Honestly, consider a course titled "black history in America that the black community doesn't want you to know about". That's straight up a KKK course.
Or I'm sorry, maybe it would be better to say "Urban history that they won't teach you in the hood". You know, now I'm not saying black. Stop weaponising anti-black racism.
Dr. Zachary Foster is not a credible expert on the Israel-Palestine Conflict. He cherry picks history in order to make this point that Zionism is bad and racist. Zionism didn't spread from Christians to Jews. Zionism obviously started with Jews in the 19th Century. It has its roots in Europe after the French Revolution when the Jewish people were emancipated and left the ghettos. The father of Zionism as an organized political movement was Theodor Herzl. He wrote the famous books "Der Judenstaat" (The State of the Jews) in 1896 and "The Altneuland" (Old New Land) in 1907. The term Zionism itself was also coined by a Jew, Nathan Birnbaum. Antisemites and imperialists embraced Zionism? Yes, because those were the people who'd back the Zionist project during its early days. Theodor Herzl and his compatriots understood that western and liberal values wouldn't be enough to protect the Jewish people and ensure their survival. They would tragically be proven right in the coming century. But the vast majority of Jews around the world and the major Jewish organizations had yet to come to this conclusion. They thought over time things would improve, and Jews would eventually earn acceptance into Gentile society. They refused to go live in some backwater in the middle of the desert when they could live in the comfort and affluence of the western world and had western and liberal values to help address their plight. So, Herzl had to go to people like Kaiser Wilhelm II and his antisemitic government ministers and Christian Zionists in England to help him establish a state. He would work with anybody to ensure the survival of the Jewish people and rebuild the Jewish homeland. As to the imperialists, many of them were Christian Zionists too and they were people with genuine sympathy for the Jews like Queen Victoria, David Lloyd-George and Winston Churchill. But these were not the only two categories of people who supported Zionism. There were also many American liberals and Christians who backed the Zionist cause including a number of U.S. Presidents. This would include the Adamses, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, FDR, and of course, Harry S. Truman. All the U.S. Presidents from Eisenhower to Trump have been supportive of Israel. American liberals in the 19th Century backed the idea of Zionism on two grounds: liberal principles and a desire to restore the great peoples of Antiquity to their former glory: those being the Greeks, the Romans and the Hebrews. That's why they also staunchly supported Greek Independence and Italian Unification. American liberals in the 20th Century like Eleanor Roosevelt supported Zionism because they saw it as justice for the Holocaust and they had sympathy for the terrible plight of the Jewish DPs after WWII. The Zionist leaders always intended that Israel would be a state for Jews and non-Jews alike. Just read Theodor Herzl's book "The Altneuland" which envisioned Israel as state where people of all religions, races and ethnicities lived together in harmony with equal rights and opportunities and the bad guy in the book was a Jewish extremist who sought to kick all the Arabs out of the Jewish state. He would fail in his bid for political power, was humiliated and fled the country. Herzl and David Ben-Gurion were both appalled by the horrible treatment black people in the United States dealt with. Did the Zionist leaders for a time consider transfer of the Arabs? Yes. But that was only after the two bloody Arab Revolts, this was something the Zionist leaders only discussed in private, and it never came to pass. By the way, even in a scenario where some Arabs stayed David Ben-Gurion insisted, they be treated as equals. David Ben-Gurion was also quoted as saying Arabs who lived in the Jewish state should receive equal rights, Arab workers should receive equal pay and an Arab should be able to become President of the state if elected by all. As for Mizrahi Jews, the state opened its borders to them and rescued them. In the early years of Israel were they discriminated against, treated as second-class citizens and attempts made to forcibly assimilate them to the Ashkenazi mold? Yes. But Israel has changed since then thanks to brave Mizrahi activists like the Israeli Black Panthers. Also, while they may've treated them as less than, the state and its leaders still considered them part of the Jewish people.
