Is it Zionism or Jewishness? You decide

BY GILAD AZTMON – In the early 2000s I realised that if Israel defines itself as the Jewish State, we must first ask who are the Jews, what is Zionism, what is Jewishness and how these notions relate to each other and affect Israeli politics, Jewish political lobbying, Jewish pressure groups and so on (…) In this radio program moderated by the great Tony Gosling, Tony Greenstein and myself debate what I believe to be the most crucial question  to do with Israel and Zionism. Is it Zionism or actually Jewish ideology that drives the barbarism of the state that calls itself  “the Jewish State”?

ED-NOTE – What is ‘jewishness’? What is it rooted in? And what is the actual name of this ‘Jewish ideology that drives the barbarism of the Jewish State’? As always, Gilad Atzmon aims his arrow in the right direction but as always, sadly, he fails to shoot. The title of the article should have been “Is it Zionism or JUDAISM?” but I guess not even a Jew (or former Jew) is allowed to get that close to the fence.

For all who have eyes to see, it is as clear as daylight – what defines ‘jewishness’ is TORAH Judaism. And if we want to narrow it down further, it is rooted in the concept of ‘choseness’ as defined in the Old Testament.  In other words, there would be no ‘jewishness’ weren’t it for Judaism. Likewise, Judaism is THE ideology that drives the Jewish State and this is not simply a conclusion one comes to after merely scratching the surface of the ‘Jewish Question’. It is what many Jewish politicians and religious leading figures have reminded us time and time again: the Torah is their Constitution and their barbarism can only be understood when one remembers that the biblical military role model for modern day Jews is Joshua, the only to fight a war is the Joshua’s way – utterly destroy everything and leave nothing that breathes alive. CONTINUE READING