Zionism Class 04 Non Jewish Responses To Zionism

For the sake of Zion I will not be silent, and for the sake of Jerusalem I will not be still, till her righteousness goes forth as radiance, and her salvation, like a burning torch. Yesha’yahu 62:1

04. Non-Jewish Reactions to Zionism

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Non-Jewish Support for Zionism 1.

For over a thousand years Christians had believed in replacement theology; the idea that the Church was the “new Israel” which had supplanted the Jews in the divine plan since the Jews had rejected the founder of Christianity. The early Church Fathers saw no continued role for Jews in the world, and it was only the influence of Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430) that gained a grudging recognition for the value of Jews. He wrote that, “The Jews... are thus by their own Scriptures a testimony to us that we have not forged the prophecies about [that man]”. For centuries this was the fragile bulwark that stood against unlimited Christian antisemitism.

2.

John Nelson Darby (1800 - 1882), an Anglo-Irish evangelist, invented the doctrine of dispensationalism. This viewpoint holds that, rather than replacing the Jews, the Christian church is only a temporary divergence from a divine plan still centered on the Jewish people, and exists only to bring gentiles to faith. The founder of Christianity could not “return” to reign on Earth until certain events occurred, including the restoration of the Jews to Eretz Yisroel.

William E. Blackstone

John Nelson Darby

3.

In 1890 a prominent Christian businessman from Illinois named William Eugene Blackstone (1841-1935) organized the Conference on the Past, Present and Future of Israel in Chicago. Participants included leaders of both Jewish and Christian communities. Resolutions of sympathy for the oppressed Jews living in Russia were passed, but Blackstone was convinced that such resolutions - even though passed by prominent men - were insufficient. He advocated strongly for the resettlement of Jewish people in Palestine. Accordingly, the Blackstone Memorial of 1891 was drafted as a petition signed by 413 prominent Christian and Jewish leaders in the United States.

4.

It read, in part: : “Why shall not the powers which under the treaty of Berlin, in 1878, gave Bulgaria to the Bulgarians and Servia to the Servians now give Palestine back to the Jews?…These provinces, as well as Romania, Montenegro, and Greece, were wrested from the Turks and given to their natural owners. Does not Palestine as rightfully belong to

the Jews?” 5.

The hugely influential 19th century Christian bible scholar and translator Cyrus Scofield (1843-1921), promoted Darby’s views through his Reference Bible, an annotated, and widely circulated, study Bible first published in 1909. Scofield said that, in those last days, the Bible predicts the return of the Jews to the Holy Land and particularly to Jerusalem. Scofield further predicted that, Islamic holy places would be destroyed, and the Temple in Jerusalem would be rebuilt - signaling the very end of the Church Age when the “Antichrist” would arise, and all who seek to do the divine will would convert to Christianity in defiance of the “Antichrist”.

6.

The successors of Scofield are those Evangelical Christian supporters of Israel, notably in the United States. Ironically Christian Zionism actually preceded secular Jewish Zionism. Cyrus Scofield

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7.

In addition to this theological support for a Jewish state, a number of non-Jews were motivated by vaguer feelings of empathy for the Jews as well as a desire to see a solution to antisemitism and recompense for Christian persecution of Jews. Both David Lloyd George (1863–1945) and Arthur James Balfour (1848–1930) were of this type.

8.

Even some antisemites looked on Zionism sympathetically, as a way to get rid of Jews.

9.

Some Arabs supported Zionism. Seeing certain verses of the Koran as indicating that the Jews would have to return to Eretz Yisroel before the Day of Judgment. This

David Lloyd George and Arthur James Balfour attitude led Emir Faisal (son of the King of Hejaz) and Chaim Weizmann (later President of the World Zionist Organization) to sign an agreement in 1919 for Arab-Jewish cooperation on the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and an Arab nation in a large part of the Middle East.

1918. Chaim Weizmann and Emir Feisal I

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Opposition to Zionism 1.

The Arab world originally viewed Zionism with indifference, perhaps because they viewed it as impractical. Rashid Rida (1865-1936), an intellectual supporter of the pan-Arabism and pan-Islamism was the first to warn against Zionism. He reproached the Arabs for their complacency in the face of the Jew’s plan to take “their country”. (One of Rida’s most significant students was Imam Hassan al Banna (1906 – 1949) the Egyptian social and political reformer best known as founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas is the Palestinian Arab branch of this organization.

2.

In 1899 the mayor of Jerusalem, Yusuf al-Khalidi, wrote to the Chief Rabbi of France telling him that while Zionism could be understood in theory, its implementation would require brute force since Palestine is an inhabited country under Ottoman rule. It would be better for everyone that "Palestine be left in peace". Herzl himself replied to this letter, reassuring al-Khalidi that Arabs had nothing to fear from the immigration of the Jews who would make "faithful and good subjects" of the Turkish Sultan and "excellent brothers" for the Arabs.

Sheikh Mohamed Rashid Rida

3.

As Zionism became more of a reality, and less of an apparent pipe dream, Arab opposition to it stiffened. The (mainly Russian) members of the Second aliya combined tough personalities with socialist ideology that bordered on religious fervor. They refused to employ Arabs, not out of prejudice against them, but based on a belief in “redemption through labor”. These Jews met banditry against their settlements, not by hiring Arab watchmen, but with their own, armed resistance. Gradually, the stage was being set for nationalistically motivated fighting between Jews and Arabs.

4.

The two Jerusalem Arabs who were elected to the Ottoman Parliament in 1914 ran on anti-Zionist platforms. In 1919 the Palestinian delegation to the Syrian Congress proclaimed, “Zionism is more dangerous than the French occupation, for the French know they are foreigners, whilst the Zionists believe that they are at home in Palestine”.

5.

As we have seen, Jews had been reasonably secure in Muslim societies (at least in comparison to Christian Europe) as long as they were willing to submit to Muslim subjugation. This new attitude of self-reliance was increasingly intolerable to the Arabs. 6.

The opponents of Zionism amongst the Arabs found a champion and spokesman in Mohammad Haj Amin al-Husayni (1895 or 1893 - 1974). He was an Arab nationalist and Islamic scholar who was appointed Mufti of Jerusalem in 1921. A skillful politician, he consolidated his position as leader of the Arabs of Palestine by a combination of scheming and violence. He used the same methods to influence British policies under the Mandate to limit Jewish immigration. He fermented riots against the Jews (often by using lying propaganda) and terror against his Arab opponents. During WWII he traveled to Germany and helped the Haj Amin al-Husayni and friend Nazi regime. He broadcast propaganda for the Nazis in Arabic, and recruited Muslims (mainly from Serbia) into the SS. One of his descendents was Yasir Arafat.

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