WHO REFUTES THE ZIONIST BIG LIE?
UNFORTUNATELY, NOT THE MAIN ANTI-ZIONIST ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS!*
by John Spritzler (spritzler@comcast.net)
August 9, 2021
[Must read: "Israel's Government Attacks Ordinary Jews As Well As Palestinians"]
Postscript Note: When I wrote this in August of 2021 the website pages that I link to here were as described in this article. Since then the anti-Zionism organizations I discuss have made some changes to their websites. Nonetheless, the point I make here about those websites remains true, as one can verify for oneself by looking at these updated websites, as I encourage you to do.
Zionism's Big Lie says that the Israeli government is defending Jews from harm, that Israel is "a (nation) state of the Jewish people" and that the PURPOSE of Israeli government violence against Palestinians is simply to make Jews safe.
No! That is NOT the purpose. The truth is quite the contrary.
Zionism is an ATTACK on ordinary Jews (as well as Palestinians). It is therefore antisemitic (meaning anti-ordinary-Jewish-people) NOT to oppose Zionism.
As the facts recounted in my article, "Israel's Government Attacks Ordinary Jews As Well As Palestinians," prove, Israel is not a state of the Jewish people; it is a state of--controlled by--the Jewish billionaires who have contempt for ordinary Jews, who oppress them terribly and have no genuine concern for their welfare. That article proves that the reason why the Israeli ruling class treats Palestinians like dirt is not simply to grab more land from them but to provoke their anger and violence against Israel so as to make them be perceived by Israeli Jews as a frightening existential threat, a bogeyman enemy that enables the Israeli ruling class, by pretending to protect Israeli Jews from their "real enemy," to control ordinary Israeli Jews whom it oppresses economically--severely!--to enrich the billionaires. That is the true PURPOSE of Israeli violence against Palestinians.
The truth is that the state of Israel is no more a state of ordinary Jews than the United States is a state of ordinary U.S. citizens; both are states of a billionaire ruling plutocracy that oppresses "its own" people terribly with obscene economic inequality to enrich the billionaire ruling class. The Israeli government ATTACKS ordinary Jews; it does not represent them or protect them from harm.
But are anti-Zionist organizations and prominent individuals refuting the Zionist Big Lie about the purpose of Israeli violence against Palestinians? No.
As I discuss in my Dear Fellow Anti-Zionist, the anti-Zionism movement in places such as the United States is abjectly failing to win over the support of the great majority of the general public, in contrast to how the movement against apartheid in South Africa DID win over the great majority of the general public, for one reason: it refuses to refute the Zionist Big Lie about the purpose of Israeli violence against Palestinians.
Here is the evidence:
BDS
Look at this BDS poster.
It quotes the Israeli prime minister asserting the Zionist Big Lie (i.e., that Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people), and instead of refuting that lie BDS accepts it as a truth, just one they wish were not true.
By accepting the Zionist Big Lie as true and never explicitly refuting it, BDS lets Zionism maintain the support of the majority of the public who think it is antisemitic to oppose Israel because that would mean going against the Jews. But as I show in my article, "The Israeli Government Attacks Ordinary Jews As Well As Palestinians," it is antisemitic NOT to oppose the Israeli government.
BDS will never gain the support of a majority of the public until it refutes--not confirms!--the Zionist Big Lie. The Zionist leaders know this and they COUNT upon it to prevail.
Jewish Voice for Peace**
Instead of refuting the Zionist Big Lie, JVP agrees with it. Here's how it does that.
The JVP website [https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/conversations/ Part 1, in "Tips for Getting the Conversation Started"] has a section about how to talk to people who support Israel. This is what JVP says:
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FOCUS ON WHAT YOU CAN AGREE ON AND THEN STEER THE CONVERSATION IN THE DIRECTION YOU WANT TO GO
Start by asking what their vision for justice in the region looks like. If they say “a place where Jews can be safe,” great, affirm that and then explain that Jewish safety should not come at the cost of Palestinian lives and freedoms. If they say “two states for two peoples,” you don’t necessarily need to affirm or reject that, but you can say that with continued settlement construction, displacement and the network of checkpoints dividing up the land, Israel is making that impossible in the near term, so we need to talk now about respecting Palestinian equality, dignity and human rights.
