Much of the discussion above amounts to standard leftism – criticizing racism, colonialism and so on. Zionism is seen as a white Western colonial project.

For example ‘super390′ raises the Arizona immigration issue, partly seeing the new law as white people defending their ethnic interests, and ridicules it. “No wonder their embrace of Israel grows ever tighter”.

The left’s weakness in opposing Israeli apartheid (compared to its success vs. South African apartheid) has something to do with this traditional approach. There is no logical reason for right-wing, patriotic, Christian white Americans to support Israel. At all. A Palestine Solidarity Movement would make the most of this insight.

by Adam Horowitz on August 3, 2010
link to mondoweiss.net

link to seminal.firedoglake.com

marsdragon August 3rd, 2010 at 8:12 am
5

I read Mr. Cole’s Salon article, and found it quite fascinating. Here’s the link again:
link to salon.com

He makes great use of established, peer-reviewed Near Eastern Archaeology, linguistic studies, and textual analysis. The one question I would have for him is whether he thinks the Monotheistic movements of Akhenaten and Tutankhamen (and perhaps others of the Aten priesthood of that time) and have been found to have migrated into the Sinai may be connected to the roots of ancient Judaism. I have wondered if perhaps the Egyptian finds that indicate an EXPULSION of Atenites from the post Tutankhamen rule may be connected to the emergence of monotheism in Canaan.

OTherwise, I think his analysis is spot on. But here is the real problem in pragmatic terms:

Most of the Western World and Muslim world spiritual consensus has been built upon the cornerstone of the Abrhamaic faiths (“The people of the Book” concept). It becomes VERY HARD for average citizens of those nations to be willing to accept the realities of the history of their shared faiths. They close their minds to this archaeological history – not because they are Zionist. But because they are FUNDAMENTALISTS. Even if they think they are not fundamentalists. They cannot put their minds around the concept that the “Exodus” may be an after-the-fact contrivance by a religious elite to create a useful mythology. They cannot accept the textual history of the New TEstatement indicating that most of the “Canonical” books were penned by Rome-backed clergy after the 4th century. They cannot handle any indication that their “true faith” is based on myth. The same is true for Muslims, who are so certain that Jerusalem was sacred to the first two Abrahamic Faiths, and thus must be sacred to Islam as well.

All this is to say that if you accept the archaeological record, it poses MANY theological problems for people whose faiths are dependent upon fundamentalist and strict literalist renderins of their scriptures.

Its a catch 22. The ideal would be for this “holy land” to stop being the source of religious friction. For all these people of the world to realize that this is just a myth that has outlived its usefulness. But, its like a game of chicken – which faith group do you think will collectively come to that first? And if they did, the clergy’s of each monotheistic faith would endeavor to shut down the movement before it began. Religious Clergy have POWER over billions with the investment of those billions’ energy into believing those myths.

In many ways, the 3 millenia of “monotheism” have been a constant push to eliminate “Paganism” (which had nothing to do with Abraham, Jerusalem, or “one god”) so as to establish a monopoly over the power religion can yield in people’s lives. That campaign is now 2/3 complete. Almost 4 billion of the 6 billion people on this planet now are “captive” to the “One God” concept. And that “One God” concept fundamentally places Jerusalem as the center of the earth (or near to it) and fundamental to each traditions’ idea of the “One God.”

So, much of our WEstern moral tradition was built with the power of this concept of the “One God” but at the same time, it has allowed the most virulent and destructive and monopolistic forces (Monotheism’s war against heresy and paganism and “otherism”) to bring our civilization and world to the brink of Nuclear Armageddon.

And it is entirely conceivable that these 3 “People of the Book” of Abrahamic tradition will be willing to each engineer their version of Armageddon to spite the other 2 traditions.

Either society as a whole has to be prepared to “unwrought” was made with the engine of Monotheism, or we have to be prepared to continue to endure the blackmail and tyranny of this Monotheism in its present form.

