Israeli/Zionist Militarism Has Not Made the World Safer for Jews: Historian Rabkin
Apr. 18—In an interview released April 16 by EIR, historian/scholar Yakov Rabkin deconstructed the myths surrounding the justification for Israel’s alliance with the U.S. for a war against Iran, which he identified as a product of equating Zionism with Judaism. He said the present crisis proves that the belief of most Israelis, that a militaristic mentality has made Israel the safest place for Jews, is a delusion. Netanyahu’s description of Israel as a “new Sparta” is a reassertion of the delusion at the heart of Zionism, that the Jews are perpetual victims, and must maintain a state of permanent warfare to defend the people of Israel from their hostile neighbors, who they have been convinced wish to destroy them.
This delusion is at the center of the war to “obliterate” Iran. The reason for targeting Iran, Rabkin said, is not that the leadership of Iran wishes to eliminate the Jews—which is repeated over and over—but rather that it has defended the rights of the Palestinian people when the rest of the world turned away.
In the interview, with the EIR’s Harley Schlanger, Rabkin discussed the origins of Zionism in 16th century British theory of the Apocalypse; the support for a “Jewish state” by British aristocrats in the late 19th-early 20th century as a tool of imperial geopolitics; and how the slaughter of Palestinians since the Hamas attack of October 7 has turned most of the world, including growing numbers of younger Jews in the Diaspora, against the Netanyahu regime. The regime in Jerusalem is now on “thin ice,” he said, and that is a reason for hope.
His books include: [Zionism Decoded in 101 Quotes](https://www.barakabooks.com/catalogue/zionism-decoded-in-101-quotes/0), [Israel in Palestine. Jewish Rejection of Zionism](https://israelpalestinebook.com/), [What is Modern Israel?](https://www.plutobooks.com/product/what-is-modern-israel/) and more.