A Jewish rabbi insists that Zionism is a political movement that does not reflect the Jewish religion but rather serves as an embarrassment to Jewish people and the religion in general.
In an exclusive Press TV interview, Rabbi Dovid Feldman of Jews United Against Zionism offers his views on Zionism and Israel and the distinctions between the religion of Judaism and Zionism. The following is the rush transcript:
Press TV: My first question was about your organization, tell us a bit more about your organization.
Feldman: Our organization was founded in the 1930s, by the very beginning of the philosophy of Zionism, even before 1948, before the creation of the state of Israel, when the religious rabbis in Palestine and in Europe saw that this new philosophy of Zionism is going to destroy Judaism as a religion, going to destroy the Jewish people, and going to harm the Palestinian people.
At that time they stood up in a strong opposition to the philosophy of Zionism, and they warned at the time that this is only going to lead to catastrophe and this is unfortunately what we see today. And what we are expressing all the time is voicing the opinion of many Jewish communities today, worldwide, who are terribly upset about what is happening in Palestine, terribly upset about what was done to the Palestinian people. We consider this as a serious catastrophe for the Palestinians , it's a catastrophe for the Jewish people, and it is a catastrophe for humanity, and what we say is that this is not only a physical danger, a physical catastrophe, but this is an embarrassment to the Jewish religion. What Zionism did to the Judaism is that it transformed Judaism from the concept of the service of god into a political movement void of religion, godless and so on, which is simply embarrassing.
Press TV: The problem is that those in Palestine resisting the occupation and Zionism , they are being branded as terrorists, do you think that this is the case?
Feldman: Well, we need to understand that the very existence of the state of Israel was done by terrorism to begin with, by simply terrorizing the entire people who are living there, there was Palestinian people, Muslims, and a small minority of Jews, and there were Christians, and the state of Israel was founded against the will of all indigenous people. The Jewish people in Palestine, at the time, were not happy with this new invention of the state of Israel.
Press TV: Another interesting point is that all Muslims believe that Palestine is a holy land, you cannot destroy or demolish any part of that holy land.
But unfortunately we see that demolitions are being taken place on a daily basis in which the Israeli regime forces out the Palestinian residence, and they start building legal Jewish settlements. Do you think that they are not respecting your holy beliefs and values?
Feldman: Well, They don't respect any Jewish beliefs. They did respect any religious values. They don't respect any of their own traditions from their ancestors. They came up to 80, [or] close to a 100 years ago with no philosophy, which was not the traditional Jewish religious way of life for generations. And what I ask all the time is a strong question, if, supposedly, what the world believes today that Zionism and Judaism is one in the same that Zionism has a place in Judaism, and the state of Israel represents all Jews, and the state of Israel is in favor of all Jews? If that is the case, how come that the philosophy of Zionism was not invented by religious scholars, by theory teacher, by old rabbis? How come this was invented by a simple heretic Jew, Theodor Herzl? Why?
The answer is very simple, because the philosophy of Zionism is so contrary to Judaism, because the state of Israel is such a great danger, not only to Palestinians but also to Jews, this philosophy of Zionism would never be invented, [and] can never be invented, in the mind of a religious Jewish person. This is not only invented by a secular Jew, Theodor Herzl was a heretic Jew, he hated god, he hated Jewish religion, and he didn't practice any part of the Jewish religion. This is exactly why it was invented only in his mind, because it was only possible to be invented in a mind such as Theodor Herzl.
Press TV: You were one of the main religious panels at the First International Conference on Global Fight Against Terrorism, in Tehran, and you came up with a very interesting statement at the end of this the meeting. And in one of these statement you mentioned that all religions, Jews, Christian, Muslims. We all condemn terrorism in all shapes and forms, and we disassociate ourselves from these inhumane activities and atrocities.
Unfortunately there are some countries in the West who try to associate terrorism with Islam. Do you think that there is some kind of agenda on hidden purpose behind it, and who are these people promoting Islamophobia in the West?
