Perspective 11 April 2005 - Ted Lapkin

Perspective 11 April 2005 - Ted Lapkin

[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/perspective/stories/s1342920.htm]

There is a Middle East country that legally defines itself as an ethnic state. The constitution of this same nation declares that a particular religious code constitutes its “principle source of legislation.”

The name of that country is Egypt; the ethnicity to which it declares its allegiance is Arab; the religious code in question is Islamic Sharia law. And the Egyptians are hardly alone. From the Palestinian Authority to Tunisia, the Middle East is dominated by nations that formally declare themselves to be Arab/Islamic states.

Yet whenever the subject of sectarian nationalism surfaces in public discourse on the Middle East, it invariably appears as a polemical weapon of abuse against Israel. In fact, the ethnic identity of the Jewish state serves as ‘Exhibit A’ in the anti-Zionist case against Israel’s moral legitimacy as a sovereign nation.

If Israel’s enemies were truly motivated by a principled opposition to ethnic sectarianism, then it seems reasonable to expect that they would fight other examples of this phenomenon with equal vigour. But leftist pundits and politicians maintain a deafening silence on the Arab/Islamic equivalents to Zionism that exist throughout the Levant. These salon revolutionaries castigate the Middle East’s oldest democracy for all manner of sins, while remaining largely silent about the region’s worst despots and tyrants

There are no raucous street demonstrations demanding non-sectarian statehood outside the embassies of Morocco or Algeria. There are no petitions circulating through university campuses calling for divestment from Jordan. And the blatantly ethnic and religious character of Palestine’s draft constitution has not dimmed affection for that cause within the ranks of the Western Left.

Selective criticism is also applied to Israel’s preferential immigration policy that affords immediate citizenship and benefits to Jewish migrants. Zionists maintain that Israel’s ‘Law of Return’ is an essential means of fulfilling its national mission as a Jewish homeland. And one of the most notable instances of Israel’s ingathering project involved the sole instance in history when Black Africans were transported en mass to freedom rather than slavery. From 1985 to 1991, the Israeli Air Force flew 36,000 Ethiopian Jews from persecution and degradation to a new life in the Jewish state. Yet to Israel’s detractors, Zionist immigration policy constitutes conclusive evidence that the Jewish state is irredeemably racist.

But the Federal Republic of Germany has long maintained its “aussiedler” (resettler) system of preferential ethnic immigration without attracting similar condemnation. Article 116(1) of Germany’s constitution confers automatic citizenship upon persons “of German origins,” as well as a generous social welfare package to soften their absorption into society.

Thus both Germany and Israel maintain affirmative action-style policies that facilitate preferential immigration on the basis of overtly ethnic criteria. Yet while Israel’s Law of Return serves as moral justification for those who demand the dissolution of the Jewish state, the aussiedler program generates no attacks against German national legitimacy.

And the same imbalance is brought to bear on the question of Israel and Palestinian refugees. The Arabs insist on a ‘right of return’ that would permit millions of Palestinians to settle in Tel Aviv, Haifa and other parts of Israel’s heartland. Thus this demand is simply euphemistic shorthand for the ethnic eradication of the Jewish state.

The cause of Palestinian return has been enthusiastically adopted by the Left. But one must wonder why there are no similar advocacy campaigns for the return of 16 million Muslims and Hindus displaced during the upheavals that accompanied the independence of India. One must also ask why the European Union opposes the compensation claims made by 10 million ethnic Germans who were expelled from eastern Europe in the aftermath of WWII. And one must marvel at the global amnesia that is applied to the 800,000 Jews who were expelled from the Arab world during the years following Israel’s creation.

It appears that what is good for the non-Jewish goose is not good for the Jewish gander. Jewish self-determination is deemed to be morally insufferable, but similar manifestations of nationalism pass without pejorative mention.

But don’t pejorative attitudes that are selectively applied to a given ethnic group constitute the essence of bigotry? And if negative treatment is applied to Jews; but not to others, isn’t that the textbook definition of anti-Semitism?

Of course tempered criticism of a particular Israeli policy does not necessarily equal a call for the abolition of the Jewish state. But the selective outrage of Israel’s mortal foes does call into question their moral integrity. And if the anti-Zionist campaign to de-Judaise Israel is not motivated by sublimely universal principles, one must seek another source for its unyielding ferocity.

The explanation for this is simple: modern anti-Zionism is simply the newest face of the oldest hatred; a modern repackaging of ancient anti-Semitic doctrines that have marred human history for the past two millennia.

Guests on this program:

Ted Lapkin

Asssociate editor

The Review

Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council

Further information:

http://www.aijac.org.au/review/2000/254/ed254.html

Producer: Sue Clark

© 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation

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