Okay, on to part 2. Zionist leaders intended to legally purchase land in Palestine yes which they did from the Ottomans, local Arabs and the Fellahin People. As to conquest, that's just what naturally happens in war time. The expropriation part was never planned but it came into being because after the 700,000 Palestinians who fled during the Nakba left, they were not allowed to come back because of demographic and national security concerns. The former because in order to create a state where Jews wouldn't be persecuted you necessarily needed a Jewish majority. Second, Israel would've had a massive hostile populace within its borders. So, the land was expropriated by the state in 1950, and was sold off to Jewish immigrants, IDF veterans and Israeli Arabs. Nope. The Zionist leaders were building up the state precisely because they wanted to save Jewish lives. The Zionist Federation of Germany even made the Haavara Agreement or Transfer Agreement with the Nazis which saved the lives of 60,000 German Jews who were able to get to Palestine. Is it true that in the 1930s, David Ben-Gurion said if he could rescue half the Jewish children in Germany by sending them to Palestine or save them all by sending them to Britain, he would choose the former? Yes. But what he was saying here was the creation of a homeland as a refuge for all the Jewish people had to be the top priority. Not that the Zionist Movement should sacrifice Jewish children to the Third Reich to build the state. That's a misunderstanding of what he wrote. The Jews sought to build a state in an Arab country? First off, there never was an Arab state in Palestine. Second, the Jews are the indigenous people of that land and had every right to go back there and build a state. By the way, they wanted the Arabs already living there to stay and be equal citizens in the new state. Israel Judaized the country? How can you Judaize a land that was already Jewish? As to the settlers in the West Bank they have every right to be there. Land confiscation? That came about as the result of war not Israel just randomly stealing land from the local Arabs and engaging in ethnic cleansing. Expulsion? Nope. It was never the policy of the Jewish Agency to expel Arab villagers. In the minority of instances when it did happen, it was the decision of individual Hagenah/IDF commanders on the ground and it was done because those Arab villagers had helped the Arab armies, and they did not want those same armies gaining a foothold in those villages to use as a launching pad from which to attack surrounding Jewish communities. There are only two cases where the Arab inhabitants were expelled directly on the orders of David Ben-Gurion, that being the towns of Lydda and Ramle. This was also done because the residents were hostile to the Jews and posed a danger to the state and its population. Zionism is an ongoing process-because the state of Israel and the Jewish people live.
Yes, we did kick out 750,000 Nazi supporters in our War of Liberation. It must be emphasized in all places and at all times that the Palestinians supported the Axis in WWII, and even dreamed of murdering all Jews in Eretz Yisrael. Three years after the Axis was defeated, its remnants in "Palestine" were cleared away by the new IDF. This was, contrary to New Left and (post-1950) Soviet propaganda, an antifascist struggle won by Left-Zionist parties (MAPAM and MAPAI).
Palestinians, aided by the Moscow regime and oil-rich Arab states, later branded themselves as the "victims", with great success - making the world forget their WWII allegiance and dreams of committing a second Holocaust against us.
We should be proud of defeating Islamo-Fascism. If our sworn enemies cry all the time about their defeat in 1949 at our hand, this only shows the depth and scope of our victory.
It must be emphasized in all places and at all times that the Palestinian indigenous Arabs were not responsible for the horrors of the holocaust. The people who bore that responsibility were the Germans. One wonders why we didn’t force the Germans to give up 30% of their country, perhaps the entire Balkan coast, to create a homeland for the Jews there? Knowing how guilty they were I’m sure none of the Germans would’ve ever resented being forced from their homes and land in the way the indigenous Arabs of Palestine have. This just shows how kind the Germans are and how evil the indigenous Arabs are.
Excellent post jill. These people are so… what they are. Though I’d have to say on a total side note that a lot of how American history is taught in public schools in sine places now is pretty anti American.
I've read numerous of Zachary Foster's "tweets" so I know EXACTLY what he is and what he thinks and advocates re Israel/Middle East (and supporters of Israel). One of those - it's always to sad to see - "Jews against Zionism." - As he posted last year in a "tweet" (post) https://x.com/_ZachFoster/status/1756044746718335466
I'm not sure I'd call Princeton an "American douchebag factory' even though it has "regregressed" on the subject of Middle East Studies over the years. (Confession - I studied at Princeton as a Graduate Student 40 years ago in the Politics Department. Left without my PhD - And my Father was in their Near East Department for over a decade)
Thanks. I never heard of this one. The whole word ‘Palestine’ is interesting. My husbands grandmother (Jewish) was born in Jerusalem during the British mandate and had a Palestinian passport. Her much older brother was born in Jerusalem during the Ottoman mandate and the entire region pre World War 1 was considered ‘South Syria’.
