L.A. Times Op-Ed: Anti-Zionism Is Hate Crime

UCLA professor conflates Judaism and political doctrine of Zionism in an attempt to argue criticism of Israel is racist

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, March 17, 2009

A prominent L.A. Times editorial confuses the political movement of Zionism with semites as a race in an attempt to argue that anti-Zionism is worse than anti-Semitism and should be treated as a hate crime.

The op-ed, written by Judea Pearl, the father of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl, asks in its headline, Is anti-Zionism Hate? The question is answered by the sub headline, “Yes. It is more dangerous than anti-Semitism, threatening lives and peace in the Middle East.”

Pearl is a professor at UCLA and the president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, which includes amongst its honorary members Bill Clinton, the Queen of Jordan and writer Eliezer Wiesel, who has attracted controversy for his support of Jewish terrorist group Irgun and his indifference to historical massacres of Palestinians.

Noam Chomsky criticized Wiesel for once stating, “I support Israel—period. I identify with Israel—period. I never attack, never criticize Israel when I am not in Israel.”

The L.A. Times article essentially tries to argue that everyone, particularly academia, should adhere to Wiesel’s mantra and refrain from criticizing the government of Israel and its policies. It does so by deliberately and underhandedly conflating Jews, Israel and ZIonism into one single entity.

Pearl states that criticism of Zionism is “discriminatory,” “immoral,” and “dangerous,” because it “rejects the very notion that Jews are a nation — a collective bonded by a common history — and, accordingly, denies Jews the right to self-determination in their historical birthplace.”

Jews are a nation? That’s news to me – last time I checked Judaism was not a race or a nation, it was a religion.

Very early in the article, Jews, Zionism and Israel have lost all definition and are conflated as one and the same.

“Anti-Semitism rejects Jews as equal members of the human race; anti-Zionism rejects Israel as an equal member in the family of nations,” writes Pearl, further conflating Zionism with some kind of biblical legacy by claiming that, “Jews are a nation first and religion second….the unshaken conviction in their eventual repatriation to the birthplace of their history has been the engine behind Jewish endurance and hopes throughout their turbulent journey that started with the Roman expulsion in AD 70.”

Again, Pearl’s agenda is to veil Zionism with the camouflage of Judaism and the country of Israel. Zionism is not a country and it does not have a biblical history to ally it with Judaism as Pearl attempts to argue. According to the dictionary definition, Zionism is a “movement of world Jewry that arose late in the 19th century with the aim of creating a Jewish state in Palestine.” It has no connection whatsoever with “the birthplace of their history” or “the Roman expulsion in AD 70″ as Pearl claims.

Additionally, labeling Jews as a race is completely asinine. One can make the case that semites are a race, but even in this case such a definition would include “any of various ancient and modern people originating in southwestern Asia,” according to Wikipedia.

In attempting to make the case that Zionism wholly represents Jews as a race of people and Israel as a country, Pearl tries to scoff at and downplay the massive number of Jews who oppose the Zionist political doctrine.

Groups such as Jews Not Zionists, True Torah Jews Against Zionism, and Neturei Karta – Orthodox Jews United Against Zionism, represent a significant number of Jews who make the case that “The ideology of Zionism is in total opposition to the teachings of traditional Judaism”.

“There are in fact many Jewish movements, groups and organizations whose ideology regarding Zionism and the so-called “State of Israel” is that of the unadulterated Torah position that any form of Zionism is heresy and that the existence of the so-called “State of Israel” is illegitimate,” according to the JewsNotZionists organization.

As we have vehemently argued, Zionists are attempting to equate anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism as a means of silencing opposition to their brutal political agenda. This has nothing to do with protecting Jewish people against racism and everything to do with shutting down criticism of the Israeli government and its warmongering policies which, with the support of the U.S. elite, have made life a living hell for both Jews and Muslims in the Middle East for centuries.