Nicosia: The US General Assembly vote to rescind its 1975 resolution that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination” has a singular importance. Not only because it is only the second time in its history that the Assembly has changed its mind – the last time was in 1950 – but also because the vote was, in reality, a display of the global strength of the sole super power, US, and revelatory of the attitude of the countries of the world towards that super power.
Therefore, it was a test of moral courage, a clash between power and principle, a test which India failed, most miserably.
The vote did not really concern itself with zionism as such, for there was no discussion, either in 1975 or 19℃ 1, of the beliefs or programme of the Zionist movement.
If there had been, all that would have been necessary to prove, beyond doubt, that zionism was a specifically Jewish, facist, movement was a reference to the four volumes of the diaries of Theordor Herzl, the Vienese journalist and founder of the movement.
Those diaries, a fascinating human document reveal that all Herzl wanted was a refuge, a funk hole for the persecuted Jews of Eastern Europe, especially those of then Czarist Russia. And he was not particularly devoted to Palestine as the Jewish state. (Deccan Herald Dec. 25)
