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(English:) Dr. Ludwig Watzal is a German politologist and author of books. See his website www.watzal.com. On this page you find some reviews of his. (Deutsch:) Dr. Ludwig Watzal ist Politologe und Buchautor. Siehe seine Website www.watzal.com. Auf dieser Seite stehen einige seiner Rezensionen. |
Beiträge: - Review of: Ghada Karmi, Married To Another Man. Israelīs Dilemma in Palestine (03.11.2007) - Rezension: John J. Mearsheimer/Stephen M. Walt, Die Israel-Lobby. (PDF 09/2007) - Review of: Yakov M. Rabkin, A Threat From Within. A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. (01.06.2007) - Review of: Khaled Hroub, Hamas. A Beginnerīs Guide (10.12.2006) - Review of: Arthur Neslen, Occupied Minds (17.09.2006) - Review of: Jonathan Cook, Blood and Religion (16.09.2006) |
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Israelīs Dilemma in Palestine (03.11.2007) Ghada Karmi, Married To Another Man. Israelīs Dilemma in Palestine, Pluto Press, London-Ann Arbor, MI/USA 2007, 315 p., 14.99. Two Rabbis, visiting Palestine in 1897, observed that the land was like a bride, "beautiful, but married to another man". By which they meant that, if a place was to be found for a Jewish "homeland" in Palestine, the indigenous inhabitants had to leave. Where should the people of Palestine go? Squaring that circle has been the essence of Israelīs dilemma ever since its establishment and the cause of the Palestinian tragedy that it led to. It has remained insolvable. The book shows that the major reason for this failure was the original and unresolved Zionist quandary of how to create and maintain a Jewish state in a land inhabited by another people. Zionism was never able to resolve the problem of "the other man". There are only two ways: either the "other man" had to be eradicated, or the Jewish state project had to be given up. Israel dit not do either. They succeeded in 1948 in expelling and keeping out a large number of Palestinians, but Israel was never able to "cleanse" the land of Palestine entirely. The fundamental mistake of the Zionist project was the belief that "the entire land of Palestine was Jewish and the Arab presence in it a resented foreign intrusion". All in all, the Zionist project was "relatively" successful, but for the indigenous ownerīs of the land it was a catastrophe which has been going on until today. "If Israel remains a colonialist state in its character, it will not survive. In the end the region will be stronger than Israel, in the end the indigenous people will be stronger than Israel." Akiva Eldar quoted the former Mazpen member Haim Hangebi in the Israeli daily Haaretz on August 8th, 2003. The author concludes: "Zionismīs ethos was not about peaceful co-existence but about colonialism and an exclusivist ideology to be imposed and maintained by force." |
The Zionist dilemma was perfectly and bluntly expressed by the so-called post-Zionist and professor Benny Morris which led not only to an uproar in the scientific community, but also to a deep disappointment, because Morris was considered to belong to the "new historians". In this interview with the daily Haaretz and in his article in the Guardian he presented himself as an ardent Zionist. "He encapsulates all Zionismīs major elements, its inherent implausibility as a practical project, its arrogance, racism and self-righteousness, and the insurmountable obstacle to it of Palestineīs original population, which refuses to go away." For his colonialist and racist view he was severely critiziced by Baruch Kimmerling and many others who could not understand his attitude. |
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A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. (01.06.2007)
Yakov M. Rabkin, A Threat From Within. A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. Translation from French by Fred A. Reed with Yakov M. Rabkin, Fernwood Publishing/Zed Books, Winnipeg-London 2006, 261 Pages, L 17.95. |
Yakov Rabkin leads the readers right into the thinking of anti-Zionist orthodoxes, for whom Zionism is the antithesis of Judaism and therefore a heresy. He shows convincingly the split between Judaism and Zionism. Although the readers might think these people Rabkin writes about are a "lunatic fringe", their arguments are still valid and have been bothering the Zionist leadership. In traditional Judaism the Torah is central. "The Zionist movement and the creation of the State of Israel have caused one of the greatest schisms in Jewish history." The Zionists used major elements of Jewish thinking for their political goals. In the eyes of most Rabbis this is blasphemy. The biggest "sin" for them is the establishment of Israel because only the Messiah can create the Jewish nation. For the orthodox rabbis "Zionism represents a negation of Jewish tradition". Any human attempt to build a Jewish state is seen as a violation of Godīs will and will lead to a disaster. The author explains why a commitment to the Torah forms the common denominator for religious opposition to Zionism. For him the Jews have demonstrated that a people can preserve its identity over the course of more than two millennia without a state of its own. In the prologue Rabkin asks critical questions: "Has the emergence of Zionism and the State of Israel so transformed the Jewish people as to bring its unique history to an end? Could it be that Israel, in the light of Jewish tradition, is not at all Jewish?" |
