Zionism: Final Call: The Expiration of Tainted Idealism

By Dr. David Rabeeya

Established in the secular European milieu of the nineteenth century, Zionism is now reaching its final expressions. This movement is seen through the eyes of an Arab-Jew (Sephardic) in a challenging and provocative manner. His analysis is based not only on academic research, but also on his own first-hand perceptions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 9, 2002
• ISBN: 9781477179123

Dr. David Rabeeya

While Dr. David Rabeeya has dedicated his life to preserving the history and culture of Jews born in Arab lands, he has also written books for children and teenagers as well as detective stories, poetry, music and even comedy. This, his 50th publication, is from a Jew born in Baghdad Iraq who lived in Israel and now resides in America. His work reveals the soul of men and the universality of mankind.

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Copyright © 2002 by Dr. David Rabeeya.

ISBN:    Softcover    1-4010-8083-9

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Contents

Acknowledgment

Personal Note

Introduction

Forward: ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN DRUNK DRIVERS

ZIONISM: FINAL CALL

THE EXPIRATION OF A TAINTED IDEALISM

Dedication

Author’s Note

Chapter One: ZIONISM AT THE THROES

Chapter Two: HIKMAT THE ARAB, DAVID THE JEW TWIST AND SHOUT!

THE ARAB WORLD IN TRANSITION

ARCHAIC PAST, UNSETTLED FUTURE

Dedication

Author’s Note

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

THE ARABIZATION OF ISRAEL HEBREW

THE INESCAPABLE RESULTS

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eíght

Chapter Nine

WHY JEWISH?

Dedication

Chapter Ten: WHY JEWISH?

Epilogue

Acknowledgment

I wish to thank Arlene for her inspiration and support. I would also like to thank Rachel Ticktin for her invaluable suggestions, typing and editorial work. Finally, I would like to thank Olivia Cardona for her ability to capture the essence of my work in her illustrations for this book.

Personal Note

Can a person be an Arab and a Jew? Affirmative!

Being culturally Arab and religiously Jewish summarizes my inner human essence due to my birth in Iraq. In my mind and soul, a Jew and an Arab are not opponents, but instead two natural and complementary entities residing in one person. Therefore, it is both destructive and irrational for anyone to deny his/her own identity due to external pressures, which often demand a painful choice between these intertwined components. The popular phrase about the horse and the carriage can easily apply to people with my background: you cannot have one without the other. Nevertheless, throughout my entire life, both in Israel and the United States, I have refused to surrender to the political and military conflicts between Jews and Arabs in the Near East, which often demand the omission of one of my identities in pursuit of an illusive communal solidarity.

Indeed, I have never stopped maintaining that I could not convert my soul into a new abstract psychological entity without betraying my mental stability. Furthermore, after all, the combination of a Jew and an Arab could have served as a bridge to both worlds, creating a deeper understanding between Judaism and Islam. Nevertheless, in Zionist European Israel, my Arab persona was marginalized and ignored in the name of Israeli nationalism. Indeed, the European elite of Israel preferred to utilize the term Orientals to describe Jews born in Arab lands instead of Arab-Jews. Many times the term Sephardic Jew was used to label my background in order to again ignore my Arab cultural ties. All of these attempts only served as political and ideological devices in the hands of Ashkenazic European Jews to again deny me my Arab cultural background. In other words, I found myself defined by non-Asian Jews for their own ideological purpose: to present Israel as a cohesive community undivided by ethnic or religious disagreement and conflict. In the midst of all of this confusion, many have neglected to recognize that the term Sephardic is usually applied to religious customs and mores practiced by non-European Jews in their synagogues and religious communities. Further complicating my identity as an Arab-Jew, many Arab groups and organizations, after the departure of the majority of Jews from Arab lands and their arrival in Israel, recognized the existence of Christian-Arabs but not of Arab-Jews. It is obvious now that despite my Arab cultural background, my new Israeli national identity brought many Arabs to see my difficult and complicated life in Israel as an internal Jewish matter. It is hard to be a loser twice over. Nevertheless, it is important to state that a double exodus occurred with the establishment of the State of Israel: most Arab-Jews left Arab lands while most Arab Palestinians moved to Arab lands.

At the present time, no one can deny the plight of the Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories, but the trial and the difficulties of Arab-Jews in Israel and in Arab countries remains unknown to the vast majority of Jews as well as many in the non-Jewish population of the world. However, changing historical realities in the Near East recently exposed the ethnic and religious compositions of Jews in Israel and brought the existence of Arab-Jews in Israel to the attention of many.

Indeed, Arab-Jews (Oriental, Sephardic) along with their descendants constitute almost half of the Jewish Israeli population. These are indigenous dwellers of the area, and their connection with Arab culture can no longer be denied. Unfortunately, Arab-Jews were not able to seriously foster a possible coexistence with the Arab population; for a long time, they lacked the political power to contribute to the resolution of Israel’s internal and external problems. It is obvious now that in the past, the European elite of Israel lacked a serious strategic policy for a possible peaceful coexistence with the Palestinian inhabitants, while Arab-Jews were involved in the art of economic survival and struggled to achieve equal rights in European Israel.

Finally, there is a need for Arab-Jews to share their future visions of Israel with others—not only on a political level, but also in the slow but inescapable Arabization of the Israeli culture. Arab citizens of Israel and Arab-Jews may soon become the major human engine for the above cultural transformation. While many Israelis continue to perceive themselves as European and Western oriented people, the evolutionary processes of Arabization cannot forever escape the State of Israel; these processes will force the redefinition of the national Israeli concept.

It is very possible that my day under the sun as an Arab-Jew/Sephardic has arrived, but the sun has also set on my opportunity to play an important part in the dialogues of the shadows between Arabs and Jews.