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This article was originally written in July for the anniversary of the death of Theodor Herzl, regarded by many as the founder of modern Zionism. It gives an interesting insight into the character and nature of this reactionary who dreamt of taking the land of a whole people.
By Mordachai Peargut
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On August 28, 1963 the American black civil rights leader Martin Luther King delivered a speech at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C called "I have a dream". In 1896 a well-to-do Hungarian Jew, Theodor Herzl wrote a book about his dream called "The Jewish State".
These two men, although worlds apart in time, culture and background, had one thing in common, they both belonged to peoples who the white Christian world saw as different and both peoples suffered terribly on this account. But here the similarity ends, for Martin Luther King in his famous speech saw his people's suffering as the suffering of all humankind, and saw as its solution the coming together of all peoples, of all colours, races, creeds and beliefs.
Hertzl's view was that only complete separation of the Jews from all other nations could solve anti-Semitism. The Reverend King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, probably by the white capitalist American establishment who did not want to see his dream of every one being equal realized. After all, if everyone were equal who could they exploit? This idea sounds like socialism and they don't want that, God forbid! Those nice straight-laced God fearing Christians!
July marks one hundred years since Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism died. (Note: The exact date of Herzl's death is not known). Here in Israel this anniversary is marked with umpteen programmes over the air waves, the schools bombard the children, who are already blind drunk with Zionism, with even more of the same. I do not know how the Arab world marks this date; I think they probably ignore it. After all they have more important things to concern themselves with than the death of a 19th century Hungarian Jew… such as the debacle in Iraq!
The Palestinians, who are the direct victims of this middle-class European's arrogant dream, probably also ignore it too. After all, a lot of them have more pressing problems such as finding shelter for the night after having their homes demolished by Zionist soldiers, or finding something to eat, while they wait for the next distribution of food from some foreign charity, while in some cases just a few miles from their refugee camps Israeli "settlers" live in luxury villas gorging themselves. For them Herzl's so called dream is a nightmare!
Hertzl was a product of his time. It is probably true to say that this Hungarian Jewish lawyer who practiced in Vienna would have lived and died in obscurity if not for one notorious affair that has gone down in history as one of the most blatant acts of Anti-Semitism against a Jewish individual, the Dreyfus case. This case concerned a French Jewish officer, who was wrongfully convicted of treason. He was humiliated, and sent to the notorious Devil's Island where he was to be confined for life. After a campaign in a French newspaper he was released and exonerated of all charges.
This case kindled in Herzl the idea that only if the Jews had a home of their own could they be safe from such acts of injustice. He expressed these feelings in his book "The Jewish State" written in 1896. In this book Hertzl talks about a crude form of Marxism, about man being liberated eventually from the drudgery of everyday life by machines. This is in no way exceptional; many intellectual thinkers of that period had such thoughts, being a socialist was the latest thing, don't you know?
Hertzl was not a religious man, so he was probably also influenced by the writings of Darwin, and like many at the time thought that the world was at the dawn of a new age. But Hertzl could not see the possibility that the Jew could have an equal place in this new society. His solution was a complete break from Christian Europe, but to where?
The British had agreed to Hertzl's plan to settle Jews in Uganda! Just think for a moment: The British were willing to let the Jews settle in Uganda. The arrogance of this is overwhelming. It is like me offering to a homeless person the spare room in a neighbour's house a few blocs away. This is typical of the imperialist's attitude at the time, (has anything changed?).
To be fair - we must be fair - those nice, fair-minded Brits, insisted that the settlement of the Jews in East Africa should in no way interfere with the life of the natives. Lucky for those natives that the Uganda plan was not implemented - judging by the way the "natives" of Palestine have been treated.
The proposal was rejected at the Seventh Zionist Congress. There were many such schemes: the Galveston project planned to settle Jews in America; Cyprus was mentioned, so were Canada, and Australia. These proposals continued after Herzl's death by other Zionists. In his original proposal to return Jews to Zion, Herzl appealed to wealthy Jews such as Baron Hirsch and Baron De-Rothschild, to join the Zionist movement, but they turned him down, though later on they did purchase considerable amounts of land in Palestine for the Zionists. While these proposals were going on Jews from all over Europe that could leave were going not to Palestine, but mostly to America.