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Notice this key sentence:
"If they say 'a place where Jews can be safe,' great, affirm that and then explain that Jewish safety should not come at the cost of Palestinian lives and freedoms."
Do you see the problem, the FATAL problem for any anti-Zionist movement?
Here's the problem. This sentence CONFIRMS, rather than refutes, the PILLAR of Zionist propaganda, namely the Big Lie that the PURPOSE of the Iaraeli government's violence against Palestinians is to make Jews safe. The truth is that the purpose of this violence is to enable the Jewish billionaire ruling class of Israel to control (with a Palestinian bogeyman enemy) Israeli working class Jews whom it oppresses horribly to enrich the billionaire Israeli ruling class, as I prove in my article, "Israel's Government Attacks Ordinary Jews As Well As Palestinians."
Once one accepts, as JVP does, the false Zionist assertion that Israeli violence against Palestinians is for the purpose of making Jews safe, then it necessarily follows, just as former Harvard President Larry Summers said, that anti-Zionism is antisemitic in effect if not intent because it opposes what the Israeli government does to make Jews safe. This "anti-Zionism is antisemitic in effect if not intent" argument is why a majority of the U.S. public supports Israel--they, to their credit, do not want to support anything that they perceive to be against the Jews because of sympathy for Jews as survivors of the Holocaust.
As long as JVP fails to refute the Zionist Big Lie and thereby accepts the false framework that says the conflict is "Jewish safety versus Palestinian safety," it will NEVER win over the majority of the U.S. public to opposing Zionism, and Zionism will hence prevail. This must not be allowed to happen.
Ayanna Pressley
Representative Ayanna Pressley seems to be a critic of Zionism, but she AFFIRMS rather than refutes the Zionist Big Lie. Here are her exact words, from her speech in Congress, in which she contrasts the Palestinians with the Jews by saying:
"It is clear there is a grave asymmetry of power here. Palestinians do not have a sovereign state and the protections that come with it."
With these words, Rep. Pressley is AFFIRMING the Zionist Big Lie that ordinary Jews have a state of their own--Israel--that protects them from harm. The truth is the very opposite of this, as I show in great detail in my "Israel's Government Attacks Ordinary Jews As Well As Palestinians." But as long as the general public only hears, and believes, the Zionist Big Lie, most people will believe that opposing the Israeli government means opposing ordinary Jews, which would be antisemitic, and they will therefore not support the anti-Zionist movement.
VIRTUALLY NONE OF THE ANTI-ZIONIST ORGANIZATIONS AND PROMINENT INDIVIDUALS REFUTE*** THE ZIONIST BIG LIE
Hamas certainly does not challenge this Zionist Big Lie. The PLO never challenges it. The BDS leaders don't challenge it. Angela Davis doesn't challenge it. Jewish Voice for Peace doesn't challenge it. Jews for the Right of Return doesn't challenge it. Noam Chomsky doesn't challenge it. Norman Finkelstein doesn't challenge it. Ilan Pappe (who wrote the wonderful book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine) doesn't challenge it (as you can see by listening to him say why anti-Zionism is not antisemitism here). Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan don't challenge it. Alison Weir's If Only Americans Knew doesn't challenge it. Gideon Levy and Amira Hass (famous anti-Occupation columnists for the pro-Zionist Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz, who don't even support the Right of Return) don't challenge it. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! doesn't challenge it. Bernie Sanders (who wants us to "tone down calling Israel an apartheid state") doesn't challenge it. The Marxist World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) doesn't challenge it. The socialist Democratic Socialists of America doesn't challenge it. I'm not aware of even John Pilger (who is wonderful in most respects) challenging it. Chris Hedges, who is passionately anti-Zionist, doesn't, as far as I have seen (correct me if I am wrong, please), challenge it. Miko Peled, the Israeli general's son, is passionately anti-Zionist, but doesn't challenge the pillar of Zionist propaganda. Peter Beinart says a lot of wonderful true things in his video opposing Zionism, but he doesn't challenge the Zionist Big Lie either, alas.
