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Straight Talk About Zionism: What Jewish Nationalism Means
By Mark Weber


ItÆs important to understand Zionism, not just because itÆs an
influential ideology and a powerful social-political movement, but
also because thereÆs a lot of ignorance, confusion and deliberate misinformation about it.

If you look up the word ôZionismö in a standard American dictionary,
what youÆll find is likely to be inaccurate, or at least misleading.
For example, a popular and supposedly authoritative American
dictionary in my office defines Zionism as ôA movement formerly for reestablishing, now for supporting, the Jewish national state of
Israel.ö / 1 This definition, which is typical of American reference
works, is more than just misleading. ItÆs deceitful.

The founder of the modern Zionist movement was a Jewish writer named
Theodor Herzl. In the 1890s he was living in Paris, where he was a
journalist for a major newspaper in Vienna. He was deeply troubled by
the widespread anti-Semitism, or anti-Jewish sentiment, in France at
the time. He thought a lot about the pattern of tension, distrust and
conflict between Jews and non-Jews that had persisted through the
centuries, and he hit upon what he believed is a solution to this
age-old problem.

Herzl laid out his views in a book, written in German, entitled The
Jewish State (Der Judenstaat). Published in 1896, this work is the
manifesto or basic document of the Zionist movement. A year and a half
later, Herzl convened the first international Zionist conference.
Fifty one years later, when the ôState of Israelö was solemnly
proclaimed at a meeting in Tel Aviv, above the speakersÆ podium at the conference was, appropriately, a large portrait of Herzl.

In his book Herzl explained that regardless of where they live, or
their citizenship, Jews constitute not merely a religious community,
but a nationality, a people. He used the German word, Volk. Wherever
large numbers of Jews live among non-Jews, he said, conflict is not
only likely, itÆs inevitable. He wrote: ôThe Jewish question exists
wherever Jews live in noticeable numbers. Where it does not exist, it
is brought in by arriving Jews à I believe I understand anti-Semitism,
which is a very complex phenomenon. I consider this development as a
Jew, without hate or fear.ö / 2

In his public and private writings, Herzl explained that anti-Semitism
is not an aberration, but rather a natural response by non-Jews to
alien Jewish behavior and attitudes. Anti-Jewish sentiment, he said,
is not due to ignorance or bigotry, as so many have claimed. Instead,
he concluded, the ancient and seemingly intractable conflict between
Jews and non-Jews is entirely understandable, because Jews are a
distinct and separate people, with interests that are different from,
and which often conflict with, the interests of the people among whom
they live.

A prime source of modern anti-Jewish sentiment, Herzl believed, was
the so-called ôemancipationö of Jews in the 18th and 19th centuries,
which brought them from the confined life of the ghetto into modern
urban society and direct economic competition with non-Jews in the
middle classes. Anti-Semitism, Herzl wrote, is ôan understandable
reaction to Jewish defects.ö In his diary he wrote: ôI find the
anti-Semites are fully within their rights.ö / 3

Herzl maintained that Jews must stop pretending û both to themselves
and to non-Jews û that they are like everyone else, and instead must
frankly acknowledge that they are a distinct and separate people, with
distinct and separate goals and interests. The only workable long-term solution, he said, is for Jews to recognize reality and live, finally,
as a ônormalö people in a separate state of their own. In a memo to
the Tsar of Russia, Herzl wrote that Zionism is the ôfinal solution of
the Jewish question.ö / 4

Over the years many other Jewish leaders have affirmed HerzlÆs
outlook. Louis Brandeis, a US Supreme Court justice and a leading
American Zionist, said: ôLet us all recognize that we Jews are a
distinctive nationality of which every Jew, whatever his country, his
station or shade of belief, is necessarily a member.ö / 5

Stephen S. Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress and of the
World Jewish Congress, told a rally in New York in June 1938: ôI am
not an American citizen of the Jewish faith. I am a Jew à Hitler was
right in one thing. He calls the Jewish people a race, and we are a
race.ö / 6

