It is slightly embarrassing for me to admit that sometime\u00a0 Zionists are actually well ahead of our favourite\u00a0 intellectuals in understanding the depth of the Israeli\/Palestinian conflict. It is not that they are more clever, they are just free to explore the conflict without being subject to the tyranny of \u2018political correctness\u2019, also being proud\u00a0 nationalist Jews- they do not need\u00a0 the approval of the Jewish left thought police.<\/span><\/p>\n I have recently come across a short\u00a0<\/span>Haaretz article by Israeli writer A.B. Yehoshua<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>*.<\/span><\/p>\n Yehoshua is a proud Zionist, He believes in the right of his people to dwell on Palestinian land.\u00a0 He is also convinced that the Jewish state is the true meaning of contemporary Jewish life. I guess that Yehoshua loves himself almost as much as I despise everything he stands for and yet, I have to confess, he seems to grasp the depth of the Israeli Palestinian conflict\u2019s parameters\u00a0 slightly better than most\u00a0 solidarity activists I can think of.<\/span><\/p>\n In his Haaretz article Yehoshua stressed that Zionism was \u201csomething original and one of its kind\u00a0 in human history- A folk arrived\u00a0 at the homeland of another folk attempting to replace the old identity with a new\/old\u00a0 identity\u201d. Yehoshua\u00a0 also counters the faulty colonial paradigm and practically repeats my own theses almost\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>word by word<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>. \u201cThere was also no (Zionist) attempt to impose a colonial regime, since the Jews had no (mother) state that could have sent them to perform a colonial conquests like in the case of England or France.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yehoshua, is certainly correct here, as much as some amongst us are contend to argue that Zionism is a \u2018colonial project\u2019 and Israel is a \u2018settler State\u2019, such a position has no ground and cannot be supported factually or historically. The Colonial paradigm is simply a fantasy that is clumsily imposed on our discourse in a desperate attempt to make the Israeli\/Palestinian conflict meaningful within a decaying Marxist discourse.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yehoshua\u00a0 continues, the Israeli\/Palestinian\u00a0 conflict will not be resolved because it’s a totally unique conflict\u00a0 in human history. \u201cThere is no historical precedence for a nation that decides to return to its ancient homeland and\u00a0 establish its sovereignty there.\u201d Whether the conflict will be resolved or not is indeed a crucial question. I am not so sure that Yehoshua knows the answer or even can contemplate a reality in which the Jewish State belongs to the past. However, Yehoshua is obviously correct in his reading of the uniqueness of the Zionist history. We are dealing\u00a0 here with an exceptional and unprecedented national aspiration driving by racist impetus. But Yehoshua takes it further. \u201cThus,\u201d he says, If we all accept that the modern return of Jews to Zion is a unique event in human history \u2013 then the Palestinian people, unlike any other people, had\u00a0 to face a totally unique phenomenon.\u201d If we accept that Zionism is an abnormal political ideology and practice, then, Palestinian nationalism\u00a0 (that is defined by\u00a0 negation to abnormality) must be also a unique to say the least.<\/span><\/p>\n I must admit that Yehoshua\u2019s stand is well argued and totally valid. However, it means that all comparative\u00a0 models\u00a0 such as the colonial paradigm are doomed to crash. Jewish nationalism doesn\u2019t fit into any available template, it formulates a model of its own.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to Yehoshua, the Israeli\/Palestinian conflict is not really about territorial issues. \u201cTerritorial issues can be resolved\u201d he says.\u00a0 \u201cIn our conflict, both sides, struggle over national identity of the whole country.\u201d Yehoshua offers here a very interesting insight that cannot be uttered within the boundaries of the Left discourse. For both parties, especially the Palestinians, he says,\u00a0 \u201cit is unclear what is the size of the people it is up against, is it only the Israelis or is it also the Jewish Diaspora as a whole.\u201d Yehoshua raises here an issue I myself have been stressing for years. It is far from being clear to anyone (including\u00a0 Israelis and Jews) where Israel ends and the Diaspora starts. It is also far from being clear where the Israeli ends and the Jew starts. I guess that for most contemporary Jews it is even far from being clear anymore where Zionism ends and Judaism starts. In the contemporary Jewish world there are no clear dichotomies. We are dealing with a spineless elastic metamorphic identity that shapes itself to fit every possible circumstances. This may explain how come the Jewish state can dually operate as an oppressor and a victim simultaneously.<\/span><\/p>\n The Israelis, according to Yehoshua are also subject to a similar confusion. They also cannot figure out whether it is just the Palestinian people they are up against or is it the whole Arab nation or even the entire Muslim world.\u00a0 For Yehoshua, the conflict \u201clacks a clear demographic boundaries. This fact alone creates an initial deep distrust between the two peoples that prevents a possible solution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Yeshoua is far from being a brilliant mind, yet, he manages to analyse the conflict correctly just because he is free to think out of the Leftist box. Being a proud Israeli Jew he is free to say what he thinks without the need to appease half a dozen so-called \u2018progressive\u2019\u00a0 Jews.\u00a0 Yehoshua\u2019s analysis makes a lot of sense to me though we draw the complete opposite conclusions. I believe that ti the Palestinian solidarity discourse\u00a0 better liberate itself of any form of\u00a0 dogmatic political thinking. It is about time\u00a0 and look at the conflict for what it is.\u00a0 We must engage in a true plural debate and emancipate ourselves of any traces of rigid and anachronistic thinking.<\/span><\/p>\n * The article has now disappeared from Haaretz site. You can upload an Hebrew version\u00a0<\/span>here<\/span><\/strong>.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n The English version just appeared\u00a0<\/span>here<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n