Yes, before WWII there were anti-Zionists who thought the Jews should work at being universalists and forget about a homeland for the Jewish nation. In practice, this means that the Jews were to remain everywhere a minority, at the mercy of the protection of their host countries. That worked so well in Europe!
After the Holocaust, the universalist voices mostly shut up, unable to argue against such a convincing display of nightmarish reality. When millions of Jews had died for want of a refuge, and a million more were currently homeless refuge, few could argue against the necessity of a Jewish homeland. Now, as the Holocaust recedes into history, or is outright denied by various choruses of anti-semitic revisionists, we hear again the call for universalism. Strangely, it it always the Jews who are asked to be the brave pioneers, no one asks the Arabs to demonstrate their universalist pluralism...why is that, one wonders? |
