Black Power: Israeli Style

Photo: Dr. Martin Luther King

If you have been following the recent news coming out of the USA concerning: shootings of un armed people; not standing for the American flag; police officers being routinely found not guilty; etc, etc…. The common theme to all these events, in my opinion, is: “injustice as a result of racism”.

One of the things most people, including many Jews, don’t seem to understand is that the beginning of the Zionist movement and the foundation of the State of Israel had nothing what so ever to do with the Nazis.

Although there were some settlements established in the 1880’s, the major event which influenced the Zionist movement and was, in fact, the motivating factor behind the establishment of the World Zionist Organization by Theodore Herzl, was the court martial and imprisonment of a Jewish officer in the French army in 1894. This trial, and the series of events which followed, came to be known as: “The Dreyfus Affair” and the main theme, once again, was: “injustice as a result of racism”.

The conclusion of Theodore Herzl was that, no matter how high individual Jews might climb in European society, they would NEVER be accepted as equals because of the deep current of anti-Jewish feelings running thru a substantial part of the population. Accordingly, it was his conclusion that what was needed was: “a homeland” for the Jewish people where they would:

1)    Feel safe and free of persecution

2)    Would be recognized as an independent people with a state of their own and not a minority in the states of other peoples

As a result of these ideas, money was collected, organizations were set up and the city of Tel Aviv was established in 1911 with the approval and cooperation of the Ottoman Empire (i.e. 20 years before the Nazis gained a foothold in the German government).

While there is no doubt that the holocaust was a major influence in making the State of Israel a reality and a member of the United Nations, nevertheless, this was fifty years after the Zionist movement was founded.

Today, in my opinion, the Black community of the United States faces a very similar situation to the one which confronted Jews in 19th century Europe. Even though Blacks have successfully entered almost every aspect of American life and have exploded almost every myth that has maligned them, as the events surrounding the present presidential election clearly demonstrate, there is still a significant portion of the population of the United States which do not accept Black Americans as equals.

So we see things like: “the birther movement” trying to prove President Obama was not born in the United States; we see famous people like the late Joan Rivers insinuating “as a joke” that Michelle Obama is a transsexual; we see a Congressman calling President Obama “a liar” during his State of the Union Address and, of course, the still commonly held belief by many that Obama is a secret Muslim.

The question then becomes: Will the situation improve?

My feeling is: “No, it will not improve”.

Therefore, I suggested to a friend of mine that Black Americans deal with the situation the same way the Jews dealt with the situation: establish a Black equivalent of the World Zionist Organization, collect money, purchase land and set up their own state.

While it would seem “natural” to suggest that this “new state” be located in Africa, the fact of the matter is that, after 400 years, Black Americans are no longer the same as Black Africans, just as an Italian American is no longer the same as an Italian living in Italy. Secondly, there would be all sorts of legal restrictions, visa requirements, establishing citizenship etc. etc.

A much easier and more practical solution would be for Black Americans to “take over” one of the states in the United States or maybe two. After all, Black Americans make up 15% of the population, yet they are a minority in all 50 states.

Is it too much to ask that they be a majority in one state?

I suggested: “Nebraska” which is quite a large state, yet only has 450,000 residents. Perhaps, my mistake was to suggest that ALL of 45 million Black Americans move to Nebraska, so my friend sort of interpreted that as being: “segregation”.

So, let me revise that: If ONLY 5 million Black Americans moved to Nebraska and established residency there, within six to ten years they would “control” the state. The population would be 90% black and my feeling is that a large portion of the 425,000 whites living in Nebraska today would probably move out of state, making the final number closer to 95% black.

That would mean: The governor of the state would be black; almost all the judges in the state would be black; both houses of the state legislature would be 95% black; the police forces (both local and state) would be 95% black, the state militia (i.e. National Guard) would be black, both Senators in Washington would be black, 95% of the state’s Congressmen in Washington would be black etc, etc etc.

And all of this could be accomplished without applying for visas, without requesting United Nation’s approval, without any new legislation what so ever. All that would be needed was for 5 million Black Americans to, quite legally, relocate to Nebraska.  

Why, if they wanted, they could even change the name of the state, the flag and the state song (If it was me, I would change the state song to: “I’m In With the ‘In Crowd’” by Dobie Gray).

It is certainly do-able, in fact, if they wanted, the Black American community could begin tomorrow…. It would certainly be MUCH easier than what the Zionists had to do when trying to convince the Ottomans to let European Jews establish a city within their Muslim empire.

MUCH, much easier…..