Taking an honest look at the cost of Zionism to Israel and the world 
For many centuries, and long before the emergence of Zionism, Jews were an integral part of Arab society. They were Jews indigenous to the Arab world, representing, alongside Christians, a minority whose contributions to Arab society were invaluable. From the likes of the 12th century philosopher Maimonides to famed Egyptian actor and singer Leila Mourad, Arab Jews made immense contributions to Arab culture, society and politics.
Egypt and Iraq in particular were home to large Jewish communities and, in both countries, Jews were also part of the economic and political class, nominated as ministers or establishing several illustrious Cairo department stores, foremost of which was Les Grands Magasins Cicurel. While in Europe Jews were being persecuted for centuries, in the Arab world they remained a respected and valued minority. It was only in the context of the creation of the state of Israel that Jews began to leave the Arab world, thereby robbing it of a precious element of its centuries-old tapestry.
This is but one of the tremendous losses linked to the rise of Zionism, as the world was to pay an ever-higher cost for the militancy of Zionism linked to the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine and its as-yet-unabated appetite for territorial expansion.
The founding father of Zionism, Theodor Herzl, still revered across Israel, had envisaged the establishment of a Jewish state not in Palestine but in Eastern Africa. After the British tragically issued the Balfour Declaration and took charge of the Palestinian Mandate, the fate of Zionism was unfortunately sealed.
It was through the mass expropriation of Palestinian inhabitants and the terrorist activities of right-wing Zionist militias that Israel was established on such a disproportionate portion of Palestine in 1948, only to immediately expand that territory further in the ensuing war with Arab countries.
Israel in 1956 provoked its first major international crisis when, along with Great Britain and France, it decided to invade Egypt after the nationalization of the Suez Canal. Not only did the US stand firm against its allies in an election year, but the allies’ plan backfired, closing the Suez Canal for months and leading Great Britain to seek International Monetary Fund assistance in an attempt to rein in its tumbling currency, marking one of the first financial crises involving the IMF.
This was only a foreshadowing of broader international consequences when Israel launched its 1967 war. This time it led Egypt to close the Suez Canal, so essential to global trade, for eight long years, sending jitters throughout the global economy. It convinced Palestinian militants that only radical acts of violence would be effective against Israel, and it elevated far-right and religious Zionism as Israel’s ultimate raison d’etre. Israel quadrupled its territory and launched the settlement of its occupied territories, in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Early Zionism was somewhat equally divided between the leftist idealist form of Zionism espoused by the Israeli Labour Party and the far-right, one-flag Zionism that characterized the Zionist militias of Ze’ev Jabotinsky and the later Likud Party. While it was a Labour Party government that launched the colonization of territories occupied in 1967, the settlements became the feeding ground of later Likud governments and, today, of the religious Zionism that has taken over Israeli decision-making.
It was only in the context of the creation of the state of Israel that Jews began to leave the Arab world, thereby robbing it of a precious element of its centuries-old tapestry.
The route Israel has taken through its adoption of one-flag and religious Zionism has been disastrous, not only for Israel and its democracy, but also for the world and Israel’s supporters.
Arabs warned the US that should Israel fail to return occupied territories and America offer support to Israel if war broke out again, there would be a broad Arab oil embargo. In 1973, American failure to press Israel on the occupied territories and US weapon airlifts to Israel led to that very embargo. Oil prices rapidly quadrupled, putting an end to almost three decades of strong and uninterrupted economic growth in what was to become the steepest economic contraction since the Great Depression.
Today, 700,000 largely religiously motivated Zionist settlers live on occupied Palestinian land, making life for Palestinians and the prospect of a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impossible. This fuels hatred and fear on both sides, and, according to historian Avi Shlaim, has “infected the rest of the Israeli body politic with intolerance, religious fanaticism, xenophobia and Islamophobia.”
What is more, says Shlaim, “the occupation has had far-reaching consequences for the occupier, most notably by eroding the foundations of Israeli democracy.”
The divisions in Israeli society caused by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s attempt to neuter judicial oversight of the government this past year ran largely along the lines that once separated Zionists motivated by leftist ideals and those motivated by rightist one-flag nationalism.
While Israel’s Supreme Court narrowly struck down the judicial reform, it is unquestionable that Israel’s government is leaning ever more forcefully toward the Zionism of settlers, religious zealots and far-right nationalists.
What future does this portend for Western, and particularly American, support for Israel, as we tragically witness the latest Gaza war today? US credibility is already being exhausted, and America is facing increased challenges at home, particularly on that issue of Israel and Palestine. In addition to the request for $14.6 billion in military aid to Israel in the midst of the Gaza war, Israel has received $3-4 billion in US military aid annually over recent years. Such aid looks all the more calamitous when we know what kind of government that aid is benefiting and what its likely consequences will be.
Just as Al-Qaeda justified its 9/11 attacks by the support the US provided to countries like Israel, a growing number of militants across the Middle East and beyond claim to be fighting for the Palestinian people and against all supporters of Israel.
Hezbollah in Lebanon is inching ever closer, with Israel’s help, to setting off a broader regional war, while Houthis in Yemen are again endangering trade through the Suez Canal, reminding us of its closure as a consequence of Israeli actions in both 1956 and 1967, with similar potentially devastating global economic consequences.
It is hard not to conclude that Zionism has proved ruinous not only for the future of Israel and for the stability of the Middle East, but also for supporters of Israel, such as the US, as well as world economic stability. The current Gaza war is just the latest example not only of the tragic annihilation of tens of thousands of lives and livelihoods, but also of reckless endangerment of the world economy, regional stability and the credibility of a country like the US which used to enjoy the respect and admiration of the world.
Shlaim cites a 2021 report from respected Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem which concludes that: “The entire area Israel controls between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea is governed by a single regime working to advance and perpetuate the supremacy of one group over another.
“By geographically, demographically and physically engineering space, the regime enables Jews to live in a contiguous area with full rights, including self-determination, while Palestinians live in separate units and enjoy fewer rights.”
Tragically, this is the Israel and the Zionist apartheid politics that America and the West have decided to hitch their wagons to.
• Hassan bin Youssef Yassin worked closely with Saudi Arabia’s petroleum ministers Abdullah Tariki and Ahmed Zaki Yamani from 1959 to 1967. He led the Saudi Information Office in Washington from 1972 to 1981 and served with the Arab League’s observer delegation to the UN from 1981 to 1983.
