Judaism and Zionism: Are all Jews Zionists?

By: M. Sharifi

With Moses as its revered prophet and the Torah as its sacred scripture, Judaism is one of the world's monotheistic faiths. Since Zionism is a political movement that emerged through distorting the true Jewish teachings, it stands in opposition to traditional Judaism, and a stark distinction between the two should be drawn. A bellicose nationalism and imperialism best describe Zionism. Its inception may well be traced back to 19th-century European colonialism rather than Judaism. To conceal its malicious political agendas, Zionism employs a deviant reading of the Torah that is arbitrary, unorthodox, and based on a divergence from God's orders.

Since 1948, when they occupied Palestine and established the fictitious state of Israel, Zionists have fallaciously claimed to be back in their ancestral homeland. Here is where Jewish and Zionist ideologies most sharply conflict with one another. Zionists claim that Jews do not deserve to give up their political ambitions after enduring two thousand years of persecution. The founding members of the Zionist movement often self-identified as nonreligious and atheists, and the majority of Israeli political party leaders share this view.

Orthodox opponents of Zionism, on the other hand, believe that the Jews were punished by God by being banished from Palestine and that they will not be allowed there again until they have attained religious virtues. As the Torah teaches, the ultimate return to Palestine would be completely peaceful, and it is against the laws of Moses to forcibly relocate Jews from other countries to Palestine or to engage in any kind of political violence against Palestinian Arabs.

As a result, a growing number of Jews across the globe argue that the Israeli regime's occupation is religiously unlawful. A movement of Haredi Jews that has always stood with the oppressed Palestinian nation throughout the past decades is Neturei Karta. Many Israelis, says Rabbi Dovid Feldman of the Naturi Karta organization, are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause but are afraid to speak out for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic.

Rabbi Feldman says that the Jewish perspective of view has always been that the so-called State of Israel should not exist at all. He adds that the construction of new settlements in the occupied West Bank is only one manifestation of the aggressive and combative nature of Zionists. "We, as faithful Jews who adhere to centuries-old traditions, are ashamed when Zionists claim to be Jews and act in the name of the Torah. Just because someone professes to be following a religion does not mean that the religion has justified that crime," Rabbi Feldman stressed.