DIVIDE AND RULE

Humans (Homo sapiens) 

are primates of the family Hominidae, and the only extant species of the genus Homo. Humans are characterized by having a large brain relative to body size, with a particularly well developed neocortex, prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes, making them capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, problem solving and culture through social learning. 

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Divide and rule

In politics and sociology, divide and rule (or divide and conquer) (derived from Greek :διαίρει καὶ βασίλευε (Diaírei kaì basíleue)) 

• is gaining and maintaining power by breaking up larger concentrations of power into chunks that individually have less power than the one implementing the strategy. 
• The concept refers to a strategy that breaks up existing power structures and prevents smaller power groups from linking up. 

Elements of this technique involve:

• creating or encouraging divisions among the subjects to prevent alliances that could challenge the sovereign
• aiding and promoting those who are willing to cooperate with the sovereign
• fostering distrust and enmity between local rulers
• encouraging meaningless expenditures that reduce the capability for political and military spending

1. Historically, this strategy was used in many different ways by empires seeking to expand their territories. 
2. The concept is also mentioned as a strategy for market action in economics to get the most out of the players in a competitive market. | MORE : HERE

Religion 

is an organized collection of belief systems, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives,symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the Universe. From their ideas about the cosmos and human nature, they tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle. According to some estimates, there are roughly 4,200 religions in the world. 

Many religions may have organized behaviors, clergy, a definition of what constitutes adherence or membership, holy places, and scriptures. 

The practice of a religion may also include rituals,sermons, commemoration or veneration of a deity, gods or goddesses, sacrifices, festivals, feasts,trance, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dance,public service or other aspects of human culture. Religions may also contain mythology. 

The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with faith or belief system; however, in the words of Émile Durkheim, religion differs from private belief in that it is "something eminently social". 

A global 2012 poll reports that 59% of the world's population is religious, 23% are not religious, and 13% are atheists.

Semitic people

In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical "Shem", Hebrew: שם‎, translated as "name", Arabic: ساميّ‎) was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages. 

This family includes the ancient and modern forms of  

Ahlamu, Akkadian (Assyrian-Babylonian), Amharic, Amorite, Arabic, Aramaic/Syriac, Canaanite/Phoenician/Carthaginian,Chaldean, Eblaite, Edomite, Ge'ez, Hebrew, Maltese, Mandaic, Moabite, Sutean, Tigre and Tigrinya, and Ugaritic, among others 

As language studies are interwoven with cultural studies, the term also came to describe the extended cultures and ethnicities, as well as the history of these varied peoples as associated by close geographic and linguistic distribution.

Nationalism  

is a belief system, creed or political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a nation. There are two major perspectives on the origins and basis of nationalism, one is the primordialist perspective that describes nationalism as a reflection of the ancient and perceived evolutionary tendency of humans to organize into distinct groupings based on an affinity of birth; the other is the modernist perspective that describes nationalism as a recent phenomenon that requires the structural conditions of modern society in order to exist.  

There are various definitions for what constitutes a nation, however, which leads to several different strands of nationalism. It can be a belief that citizenship in a state should be limited to one ethnic, cultural, religious, or identity group, or that multinationality in a single state should necessarily comprise the right to express and exercise national identity even by minorities. 

The adoption of national identity in terms of historical development has commonly been the result of a response by an influential group or groups that is unsatisfied with traditional identities due to inconsistency between their defined SOCIAL ORDER and the experience of that social order by its members, resulting in a situation of ANOMIE that nationalists seek to resolve.  

This anomie results in a society or societies reinterpreting identity, retaining elements that are deemed acceptable and removing elements deemed unacceptable, in order to create a unified community.  

This development may be the result of internal structural issues or the result of resentment by an existing group or groups towards other communities, especially foreign powers ( WHAT ?? ) that are or are deemed to be controlling them.  

