Somebody invited me through Facebook to enter the "Next Big Jewish Idea" contest. They want me to "win $100k to mobilize the Jewish community." My response:
Here's a Jewish idea that's worth a lot more than $100k: "End Zionism." If it flies, it wins the prize - the Nobel Peace Prize, that is.
Anybody who can mobilize world Jewry to end Zionism will go down in history with King, Gandhi and the other great peacemakers. A successful mass Jewish movement to end Zionism would also end the last vestiges of anti-Semitism, as it would showcase the positive side of the great Jewish ethical tradition in a manner that could not be denied.
Why should Jews want to end Zionism? The short answer is that Zionism is not what most Jews think it is. The history of the Zionist invasion and ethnic cleansing of Palestine is the complete opposite of what most Jews believe. It is a terrible, shameful history - but one that offers the chance of redemption IF the world Jewish community can rise to the occasion.
The Jewish mass movement to end Zionism could begin with members of every synagogue in the diaspora forming discussion groups focused on Alan Hart's book Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews--the book that best lays out the real history of Israel-Palestine and exposes the need for a mass Jewish movement to end Zionism. (Listen to Alan Hart explain the need for this movement on my radio show here.)
Most diaspora Jews are relatively educated, liberal, and fair-minded. Those who can bring themselves to go through the wrenching experience of facing the real historical facts about the Israel-Palestine conflict, and watching the propaganda lies they had previously believed get blown to smithereens, will quickly join the mass Jewish movement to end Zionism.
Ironically, a Jewish-instigated peaceful end to Zionism offers the only hope for Jews to live safely in Israel-Palestine. By joining the mass movement to end Zionism, Jews will be helping safeguard the lives of the Jews presently living in Israel, and especially the lives of their descendants. They will also be safeguarding themselves and their own diaspora communities against the rise of a new wave of anti-Semitism generated by worldwide revulsion against the crimes of Zionism.
Being an anti-Zionist Jew is not only the right thing to do - it's cool! As Douglas Rushkoff has written, at the core of Judaism is iconoclasm - and Zionism is a dumb, old-school icon just waiting to be smashed. As younger Jews figure this out, turn anti-Zionist, and (at first) horrify their families, anti-Zionism will gradually go from being a Jewish counterculture to a Jewish mass movement.
I call on all members of the Jewish community, especially the younger, smarter folks who will be more receptive to this message, to build a mass movement of Jews against Zionism. As more and more young, brilliant, liberal-minded people of Jewish heritage like Jonathan Elinoff and Peymon Mottaheda begin to realize that the Zionist project itself is the problem, and join Rabbi Weiss in rejecting Zionism, we can expect to see this movement surge into something capable of taking down AIPAC and eventually turning Israel into One Country for all its people -- Jews and non-Jews alike.
See:
www.jewsagainstzionism.com/
www.jewsnotzionists.org/
http://www.freewebs.com/jewsagainstzionism/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jews-Against-Zionism/109328919094330
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jews-United-Against-Zionism/110598375629255
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Muslims-Not-ALL-Jews-are-Zionists/123574854356053Labels: Alan Hart, anti-Zionism, end Zionism, ethnic cleansing, Israel-Palestine, Jews Against Zionism, Naturei Karta, Next Big Jewish Idea, Zionism
Anybody who can mobilize world Jewry to end Zionism will go down in history with King, Gandhi and the other great peacemakers. A successful mass Jewish movement to end Zionism would also end the last vestiges of anti-Semitism, as it would showcase the positive side of the great Jewish ethical tradition in a manner that could not be denied.