Review of: Arthur Neslen, Occupied Minds
by Ludwig Watzal, (www.watzal.com), 17.09.2006 Arthur Neslen, Occupied Minds. A Journey through the Israeli Psyche. Theodor Herzl, "father of modern Zionism" and author of the book "Der Judenstaat" wanted Israel to become "a nation like others". From the establishment of a Jewish state he expected the solution of the rampant anti-Semitism in Europe. This idea was a false conclusion. "To Herzl, becoming 'a nation like others' involved the dissolution of traditional Jewish identities on a nationalist cauldron." It is the notion of equality in other nations and peoples which the so-called friends of Israel do not want to materialise. They argue that Israel is something special and different from all the other nations. In 1948, Zionism was still a heresy to the majority of the worldīs religious Jews, because it rejected holy scriptures that prophesied the stateīs founding only after the Messiahīs arrival. |
Review of: Khaled Hroub, Hamas. A Beginnerīs Guide by Ludwig Watzal, 10.12.06 Khaled Hroub, Hamas. A Beginnerīs Guide, Pluto, London-Ann Arbor 2006, 170 pp, 24. Israel, the United States and the European Union call Hamas a "terrorist organisation". Yet Hamas swept to victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections and stunned the world. It is now a democratically elected political party. All the election observers agreed that the elections were free, fair, and democratic. The Palestinian people showed their ability to establish a second democratic state next to Israel. But two democracies and the EU did not like this idea of a democratic Palestinian state and the outcome of a democratic election. According to their opinion, the Palestinian people voted democratically, but for the wrong party. Perhaps the West should look for another people in Palestine who will vote according to their wishes, to paraphrase Bertolt Brecht. The Palestinians did not confirm the PLO elite which had always been accused by the US and Israel and some European states of being corrupt and irresponsible, and consequently they voted them out of office. An unprecedented and unique incident in the Arab world. It was an example of a peaceful "regime change", but not according to the neo-conservative model. The West should have been glad, but they decided to boycott a democratically elected government, because Hamas did not want to recognize Israel, renounce terror, and stick to the Road map. Along with it, the West has been violating its own values, convictions, and rhetoric. Western credibility suffered a great blow not only in the Arab and Islamic world. In the future, nobody in the Arab world will care for Western democratic rhetorics, especially when it comes from the US. The Bush administration has lost its credibility in this part of the world and the EU does its best to follow this disastrous path. Khaled Hroub works as a director of the Arab Media Project at Cambridge University. He hosts a weekly book review programme for Al-Jazeera TV. In 2000 he already published a book on the political thought and practice of Hamas. Hroub is the best expert on this Islamic Movement and has deep insights in the organisation. He tells the story of the "real Hamas" and the "misperceived and distorted one". By "real Hamas" he means the reality of Hamas as it has been on the ground in all its aspects - debunking any reductionist approach. The book is structured chronologically and thematically starting with the origin of Hamas and closing with Hamas after the elections, the so-called new Hamas. The book follows a question and answer structure which makes it a good read with steps that can easily be comprehended. All realists of international relations in the West, who show some understanding of Hamas policy, usually are branded "terrorist sympathizers". Knowing that, Hroub makes his position clear: "My own perception of Hamas goes beyond the mere question of being with or against the movement. As a secular person myself, my aspiration is for Palestine, and all other Arab countries for that matter, to be governed by human-made laws. However, I see Hamas as a natural outcome of unnatural, brutal occupational conditions. The radicalism of Hamas should be seen as a completely predictable result of the ongoing Israeli colonial project in Palestine. Palestinian support whichever movement holds the banner of resistance against the occupation and promises to defend the Palestinian rights of freedom and self-determination. At this juncture of history, they see in Hamas the defender of those rights." |
by Ludwig Watzal (www.watzal.com) (16.09.2006) Jonathan Cook, Blood and Religion. The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State, Pluto Press, London-Ann Arbor 2006, 222 Pages, 22,50. "My general argument ... is that Israel is beginning a long, slow process of ethnic cleansing both of Palestinian non-citizens from parts of the occupied territories, which it has long coveted for its expanded Jewish state, and of Palestinian citizens from inside its internationally recognised border." Cook thinks that the Israelis are building their "Jewish fortress". Sharonīs famous disengagement plan was not originally his idea, its foundation was laid by his predecessors Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak, both members of the labour party. |
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