National flags, national anthems, and other symbols of national identity are commonly considered highly important symbols of the national community

Zionism

is a form of nationalism of Jews and Jewish culture that supports a Jewish nation state in the territory defined as the Land of Israel. Zionism supports Jews upholding their Jewish identity, opposes the assimilation of Jews into other societies and has advocated the return of Jews to Israel as a means for Jews to be a majority in their own nation, and to be liberated from antisemitic discrimination, exclusion, and persecution that had historically occurred in the diaspora.   

Zionism emerged in the late 19th century in central and eastern Europe as a national revival movement, and soon after this most leaders of the movement associated the main goal with creating the desired state in Palestine, then an area controlled by the Ottoman Empire.   

Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of theJ ewish state and address threats to its continued existence and security. In a less common usage, the term may also refer to non-political, cultural Zionism, founded and represented most prominently by Ahad Ha'am; and political support for the State of Israel by non-Jews, as in Christian Zionism. Defenders of Zionism say it is a national liberation movement for the repatriation of a dispersed social group to a homeland abandoned many centuries before. 

Critics of Zionism say it is a colonialist or racist ideology. Critics of anti-Zionism have argued that opposition to Zionism can be hard to distinguish from antisemitism.  Moreover, others have charged that criticism of Israel can sometimes be used as an excuse to express viewpoints that would otherwise be condemned as antisemitic.  Reasons for opposing Zionism are varied, and include the perceptions of unfair land confiscation, expulsions of Palestinians, and alleged racism and violence against Palestinians. | HERE 

Anti-Zionism 

is opposition to Zionistic views or opposition to the state of Israel. The term is used to describe various religious, moral and political points of view in opposition to these, but their diversity of motivation and expression is sufficiently different that "anti-Zionism" cannot be seen as having a single ideology or source. | HERE  

 Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) 

is prejudice, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. A person who holds such views is called an "antisemite". 

While the term's etymology might suggest that antisemitism is directed against all Semitic peoples, the term was coined in the late 19th century in Germany as a more scientific-sounding term for Judenhass ("Jew-hatred"), and that has been its normal use since then. For the purposes of a 2005 U.S. governmental report, antisemitism was considered "hatred toward Jews—individually and as a group—that can be attributed to the Jewish religion and/or ethnicity."  

Antisemitism may be manifested in many ways, ranging from expressions of hatred of or discrimination against individual Jews to organized violent attacks by mobs, state police, or even military attacks on entire Jewish communities. Although the term did not come into common usage until the 19th century, it is now also applied to historic anti-Jewish incidences. Notable instances of persecution include the pogroms which preceded theFirst Crusade in 1096, the expulsion from England in 1290, the massacres of Spanish Jews in 1391, the persecutions of the Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion from Spain in 1492, Cossack massacres in Ukraine, various pogroms in Russia, the Dreyfus affair, the Holocaust, official Soviet anti-Jewish policies and the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries. | HERE

Anti-Zionism and antisemitism  

In recent years, commentators have argued that contemporary manifestations of anti-Zionism have become a cover for antisemitism, and that a "new antisemitism" rooted in anti-Zionism has emerged Advocates of this concept argue that much of what purports to be criticism of Israel and Zionism is demonization, and has led to an international resurgence of attacks on Jews and Jewish symbols and an increased acceptance of antisemitic beliefs in public discourse. 

Critics of the concept argue that the equation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism is used to stifle legitimate criticisms of Israel, and trivializes antisemitism. Others go the other way and claim "anti-Zionism" has become a requisite proof of progressive conviction today, and is similar to Jews converting to Christianity a century ago. 

Professor Kenneth L. Marcus, former staff director at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, identifies four main views on the relationship between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, at least in North America: :845–846

• anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic in its essence and in most, if not all, of its manifestations;
• anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are both analytically and historically distinct, but the two ideologies have merged since 1948;
• anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism remain distinct, but anti-Zionism occasionally crosses the line into "outright anti-Semitism", while anti-Semitism often pollutes anti-Zionist discourse;:18 and/or
• anti-Zionism is analytically distinct from anti-Semitism, but much apparent criticism of Israel or Zionism is in fact a thinly veiled expression of anti-Semitism.
• Marcus also states: "Unsurprisingly, recent research has shown a close correlation between anti-Israeli views and anti-Semitic views based on a survey of citizens in ten European countries."