Feldman: Well, these kind of misinformation and confusions is happening all the time. Confusions are always either painful or dangerous. The same happens the other way round when Jewish people are being presented as going along with Zionism, with everything that the state of Israel is doing. For example the state of Israel is presenting themselves as the representation of all Jews, which is seriously dangerous; it is really embarrassing to the Jewish people as a people, and Judaism as a religion.
The solution to all these kinds of thing is that we need to educate, we need to speak, we need to discuss issues, and we need to exchange views. This is exactly what we had in the conference in Tehran, which is so beautiful that issues were raised, and misinformation were clarified, and this is very important. And one of the other issues that were raised at the religious conference there was that people need to understand that whatever that is being committed in Israel is not the reflection of the Jewish religion, and not all Jews should be accountable for that, and this is something of a very strong statement.
Press TV: In your extensive interviews with the international media, you have always point out to the facts that the western media especially is being controlled and run, and they support Zionism . Do you still believe that this is the case?
Feldman: Well, this is an unfortunate case, yes, and this is a very important point because it happens to be that the many, many communities worldwide who are in opposition to Zionism not only silently but in actuality come out in public, and if you really search you would find it.
But unfortunately in the mains stream media, in the western media, very seldom it will be covered, which is very painful and happened to be that this is simply that the masses don't have a chance to simply being expose to the fact on the ground to really know that the state of Israeli is not the representation of all Jews.
Press TV: I think you have mentioned roughly that Zionism doesn't not represent Judaism, and you have also rejected the idea of the occupation of Palestine, can you explain more on that?
Feldman: Well, certainly it does not represent the Jewish people, and it doesn't represent the Jewish religion. It happens to be that it's a terrible embarrassment to Judaism as a religion of what they are doing, and the entire philosophy is simply going 180 degrees against what Judaism is.
To begin with, according to Jewish belief, and this is something that people don't know, it is an important part of Jewish belief that Jews were place in exile, approximately 2000 year ago, by the destruction of the second temple the Jewish belief teaches that this was not an exile which happened due to the physical ... of the Jewish people. This was a divine decree, a decree from the almighty god that Jews have to go into exile. This was instructed by the almighty; this is explained in the books of the prophets, and explained later and later in the books and works within the Jewish religion. This was something that was believed for centuries, for thousands of years, this was well accepted. The Jews accept the decree of the almighty, and did not fight against the will of god.
Fighting the will of god is simple heresy. If we don't accept the decree of god, then we are fighting against god. Never in history, had Jews come with an idea of fighting the decree of exile. In addition to this, Jews are forbidden to rebel against any nation. Jews lived for generations in all over the world including all Muslim countries, in Palestine, in Iran, in many other countries.
Jews are supposed to live in peace with their neighbors and not rebel against their nations. Therefore the creation of the state of Israel, by simply creating their own state which is forbidden for Jews, [which is] fighting against the indigenous population that was living there, and all crimes that they do all the way along, is totally contrary to what Judaism teaches.
Press TV: As you know there are different uprisings and revolutions taking place across the Middle East and North Africa, how is this going to change the position and the influence of Israel and its financial backers in this volatile region?
Feldman: Well, things are changing, the world is changing. Our wise rabbis back in the beginning of Zionism said in the beginning that this is not going to succeed. There is a verse in Judaism, [which is] evil would not succeed forever. There is a verse that says, why are violating the will of the almighty, it will not be successful. We believe this for decades. Now we start to see this.
We see that Zionism and the state of Israel is not taking us anywhere, people are really understanding know much more than they did before. Now, what is going to happen in the future is that people are opening their minds, recently. The leaders of Zionism, one day, they will have to face realty, this is not the way of dealing and we do hope is, we pray, we advise and we plead to the people to realize that what was done was wrong. We need to rethink our approach, and we have to understand that we need to get back to the will of the almighty, we need to get back to justice, we need to get back to traditional Judaism, and we need to dissolve this political state of Israel which is simply a disaster.
