The 19th century emancipation movements liberated west and middle European Jews and permitted them to integrate into European society. The Russian Jews, who had major problems, didn't consider Zionism as a relief for their difficulties. "Between 1881 and 1914, 2.5 million Jews migrated from Russia--2 million to America and only 30,000 to Palestine. Another 500,000 went to the large capitals of Western Europe."
Bernard Avishai, The Tragedy of Zionism
Rather than benefiting world Jewry, the Zionist message endangered it.
Nations were uncertain about their Jewish citizens, who were portrayed by Zionists as having different consciences and mind-sets. Zionism presented Jews as having allegiance to an external ideal, willing to leave their native country if the opportunity became available.
By 1914 the original Zionism had become a stagnant adventure. The Balfour Declaration and the allied victory in World War I revived the Zionist mission. Despite the revival and the establishment of the state of Israel, it's unproven that the original Zionism succeeded or even has a presence. The Jews who immigrated to Israel immediately after 1948 arrived for mainly economic and political reasons and not to fulfill a Zionist mission. Israel even claims the massive number of immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East (Mizrahi) did not arrive voluntarily, but were forced out of their homes. Zionism has not persuaded a great number of Jews to leave their western nations, not deterred them from greatly participating in their nations' economic and social gains and not prevented them from integrating themselves into their nations' cultures. The Economist (Jan. 11, 2007) mentions that only 17% of American Jews regard themselves as pro-Zionist and only 57% say that "caring about Israel is a very important.Even if Israel were not primarily a Jewish nation, but politically similar to other western nations and willing to give the immigrants special advantages, the Russian, East European, Soviet, North African and Middle East Jews might have opted to leave their homes and move to any democratic nation in the Middle East, Jewish or non-Jewish..
The attempt to recruit the world in an embargo against Nazi Germany in 1933 can be considered a Sicarii effort.
Jewish organizations initiated an international boycott campaign as a response to German discriminatory policies and abuses of German Jews. In March 1933 the American Jewish War Veterans and the American League for the Defense of Jewish Rights launched the first US Jewish boycott campaign. Although, undoubtedly originated with proper intentions, the boycott was doomed and counterproductive. Nations struggling with economic depressions did not want to disturb world trade, had enough of their own problems and weren't prepared to encounter Germany. The Nazis, who would never have been moved by any embargo, took advantage of the intended boycott to try to prove their argument that Jews engaged in international conspiracies. The boycott campaign further enraged the Nazis against the Jews and increased the discrimination against them.
The underground war fought by Jewish militias against the British Mandate resembled the Sicarii.
The Altalena, which carried members of the right-wing Irgun militia, was sunk in 1948 after arriving in Tel Aviv against the Israeli government's orders. The encounter left 16 Irgun members and three IDF soldiers dead.
The King David Hotel bombing in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946killed 91 people, including 17 Jews.
The Jewish underground organization Lehi assassinated British Minister Resident in the Middle East Lord Moyne, and United Nations mediator Folke Bernadotte. Although banned by the Israeli government and called "a criminal group of terrorists" by the UN, Israel granted a general amnesty to Lehi members on 14 February 1949.
Eventual Israeli Prime Ministers committed each of these atrocious actions. David Ben Gurion ordered the sinking of the Atalena; Menachem Begin carried out the King David hotel bombing, and Isaac Shamir was known as a leading member of the Lehi.
The modern Sicarii, those who claim to speak for the Jewish people but are bringing them to eventual decline, have replaced metal daggers with character assassination, defamation, attacking words, wounding innuendos and bludgeoning malice towards their fellow Jews. They have a unique focus of utmost loyalty to the state of Israel. Jews who don't share their views and refuse to profess similar loyalty receive their daggers of condemnation.
Historical, scientific and archaeological findings and knowledge, none of which support a great Hebrew civilization, Jewish legal claims to the Levant, and singular heritage to Jerusalem, contradict the Sicarii focus. Nevertheless, the Sicarii consider fellow Jews who are educated with this knowledge as stupid and deceived traitors and unleash their wrath to intimidate and silence them. Preposterous expressions, such as "self-hating' Jews, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, and all those who are antagonistic to Israel are anti-Semites, exhibit a lexicon of hate that guides their actions. The over-used epithets expose the Sicarii's lack of facts, reality and logic to support their arguments. The rights of others -- no consideration at all. The insulting and ugly epithets fuel anti-Jewish feeling by characterizing them as examples of of Jewish baseness, Jewish lack of regard for others, and Jewish feelings of superiority. The Sicarii promote the misrepresentations they rally against, but which they actually need to validate their existence.
In an attempt to intimidate and silence critics, Sicarii websites unashamedly list fellow "self-hating' Jews.
Links to two websites:
http://www.heebz.com/categories/Self-Hating-Jews
http://masada2000.org/list-K.html
These websites pit Jew against Jew, upset innocent persons and demean the Jewish populations. Some individuals, who note the exceptional quality of many on the lists, have asked to be placed on it. However, the lists are not jokes, but degrading insults to the Jewish people.
Words beget violence and the more radical Sicarii are driven to violence. The attacks on Tikkun magazine's Rabbi Lerner are well- known examples of this violence.
Zionist Extremist Hate Crime Against Rabbi Lerner: Third Attack on His Home and the Limits of "Freedom of the Press," 3/17/2011, Berkeley, California
"Only one day after Rabbi Lerner presented the Tikkun Award to South African Justice Richard Goldstone, at a celebration of Tikkun"s twenty-fifth anniversary attended by over 600 people at the University of California, Berkeley, Lerner's home was again assaulted by extremist Zionists who once again plastered posters over his home. This is the third assault on Lerner's home since he announced he would be presenting the award to Justice Goldstone, whose report on Israel's human rights violations during the Israeli assault on Gaza in Dec. 2008 and Jan. 2009 was denounced by the State of Israel and by the AIPAC-dominated House of Representatives last year."
An array of well known and consistent dagger throwers in universities, radio, television and print media target those who criticize Israel by trying to curtail professorial tenure, halt publication of books, prevent production of plays and sidetrack printing of articles These attackers don't dialogue or debate issues. They are not interested in truth or reality. Sparked by, "We are always right," they engage in character assassination, slander and defamation to subdue their rivals. Most disconcerting is their use of the World War II Holocaust to advance their agenda. In addition to appointing themselves as the voice of live Jews, the Sicarii assume themselves to be the voice of dead Jews.
A true story of a typical Sicarious:
Seated at breakfast in a Jerusalem hostel, a forty year old English woman explains why she is a new arrival in the West Bank settlement Ma'ale Adumim. She never felt at home in an England filled with anti-Semites. Here, in Israel she feels she has come home. Turn to an American who is asked if he feels the same. He explains he never faced anti-Semitism in his life and never felt anything else but being an American. His words enrage the British expatriate who leaps up and shouts: "No, first you are a Jew. Then, you are an American."
It is natural that many Jews, regard their birth nation as their primary faith and remain separated from Israel. Many regard Israeli laws to be intolerant, not protective of minorities and somewhat comparable to the Nazi Nuremberg laws. Some relations:
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