Let us return to Martin Luther King. King did not tell his people to jump on planes and return to Africa. He saw that the way to fight his people's troubles was not to run away from the problem, but to fight the racism, not through violence but by changing people's attitudes, by showing them that they are wrong. We know that the blacks in America have not progressed very far since King's death. Those that have, like the two in the current Bush administration, have only done so by becoming token whites, and embracing the American capitalist system. This not to say King was wrong; it's the system that is wrong.
Herzl's Zionism is that of superiority, of complete disregard for the people that were living in Palestine. He did not regard them as equals, but as inferiors to be cheated and bamboozled, as this quote from his diary written in 1895 proves: "We must expropriate gently the private property on the state assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discretely and circumspectly. Let the owners of the immoveable property believe that they are cheating us, selling us things for more than they are worth. But we are not going to sell them anything back". This attitude is still today the basis of the Zionist state, whose final aim is to have a Palestine free of Palestinians - only today we call this "ethnic cleansing".
Herzl even envisaged turning this new home for the Jews into a European monarchy with his son as king. In a further quote from his diary of that year he writes: "The procession which starts at the doge's palace will be opened by Herzl-Cuirassiers. Then come the artillery and infantry... while all are marching in gold-studded gala uniforms, the high priests under canopies, the doge himself will wear the garb of shame of a medieval ghetto Jew: the pointed hat, the yellow badge... When I thought that someday I might crown Hans as doge... I had tears in my eyes."
If it were not so pathetic, one could laugh. But this attitude still exists today in modern Israel - not to the extent of Israel being a monarchy, Israel is firmly a republic. But the attitude of we (the Jews) being superior to them (the Arabs) is firmly entrenched. Hertzl talked about the Jewish homeland becoming a Switzerland of the Middle East. Well, if he were to come to Israel today he would probably run away. Israel is a very Middle Eastern country. The food, the music, the constant bickering of the inhabitants is a long way from his tranquil vision.
Two of Israel's most famous men, Moshe Dyan and the late Yitzhak Rabin were both at least honest enough and brave enough to say: "We did not come to an empty land". Some say it was that quote from Rabin that cost him his life! I think it goes much deeper than that. If a people are constantly told all the time that this troubled land of Palestine belongs to them no matter what, the fact that others lived here before them does not matter. The fact that because of them, three million fellow human beings live in despair, squalor and are constantly attacked by the world's fourth largest army with only stones and crude home made explosives and their own bodies as bombs to defend themselves becomes lost on them. Anyone who dares to make peace with the Palestinians and return land to them and grant them a state with complete sovereignty over it will be risking his or her life.
So what has Mr. Benjamin Zeev (Theodor) Hertzl's Zionism achieved? Has it eliminated anti-Semitism? I think the murder of the six million and what followed answered that! Have all the Jews in the world flocked to come and live in his dreamland? Less than half the known Jews in the world live here. And some of the recent Russian Jews who came here in the early 1990's are starting to go back to Russia. They say there is more opportunity to make money there (even my own son is thinking of leaving).
Has it brought peace to the Jewish people? Is it five, or six wars since the founding of the state of Israel? I've lost count. So is there any legacy to Hertzl's dream? Well his photo is very prominent on the wall of the assembly hall in Israel's parliament, the Knesset. There is a town along the cost called Hertzalia, which is appropriate to this well-to-do Viennese lawyer. It is one of, if not the most, expensive towns in Israel. As one approaches the town one can see all the big names from the computer world, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle etc. He would like that: all of the intelligentsia crowd together, no rabble there. And his face has appeared on postage stamps and bank notes over the years, every town has its Herzl Street, oh and yes I nearly forgot, he had a passenger boat named after him, but that caught fire a long time ago. Some legacy, some dream!
So what lessons can we draw from Herzl and his dream? The problems of hatred between one set of people against another cannot be solved by separation. Walls can be built as they have been in Northern Ireland, and like the one being built now here to separate the occupied Palestinian territories from Israel, but walls do not bring peace, or security. They compound the division between peoples. Not just the physical division, but mental division, and they breed more hatred. It is only the coming together of all peoples under one banner, the banner of socialism that can truly solve these problems, that can ensure security for the Jews, Palestinians, Iraqis - all the peoples of the Middle East as well as the starving skeletal children of Africa and India, and even the billionaire who has to surround himself with walls, and security guards to be safe, because the money he has belongs to the working class and they want it back!
Mordachai Peargut
July, 2004
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