-Caveat Lector- : with interpolations by a distinguished American antiZionist Jew. : THE LAST ZIONIST? : Isl Leibler, diehard promoter of Zionism in Australia, is now battling : "post-Zionism" in Israel. The Jerusalem Post's Eli Wohlgelernter talks : to : the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the World Jewish Congress: : Picture: Depicts young man on left wearing a typical workers cap : holding a : scythe and well muscled and looking skyward. Center Old man with white : beard : and robed pointing in the direction the man is looking (Moses?) Right, : Young : healthy looking woman wearing scarf on head, buttoned shirt open at neck : and : shirt sleeves rolled up above biceps holding large tray of produce at : thigh : level. : Caption under picture: "The idealized image of Zionism that Isl Liebler : defends. The cover of a 1937 yearbook of the United Palestine Appeal : note: - Later the United Israel Appeal -z], the forerunner of America's : United Jewish Appeal [ not quite right - the UJA is a subdivision of the : UIA -z The history is more complicated on the organizational level than : the : quick caption allows for - z]. This image courtesy of Beth Hatefutsoth : is : featured on the front of Liebler's publication. : THE AUSTRALIAN JEWISH NEWS, MELBOURNE EDITION - FRIDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2000 : PAGE 19 : If Isl Leibler were American, you'd easily recognize him on the 4th of : July. : He'd be the patriotic soul marching down the centre of the street in the : parade, waving the stars and stripes. But Leibler's not American, he's : a : transplanted Australian. His allegiance is pledged to the Jewish people : and : the State of Israel, and he holds the blue-and-white flag aloft now : because : he's heading into battle to defend Zionist ideals under seige. : Leibler, 65, is former president of the Executive Council of : Australian : Jewry, and is considered the founder of the international protest : movement : for Soviet Jewry. He is currently chairman of the governmeing board of : the : WJC, which is now taking up arms against the "post-Zionists" - whom : Liebler : accuses of having taekn over Israel's mass media and culture. : The post-Zionists, say Liebler, aim to eliminate nationalism, : patriotism, : love of the land and its connection to Jewish history - in short to : de-Judaize and "de-Zionise" Israel. "There has been a dramatic change : in : the whole perception of the country towards itself", he says, "And if : there : is not an awareness of this, we're headed for an enormous disaster in : which : all the other crises that we've had pale into insignificance. : "Because ultimately the soul of Israel - a generation of youngsters : who : feel proud to be Israelis with a Jewish background, whether it's : religious : or secular - is going to be destablized by a system that highlights all : the : negative aspects of the creation of this country and diminishes the : heroic : aspect of Zionism. If you are in that sort of a context, then you can : understand the people who are looking for a total integration of the : Jews : into the Middle East, which means ultimately the dissolution of the : Jewish : entity." : The battleline Leibler has drawn in the sand runs across the high : school classroom. His call to arms published this month, is a manifesto : entitled IS THE DREAM ENDING? POST-ZIONISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS - A : THREAT TO : THE JEWISH FUTURE. : The World Jewish Congress published the essay, and will be using : it in : an awareness campaign to help enlist more recruits to the cause. : ( Now since I am on EVERYONE's idiot list, that means I should receive : this : mailing. Otherwise I will check the WJC website and post the entire : essay. : Then we can all pick it apart bit by bit. - Z) : People who focus on day to day crises, he says, don't have time to : worry about anything but the tangible as they struggle to make a living. : I could state the obvious here with regard to Palestinians who must : build : illegal settlement housing on the West Bank for "olem" from such places : as : the former Soviet Union, Brooklyn, Australia and elsewhere, in order to : put : bread on their tables. Of course you might ask yourself, why don't : Israelis : do their own construction work? Let me know when you've reached the : answer.} : "People are concerned about the day-to-day events in the peace : process : and all the other material things. There's no emphasis on what's : happening : in their own inner home - and the inner home is the school, the culture : around us. Their children are being denied the values that they take : for : granted." : At issue, he says, is not a Left-Right ideological Zionist : conflict, : but THE PUSHING OF A UNIVERSALIST AGENDA in the schools that threatens : to : transform the very RAISON D'ETRE of the State of Israel. : "A post-Zionist is someone who actually looks positively towards : the : end of the Jewish people in ethno-centric terms, as a national group., : and : no longer sees the Jewish people as one united people. He tends to see : Israel as an enclave in itself, and would like to see Israel as a : country : which, for example, Hatikvah is no longer the national anthem, a country : in : which the flag is no longer a Magen David - in general, a multicultural : society, no longer a Jewish State. : "That may be all right in many countries, but this is a country : which : was set up and created as a Jewish country for the Jews." : Two years ago Leibler moved to Israel, bringing with him to his new : Jerusalem home 35,000 books, one of the largest private Jewish libraries : in : the world. Having promoted Zionism for most of his life outside Israel, : he : is deeply disturbed to find it in decline within the Jewish state : itself. : Liebler's argument is similar to one made by Horam Hazony in his : recent book, THE JEWISH STATE, THE STRUGGLE FOR ISRAEL'S SOUL. However : while Hazony sees the post-Zionists