The Sun (Malaysia) | By K. K. Tan | 15 January 2009

THE barbaric behaviour of the warmongering Zionist regime in Israel in its military operations and treatment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza can best be explained in one word – racism.

Let it be clear from the onset that this article is not attacking Jews or Judaism per se and it respects the equal rights of Jewish people the world over to live peacefully and practise their religion like any other human beings. It will make a clear distinction between Zionists and ordinary Jews and between Zionism as an ideology and Judaism as a religion.

Zionism started as an ideology by Theodore Herzl in 1900 to find a homeland for persecuted and “homeless” Jews based on his convenient interpretation of the Scriptures. (Zion refers to the old fortress in Jerusalem in the scriptures captured by David which came to represent the symbol for Judaism and the term was exploited by the Zionist political movement.) Somehow, Palestine was chosen as their homeland.

In 1917, the Zionist movement got its first major endorsement from the then British government in the form of The Balfour Declaration. The declaration stated that the British government “view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” with the understanding that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine…”

How this was possible when Palestine was already populated with its own people for centuries made a mockery of this self-righteous declaration, which was lobbied for by a secret network of influential Zionists in Britain and the US. The growing and immense power and influence of the “Zionist network and lobby” on global politics, continue to amaze many analysts, even until today.

The immigration of Jews especially from Europe to Palestine took on a significant level after World War I. It reached gigantic proportions after World War II when the Holocaust (the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis) was used as the main reason by the Zionists to demand the formation of an independent state of Israel in Palestine, which was still under the protection of Britain then. After a series of terrorist bombings engineered by the Zionists (yes, the Zionists were the first in the world to use terrorism to achieve a political objective in the post war era) and together with well-orchestrated PR campaigns in the West (where the media was greatly controlled or influenced by Zionists), Britain finally agreed to the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. Palestinians were driven from their homes to less favourable areas such as West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinians had no choice but to organise resistance and rebellion against the new political masters (Zionists).

Much of the West supported the formation of Israel for geo-political reasons, especially the need to have a “friendly proxy” in the highly strategic and oil-producing Middle East region to neutralise a growing independence movement in many countries of this region.

The UN General Assembly in 1975 (Resolution 3379) declared Zionism to be a form of racism and condemned Israel for collaborating extensively with the then apartheid regime in South Africa. It was only in 1991, 16 years later, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the re-alignment of political forces in the UN and the weakening of the Arab states after the Iraq war of 1991 that the resolution was rescinded.

Israel in many ways is like an apartheid state where it subtly discriminates against Arabs and non-Jews and even oriental Jews. It is no surprise to many people why Israel was also the strongest backer of the South African apartheid regime. The Zionist regime treats the Palestinians as sub-humans or animals much like the white masters did to black slaves. The only difference is that while outright racism in the West and South Africa was more “inclusive” within its society and perpetuated in front of the eyes of its people, most of the atrocities of the Zionist regime take place outside Israel where its own population has been largely shielded from the inhumanity suffered by the Palestinians. Therefore, the atrocities committed by the Zionist regime are more inhuman and brutal.

A public photo exhibition in Tel Aviv in 2004 titled “Bringing Hebron to Tel Aviv” was only intended to be a light introduction to the scenes the soldiers had witnessed and without revealing the real horrors of the treatment of Palestinians. Yet the exhibition was met with disbelief, grief and outrage by the Israeli public. This has been the extent the Israeli public has been fed with lies and propaganda on how the government has treated the Palestinian people.

There have been many reports of senior officers and soldiers of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) refusing to obey orders (and they are prepared to face the consequences such as jail sentences) to bomb, destroy or kill because they find the orders to be so obnoxious and repugnant to their liberal conscience. They accused the leadership of the IDF of deliberately ordering soldiers to commit atrocities against innocent civilians (often covering up with the excuse of unintentional “collateral damage”) so as to cause maximum sufferings and fear in the civilian population.

A recent TV interview of a former Israeli Air Force captain, Yonatan Shapira, about the current offensive in Gaza spoke volumes about the Zionist regime. He accused the IDF of deliberately targeting civilians and committing state terrorism. He said: “How can killing innocent women and children help to make Israel safer or used to justify the rocket attacks by Hamas?”

Many thousands of Jews living in the West with better access to the actual situation on the ground, are also openly condemning the latest offensive by Israel. While they do not condone the rocket attacks by Hamas, many find the actions of the IDF grossly disproportionate. It’s like killing an entire community of 500 slaves to punish them for the action of one slave who killed a white person. More and more Jews all over the world are seeing the true colours of Zionism and opposing it openly.

Zionists have a psychological way of using the Holocaust and the discrimination that Jews suffered in Europe as an excuse for the formation of Israel and any criticism of Zionism is often equated with “racism” or being “anti-semitic”. Judaism is actually a religion but a race can also refer to any ethnic, cultural or religious group practicing a common set of customs and rules. Even if we accept the Jews as a race, no right thinking people are against the Jews or Judaism per se and many even sympathise with the sufferings of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis.

The irony of it all is that the Zionist regime is treating the Palestinians much like the Nazis treated the ordinary Jews (many who are opposed to Zionism as well). And the Nazis were accused of being racists and rightly so.

Some may argue that Israel is a democratic state (only for the Israelis), but so was the Nazi regime – Adolf Hitler was popularly elected by the Germans too. Being elected democratically alone does not give a carte blanch to any party to oppress the weak or minorities; it must still practise universal principles such as respect for human rights and equality. Whatever the injustices suffered by the Jews, it cannot be used to justify the forced formation of Israel and the brutal and racist treatment of the Palestinian people. Just as Hitler preached the supremacy of the white Aryan race in his Nazi ideology, Zionist ideology preaches the superiority and exclusivity of the “Jewish race” for a certain group of “chosen” people.

There have been various reasons given for the offensive in Gaza and its timing such as the coming election in Israel, the impending US presidency of Barack Obama, stirring further rifts in the Palestinian power struggles between Fatah and Hamas and other geo-political ones. Whatever the reasons, the Zionist regime’s inhuman treatment of the Palestinians can only be described in one word – racism. And racism is at the core of Zionism (not Judaism) since its ideology started about 100 years ago.

Most countries, and the UN, have come to accept the fait accompli that the only sustainable way forward is to have a two-state solution of Israel and Palestine (consisting mainly of Gaza and West Bank) living in peace side by side and respecting each other’s territorial integrity. But for that to happen, a new regime in Israel needs to be in place, and one that respects the rights of Palestinians, Muslim Arabs and other non-Jews as equals.

Perhaps the new US presidency, in the long-term interests of Israel and the Middle East and to uphold the principles of equality, fairness and justice which Obama stands for, should push for a regime change in Israel just like what it did to Iraq in 2003. The Zionist regime in Israel should be treated by the world community in the same way apartheid South Africa was treated not too long ago – with the full force of sanctions and isolation to force a regime change.

The writer is the CEO of a think-tank and strategic consultancy firm based in Kuala Lumpur. He can be contacted at kktan22@hotmail.com.

Source: TS

See also: World Cup against racism | Roots of racism