So, “Zionism” is merely one aspect of this problem. Christianism and Islamism are no different than Zionism. And the societies and political cultures those 3 movements have created encompass most of the Western and Muslim world. China and India may be the most immune to this tyranny, as the majority of their adherents have no “spiritual stake” in the accuracy of the 3 “sacred texts,” no “Spiritual stake” in the status of Jerusalem, and no “spiritual stake” in this place called “Holy Land.”

If it is God’s, then let him have it. But most of history has demonstrated that if there is a God-forsaken patch on this planet, Jerusalem has been at the center of it for 3000 years.

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Watt4Bob August 3rd, 2010 at 10:16 am
14

The PI conflict has almost nothing to do with religion, and is just over one hundred years old.

The roots of the present trouble lies in the poor choices made by Zionists and Palestinian Arabs alike in the early 1900’s as the interests of Zionist immigrants and indigenous Palestinians diverged.

If those Zionists who envisioned integration of Palestinian Arabs into the future nation had prevailed rather than those who considered integration of Palestinian Arabs an impossibility, things may have turned out differently.

If Palestinian Arabs had been a little further along on the path of developing nationalist organizations whose visions provided an alternative to being citizens of the fading Ottoman Empire, things may have turned out differently.

It’s necessary to appreciate the fact that Zionists were well-organized Europeans and Palestinian Arabs were, at the time, un-organized subjects of the Ottomans.

While a hundred years seems like a long time, it is still recent enough that there need be no archeology involved in learning the history, the public library is filled with books that can enlighten anybody who cares to know the history of the conflict.

Knowing the history a little better eases the mind a bit but in the end you will still find yourself in an environment filled with rancor, and the debate such as it is, dominated by powerful interests who, much like our own government can’t be bothered with the problems of those at the bottom of the pile.

When it became apparent how useful the land of Palestine could be in the Great Game played by the world’s powers, her people, whether Jewish, Moslem, or Christian, lost almost all hope that their own interests would ever be taken into account when those powers sat down to discuss the future.

And there was nobody at the table arguing about God.

Unlike many similar documentaries, “The Bible’s Buried Secrets” does not begin with the book of Genesis or the Patriarchal period. Rather, it opens with the problematic issue of whether it is possible to establish a firm and reliable chronology between the Bible and archaeology. It uses Sir William Flinder Petrie’s 1896 discovery of the “Merneptah Stele” in Thebes, Egypt, as an illustration. This monument, carved in 1208 B.C.E., recounts the military victories of the son of Ramesses the Great—the king many believe was the Pharaoh of the biblical Exodus. One line of this text reads “Israel is laid waste, its seed is not.” Egyptologist Donald Redford suggests this passage is the earliest evidence that a people called “Israel” existed. William Dever—a familiar name to BAR readers—examines the problem in correlating such artifacts with the Bible, which is primarily a theological document. He suggests that we are on firmest ground when we find intersections between science and Scripture. Unfortunately, as he and many experts stress throughout the show, such correspondences are rare, and often subject to multiple interpretations.

[...]

The producers have done a magnificent job summarizing over a century of biblical archaeology and biblical scholarship in two hours. The film strikes a balance between the old-fashioned biblical archaeology approach, which tried to prove the Bible’s historicity, and the extreme skepticism of some minimalists, for whom the Bible contains little factual history. The documentary reflects the view of most mainstream biblical scholars and archaeologists, namely that the Bible, although a theological work, does contain some historical memories of the ancient Israelites. Scholars will lament the lack of a more critical analysis of some of the film’s claims, especially the proposed identification of David’s palace. The special often gives the impression that there was a single “Bible” in antiquity, and fails to acknowledge that many different versions of each biblical book existed. Nevertheless, viewers of this show should gain a greater appreciation for the Bible’s complexities, and gain some understanding of why it is difficult to correlate this theological text with the historical and archaeological record.

In About-Face, Israel Agrees To U.N. Probe Of Raid

by The Associated Press

link to npr.org

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The “Summer Camp Of Destruction:” Israeli High Schoolers Assist The Razing Of A Bedouin Town: by Max Blumenthal
link to seminal.firedoglake.com