partake in the ruinous Zionist project, and especially those who migrated from North America and Western Europe, at one point or other will have to realise that the Jews who did not accept the invitation to migrate now not only live, but thrive, and have both wealth and security, whereas Jews in Israel are forced to send their sons and daughter to the military, or risk imprisonment, in order to send them to the frontlines of a war that seems more and more unwinnable every day that passes.
These elements are sure to be a large part of why Henry Kissinger, the supposed godfather of modern realpolitik, allegedly predicted that the state of Israel would not survive more than 10 years (though some contest the veracity of this quote and prediction). Though that deadline has already passed, if he were alive to witness the state of Israel’s genocidal response to the October 7 attacks, one might think that he would maintain and perhaps reinforce his (alleged) prediction of the demise of the ruinous Zionist project. And on top of that, Israel’s current president himself, the oddly simultaneously-reluctant-and-staunch Zionist Isaac Herzog, was already worried as early as May 2023 whether the state of Israel could survive, noticing that historic Jewish States tend to collapse around the 80-100 year mark, whereas several other reluctant Zionists have made similar insightful observations.
Israel is Really Just Another Ghetto Which Puts Half of the World’s Jews in Harm’s Way
Let us first consider Leon Trotsky’s view (1937-1940). He was a staunch Zionist and although he was assassinated before State of Israel’s coming into existence, his statements now seem prescient.
“The attempt to solve the Jewish question through the migration of Jews to Palestine can now be seen for what it is, a tragic mockery of the Jewish people. Interested in winning the sympathies of the Arabs who are more numerous than the Jews, the British government has sharply altered its policy toward the Jews, and has actually renounced its promise to help them found their “own home” in a foreign land. The future development of military events may well transform Palestine into a bloody trap for several hundred thousand Jews. Never was it so clear as it is today that the salvation of the Jewish people is bound up inseparably with the overthrow of the capitalist system.”
Trotsky basically calls the mass migration of Jews to Palestine as generating a new sort of Ghetto, and yet, he does it trying to call for the formation of a homeland with its own state. However, is an attempt to huddle as many Jews as possible into what is a tiny piece of land, regardless of whether it has a state or not, likely to produce a ghetto nonetheless? And despite the fact that the formation of the Zionist state was predicated on the concept that it will somehow promise and deliver safety to the Jews, the undeniable truth is the Zionist project has made the Holy Land so unsafe it needs to pay Jews to migrate there. Indeed Israel has endangered the safety of Jews worldwide. It is important to note that there are only 15 million Jews worldwide, and half of them are in Israel.
And despite the fact that many Jews have continued to believe the false promise of safety that the state of Israel promises, but never delivers, it is economic factors rather than actual safety that drove spikes in Jewish migration to the state of Israel such as that witnessed in 2013, for example. This is particularly important seeing as Israel provides, in many instances, subsidies for those willing to move to Israel, and the occupied territories in particular. Ridiculous episodes such as Netanyahu in 2015, after a terrorist attack in Paris, urging Jews to migrate from Europe, just show the extent of the desperation. Imagine Israel using a single terrorist attack in an otherwise peaceful country, France, where Jews live in peace and prosperity, as an excuse to invite European Jews as a whole to migrate to a country with mandatory military service, which is constantly at war, with no end in sight.
Israel is the prime example of Jews being convinced by third parties that accepting a state of spatial confinement is beneficial for them, whilst in fact it is, by all measures, negative and detrimental. At several periods in their history, the Jewish people decided, or have been coerced into accepting, greater spatial confinement. Such an example is their period of captivity in Babylon.
Nazism stipulated that the means with which to solve the “Jewish problem” was through spatial segregation, first in ghettos, and later in concentration camps. It must be said that the Nazis took advantage of the insecurities and fears of the Jewish people, and their subsequent search for security, in order to coerce them into living in ghettos, and thereafter into concentration camps, often with the cooperation of Jewish people who were bribed physically and mentally. They were bribed physically with benefits, and bribed mentally by deception, the deception that equates spatial confinement with increased security. It might be relevant to note that the Nazis also considered an ambitious plan of spatial confinement for the Jewish peoples by speculating that Madagascar might be a suitable, gigantic prison, only to ultimately discard such an alternative by virtue of its logistical difficulty and cost.
Similarly, so too does Zionism propose to solve the “Jewish question” by means of spatial confinement. It proposes that the Jewish people should live within the borders of the “state of Israel”, which is the confines of the territory of Israel if one considers the present borders of the state, or the confines of the territories between the river Nile and the river Euphrates, if you consider the flag of the state.
