It is bizarre that a movement that achieved its goals over 75 years ago still has its rationale and morality called into question. Yet Zionism and the state it founded are frequently attacked as unjustified and immoral.
Zionism is most frequently denounced after Israel is unsuccessfully attacked. Failed attempts to annihilate Israel and its Jewish population in the 1948 War of Independence, the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War prompted worldwide condemnation not of the genocidal attackers but of Israel.
The responses to Israel’s victories have including the Arab League’s famous “three no’s” and the heinous 1975 U.N. resolution branding Zionism a form of racism.
Thus, it is no surprise that in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacre and its failure to destroy the Jewish state, Israel’s enemies and even former friends have their verbal knives out.
Ghanem Nuseibeh is one of those former friends. He is the founder of Cornerstone Global Associates and acts as a political and economic consultant with business interests in the Middle East and Europe. Besides his professional work, he has been engaged in interfaith dialogue for over two decades and is the chair of Muslims Against Antisemitism.
Yet in a recent tweet, Nuseibeh wrote, “Zionism has failed. It may have had merits in [sic] past but it is now a genocidal cult against Christians, Muslims and Jewish allies in [sic] Holy Land. It is now a colonial cult which must be dismantled, just like Islamist extremism. Which is why many Jewish Israeli leaders are against it. Israel must now look at post-Zionism as Avraham Burg, Israel’s former Knesset speaker, postulated 20 years ago.”
These hateful words weren’t enough for Nuseibeh. He continued, “Jewish nationhood is understandable. I support it. Zionism was an acceptable theory wrongly implemented as it dispossessed Christian and Muslim communities in Palestine, including my family. We are now beyond Zionism. It’s a failed, impractical ideology. Ok in theory, bad in practice. It is immoral and racist and Islamophobic and anti-Christian—if you support Zionism and don’t support the Palestinian right of return.”
Nuseibeh spewed all the standard anti-Zionist slanders, characterizing it as failed, genocidal, colonial and cultish. As per usual, he gaslighted Zionists by claiming that Jewish leaders themselves have turned against Zionism. He added hypocrisy to hate by claiming he was never against Zionism and its goals, but must decry its implementation based on false claims that Zionism has become immoral, racist and Islamophobic. Finally, Nuseibeh pathetically claims to be a victim of Zionist crimes that never occurred.
Due to their own success, Zionists can ignore the baseless accusations of haters like Nuseibeh. Zionism’s success can be attributed to Divine Providence, which blessed the Jewish people because it has stayed loyal to traditional Jewish values of justice and righteousness—especially in the way it treats others.
As history has proven, the Jewish state did not dispossess non-Jewish communities in Israel. It welcomed Arabs to stay and eventually granted Israeli Arabs citizenship with equal rights. Today, over two million Arabs live as Israelis in a democratic Jewish state. In its many wars, Israel was committed to preserving innocent life to the best of its abilities. As countless military experts have testified, South Africa’s recent accusation of genocide was a laughable blood libel.
Zionism’s survival and triumph are exceptional when compared to other movements founded at the same time. Many 19th century movements sought to improve the human condition, but usually failed because of their weak and corrupt foundations. Movements like communism and socialism pledged to create equality among all peoples, but its leaders sought only to enrich themselves. They had their years of success, but ultimately ended when the masses recognized their nefarious spirit.
Zionism was different. It also sought to advance mankind to a better world, but differentiated itself in its genuineness.
Zionism feared the destruction of the Jewish people through persecution and assimilation. It embraced the world’s newfound attention to national and individual rights to claim the same rights for the Jewish people in their historic homeland.
Through political lobbying, diplomacy and sheer grit, the Jewish people earned their return to their land. They were given international backing to set up the first Jewish commonwealth in the Land of Israel in close to 2,000 years. The Jewish people have a great deal to be proud of. The horrible slanders are irrelevant.
Source: JNS