Professor Robert S. Wistrich, head of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is the originator of Marcus's second view of anti-Zionism (that anti-Zionism and antisemitism merged post-1948) argues that much contemporary anti-Zionism, particularly forms that compare Zionism and Jews with Hitler and the Third Reich, has become a form of antisemitism: 

Anti-Zionism has become the most dangerous and effective form of anti-Semitism in our time, through its systematic delegitimization, defamation, and demonization of Israel. Although not a priori anti-Semitic, the calls to dismantle the Jewish state, whether they come from Muslims, the Left, or the radical Right, increasingly rely on an anti-Semitic stereotypization of classic themes, such as the manipulative "Jewish lobby," the Jewish/Zionist "world conspiracy," and Jewish/Israeli "warmongers." 

Dina Porat (head of the Institute for Study of Anti-semitism and Racism at Tel-Aviv University) contends that anti-Zionism is anti-semitic because it is discriminatory:

...antisemitism is involved when the belief is articulated that of all the peoples on the globe (including the Palestinians), only the Jews should not have the right to self-determination in a land of their own. Or, to quote noted human rights lawyer 

David Matas: 

One form of antisemitism denies access of Jews to goods and services because they are Jewish. Another form of antisemitism denies the right of the Jewish people to exist as a people because they are Jewish. 

Anti zionists distinguish between the two, claiming the first is anti semitism, but the second is not. To the antizionist, the Jew can exist as an individual as long as Jews do not exist as a people.

Israeli journalist Ben-Dror Yemini maintains that anti-Zionism is "politically correct antisemitism" and argues that the same way Jews were demonized, Israel is demonized, the same way the right of Jews to exist was denied, the right for Self-determination is denied from Israel, the same way Jews were presented as a menace to the world, Israel is presented as a menace to the world. 

In July 2001, the Simon Wiesenthal Center reported that during a visit there, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer stated that "anti-Zionism inevitably leads to antisemitism." 

Brian Klug has argued that anti-Zionism and antisemitism are distinct but not mutually exclusive concepts:

There is a long and ignoble history of "Zionist" being used as a code word for "Jew," as when Communist Poland carried out "anti-Zionist" purges in 1968, expelling thousands of Jews from the country, or when the extreme right today uses the acronym ZOG (Zionist Occupied Government) to refer to the US government. Moreover, the Zionist movement arose as a reaction to the persecution of Jews. Since anti-Zionism is the opposite of Zionism, and since Zionism is a form of opposition to anti-Semitism, it seems to follow that an anti-Zionist must be an anti-Semite. Nonetheless, the inference is invalid. To argue that hostility to Israel and hostility to Jews are one and the same thing is to conflate the Jewish state with the Jewish people. In fact, Israel is one thing, Jewry another. Accordingly, anti-Zionism is one thing, anti-Semitism another. They are separate. To say they are separate is not to say that they are never connected. But they are independent variables that can be connected in different ways. 

Some critics of Israeli policy argue that Israeli propagandists and supporters often try to equate anti-Zionism and sometimes even criticism of Israeli policy, with antisemitism, to silence opposition to Israeli policies.  

Noam Chomsky for example argues: 

There have long been efforts to identify anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in an effort to exploit anti-racist sentiment for political ends; "one of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all," 

Israeli diplomat Abba Eban argued, in a typical expression of this intellectually and morally disreputable position (Eban, Congress Bi-Weekly, March 30, 1973). But that no longer suffices. It is now necessary to identify criticism of Israeli policies as anti-Semitism – or in the case of Jews, as "self-hatred," so that all possible cases are covered.