as decendants of Martin Buber and : Judah : Magnes, Liebler perceives a different lineage. : " I think that those people were still Jews, passionate Jews in : their : own sense, even though they weren't natinalist Jews. The post-Zionists : are : an extension of something quite different. The post-Zionists are an : extension to my mind of those Jews who were deliberately : assimilationists, : who said "the time has come to get rid of the Jewish baggage that we're : carrying." [ Of course this does not explain why the ultra-Orthodox : Satmar : Hasidim and the Neturei Karta are anti-Zionists, and have not divested : themselves of any "Jewish baggage" whatever that means. Moreover, : let's : call a spade a spade. Some of the so-called Post Zionists are in : reality : anti-Zionists, while others such as Benny Morris will still maintain : they : are Zionists. - Bill ] : Liebler is adamant in explaining that his agenda is not an attempt : to : hoodwink the secular. Even an atheis or agnostic can find pleasure and : enjoy the culture that is part and parcel of Jewish tradition, he says, : and : it should be taught to everybody. : The problem is that "because of the politicisationof religion and : because of the ugly image many religious leaders have reflected to the : world : at large, and in particular to the secular world, it's very difficult to : operate in an objective manner. - This is not an effort to infiltrate : the : system, and to make religious Jews out of [seciular]people. It's [an : effort] to give them an understanding of what Jewish religion and : culture is : all about. A general education, which even atheists in Eastern Europe : had : in their school systems. I think the role of a group that Rabbi : Melchior : heads, like Meimad, ( I'll post the www - Bill) , which I've been a : great : supporter of on occasion, is that they should be at the forefront of the : battle in this area." : Rabbi Melchior responds: "The main issue is not this government or : another government. Even Hazony will admit that most of the material he : attacks was prepared during the period when the National Religious Party : was : running the Ministry of Education. But that's not part of the : propaganda [a : bout post-Zionism] that is now being spread ALL OVER AMERICA. : "In principle, I agree that the direction of post-Zionism, or even : 'post-Judaism' is part of the intellectual life in this country, and : might : here and there creep into a few textbooks. But this is something with : which : I'm totally in agreement with Hazony, Liebler and I think, even with : Yossi : Beilin. What I very much disagree about with Leibler and Hazony is : their : description of a reality which is simply not in most Israeli : schoolbooks. I : went and looked at my children's schoolbooks and my neighbour's : children's : schoolbooks, and I didn't find any of the trends that he was talking : about. : That doesn't mean that there is not here and there something in new : schoolbooks that are not yet on the market which should be fought, and : on : that I agree with Liebler. We will be in the forefront of fighting : those : trends - in society in general, and for sure in the educational system." : Liebler's most pointed criticism is aimed at Beilin, whose remarks : to a : WJC executive meeting las spring contained in his forthcoming book, MY : BROTHER'S KEEPER, were a springboard for Liebler's essay. : He assails the justic minister on a number of counts; the : de-emphasis : on ALIYAH (immigration to Israel). and his notion that it is more : dangerous : for a Jew to live in Israel than the Diaspora; advocating a 'secular : conversion' to allow those who aree not HALACHICALLY Jewish to join 'the : club' of the Jewish people; the dissolution of many existing Zionist : organizations, like Israel Bonds, the Jewish National Fund and the : United : Jewish Communities [ the merged United Jewish Appeal and the Federation : of : Jewish Philanthropies which occured last year - Note btw that all of : the : organizations mentioned are all branches of the World Zionist : Organization/Jewish Agency.- Bill], and their replacement by a new : international umbrella group; and negating the centgrality of the land : of : Israel as part of Jewish Identity. He notes that Beilin has argued that : Beilin's grandfather, who was part of the Hovevei Zion movement [ Lovers : of : Zion - This movement preceded Herzl - Bill] ws wrong to reject the : "Uganda : Plan" in which Herzl proposed the establishment of a temporary Jewish : state : in Africa [ and of course the sentence ends there. It should say the : establishment of a temporary Jewish state in East Africa(not Uganda) on : British Colonial Territory, against the objections of the native : Africans. : But then, those were the days when non-Europeans didn't really count.- : Bill] : "What I see here is absolutely dramatic," says Leibler. "That a : minister of the State of Israel, in the year 2000, can say his : grandfather : was mistaken [ makes it into] an issue of REAL ESTATE. [ Beilin : generally : feels that] Israel could have been Uganda. It could have been somewhere : else - and it was not tongue in cheek, because I pushed him on it [at : the : WJC meeting] . This suggests to me that if it's real estate; THEN WHAT : ON : EARTH IS IT ALL ABOUT?" [ BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - but : he : will never get it. - Bill ] : Liebler emphasises that his arguments are not with individuals, : but : with the overall current movement that is pulling Israel away from its : Zionist roots. In the old days, he says, there was "a prevailing : ideology : of Labor Zionism, of nationalism, of positiveness towards Judaism, but : calculated atheism. It ws a godless form of Zionism, but it was still : nationalist and expressed about AHAVOT ERETZ YISROEL. Something has : happened to that ideology." <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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