IsraelÆs first president, Chaim Weizmann, wrote in his memoirs:
ôWhenever the quantity of Jews in any country reaches the saturation
point, that country reacts against them à [This] reaction à cannot be
looked upon as anti-Semitism in the ordinary or vulgar sense of that
word; it is a universal social and economic concomitant of Jewish
immigration, and we cannot shake it off.ö / 7

In keeping with the Zionist worldview, Israeli prime minister Ariel
Sharon told a meeting of American Jews in Jerusalem in July 2004 that
all Jews around the world should relocate to Israel as soon as
possible. And because anti-Semitism was especially widespread in
France, he added, Jews in that country should immediately move to
Israel. French officials quickly, and predictably, responded by
rejecting SharonÆs remarks as ôunacceptable.ö / 8

But imagine if the leaders of France, the United States, and other
countries were to respond to those remarks by Sharon, and similar ones
by other Zionists, by expressing agreement. Imagine if an American
president were to respond by saying: ôYouÆre right, Mr. Sharon. We
agree with you. We agree that Jews do not belong in the United States.
In fact, we are ready to show our support for what you say by doing
everything we can to promote and encourage all Jews to leave our
country and move to Israel.ö

That would be the logical and honest attitude of non-Jewish political
leaders who say that they support Israel and Zionism. But the
political leaders of the United States, France, Britain, and other
such countries today are neither honest nor consistent.

During the 1930s, one European government that was honest and
consistent in its attitude on this issue was the government of Third
Reich Germany. Jewish Zionists and German National Socialists shared
similar views about how best to handle what Herzl called ôthe Jewish
question.ö They agreed that Jews and Germans were distinctly different nationalities, and that Jews did not belong in Europe, but rather in
the so-called ôJewish homelandö in Palestine.

On the basis of their shared views, Germans and Jews worked together
for what each community believed was in its own best national
interest. The Hitler government vigorously supported Zionism and
Jewish emigration to Palestine from 1933 until 1940-41, when the
Second World War prevented further extensive collaboration. / 9
(During the war years attitudes hardened, and policy shifted
drastically. The German policy of collaboration with Zionists and
support for Jewish emigration to Palestine gave way to a harsh ôfinal
solutionö policy.)

During the 1930s, the central SS newspaper, Das Schwarze Korps,
repeatedly proclaimed its support for Zionism. An article published in
1935, for example, told readers: / 10

ôThe recognition of Jewry as a racial community based on blood and not
on religion leads the German government to guarantee without
reservation the racial separateness of this community. The government
finds itself in complete agreement with the great spiritual movement
within Jewry, the so-called Zionism, with its recognition of the
solidarity of Jewry around the world, and its rejection of all
assimilationist notions. On this basis, Germany undertakes measures
that will surely play a significant role in the future in the handling
of the Jewish problem around the world.ö

In late 1933, a leading German shipping line began direct passenger
service from Hamburg to Haifa, Palestine, providing ôstrictly kosher
foodö on board.

In September 1935, the German government enacted the ôNuremberg Laws,ö
which prohibited marriages and sexual relations between Jews and
Germans and, in effect, proclaimed the countryÆs Jews an alien
minority group. / 11 A few days after the Nuremberg Laws were enacted,
the main German Zionist newspaper, the Jⁿdische Rundschau, editorially
welcomed the new measures. It explained to readers: / 12

ôGermany à is meeting the demands of the World Zionist Congress when
it declares the Jews now living in Germany to be a national minority.
Once the Jews have been stamped a national minority it is again
possible to establish normal relations between the German nation and
Jewry. The new laws give the Jewish minority in Germany its own
cultural life, its own national life. In future it will be able to
shape its own schools, its own theater, and its own sports
associations. In short, it can create its own future in all aspects of
national life àö

During the 1930s, Zionist groups, working together with Third Reich authorities, organized a network of some forty camps and agricultural
centers throughout Germany where prospective settlers were trained for
their new lives in Palestine.

