[(Continued from p.6)]
will not be convinced that millions of Jews from all over the world came to Palestine/Israel randomly, as if chance factors can explain the remarkable phenomenon of the rebirth of the Jewish nation in Israel. At the beginning of the 20th century there was less than 1% of the total number of Jews in the world living in Palestine. Now, a century later, there are over five million who comprise more than 45% of world Jewry. From the point of view of statistical probability alone, those numbers contradict any notion of randomness.
Zionism appeared as the greatest historical hope that the Jewish People has known for the past 300 years or more.
Only the nihilism inherent in the Deconstructionist approach to history can generate the perception that Zionism is tantamount to death and destruction. A view so absurd must ignore everything that Zionism accomplished in Palestine/Israel in a relatively short span of time. It made possible the emergence of a society numbering five million Jews and one million Arabs living on a relatively high social, economic and cultural level, including sophisticated agricultural and industrial complexes, universal public education, seven major institutions of higher education, several symphony orchestras, institutions of social welfare and an up-to-date military enterprise. There are also numerous yeshivot that continue the millennia-old study of Jewry's traditional literary sources, primarily (although not exclusively) the Talmud. No random collection of individuals with a self-perception of being disconnected socially and historically from the other immigrants, regardless of their number, would ever be able to accomplish that. The economic and cultural accomplishments of Israel demand a relatively high level of social cohesiveness. Post-Zionist sociologists who overlook these facts display the depth of their antagonism toward their own People.
Zionism appeared as the greatest historical hope that the Jewish People has known for the past 300 years or more. That hope was the raison d'etre and foundation of Israel's cultural, social, and economic development. The Zionist "myth" propelled itself into reality to a degree far beyond anyone's expectations, including those of its first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, who foresaw an Israel of three million Jews as the realistic limits of his fondest dreams for the country (there were 650,000 Jews in Palestine in 1948 when Israel gained independence). With all its limitations, Zionism is the single most successful movement of social and national idealism in the Western world since the French Revolution.
In all countries, people teach their offspring their national/cultural history and the meaning they attribute to the continuity of generations through the course of time. The citizens of the United States cling tenaciously to the interpretation given to the deeds and intentions of the "founding fathers" when it comes to understanding the Constitution and its application to contemporary public and legal dilemmas. One cannot overlook the extent to which the cultural heritage of Germany, France, China and other countries emphasizes the meaning for the present of the deeds of their forebears centuries earlier.
In some cases, these ancestors lived in what can be objectively called "mythological" times because there is very little or no documentation about the lives of the people involved. King Arthur was a British chieftain who won a decisive battle against the Anglo-Saxon invaders circa 500 C.E. The legends about his associates and exploits, such as Lancelot, the Knights of the Round Table, Merlin the Magician, the sword Excalibur, are myths that emerged many centuries later but are all closely linked to the figure of King Arthur in the English collective memory. The Vikings of the 8th and 9th centuries did exist, but our knowledge of their lives is still very limited. Nevertheless, they are viewed as the ancestors of the Danes and Swedes who collect every scrap of archaeological evidence found about them. The 12th century poem "La Chanson de Roland" exerted a powerful influence on French history, language, culture and identity even though none of the events or figures portrayed in that remarkable poem ever existed, except for Charlemagne himself. In the Far East, the stories of the life of Buddha wield enormous influence on the behavior of many millions of people. The majority of Buddhists would dismiss questions about the historical authenticity of these legends as irrelevant.
Only the nihilism inherent in the Deconstructionist approach to history can generate the perception that Zionism is tantamount to death and destruction.
In the case of the Jews, the situation is almost reversed. Jewry's historical record is supported by massive documentation. There is abundant written material from antiquity (1200 B.C.E. to 200 C.E.), most of it in the form of historical narratives or legends, as well as an enormous collection of religious and legal works. Of course, that does not mean that we can establish that there was indeed a specific person such as Abraham as depicted in the Bible. Yet, his "life history" is imprinted on the collective memory of the Jewish People, and on the memory of countless non-Jews, for all time. These works were followed by a vast number of texts produced over the 1,800 years of Jewish history after the Bar-Kochba rebellion (135 C.E.) against Roman control in Palestine. Jewry has always been a historically con-
[(Continued on p.8)]
April 2002 - 7 - Outpost