Anti-Zionism Not Anti-Semitism

By Stephen Lendman
4-17-13

Ronnie Fraser heads The Academic Friends of Israel (AFI). According to its mission statement, it was established to 

"fight the academic boycott of Israel and all other forms of anti-Semitism in the UK and the International academic and scientific arenas." 

In 2011, Fraser sued Britain's University and College Union (UCU). He did so on anti-Semitism grounds. As a member, he claimed its 

"degrading, humiliating and offensive environment" harms Jewish members. 

Its policies "violate his dignity." They breach Britain's Equality Act, he alleged. "In simple terms," he said, "the UCU is not a place that is hospitable to Jews." 

His lawyer, Anthony Julius added:

"My client has had enough. He believes that the UCU's conduct, over so many years now, has limited his options to either resigning or suing. He has chosen to sue."

UCU rejects the EU Working Definition of Antisemitism. It does so on grounds of "silencing debate on Israel." Fraser opposes its position. Specific passages UCU rejects include:

• "denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor
• applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation
• using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis
• drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
• holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel."

More on Fraser's case below.

• His equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. Doing so twists truth. Understanding Zionism is fundamental. It's undemocratic, racist, oppressive and violent. It believes in Jewish exclusivity, privilege and exceptionalism.
• Israeli Jews alone have rights. Muslims are considered subhuman. Jewish ethnocracy is justified. It's rife with structural inequalities.
• Israeli Arabs may vote and hold Knesset seats. Government rulings require a Jewish majority. The Law of Return is for Jews alone. On virtually all issues, Jewish favoritism discriminates against Palestinians. Their rights are systematically denied.

In his book "Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State inIsrael/Palestine," Joel Kovel writes:

Zionism seeks 

"the restoration of tribalism in the guise of a modern, highly militarized and aggressive state."

• "(It) cut Jews off from (their) history and led to a fateful identity of their interests with antisemitism (becoming) the only thing that united them."
• "(It) fell into the ways of imperialist expansion and militarism, and showed signs of the fascist malignancy."

Accepting "the idea of a Jewish state," mixes its twin notions of "particularism (and) exceptionalism."

1. They're "the actual bane of Judaism."
2. They give "racism an objective, enduring, institutionalized and obdurate character."
3. Doing so turns Israel "into a machine for the manufacture of human rights abuses." 

Consider three former prime ministers. Menachem Begin (1977 - 83), Yitzhak Shamir (1983 - 84 and 1986 - 92), and Ariel Sharon (2001 - 06) were former terrorists. They dispelled the illusion of Israeli democracy, morality, and respect for human rights. 

According to Kovel, 

"the world would be a far better place without (the corrosive effects of) Zionism." 

Indeed so. 

• Israel occupies Palestinian land. 
• Gaza's under siege. 

1. Naked aggression is called self-defense. 
2. Palestinian self-defense is called terrorism. 
3. Israel considers civilians legitimate targets. 
4. Children are treated like adults. 
5. Racism is institutionalized. 
6. Land theft is policy. 
7. So are dispossessions, ruthless persecution, and denying non-Jews their fundamental rights. 
8. Peace is spurned. 
9. Conflict, violence and other human rights abuses persist. 
10. Palestinians endure cruel and unusual punishment. 
11. International laws don't matter. 
12. Israeli war crimes go unpunished.
13. It gets away with murder with impunity. 
14. Doing so reflects the worst of Zionist extremism. 
15. Many Jews oppose it. 
16. They do so for good reason. 

In his book "The Hidden History of Zionism," Ralph Schoenman explained four Zionist myths:

"A land without people for a people without a land" promotes the fiction of uninhabited Palestine awaiting its rightful inhabitants;

Israeli democracy is illusory; it's no more democratic than apartheid South Africa;

"security (is) the motor force of Israeli foreign policy;" it's because of false claims about hostile neighboring Arab states; and

"Zionism (is) the moral legatee of the victims of the Holocaust. (It's) the most pervasive and insidious" Zionist myth.

