You know, when Theodore Herzl held the Zionist Convention in the late 1800s he was expecting a lot of like-minded people to join. Those who wanted a culture, some sort of state where Jews can be model citizens (like they are) and not get persecuted like the whole Dreyfus Affair of 1894-1904. But what he got instead was a bunch of Eastern European Rabbis. Why? Because in Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus) they Jews didn’t have any fear of assimilation like in the West because everyone in the East was dirt poor. No. The rabbis came to show their support for the Zionist movement so that their people wouldn’t literally be cowering in their houses. Antisemitism in the East wasn’t about defamation or newspaper articles, it was pogroms. Murder sprees and real violence. The worst pogrom being the Kishinev Massacre in 1903.
The Zionist movement was never “let’s get rid of the Palestinians!” It was “oh! Having our own land might be good so then our neighbors won’t fucking kill is when they feel bored!” In the beginning it was even about the area of Palestine! They were going to take a part of Uganda! (Now some part of Kenya)
So all those people saying “ZiOniSm wAs FoRmEd To gET rID of tHe PaleStIniAns” is wrong and bigoted. It was never about the Palestinians, it was always about the safety of the Jewish people because we were never safe. No matter how integrated into society we are. No matter how well off. No matter how well behaved citizens we are, if we are Jewish, we deserve to die. Hitler taught us that. He taught us that every Jew is a Jew no matter if his family converted to Christianity four generations ago. Jews will always be hated and persecuted and punished.
But you know? Rav Naftli Zvi Yehuda Berlin (נצי״ב) says something really interesting on the words of the Haggadah ״והיא שעמדה״ the question goes what’s the “והיא” what is the “this”
The Netziv brings down the words God promised Avraham ״כי גר יהיה זרעך בארץ לא להם…וגם את הגוי אשריעבידו דן אנוכי״ the Netziv says that the promise that we will always be strangers and never be completely able to assimilate into whatever land we are in is the promise that stood for us. Because, when we realize how much we can’t rely on the goyim or the country around us we are reminded that only God can help, and we call out and He does help. (This whole thing got away from me but I learned this in class recently and it really stuck with me anyway back to my point)
THE STATE OF ISRAEL WAS ESTABLISHED TO BE A SAFETY NET FOR JEWS AFTER THE HORRORS AND ATROCITIES OF NAZI OCCUPIED EUROPE BUT THE IDEA OF A JEWISH STATE STARTED WAY BEFORE THEN BUT FOR THE SAME REASON—SAFETY. IT WAS NEVER ABOUT THE PALESTINIANS. THERE WAS NEVER AN INTENTION TO KICK OUT THE PALESTINIANS! WE JUST WANTED A PLACE WHERE WE CAN LIVE LOFE WITHOUT THE FEAR OF SOMEONE SHOOTING US JUST BECAUSE WE EXIST.
and the saddest part is, even with an established Jewish State we’re still afraid that someone will come banging down our doors and burn our babies in the ovens or whack our heads of with a garden hoe.
for us, it was never “let’s got rid of the Palestinians” I but for the Palestinians it was always “let’s kill all the Jews”
so we did what we created the state of israel to do: protect ourselves because no one else will do it for us.
thank you.
Yes, like most goyim, Arabs needed to stick themselves and decided to get involved in Jewish matters that need not affect them.
Just here to mention that the Uganda thing is a misconception, the almost only person who didn't care about it being Israel was herzel himself, and Uganda was later only considered because THE JEWS WERE DYING EN MASS
The British offered Uganda to Herzl after the Pogrom in Kishinev in 1903 because they felt slightly “bad” about the horror of the situation. When Herzl proposed it at the Zionist Congress, a lot of people (mostly rabbanim from Eastern Europe who had just underwent this tragedy) agreed to take Uganda as a temporary solution. They wanted somewhere to act as a sanction so something like what happened in Kishinev wouldn’t happen again. BUT a man named Asher Ginsberg an anti-religious Jew, was very into “Judaism as a culture should be in their land” thus prompting the whole Palestinian region. But there were many people who were all for Uganda to act as a temporary haven for Jews so they won’t be slaughtered. They didn’t take it, obviously, and forty years later two thirds of Europe’s Jewish population was murdered.
Happens to be, Jews were migrating to the Middle East in the later 1880s after the pogroms of 1881-1883 in Russia under the “organization” (C)Hovivei Tzion and there were plenty of Jews in the Old Yishuv but the whole “Jewish State” thing that Herzl wanted was for the protection of the Jews. And at the time that Uganda was offered, many people were willing to take it if it weren’t for the more secular, cultural, anti-religious view that took over causing many rabbis to leave the movement
(if you have any further information, I’d like to hear what you have to say and what you’ve learned about early Zionism)