The centerpiece of German-Zionist cooperation during the Hitler era
was the Transfer Agreement, a pact that enabled tens of thousands of
German Jews to migrate to Palestine with their wealth. The Agreement,
also known as the HaÆavara û Hebrew for ôtransferö û was concluded in
August 1933 following talks between German officials and an official
of the Jewish Agency, the Palestine center of the World Zionist
Organization. / 13

Between 1933 and 1941, some 60,000 German Jews emigrated to Palestine
through the HaÆavara and other German-Zionist arrangements, or about
ten percent of GermanyÆs 1933 Jewish population. Some HaÆavara
emigrants transferred considerable personal wealth from Germany to
Palestine. As Jewish historian Edwin Black has noted: ôMany of these
people, especially in the late 1930s, were allowed to transfer actual
replicas of their homes and factories û indeed rough replicas of their
very existence.ö / 14

The Transfer Agreement was the most far-reaching example of
cooperation between HitlerÆs Germany and international Zionism.
Through this pact, HitlerÆs Third Reich did more than any other
government during the 1930s to support the Zionist movement and Jewish development in Palestine.

The essence of Zionism, or Jewish nationalism, is that Jews everywhere
û regardless of where they live, regardless of their religious
outlook, and regardless of their citizenship û are members of the
Jewish ôpeopleö or ônation,ö to whom all Jews owe a primary loyalty
and allegiance.

The overwhelming majority of Jews in the United States today identify
with and support Israel, and are affiliated with Zionist groups and organizations. Every significant Jewish group or association in the
United States, and every prominent Jewish American political or
community leader supports Israel and Zionism, in most cases fervently
so. With very few exceptions, even American Jews who are critical of
some of IsraelÆs more embarrassing policies nonetheless express
support for Israel and the nationalist ideology upon which the Zionist
state is based.

A Zionist Jew, by definition, owes his primary loyalty to the Jewish
community and to Israel. Zionism is not compatible with patriotism to
any country or entity other than Israel and the world Jewish
community. ThatÆs why itÆs difficult to accept as sincere or honest
the pious assurances of Jewish leaders in the United States that
American Jews are just as loyal to the US as everyone else.

In the United States, nearly every prominent political leader û Jewish
and non-Jewish, Democrat and Republican û ardently supports Israel and
the Jewish nationalist ideology upon which it is based. In Washington, political leaders of both major parties insist on US support for
Israel as an ethnically Jewish state. They fervently support, and
eagerly seek the favor of, influential Jewish-Zionist groups, such as
the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

Everyone û whether Jewish or non-Jewish û who claims to support Israel
should, if he is honest and consistent, endorse the view of Israeli
prime minister Sharon, and other Zionist leaders, and support the
migration of Jews everywhere to Israel. But of course thatÆs not what
happens.

With regard to Zionism and Israel, the attitude and policies of nearly
all American political leaders, Jewish and non-Jewish, is
characterized by hypocrisy and deceit. To put it another way, Zionist
Jews and their non-Jewish supporters embrace a blatant double
standard. Jewish-Zionist organizations, along with their non-Jewish
allies, support one social-political ideology for Israel and the world
Jewish community, and a completely different one for the United States
and other non-Jewish countries. They insist that ethnic nationalism is
evil and bad for non-Jews, while at the same time they vigorously
support ethnic nationalism û that is, Zionism û for Jews.

They insist that Israel is and must be a Jewish nationalist state,
with a privileged status for its Jewish population, including
immigration laws that discriminate against non-Jews. At the same time, Jewish-Zionist groups and leaders, and the non-Jews who support them,
insist that in the United States, Britain, France, Germany and other
countries, there must be no privileged status for anyone based on
race, ethnicity or religion.