"So that raises the question of why Zach can’t instead market himself as offering a class on Palestinianism, which would more accurately reflect the course material."
Thanks for a really good article, but I have to point out that there has been a strong thread of Christian Zionism since at least Charles Wesley in the 1700s.
Wesley was well-versed in the Hebrew Scriptures as well as the Christian Bible, and he was convinced that the prophecies of a restoration of the Jews to their own land was still waiting to be fulfilled, and that these prophecies did NOT apply to gentile Christians.
Other early Christian’s Zionists include Jonathan Edwards, the American Puritan theologian.
While these Christians were convinced that it was God’s plan to restore Israel in her ancient homeland, it never became a genuine political movement among Christians until Balfour and his colleagues in the 1910s: many of the British cabinet who supported the Balfour Declaration were committed Christian believers.
I think that the Austrian Emperor in the late 1800s was a supporter of Theodor Herzl and was motivated by his Christian conviction, despite having a significant streak of antisemitic views.
That's all correct and good, but what Zach is purporting to teach is 'how Zionism spread FROM Christians TO Jews." It's an incredibly sinister attempt to disavow the Jews of the movement's origins.
Honestly, consider a course titled "black history in America that the black community doesn't want you to know about". That's straight up a KKK course.
Or I'm sorry, maybe it would be better to say "Urban history that they won't teach you in the hood". You know, now I'm not saying black. Stop weaponising anti-black racism.
Fantastic analogy. Wish I thought of it first!
Exactly. The entire tone is of conspiratorial "Protocols of the Elders of Zion"-type Antisemitic slander.
Foster clearly is ignorant of Judaism and Jewish history
Amazing!!!
It’s almost an exact copy of a course I’m teaching: Palestine 101
Chapters:
1. Best practices for Generating fake history with ChatGPT
2. How to commit mass murder and play the victim
3. Islam- a religion of peace or a moral license for atrocities
4. Sun Tsu, the Palestinian art of war: start a war, lose, cry genocide. Repeat.
5. Western useful idiots - a pocket guide to manipulation
6. Palestinian statehood - how not to build a state
99$ only for a limited time offer
Wow!!!!! Sounds great - and what a bargain! Our friend Dr. Zach here has some stiff competition.
Considering the fact that for years the Soviet Union offered PhDs in antiZionism and Holocaust denial, this is not surprising in the least.
Good article.
Dr. Zachary Foster is not a credible expert on the Israel-Palestine Conflict. He cherry picks history in order to make this point that Zionism is bad and racist. Zionism didn't spread from Christians to Jews. Zionism obviously started with Jews in the 19th Century. It has its roots in Europe after the French Revolution when the Jewish people were emancipated and left the ghettos. The father of Zionism as an organized political movement was Theodor Herzl. He wrote the famous books "Der Judenstaat" (The State of the Jews) in 1896 and "The Altneuland" (Old New Land) in 1907. The term Zionism itself was also coined by a Jew, Nathan Birnbaum. Antisemites and imperialists embraced Zionism? Yes, because those were the people who'd back the Zionist project during its early days. Theodor Herzl and his compatriots understood that western and liberal values wouldn't be enough to protect the Jewish people and ensure their survival. They would tragically be proven right in the coming century. But the vast majority of Jews around the world and the major Jewish organizations had yet to come to this conclusion. They thought over time things would improve, and Jews would eventually earn acceptance into Gentile society. They refused to go live in some backwater in the middle of the desert when they could live in the comfort and affluence of the western world and had western and liberal values to help address their plight. So, Herzl had to go to people like Kaiser Wilhelm II and his antisemitic government ministers and Christian Zionists in England to help him establish a state. He would work with anybody to ensure the survival of the Jewish people and rebuild the Jewish homeland. As to the imperialists, many of them were Christian Zionists too and they were people with genuine sympathy for the Jews like Queen Victoria, David Lloyd-George and Winston Churchill. But these were not the only two categories of people who supported Zionism. There were also many American liberals and Christians who backed the Zionist cause including a number of U.S. Presidents. This would include the Adamses, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, FDR, and of course, Harry S. Truman. All the U.S. Presidents from Eisenhower to Trump have been supportive of Israel. American liberals in the 19th Century backed the idea of Zionism on two grounds: liberal principles and a desire to restore the great peoples of Antiquity to their former glory: those being the Greeks, the Romans and the Hebrews. That's why they also staunchly supported Greek Independence and Italian Unification. American liberals in the 20th Century like Eleanor Roosevelt supported Zionism because they saw it as justice for the Holocaust and they had sympathy for the terrible plight of the Jewish DPs after WWII. The Zionist leaders always intended that Israel would be a state for Jews and non-Jews alike. Just read Theodor Herzl's book "The Altneuland" which envisioned Israel as state where people of all religions, races and ethnicities lived together in harmony with equal rights and opportunities and the bad guy in the book was a Jewish extremist who sought to kick all the Arabs out of the Jewish state. He would fail in his bid for political power, was humiliated and fled the country. Herzl and David Ben-Gurion were both appalled by the horrible treatment black people in the United States dealt with. Did the Zionist leaders for a time consider transfer of the Arabs? Yes. But that was only after the two bloody Arab Revolts, this was something the Zionist leaders only discussed in private, and it never came to pass. By the way, even in a scenario where some Arabs stayed David Ben-Gurion insisted, they be treated as equals. David Ben-Gurion was also quoted as saying Arabs who lived in the Jewish state should receive equal rights, Arab workers should receive equal pay and an Arab should be able to become President of the state if elected by all. As for Mizrahi Jews, the state opened its borders to them and rescued them. In the early years of Israel were they discriminated against, treated as second-class citizens and attempts made to forcibly assimilate them to the Ashkenazi mold? Yes. But Israel has changed since then thanks to brave Mizrahi activists like the Israeli Black Panthers. Also, while they may've treated them as less than, the state and its leaders still considered them part of the Jewish people.
Okay, on to part 2. Zionist leaders intended to legally purchase land in Palestine yes which they did from the Ottomans, local Arabs and the Fellahin People. As to conquest, that's just what naturally happens in war time. The expropriation part was never planned but it came into being because after the 700,000 Palestinians who fled during the Nakba left, they were not allowed to come back because of demographic and national security concerns. The former because in order to create a state where Jews wouldn't be persecuted you necessarily needed a Jewish majority. Second, Israel would've had a massive hostile populace within its borders. So, the land was expropriated by the state in 1950, and was sold off to Jewish immigrants, IDF veterans and Israeli Arabs. Nope. The Zionist leaders were building up the state precisely because they wanted to save Jewish lives. The Zionist Federation of Germany even made the Haavara Agreement or Transfer Agreement with the Nazis which saved the lives of 60,000 German Jews who were able to get to Palestine. Is it true that in the 1930s, David Ben-Gurion said if he could rescue half the Jewish children in Germany by sending them to Palestine or save them all by sending them to Britain, he would choose the former? Yes. But what he was saying here was the creation of a homeland as a refuge for all the Jewish people had to be the top priority. Not that the Zionist Movement should sacrifice Jewish children to the Third Reich to build the state. That's a misunderstanding of what he wrote. The Jews sought to build a state in an Arab country? First off, there never was an Arab state in Palestine. Second, the Jews are the indigenous people of that land and had every right to go back there and build a state. By the way, they wanted the Arabs already living there to stay and be equal citizens in the new state. Israel Judaized the country? How can you Judaize a land that was already Jewish? As to the settlers in the West Bank they have every right to be there. Land confiscation? That came about as the result of war not Israel just randomly stealing land from the local Arabs and engaging in ethnic cleansing. Expulsion? Nope. It was never the policy of the Jewish Agency to expel Arab villagers. In the minority of instances when it did happen, it was the decision of individual Hagenah/IDF commanders on the ground and it was done because those Arab villagers had helped the Arab armies, and they did not want those same armies gaining a foothold in those villages to use as a launching pad from which to attack surrounding Jewish communities. There are only two cases where the Arab inhabitants were expelled directly on the orders of David Ben-Gurion, that being the towns of Lydda and Ramle. This was also done because the residents were hostile to the Jews and posed a danger to the state and its population. Zionism is an ongoing process-because the state of Israel and the Jewish people live.