We can see this at play in Portuguese history also, as recounted by Martins (2006, pp 64):
“Although not as lucrative, there were other sources of income for the mayor of Lisbon: two-thirds of the penalties of married barbers, their barregãs and those of clerics and friars – in these cases, the remaining third would be paid by those who denounced them; one-third of the penalty paid by newly-excommunicated individuals; the entire value of pecuniary penalties for rape offences; all the gold and silver confiscated in illicit ‘games of chance’; fines from taverns opened between the ringing of the curfew bells and Mass. … the fines for Jews and Moors found, respectively, outside the Jewish quarter and the Moorish quarter, during the aforementioned curfew period; the fines paid by huseiras and braadar women and the fines for ships that made water during the night. All the weapons confiscated from Muslims leaving Lisbon in ships also belonged to the mayor, as long as they were not for his own use. The fish caught on Sundays, the feast days of Jesus Christ, St Mary and the Apostles and the nights before these holy days, would also revert in their entirety to the benefit of the alcalde-mor, who would also receive the fines relating to the taxes paid by the Moros-Forros at customs and the fines paid by Muslims and Jews who were found drinking in taverns. The alcalde-mor also collected, for every tonne of merchandise loaded in the port of Lisbon, the equivalent of two “old coins”, as well as fines for ships that took on passengers and/or merchandise during the night.”
The Ghetto of Venice 1680 is another known example whereby Jews were coerced into accepting a situation of spatial confinement, supposedly to guarantee their safety, whilst obviously sooner or later not only failing to provide it, but actively serving to compromise it.
Israel as the Gentile West’s Golem, the Ultimate Hofjuden State
A key idea that makes for a somewhat different critique of the state of Israel than those one usually encounters relates to how it very evidently operates in regards to its overall role in geopolitics and specifically how it is used by the Western geopolitical megastructure is that one should by all means be inclined to call the state of Israel a “Hofjuden” State. It is, at best, an ultra militarized ghetto that will end as all ghettos do, but that for the time being does the bidding of the Gentile West to the detriment of Judaism, Jewish people as a whole and ultimately for the benefit of secular militarism, racist colonialism and the immediate interests of cynical Western powers, namely but not exclusively, the USA.
Just as a very quick example, the infamous Rothschild dynasty and its founder, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, was himself a member of a Crusader Catholic Order, one of the oldest, if not oldest corporations in continuous existence (the Knights of Malta, founded in 1099, The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem), while the resulting dynasty is often referred to as “The Vatican’s Bankers”. The Rothschild dynasty was absolutely fundamental in the foundation of the state of Israel and are illustrated in a painting depicting the key dynasties in the foundation of Israeli Supreme Court that can be seen still today in the Supreme Court of Israel. Isn’t it at the very least awkward, to not say downright suspicious, that the poster-boys for the world-conquering Jewish conspiracy were at their heart just agents of a Catholic Crusading Order, the same order that swallowed the remnants of the Knights Templar upon their dissolution and dismemberment by the Vatican itself?
The term “Hofjuden” is a sometimes derogatory term which essentially translates to “Court Jew”, now mostly out of use (but which should be brought back into fashion as soon as possible), used to denote Jews who are used in a cynical manner by European aristocrats, usually to have Jews do in a public manner, at the behest and for the ultimate benefit of those same aristocrats, things that the aristocrats themselves don’t want to be seen as doing, namely, but not only, handling money and money lending, historically seen as anywhere between dubious, illegal, or perhaps just vulgar and dirty. The parallels with the state of Israel as a whole are striking, as it too has an absolutely unique position within the Western political system, as Israel too can do with impunity things that even Western states and its top officials cannot.
One must also remember the bulk of Zionists worldwide are not Jews at all. The majority of Zionists are Christians, a lot of them North American Christians, who “support” Israel with money, weapons and incessant propaganda, whilst mostly watching its endless wars and butchery from a very safe distance.
And there is an even more perverse side to this geopolitical ploy. The Gentile West is using Judaism and Jewish people themselves as a shield and agent, to serve its interests in the region, whilst placing no less than half of the Jewish population in direct danger. It’s at best cynical, criminal and irresponsible, and at worst, it’s the continuation of Western anti-Jewish pogroms, only in a more convoluted and indirect manner. In conclusion, Zionism is a terrible idea, very poorly executed, with tragic consequences, and we must spare no efforts in showing and convincing as many Israeli nationals of this undeniable fact. The only viable solution is the immediate dismantling of the Israeli state. Engaging in virtually any efficient effort to put a stop to the ongoing Gaza genocide as well as the prosecution of all involved should also be an absolute priority for anyone with an inkling of morality.
João Silva Jordão is a Muslim convert, political activist who holds a PhD in urbanism from the Lisbon School of Architecture, University of Lisbon. He has a particular interest in trying to analyse modern problems using the timeless paradigm that is Islam. In his activism he takes a particular interest in studying mechanisms that allow for the generation of more just cities and develops mechanisms for the incremental verticalisation of city centres.
Bibliography:
BALFOUR DECLARATION. (1917). Retrieved from Yale Law Avalon Project: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/balfour.asp
MARTINS, Miguel Gomes. (2006). A Alcaidaria e os Alcaides de Lisboa Durante a Idade Média (1147-1433). Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, Lisboa
“SHAKESPEARE”, “William” (though probably written personally by, or with the help of, Francis Bacon). (1610-1611). The Tempest, Ariel, Act 1 Scene 2.
TROTSKY, Leon. (1937-1940). On the Jewish Problem. Available: http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1940/xx/jewish.htm