Our political leaders tell us that American Jews should be encouraged
to think of themselves as a distinct national group with an identity
and community interests separate from those of other Americans. At the
same time American politicians insist that Zionist Jews be given all
rights as full and equal US citizens. On the basis of this double
standard, Jews often enjoy what amounts to a privileged status in
American political and cultural life.

Americans are led to believe that Zionism is a benign outlook of
altruistic and righteous support for a so-called Jewish homeland. In
fact, Zionism is an ideology and movement of ethnically-based Jewish nationalism that reinforces the identity and self-image of Jews as a
distinct and separate community with interests different from those of non-Jews, and which strengthens the already powerful world Jewish
community.

Notes

New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition
(1978?), p. 1654.
Th. Herzl, Der Judenstaat. ( http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Der_Judenstaat/Einleitung / http://www.zionismus.info/judenstaat/02.htm )
Also quoted in: M. Weber, ôZionism and the Third Reich,ö The Journal
of Historical Review, July-August 1993, p. 29. ( https://ihr.org/journal/v13n4p29_Weber.html )
Kevin MacDonald, Separation and Its Discontents (Praeger,1998), pp.
45, 48.
Memo of Nov. 22, 1899. R. Patai, ed., The Complete Diaries of Theodor
Herzl (New York: 1960), Vol. 3, p. 888.
Louis D. Brandeis, ôThe Jewish Problem and How to Solve It.ö Speech of
April 25, 1915. ( http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/personality/sources_document11.html
/ http://www.law.louisville.edu/library/collections/brandeis/node/234
)
ôDr. Wise Urges Jews to Declare Selves as Such,ö New York Herald
Tribune, June 13, 1938, p. 12.
Chaim Weizmann, Trial and Error (1949), p. 90. Quoted in: Albert S.
Lindemann, The Jew Accused (1991), p. 277.
ôFrench Jews Must `Move to IsraelÆ,ö BBC News, July 18, 2004 ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3904943.stm )
See also: ôSharon Urges Jews to Go to Israel,ö BBC News, Nov. 17,
2003. ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3275979.stm )
M. Weber, ôZionism and the Third Reich,ö The Journal of Historical
Review, July-August 1993 (Vol. 13, No. 4), pp. 29-37.
( https://ihr.org/journal/v13n4p29_Weber.html )
Das Schwarze Korps, Sept. 26, 1935. Quoted in: Francis R. Nicosia, The
Third Reich and the Palestine Question (Univ. of Texas, 1985), p.
56-57.
These days the Nuremberg Laws are routinely portrayed as imposing
outrageous and inhumane discrimination against Jews. But to put this
in perspective, itÆs worth mentioning two points. First: the Nuremberg
Laws ban on marriage between Jews and non-Jews is consistent with the
law in Israel today, where such marriages are not permitted, as well
as with the prohibition on such marriages as laid out in the Hebrew
scriptures. (See, for example: Numbers 25: 6-8; Deuteronomy 7:3; Ezra
9: 12; 10: 10-11; Nehemiah 10: 30; 13: 25.)
Second, in 1935 less than one percent of the population of Germany was
Jewish, which meant that the Nuremberg laws ban on marriage between
Jews and non-Jews was irrelevant for the vast majority of the
countryÆs population. By contrast, in the United States during the
1930s, most of the American states had laws in place that prohibited
marriage between people of different races. Because the portion of the
American population that was racially non-majority was much larger
than in Germany, the US racial laws impacted a much larger portion of
the US population at the time than the Nuremberg laws affected the
German population.
Jⁿdische Rundschau, Sept. 17, 1935. Quoted in: Y. Arad, and others,
Documents on the Holocaust (Jerusalem: 1981), pp. 82-83.
W. Feilchenfeld, ôHaÆavara,ö New Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel
(Herzl Press, 1994), pp. 535-536; M. Weber, ôZionism and the Third
Reich,ö The Journal of Historical Review, July-August 1993, pp. 33-34.
Edwin Black, The Transfer Agreement (1984), p. 379.

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