#zionism

Actually—and this was where I began to feel seriously uncomfortable—some such divine claim underlay not just 'the occupation' but the whole idea of a separate state for Jews in Palestine. Take away the divine warrant for the Holy Land and where were you, and what were you? Just another land-thief like the Turks or the British, except that in this case you wanted the land without the people. And the original Zionist slogan—'a land without a people for a people without a land'—disclosed its own negation when I saw the densely populated Arab towns dwelling sullenly under Jewish tutelage. You want irony? How about Jews becoming colonizers at just the moment when other Europeans had given up on the idea? ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#britain #colonialism #europe #holy-land #irony

Zionism was originally a rebellion against religious Judaism and the PLO Charter was essentially secularist. But because the conflict was allowed to fester without a resolution, religion got sucked into the escalating cycle of violence and became part of the problem. ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#allowed #became #because #charter #conflict

The U.S. always needs an enemy. It comes and goes. Today it is Islam. According to this plan or ideology of the born-again Christians who formed an alliance with Zionism, Islam is the monster. ↗

— Walid Jumblatt

#alliance #always #born-again #christians #comes

I am frequently asked if I have visited Israel, whereas yet, it is simply assumed that I have. Well, I don’t travel. I really don’t, and if I did, I probably wouldn’t visit Israel. I remember how it was in 1948 when Israel was being established and all my Jewish friends were ecstatic, I was not. I said: what are we doing? We are establishing ourselves in a ghetto, in a small corner of a vast Muslim sea. The Muslims will never forget nor forgive, and Israel, as long as it exists, will be embattled. I was laughed at, but I was right. I can’t help but feel that the Jews didn’t really have the right to appropriate a territory only because 2000 years ago, people they consider their ancestors, were living there. History moves on and you can’t really turn it back. (#92 ff.) ↗

— Isaac Asimov

#israel #israeli-palestinian-conflict #zionism #forgiveness

I don't think that when Zionism began there was a claim that we were losing - even in part - our capacity to contribute to other peoples. ↗

— A. B. Yehoshua

#capacity #claim #contribute #even #i

Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs... Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home ↗

— Mahatma Gandhi

#arabs #israel #palestine #zionism #zionist

We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attacks on the twin towers and the pentagon and the American struggle in Iraq. These events swung American public opinion in our favor ↗

— Benjamin Netanyahu

#israel #jews #terrorism #war-on-terror #zionism

One of the dreams of Zionism was to be a bridge. Instead, we are creating exclusion between the East and the West instead of creating bridges; we are contributing to the conflict between East and West by our stupid desire to have more. ↗

— A. B. Yehoshua

#bridge #bridges #conflict #contributing #creating

Zionism demands a publicly recognized and legally secured homeland in Palestine for the Jewish people. This platform is unchangeable. ↗

— Theodor Herzl

#homeland #jewish #jewish people #legally #palestine

Extol Jewish virtue, modern Zionism and the Israeli Defense Forces. ↗

— Geraldo Rivera

#extol #forces #israeli #jewish #modern