Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Ahad Ha`am and early Zionism

When people cite Ahad Ha`am and his early devastating critique of the Zionists in late 19th century Palestine, it has to be remembered that Ha`am didn't deviate from the Zionist belief that force is necessary in dealing with the Arab natives.  His position was that Zionists were using force against the Arabs unjustly but that force has to be used against the Arabs unjustly.  (See on this, for example, Yosef Gorny, Zionism and the Arabs, 1882-1948: A study in Ideology, Oxford, p. 28).