ZIONISM - A MISTAKE?

It is my belief is that Zionism, the ideology that brought the establishment of a Jewish homeland, a Jewish State, is a plus rather than a minus for the Jews and the world. However much peace between Israel and the Arab world has eluded fruition and whoever bears what weight of guilt for this lack of peace, the creation of a modern state for the Jewish people was and is a positive step for humanity. I believe this to be so despite the iniquities of Israel and the Jews toward the indigenous Arab population of what was the territory of Palestine.

The lot of the Palestinian Arabs over the past sixty years since the State of Israel came into being, could have been and should have been very different, independent of what the Jews did and are doing to them. Even today, their horrible existence could be turned around completely regardless of the history between the two Peoples. To search for the solution to their existential problems in the removal of the Zionist enterprise is a sad trap into which they and their mentors have fallen.

For those Jews who believe that peace lies in the removal of Israel or in the reduction of the defense capability of Israel in the face of the reality of Arab aggression and the clearly stated goal of wiping out Israel and the Jewish People by Muslim nations and their allies, the sad picture of Jewish history must be shown again and again.

Asking Israel to act peacefully and humanely in the face of that continued aggression and blaming Israel for that continued aggression is simply naive. We personally would not act that way in the face of continued attacks on our children. Why should we ask the nation to act that way?

The Palestinians and their brethren bear collective responsibility for this state of affairs certainly no less than Israel and its supporters. The simple truth is, based on the actions of both sides over the years since the Zionist movement came into being, that the first blood shed was always the blood of Jews.

Finally, through the millennia of history, war has changed the face of geography and the fate of nations. It will continue to do so. The Balfour Declaration went away. Our "bi-national state" went away. The Partition Plan of the United Nations went away. Only the detritus of war has remained. The return of Jews to Israel could have and should have brought an elevation in the lives of Palestinian and Israeli Arabs. The movement was a peaceful one. Yet it could not succeed without wars brought to it by Muslim nations. It is not Israel's choice to find peace in the grave if the Jewish People is to continue to exist.