No wonder Zionist propaganda is so effective! Nobody is challenging its fundamental Big Lie pillar.
When one's enemies don't challenge one's chief propaganda theme, one will prevail. That is why Zionism is prevailing, despite growing numbers of people horrified by its violence against Palestinians. But please think how many MORE people, however, would be horrified by that Israeli violence if they knew that it was not about making Jews safe but, on the contrary, for the purpose of making Israeli billionaires richer at the expense of working class Israeli Jews, as I prove in "Israel's Government Attacks Ordinary Jews As Well As Palestinians"!
When the conflict is presented to the general public falsely, as a race (or ethnic) war between "the Jews" and "the Palestinians" (as the Zionist Big Lie asserts and as Hamas ALSO works so hard to make it seem), then most people--certainly enough to let Zionism keep winning--take the side of "the Jews," whom they perceive to be the innocent victims of antisemitism just doing whatever it takes to defend themselves. Sure, a certain number of people (and it is indeed growing) take the side of "the Palestinians"; but these people will remain a minority that is not large enough to stop the U.S. government from supporting Israel.
When the conflict, however, is presented to the general public truthfully, as a class war, most people take the side of ordinary working class Jews and Palestinians AGAINST the billionaire ruling class of Israel and the upper class Palestinians who are in cahoots with Israel's ruling class. This is a fact. You can test it for yourself.
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* If you know of an anti-Zionist organization or individual who does refute the Zionist Big Lie by saying what the true purpose of Israeli violence against Palestinians is, please let me know (at spritzler@comcast.net) so I can get in touch with them and help them as much as I can.
** Please read here the email exchange between myself and the JVP-Boston Chapter leadership in which they say my article, "Israel's Government Attacks Ordinary Jews As Well As Palestinians" is racist, and on that basis kicked me out of JVP.
*** By "refute" I mean persuasively refute. The Zionist Big Lie states that Israeli violence against, and oppression of, Palestinians is for the purpose of making Jews safe. The only way to persuasively refute this lie is by showing what the true purpose of this violence and oppression is, by showing that it is NOT, as Israeli leaders falsely claim, to make Jews safe but, on the contrary, to make it possible for Jewish billionaires to control and economically oppress working class Israeli Jews to make the Jewish billionaires rich.
There are some critics of Israel who criticize Zionism in a manner that does not persuasively refute the Zionist lie about the purpose of Zionist violence. These critics do not explain what the true purpose of the violence is. Instead they merely point out that it endangers Jews by turning much of the world's people against Jews: people who rightly sympathize with the Palestinians become angry at Jews because Israel purports to be a "state of the Jews." This is, of course, true. But this fact does nothing to persuade people that Israeli violence against Palestinians is not for the purpose of making Jews safe. It merely makes the case (if one believes the Zionist assertion that Palestinians are a mortal existential threat to Israeli Jews) that Jews, alas, are damned if they do and damned if they don't in a world where antisemites want to "drive the Jews into the sea," that Jews are hated for doing what they must to to be safe.
Another kind of criticism of Zionism that fails to persuasively refute the Zionist lie about the purpose of its violence is this one: "Israel's leaders have for many decades and still today been engaging in realpolitik deals with antisemitic world leaders." This too is a true statement. But so what? This fact in no way takes away from the supposed fact that Israeli violence against Palestinians is for the purpose of making Jews safe. This criticism of Zionism is easily dismissed by pro-Zionists as that of a naive person who doesn't understand how the world works and that sometimes one has to make a deal with the devil to achieve a good end.