Hakatan makes quite the statement about the world before zionism. For the record, wishing does not make it so.
“Before Zionism, Teimanim had their mesorah and yahadus since bayis rishon and tens of thousands of sefardim were also still observant Jews, as would have been their descendants today and beyond.”
Even at the outset of Islamic rule in Yemen, Jews had to pay the Jizya tax, could not build any beis knesses above a certain height, had the social status of dhimmi, and sometimes had to wear distinctive clothing. But when the Shia muslim Zaidi clan came to power about 1100 years ago, they began to persecute teimani Jews in horrible ways, much as the Zaydi descended Houthi clan of the northwest of Yemen is doing now, calling for the murder of all Jews, and recently murdering one of the few Rabonim left there. They were not allowed to raise a hand to defend themselves if beaten; they were forced to walk barefoot in non Jewish parts of towns; they were not allowed to touch food or other items belonging to muslims; they were regarded as impure in muslim law. And contrary to your perception of their ditinctive purity, there were at least three false moshiach movements among teimanim, making them no less susceptible than Europeans and mizrachim to such movements. And as for the vicious lies spread by some about the “disappearance” of Teimani children, when an actual investigation was done, 96% of them were found to be exactly where expected, with about 50 who couldn’t be tracked down, including those who r’l had died young.
“Before Zionism, the Arabs did not virulently hate the Jews, and were generally cordial and even friendly.”
Not all arabs hated Jews all the time. Not all of them followed the laws of persecution all the time. But many, if not most, were guided by their Hadith (a muslim oral tradition of great importance to them) to treat Jews negatively. There is the famous hadith describing the “garkhad tree” calling out to the faithful muslim to come catch the Jew hiding behind it and kill him. One of the most famous hadith, and you can find many instances of it being repeated in mosques today. It was written 1200 years ago and more by Rasul Sultan. Do not talk about that with which you are wholly ignorant.
“Even post-Zionism, some Arabs still recognize the fraud that is Zionism and correctly do not equate Zionism with, lihavdil, Judaism.”
Yes, such statements are often made by some arabs. The same arabs who then accuse the Jews of controlling the media, or of controlling the banks, or of conspiracies like 9-11 being an inside Zionist job.
“Before Zionism, Jews and Arabs lived peacefully in Eretz Yisrael (Just to head off the uninformed question, the Chevron Massacre was a direct result of *religious* Zionism – please excuse the paradox – according to Rabbi Baruch Kaplan who was there.)”
How dare you. My great uncle was also there. By lucky chance he was at home in Yerushalayim that shabbes…His classmates were all murdered. He wasn’t from a Zionist family, and neither were the other victims. and the man responsible for fomenting the riots was Haj Amin al Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. A man who took Jew hatred to a new level, who spent the war in Berlin with Hitler, and raised a muslim SS division in Bosnia. Do some research, his smiling face shaking hand with the Fuhrer is easy to find.
“Before Zionism, Jews were not seduced into becoming “post-Jewish” and culturally manipulated by (Zionist) Jews into giving up their faith in favor of Zionism.”
Before Zionism there was something called the Haskala, perhaps you heard of it? Secular Zionists had their deep foundations in the Haskala movement. And, on another tack entirely, you may not care about those pesky numbers called statistics, but if you were to look at those on secular Jews coming back from zionist birthright trips, you would find that those “manipulated” souls were much more likely to go to a shul, participate in a Jewish program, date Jewish, and MARRY Jewish after their Zionist Birthright experience. But of course, those are just statistics.
“Before Zionism, there was no need to send every young man and woman of 18 years old into the anti-Torah army that is the IDF nor was there the need for them to risk their life and limb by doing so.”
Yes, you are right on this one, there was no need, because before Zionism the only armed men most Jews would see was the Cossack coming to disembowel him and steal his children, or the Priest inciting a demented mob to burn his house down on his and his family’s head. No need to risk life and limb. none at all.
May Hashem redeem us all, completing the true Geulah, BB”A.