al-Nakba: the Palestinian "Catastrophe"

Zionism is a classic tragedy.

It is Othello, obsessed and driven by a delusional paranoia to ultimately destroy that which it loves best - itself.

It is Macbeth, haunted by bloody hands that will "ne’er come clean."

It is Richard the Third, driven by ruthless, insane ambition to manipulate, betray, murder and finally perish in the rage of its own making.

It is Bonnie and Clyde, heroic outlaws, vastly outnumbered with a posse of Texas Rangers finally closing in.

It is tragic heroes with many faces, all united by a common, desperate vision impelling ruthless actions for which all share responsibility that will make them largely indistinguishable in the long view of history.

And it is a natural force, evolving survival mechanisms in a hazardous environment - a small pilot fish shadowing a shark for protection through symbiosis, an otherwise vulnerable hermit crab inhabiting the protective shell of another creature.

It has been a coherent narrative for over a century, but tragically flawed from the beginning by self-obsessed ambition that ignored the humanity of others, staining itself forever with vile criminal acts against those whose humanity it disregarded.

The narrative has been so compelling that its victims have remained obscured and their humanity, until recently, tragically invisible.

In its inexorable march to destroy the culture and people of Palestine, Zionism is destroying itself.  To survive, heal its self-inflicted damage, and become a normal, credible, and enduring state, Israel must disentangle itself from Zionism and form an entirely new collective self harmonious with non-Jews and a pluralistic world, a world evolving beyond ethnic narcissism that must continue to do so if we are to prevail against the challenges we face as a species.

Zionism has invested immense energy and resources, risked much, and generated terrible moral costs that it does not bear honestly or gracefully in single-minded pursuit of its doomed vision.  Giving this up will be a great psychological loss for those who call themselves Zionists, but it will also be a great relief.  It is necessary, and it is time.

A movement to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine in response to persecution in Europe, founded upon claims of an ancient Jewish homeland in Palestine from which they had been expelled by the Romans, Zionism began in the late 19th century and has persisted with obsessive intensity until today.

This was a colonial movement arising in the European (Ashkenazi) Jewish population, proclaiming a right to "reclaim" their historic land although, according to a 2008 book by Israeli historian Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People, the Ashkenazis were a non-Semitic people originating not in Palestine but in Kazaria, a culture in the Caucusus region south of Russia, who converted to Judaism in the 8th or 9th century CE and emigrated over time into Russia and Eastern Europe.  Moreover, Sand explains further, the 70 CE Jewish rebellion in Palestine was crushed by the Romans, but the Jews were not expelled as Jewish "mythistory" (as he calls it) claims. The Romans never expelled populations, Sand says, and there is no historical evidence of such an event. 

Nor, Sand asserts, is there historical evidence of expulsion of the Jews from Egypt to support the Exodus mythistory.  Canaan, to which they presumably escaped from Egypt, was in fact part of Egypt at the time. Progressive immigration over time in response to a variety of changing circumstances, yes.  But massive expulsions, no.