ZIONISM / ANTI-----don't be apologetic!

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I know how you feel. I afraid to discuss this topic with others also.

I think that if we ever get into this discussion with someone, we should clear up some misconceptions they might have and tell them that:

. Even though we're against the state, we still love the land.
. We are different from NK. We don't associate with the Arabs.
. Residing there individually is fine.
. We're not heartless like some might think. We love and feel for fellow Jews.

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On the last point - the heartless thing - even though it is common among Zionists to spread this slander - that anti-Zionism is somehow akin to self-hate or at the very least, harshness or lack of compassion, you should not need to be on the defensive. On the contrary - you should state that one of the many reasons why the state of Israel is something to oppose is due to the terrible price in spilled Jewish blood that we have to pay for it.

You can quote them Rav Soloveichik in Five Addresses (p. 79) who admits that the State of Israel is what caused the Arabs to become such bloodthirsty enemies of the Jews, and whereas the says all the sacrifices are worthwhile if the State is religious (see the exact quote for details), we understand that not a single Jewish sacrifice is worthwhile for a State.

And you can quote them Nefesh Harav (also from Rav Soloveichik) where he was asked, even if the State is a good thing, what justification is there for sacrificing all the Jewish lives that it costs to have it? He responds that this is "apparently a very strong point" but he claims to have an answer. he says that that halachicly it is permitted to allow all those Jews to be killed because the state of Israel causes Jews to be proud and thereby not marry goyim. never mind now that the logic (and the Halachic basis behind it that he describes) is easily negated - tell them that our position is that Jewish lives are NOT forfeit.

It is the Zionists, then, who justify and feel it is worthwhile to have Jews killed so they can have a State. That is the heartlessness and cruelty in this picture. Do not allow yourself to put in a position where you have to defend yourself. You have nothing to defend yourself against.

Please see the article I quoted from Rav Hutner regarding Zionism and the holocaust, where he says that the reason the State of Israel made up the repulsive slander against the Gedolei Yisroel that they were responsible for their followers being killed, was in order to cover up their own role in the destruction of European Jewry.

it is a common tactic among Zionists to deflect their own guilt by accusing others of being guilty. The answer is not to defend ourselves against windage - the answer is to put things in proper perspective and say that not only is opposition to the State of Israel not "heartlessness" but on the contrary - it is the inevitable byproduct of Ahavas Yisroel and the refusal to say that the spilling of Jewish blood, over and over and over and over, is worthwhile.