Yes, we did kick out 750,000 Nazi supporters in our War of Liberation. It must be emphasized in all places and at all times that the Palestinians supported the Axis in WWII, and even dreamed of murdering all Jews in Eretz Yisrael. Three years after the Axis was defeated, its remnants in "Palestine" were cleared away by the new IDF. This was, contrary to New Left and (post-1950) Soviet propaganda, an antifascist struggle won by Left-Zionist parties (MAPAM and MAPAI).
Palestinians, aided by the Moscow regime and oil-rich Arab states, later branded themselves as the "victims", with great success - making the world forget their WWII allegiance and dreams of committing a second Holocaust against us.
We should be proud of defeating Islamo-Fascism. If our sworn enemies cry all the time about their defeat in 1949 at our hand, this only shows the depth and scope of our victory.
It must be emphasized in all places and at all times that the Palestinian indigenous Arabs were not responsible for the horrors of the holocaust. The people who bore that responsibility were the Germans. One wonders why we didn’t force the Germans to give up 30% of their country, perhaps the entire Balkan coast, to create a homeland for the Jews there? Knowing how guilty they were I’m sure none of the Germans would’ve ever resented being forced from their homes and land in the way the indigenous Arabs of Palestine have. This just shows how kind the Germans are and how evil the indigenous Arabs are.
Excellent post jill. These people are so… what they are. Though I’d have to say on a total side note that a lot of how American history is taught in public schools in sine places now is pretty anti American.
Note this Tweet/post by Zachary Foster (although I "@WashingtonViews" am now blocked on Twitter/X by Foster) https://x.com/_ZachFoster/status/1894960175997689898
Thanks! Will be useful for an upcoming article (follow up to this one)...stay tuned.
I've read numerous of Zachary Foster's "tweets" so I know EXACTLY what he is and what he thinks and advocates re Israel/Middle East (and supporters of Israel). One of those - it's always to sad to see - "Jews against Zionism." - As he posted last year in a "tweet" (post) https://x.com/_ZachFoster/status/1756044746718335466
I'm not sure I'd call Princeton an "American douchebag factory' even though it has "regregressed" on the subject of Middle East Studies over the years. (Confession - I studied at Princeton as a Graduate Student 40 years ago in the Politics Department. Left without my PhD - And my Father was in their Near East Department for over a decade)
Thanks. I never heard of this one. The whole word ‘Palestine’ is interesting. My husbands grandmother (Jewish) was born in Jerusalem during the British mandate and had a Palestinian passport. Her much older brother was born in Jerusalem during the Ottoman mandate and the entire region pre World War 1 was considered ‘South Syria’.
Have you read this recent article from Pirate Wires (hopefully unlocked)? https://www.piratewires.com/p/the-terrorist-propaganda-to-reddit-pipeline
I hadn't. Thanks for sending.
"So that raises the question of why Zach can’t instead market himself as offering a class on Palestinianism, which would more accurately reflect the course material."
Because he's a liar.
"American douchebag factory known as Princeton University."
That's awesome!!
Thanks for a really good article, but I have to point out that there has been a strong thread of Christian Zionism since at least Charles Wesley in the 1700s.
Wesley was well-versed in the Hebrew Scriptures as well as the Christian Bible, and he was convinced that the prophecies of a restoration of the Jews to their own land was still waiting to be fulfilled, and that these prophecies did NOT apply to gentile Christians.
Other early Christian’s Zionists include Jonathan Edwards, the American Puritan theologian.
While these Christians were convinced that it was God’s plan to restore Israel in her ancient homeland, it never became a genuine political movement among Christians until Balfour and his colleagues in the 1910s: many of the British cabinet who supported the Balfour Declaration were committed Christian believers.
I think that the Austrian Emperor in the late 1800s was a supporter of Theodor Herzl and was motivated by his Christian conviction, despite having a significant streak of antisemitic views.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Zionism?wprov=sfti1#In_Great_Britain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hechler?wprov=sfti1
That's all correct and good, but what Zach is purporting to teach is 'how Zionism spread FROM Christians TO Jews." It's an incredibly sinister attempt to disavow the Jews of the movement's origins.
Yes, that is also true