Zionism and anti-semitism Sir: Patrick Marnham's article 'Is Israel racist?'
was an affront to all Jews regardless of the degree of their commitment to Zionism. It matters little that the attack is couched in 'anti-Zionist' terms. Mr Marnham makes clear the object of his mischievous polemic when he writes disparagingly about the Halacha, the code of Jewish religious conduct; when he implies that the conversion process of Israel's Chief Rabbinate is a sham; and, most shameful of all, when he accuses the Jews, prime victims of Nazi tyranny, of having collaborated with the Nazis in their own destruction.
These charges are not new. They bear a striking resemblance to propaganda emanating from the files of the KGB: the canard that Jews worked with the Nazis is the main theme of the Soviet hack historian, Roman Brodskye, whose article 'Zionism—another
Word for Nazism' was widely distributed by left-wing anti-semites on university camPuses. It is significant that, like the KGB, Mr Marnham relies for his sources of information on Jews who have opted out of the Jewish community—the fanatically atheistic Dr Israel Shahak and the Trotskyist ideologue Isaac Deutscher, who liked to describe himself as a 'non-Jewish Jew'.
The suggestion that 'Zionism has a vested Interest in a continuing anti-semitism' is a despicable falsehood, without substance either in theory or practice. Does Mr Mornham seriously believe that anti-semitism is In need of an artificial stimulus to develop and thrive ?
The nasty allegation that 'anti-semitism (Is] an intrinsic aspect of non-Jewish human nature', dividing the human race into Jews and anti-semites, is, according to Mr Mornham, 'a fundamental (but little known) Zionist premise'. It is 'little known' because It is utterly false. Without the support and sYmpathy of millions of Christians throughout the world the State of Israel could not have come into being. It is not Meir HarZion (whom I, a lifelong Zionist, had never heard of before he was dredged up by Dr Shahak) who is Israel's 'national hero', but a devout Christian and gallant British Officer, General Charles Orde Wingate, who Is revered for his contribution to Israel's emergence as a free, democratic and Independent state.
If it was Patrick Marnham's purpose to undermine the cause of Israel he has failed dismally. That he had to stoop to such squalid arguments is itself indicative of the Weakness of his case against Zionism. Jacob Gewirtz The Board of Deputies of British Jews, Woburn House, Upper Woburn Place, London WC1
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