• Colonizing Palestine had multiple aims. 
• Stealing it matters most. 
• Exploiting cheap labor was planned. 

So was dispossessing and dispersing Palestinians, replacing them with Jews, legitimizing ethnic cleansing, and destroying Arab culture and history. 

Historical records were falsified. "Palestinians were re-invented as a semi-savage, nomadic remnant." State terror became policy. 

In 1940, Jewish Agency Colonization Department head Joseph Weitz said: 

"Between ourselves, it must be clear that there is no room for both peoples together in this country. We shall not achieve our goal if the Arabs are in this small country. There is no other way than to (get rid of) all of them. Not one village, not one tribe should be left."

The Koenig Report said:

"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."

Other Israeli officials expressed similar extremism. In 1937, David Ben-Gurion said:

"We must expel the Arabs and take their place and if we have to use force, to guarantee our own right to settle in those places - then we have force at our disposal."

He and others, earlier and now, reflect Zionism's dark side. It harms Jews and non-Jews alike. Conflating it with anti-Semitism doesn't wash. 

An employment tribunal ruling agreed. It "unanimously adjudge(d) that:

(1) the Claimant's complaints of unlawful harassment are not well-founded.

(2) Save in so far as they are based on acts or omissions which occurred on or after 26 May 2011, the Claimant's complaints of unlawful harassment are in any event outside the Tribunal's jurisdiction.

(3) Accordingly, the proceedings are dismissed."

A detailed explanation followed.

On April 8, Haaretz headlined "British Jewry in turmoil after tribunal blasts pro-Israeli activist for bringing harassment case."

Ruling on Fraser's case "was meant to be culmination of 11 years of pro-Israel activism, but ruling that 'attachment to Israel….is not intrinsically a part of Jewishness' has caused shock waves in the Jewish community."

Fraser's suit had considerable financial backing. Organizations involved have links to "the central British Jewry leadership forums, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council. 

Fraser's case included 10 complaints. 

1. At issue was alleged "institutional anti-Semitism."
2. UCU is identified with anti-Israeli activism. 
3. It supports boycotts, divestment and sanctions. 
4. Anti-Semitism charges don't wash. 
5. UCU justifiably denied them. 
6. Its Jewish members aren't harassed.
7. Fraser's allegations were ill-conceived. 
8. They're illogical and unfounded.
9. He falsely believes Jews universally identify with Israel. 
10. When an organization they belong to levies charges they consider unfair, it constitutes a direct attack on them.

Not so. 

• Zionism and anti-Semitism are distinctive. 
• Conflating them doesn't wash. 
• It's a canard. 
• It's a scheme to divide Jews into good and bad categories. 

Judge AM Snelson headed the Tribunal panel. He agreed with UCU's position. So did other panel members unanimously.

They said "a belief in the Zionist project or an attachment to Israel or any similar sentiment cannot amount to a protected characteristic. It is not intrinsically a part of Jewishness."

• It added that Fraser "must accept his fair share of minor injuries. A political activist accepts the risk of being offended or hurt on occasions." 
• He was criticized for filing suit. The Tribunal called doing so an "impermissible attempt to achieve a political end by litigious means." 
• It expressed a "worrying disregard for pluralism, tolerance and freedom of expression."
• UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said she was "delighted that the tribunal made such a clear and overwhelming judgment. (It) upholds our and others' right of freedom of expression."
• UCU "remain(s) opposed to discrimination of any kind, including anti-Semitism."

Fraser accepted defeat. He had no other choice. He won't appeal. He expressed disappointment. 

He urged British Jewish leaders to establish 

"a definition of anti-Semitism that includes belief in Zionism and an attachment to Israel which should amount to a protected right of Jews. It's what we have been praying for for 2,000 years."

It bears repeating.
Conflating Zionism with anti-Semitism doesn't wash.
Claiming otherwise won't change things.

Source : HERE | HERE

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