August 3, 2023
By Ramzy Baroud
Ideological shifts do not appear and disappear overnight. Regardless of the outcome of Israel’s protests, the ideological shifts in Israel are seismic and long-lasting.
The late Israeli commentator, Uri Avnery, wrote, “I am increasingly worried that the Israeli-Palestinian struggle … is assuming a more and more religious character.”
At first glance, the statement may seem baffling. If Israel is a ‘Jewish State’ that serves as a ‘homeland’ for all Jewish people, everywhere, does it not follow that the ‘struggle’, at least from an Israeli viewpoint, is essentially a religious one?
If only it was that simple.
Israel’s dichotomy is that it was founded by an ideology, Zionism, which purposely conflated between religion and nationality.
“The Zionist movement was non-religious from the start,” Avnery wrote, “if not anti-religious.” He went on to cite a famous quote by the founder of Zionism, Theodor Herzl, that “we shall know how to keep (our clergymen) in their temples.”
Clearly, Herzl’s descendants could not keep the “clergymen in their temples”. The once marginal impact of Israel’s religious Zionists has long exceeded the margins allocated to them by their liberal brethren….
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak out”. Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
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