Friday, July 4, 2008

By Dr. Hassan A. El-Najjar

A Background Note from the Author

The author is a Muslim. This means that he believes in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Holy Qur'an. He is also a Semite Palestinian Arab. This means that he shares a racial background with Palestinian and other Middle Eastern Jews. Thus, his analysis of Zionism is not an analysis of Jews or Judaism, which is a religious tradition that is recognized by Muslims as one of God's messages to humanity. As a result, Zionism is not synonymous to Judaism. Rather, it's a secular political movement that can be criticized and found faulty. It follows that Zionists are not synonymous to Jews. They are supporters of the Israeli ideology, whether they live inside or outside of Israel. They can be Jews, Christians, Muslims, or followers of other faiths or creeds.

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Zionism is the political ideology that has created the state of Israel and has dominated its government ever since. It has called for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine on the expense of the Palestinian people. It has pressured and has been capable of influencing many world governments, particularly in Western Europe and North America, to support its imperialist project. In doing so, it has abused the Old Testament, particularly using the idea of "the promised land" to convince the general Christian public opinion to be quiet about its crimes against Arabs and Muslims generally, and the Palestinian people in particular. [1]  However, the fact is that wherever and whenever "the promise" was mentioned in the Bible, it was a promise from God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (who was also called Israel) and their descendants. Thus, the promise was not for Jews per se. The difference between the two words should be crystal clear. Anybody can be a Jew, by converting to Judaism, but this does not make him or her a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. This has been the biggest deception that Zionism and its adherents have been perpetuating. [2]  Consequently, if Zionism is not based on a true religious principle, what is it based on? What is its reality?

Zionism is the highest stage of imperialism, which is the third stage of the development of capitalism. Its ultimate goal is hegemony over the world economies, using its control over the United States foreign policy. Its continuous wars in the Middle East for more than half a century have aimed at controlling the world power house, the Arab oil, and consequently the Arab oil wealth, which is estimated at about $14 trillion by current (May 2002) oil prices. Zionism involves all the horrors that characterize this terrible stage of the development of capitalism. It is a combination of racism, greed, and exploitation. It is in a continuous state of hunger for wars and thirst for oil. Like its destructive European counterparts, Nazism and Fascism, Zionism has caused massive human suffering. As a result, a collective global effort is needed to contain it and rid the world of its terror.

When Columbus set out to the West, in 1492, his goal was reaching east and southeast Asia in a new trade route. That journey highlighted mercantilism, as the earliest stage of the development of capitalism, which focused on the accumulation of wealth through trading among nations. Ultimately, it led to the establishment of the New World colonies to secure trading partners and trading monopolies. The second stage of the development of capitalism, colonialism, depended heavily on population transfer. This included transferring poor Europeans to the New World to be used in mining for bullion, in agriculture, and in forcing indigenous populations out of their territories. This also included transferring Africans from Africa to the New World, where they were used as slave labor. When the New World colonies started to get their independence, European capitalism evolved to its third stage, imperialism. Starting from the second half of the 19th century, European armies moved to Africa and Asia, invading the two continents and dividing them among themselves. [3]  The United States inherited the European imperialist legacy following World War II, as a result of the destruction of the European powers. Thus, the United States started to invade and launch wars against other nations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. [4]  Within this context of Pax Americana, [5]  the US world economic hegemony (globalization) has been reflected in the form of controlling most of the multinational corporations and the World Trade Organization. [6]  Zionism has used its unchecked influence on American foreign policy to support its expansionist project in the Middle East. By its ability to use the US global hegemony for its own purposes, it has reached the highest stage of imperialism. [7]  But, what about its origins, how did it emerge on the world arena?

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