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Marxist doctrine and has not been questioned since then. In other
words, Marxism is anti-Zionist because it has defined itself as anti–
Zionist.
It seems to make much more sense for Islam to be anti-Zionist.
After all , jerusalem, the third holiest city for Moslems, is now in
Israel. Yet before the Six-Day War, East jerusalem, which is where
the holy sites are located, was in jordan. Anti-Zionism was no
weaker then than it is now. Even before 1948, when jerusalem was
ruled by Great Britain, anti-British sentiment along Islamic peoples
was strong, but it did not have the ferocity of anti-Zionism. The
establishment of Israel, of course, created a refugee problem and,
ultimately, Palestinian nationalism. These factors are not so much
the causes of anti-Zionism as the result of it. The United Nations
Partition Plan of 1947 was an attempt to create both ajewish and an
Arab state. The jews then living in Palestine accepted the idea of a
Palestinian Arab state ; the Arabs rejected it because of their anti–
Zionism.
Most people know that between 1948 and 1967, jews were not
allowed to visit East jerusalem. Fewer know that during the same
period, Israeli Moslems did not have the right to do so either, or that
until 1977, Israeli Moslems were forbidden by Saudi Arabia from
fulfilling the religious obligation of making the
hajj.
It was more im–
portant to the Saudis, the guardians of Islam's holiest places, to deny
the existence of Israel than to let fellow Moslems do their religion's
bidding. In other words, being anti-Zionist had in effect become a
more important part of Islamic law than Islamic law itself.
Although there are logical reasons to explain why Moslems op–
pose Israel, there really is no way to explain why it has become such
a central, overriding issue. The front page of the March 22, 1987,
issue of
The New York Times
carried a photograph of Shiites in Beirut
carrying a banner that reads,"Israel, the Absolute Evil." This makes
no sense whatever, but it is typical.
There are any number of possible solutions to the problems of
the Israelis and the Palestinians. But Arabs who attempted to find
such solutions, such as President Sadat and King Abdullah, have
been assassinated. Yet, it is not in the interest of the Palestinians to
remain forever homeless and persecuted , and they could advance
their interests with the Israelis, rather than against them. They have
not yet done so , because the thought of accepting Israel's existence–
a rather obvious fact - is more horrible to them than the thought of