Press TV: As you know, Israel has nuclear weapons, don't you think that they will make that crazy decision one day in order to defend themselves and use nuclear weapons against their neighbors?
Feldman: The question is whether they are going to be willing to defend themselves, if they take my advice and want to really defend themselves, all Jews, all the Middle East, and entire humanity, please rethink what was done, please give up the political agenda, and please let's get the historical piece back in place.
Press TV: What about the financial backer of Israel, what about a country such as the United States that keeps giving money, more than two billion dollars a year, to the Israeli regime?
Feldman: What I have to say is that I am an American citizen and as a Jew I'm required to respect my government, as Jews are forbidden to rebel against any nation, especially in the nation where I live in. I am a loyal American citizen, but still in all, I would say that there might be people in the United State who would like to do a favor for the Jewish people, and help the Jewish people. What we say all the time is especially when just recently a couple of weeks ago, there was the annual convention of AIPAC, the famous Israeli lobby in the United States. Every year we go out of three days into Washington in front of the AIPAC convention and we try to explain to the world, to the participant of the conference, that this is not the right way to do, this is not the favor for humanity, and it happens not to be a favor for the Jewish people, and it is against the Jewish religion, It's against the interest of the Jewish religion.
Press TV: So, what about there so called “war on terror”, Do you think that they have succeed in pushing their agenda in imposing their will on the rest of the international community? Do you think it was the right thing to do when they embark on this illegal war?
Feldman: Well, the problem even goes much further back because we need to understand the beginning of the whole situation. People, sometimes, only try to think about what we see today, the problems we see today, the danger we see today, and the bloodshed we face today. We really have to go back to the beginning of the conflict; we need to understand that the state of Israel was wrong to begin with. And that's really the focused of where we need to understand, people need to understand that what's was done in the beginning was wrong. It is simply continues, it didn't stop yet, and it is simply dangerous for us all.
We really need to go back, and not to forget, and we need to remember history, and this is an important issue, we need to remember that Jews and Muslims lived, in Palestine particular, in the Muslim world in general, in peace and harmony. The State of Israel is trying to eradicate history, they are trying to present an image that the Arabs, the Muslims hate us, they hated us ever since, they want to kill us all in order to survive we need to have our own state.
First of all in practical terms, the state of Israel is not a solution for the Jewish people, it happens to be the cause of many, many of our problems today, and there for we always say that we pray, we hope, we urge people to understand that the solution is the peaceful dismantle of the entire state of Israel. When we were in Washington DC, when [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu spoke for Congress...
Press TV: He believed that whatever they are doing against the Palestinians is a holy war, he said that this is all sacred wording to the Palestinians. According to the Jewish faith, that's exactly what he said to the American Congress.
Feldman: Let me ask, when he speaks about the Jewish faith, does he practice the Jewish religion, and that he should be able to represent religion? Totally not, but this is the way how they deal. They would do whatever they want to do and they would use the religion in order to justify whatever they are doing, this is totally wrong.
Press TV: How do you see the future of terrorism, do you think that terrorism is going to succeed, so far it has succeeded, especially state terrorism, but as you said the new world order is changing that kind of mind set and mentality, do you see any future for terrorism?
Feldman: Well, I would say that from the religious point of view that any evil that is taking place would not succeed forever, if something is bad, it will not be successful. The people who are committing those evils would either have to repent from their own choice or the situation would press them to understand the situation. We hope and we urge people to understand our problem before it gets worse. Let's rethink all of this and get the record straight.
Press TV: As a final question, as you know that the international conference in Tehran, we had more than 68 delegate from around the world. What is your impression? Do you think that it has succeeded in sending a clear message to the international community, that there are indeed some concerns in same countries in regard to the threat of terrorism?
Feldman: Well, certainly, when issues are being raised and education is being exercised and people exchange views, and issues are being discussed, only good can come out of it. People would understand issues. Certainly a strong message of many countries will have a strong impact on many others.
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