How are three writers rethinking Zionism for the 21st century?

The sad reality of regarding Israel as The Jewish State is that the more than 20 per cent of the population that isn't Jewish is constantly treated as less important,less deserving of respect and funds. In some ways this is liable to become more of a problem than the occupation. The occupation will eventually end, but Arabs are part of Israel. Eventually there will have to be a civil rights movement for them, as there was with black people in America, to win real, not just theoretical, equality with Jews. Eventually The Jewish State will have to become the Israeli state for ALL Israelis, not just for Jews.

If Mr Zimmerman's views were held by the majority in power, Israel would be safer, happier and a more loved country. Please keep speaking up - Israel has been hijacked by religion and right wing ideology

"truw, returning Jews did purchase these lands during the Ottoman hegemony over the Holy Land, but the purchases themselves were illegal, made in violation of Ottoman and Muslim law," So, the Ottoman kingdom allowed Jews to purchase land against their own laws? Are you desperately trying to make this crap up as you go along, or what?

Not one country or nation on this planet has borders not defined by war or conflict. This is the course of human history, the border wars stop when people are no longer able to fight, or those inspiring disputes are no longer in power or have a platform. The problem is that the Arabs will not allow the Palestinians to equal citizenship or economic rights, an imposed discontent in order to force the Palestinians to return. This is the pawn game. It is far easier for the Palestinians to blame those leaders of a different religious or ethic orientation than their so-called brothers who are using them as pawns in an age old struggle of Islamic and Arab domination. Israel is in the midst of this madness, trying to establish a future, but constantly assaulted by propaganda and violence intended to deceive the external international community which is ignorant of the motivations to these historical struggles.

Dear SDHD, I agree with you that the Holy Land is indeed your ancestral land, but think why the Hebrew nation lost it 1,900 to 2,000 years ago. In addition, truw, returning Jews did purchase these lands during the Ottoman hegemony over the Holy Land, but the purchases themselves were illegal, made in violation of Ottoman and Muslim law, with the chicanery of some currupt Arab effendi eager to get their hands on so-called "Hebrew gold". I stand by my position that the state called Israel is illegitimate and that the purchases Jews made during the late 19th and early 20th centuries themselves were illicit.

If there is to be a "new Zionism" it will have to more like the original version. The first, and truest Zionists were Socialists. They saw the need for a national home for the Jewish people living in peace alongside an population. The were not colonialists and they were not politicians with dreams of grandeur. All claims to the land because 80 generations ago our great-great, etc, grand mothers lived here are, at the best, week excuses for self-interested colonial activity. We are here because the original Jewish immigrates were no more prescient than any other surprised to-be colonialists. We needed a home and found a home gratefully shared with the people who have occupied the land for generations. There is a choice, the continued fight, until Zionism is only another term for racism, or to ask for forgiveness from the Palestinians who have suffered because of our needs; we are not going to leave, either are they.

What Zionism suffers from most is the poison of imbeciles who focus on Israel more than they do any other country and dump their bile upon it. People like graczek are a good example. Start listing all the other countries you believe are, "illegitimate," graczek. Or is the place where Jews were able to LEGITMATELY purchase their ancestral land from the Ottomans the only one you can think of? Or, perhaps, it's the only one you obsess about.

In Post #2, EZ is quite correct when he says that Israel (so-called) is different from any other nation. Just for openers, it exists illegitimately, and has since its inception. In addition, it is the focal source of geopolitical and theological infection in the Middle East and perhaps in the world; without Israel's existence the world would enjoy substantially lower degree of tension. The most logical way to rethink Zionism is to find ways to bring it to an end in the most humane way possible.

EZ, as Israel moves along its own path, it cannot be the path of exclusiveness, as it's been in the past. The country and it's government must start to look at its place in the world among other modern and developed nations. Israel also must re-think of itself as part of a region of different countries, even if most of them are muslim and past enemies in war. The regional bond, with neighboring countries, is the 21st Century approach (both diplomatically and economically) to many international and political problems. Israel is a great country; it's capable of making this change. Exclusiveness will not work in the long run.

Is any person or nation "completely different from any other?" The mother of a friend of mine used to say "Darling you're unique just like everyone else." Whenever we embrace the notion of complete uniqueness re people and places or cultures and religions we usually blind and deafen ourselves to those images and voices which point to and even echo profound truths. What is worse we tend to dismiss any viewpoint or value outside of our own .

The bottom line is how to clearly and without apology, define Zionism and to defer to intellect the right course of action in finally articulating the Jewish/Israeli identity. That requires cohesivity and a banding together of the poles of Israeli society. If all Israelis raised a child in the US, they'd see the importance of preserving the Jewish, religious heritage. If the liberals experienced the homogeny of their cultural roots and the ensuing attacks on it, perhaps they'd see more clearly. Homogeny is appealing in a purile, immature way: we want lots of 'things' and no one around to tell us what to do (the western idea of a good life). But in the end, are Americans and westerners happier? Not by a long shot. Israel MUST CLEARLY define its final identity without apology and pursue its course unabated. Israel is completely DIFFERRENT that any other nation and needs to accept that. Regardless of its complexity and complicated issues, it MUST move forward.

Being a "touchstone of moral and political rectitude" may have been the vision, but the reality has been shaped by an occupation, zealotry and a failure to develop lasting, secure relationships with neighboring Arabs. The zealotry combined with the occupation have blinded Israel's current form of Zionism to the realities of a world of diversity and compromise. Although many Jews are righteous about their faith in an Israel that always takes the higher ground, others have seen an Israel propagating something less than their Judaic heritage. Ambitions have generated security fears which in turn have established a society that has repressive characteristics for some peoples. The very Jews that have been in the forefront of advocacy of freedoms and social justice are offended by what Zionism has become in Israel. It is not too late for peace, but it requires new, courageous leadership without being blinded by zealotry.

...from this interesting article. The American Jews are having a "civil war" in their relationship to Israel, "accompanied by ignorance and lack of empathy with the people who acutally live in country." What a damning statement, but Americans-- Jewish or not-- really don't have empathy or understanding of any other country..that's Americans' way intentionally obtuse to others in the world. I also learned how loaded the term Zionist is; so many meanings..and too much expectations Most importantly, it's the 21st century..time for Israel to look forward without the "garbage" of past. The government in Israel needs to become adaptable to the new threats (Iran) and how to live in their region. It's time for big decisions and big actions. Great Politicians, who are remembered in History are those who can morph themselves and their positions to accomplish big things. I have never seen this quality in Netanyahu. Bibi surprize me...act like a statesman!

The story of Zionist Israel is Jewish immigrants from abroad, with tenuous links to the area and a foreign cultue, constantly receiving preference over the local non-Jewish population. At the time of the founding Of Israel with Jews stuck in refugee camps everywhere there may have been some logic to that, but today Jews aren't in need or on danger anywhere particularly. There is no moral logic in dragging an American or European Jew from their wealthy multi-culural societis and stealing land from Arabs to house them. Israel aims to be a western democracy and it needs to change its immigration laws to reflect that. That will still mean plenty of Jewish imigrants coming to live with family etc. but it will also mean Arab and Muslim and non-Jewish immigrants getting equal treatment. It would not destroy the Jewish charatcter of Israel, but it would be a huge sign that Israel was maturing and turning away from its ethnocratic instincts towards being a true Western democracy.