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100 Years Later, Zionism Is Still a Survivalist Imperative
A recent article in The Jerusalem Post, describes a planeload of French Jews making Aliyah to Israel, in spite of the continuing war with Hamas and threats from Iran. More than 1,000 French Jews have made Aliyah since October 7, and thousands more have opened files intending to do so. Incredibly, 24,000 Jews from all over have moved to Israel since October 7.
The modern Zionist movement has always been more than simply a nationalist enterprise. Every Zionist leader, from Herzl onward, made it clear that Jewish survival was at stake. Nothing better highlights this point than the Transfer (in Hebrew, Ha’arava) Agreement, signed on August 25, 1933. Without it, the state of Israel might not have come into being. Yet, other than works like The Transfer Agreement, there has been little attention to this critical period in Jewish history.
The Transfer Agreement allowed German Jews to convert some of their assets into German goods (for example textiles and industrial machinery) to be exported to Palestine and sold. The person immigrating would receive part of the proceeds, and the rest were set aside for communal economic development. The agreement was essentially an investor immigrant scheme. Each immigrant was required to have assets equivalent to $5,000 US dollars (equivalent to more than $100,000 dollars in today’s currency). This helped circumvent British restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine.
The agreement was controversial. Jewish leaders in the Diaspora were in favor of an anti-Nazi boycott of German products, while Revisionist Zionists led by Ze’ev Jabotinsky felt that negotiating with Nazis was unacceptable. From the German perspective, the agreement lessened the possibility of a widespread economic boycott of German products, while at the same time, creating an avenue for ridding the country of its Jews.
About 60,000 German Jews immigrated to the area between 1933 and 1939, under this arrangement. It ended with the onset of World War II. Besides likely saving 60,000 Jews from the Holocaust, the transfer of assets was an important boost to the economy of the then-British Mandate at a critical point during the Great Depression.
I grew up knowing about this episode because of my family’s story. My parents met in their early teens in Montreal in the mid-1920s, after immigrating to Canada from Eastern Europe with their families. Attracted to Labor Zionist ideology, they went to Mandatory Palestine and joined a kibbutz in the Jordan Valley in 1932. The kibbutz, founded in 1924 mainly by Latvian Jews, was located close to the point where the Yarmuk River, the Jordan River’s largest tributary, meets the Jordan.
Some of the men of the kibbutz, including my father, worked in construction to augment the meager income provided by agriculture. The work was associated with Solel Boneh, a cooperative-based construction company founded in 1921 by the Histadrut, Israel’s national trade union.
My father’s work gave him a sense of purpose and a high degree of job satisfaction. (I found his Histadrut membership booklet, his pinkas, in his effects after he died.) He excelled at calculating the number and lengths of rebar reinforcing rods required for various concrete construction projects, and he was a good organizer, an ability that served him well later in life. Unfortunately, his job became the casualty of a power struggle between the Latvians, the dominant group on the kibbutz, and the newcomers from Germany, arriving as part of the Transfer Agreement.
The German newcomers exacerbated existing factional tensions. As Canadians, my parents were outsiders. (Only 316 Canadian Jews immigrated to Mandatory Palestine between 1919 and 1948, according to Encyclopedia Judaica.) He and my mother, and their daughter of two years, left the kibbutz and returned to Canada in 1937.
My father’s story describes an unintended result of the Transfer Agreement. However, it does not change the fact that the Agreement did save many Jews. Efforts were underway during the summer of 1939 to extend the Agreement to Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Italy. In fact, as the Nazis extended their rule to Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939, an additional Czech transfer of 2,500 to 3,000 Jews to Palestine took place. But when Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, time ran out.
Zionism still is a survivalist imperative. According to the Jerusalem Post article, for those on the flight from France, “it was better to come to Israel, Iranian threat and all, than to stay in France, where antisemitism had become normalized.”
Jacob Sivak, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a retired professor, University of Waterloo.
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Tlaib Sports Palestinian Keffiyeh at Carter Funeral, Thanks Late President for ‘Speaking Out Against Apartheid’
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addresses attendees as she takes part in a protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza outside the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, US, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), one of the most strident opponents of Israel in Congress, wore a Palestinian keffiyeh to the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter, commemorating the late American leader’s advocacy against so-called “apartheid” in the Jewish state.
“Rest in peace, President Jimmy Carter. It was an honor to be there with your family. I wore my Palestinian keffiyeh to show my gratitude for your courageous stance in speaking out against apartheid and standing up for peace,” Tlaib posted on X/Twitter, along with a picture of her keffyeh.
Rest in peace, President Jimmy Carter. It was an honor to be there with your family. I wore my Palestinian keffiyeh to show my gratitude for your courageous stance in speaking out against apartheid and standing up for peace. pic.twitter.com/Vf0XLN2BtJ
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) January 9, 2025
The keffiyeh, a traditional Arab headscarf, has become known as a symbol of solidarity with the Palestinian cause and opposition to Israel since the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023.
High-profile politicians, including all five living US presidents, attended Carter’s funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC on Thursday. The former president died on Dec. 29, 2024 at 100 years old due to heart failure.
Over the past couple of decades, Carter’s public commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has ruffled feathers among supporters of the Jewish state. In 2006, Carter raised eyebrows after publishing a book titled, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, which condemned Israel for constructing settlements in the West Bank and accused the Jewish state of constructing a racially-discriminatory political regime.
In 2009, Carter traveled to the Middle East and held meetings with leaders of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Critics noted that he did not criticize Hamas leadership during his meeting and praised the terrorists as being “frank and honest.”
In 2015, Carter further incensed proponents of the Jewish state when he seemingly defended senior Hamas leader Khaled Mashal and argued that the terrorist group was not an obstacle to peace in the region.
“I don’t believe that [Mashal’s] a terrorist. He’s strongly in favor of the peace process,” Carter said at the time.
“I don’t see that deep commitment on the part of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to make concessions which [former Prime Minister] Menachem Begin did to find peace with his potential enemies,” Carter continued.
Since entering Congress, Tlaib has positioned herself as one of the most vocal anti-Israel critics in US politics. Tlaib, the first Palestinian American woman to serve in the House of Representatives, has repeatedly used her platform to lodge condemnations against Israel.
The congresswoman has accused Israel of committing “apartheid” against Palestinians. In the year following Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, Tlaib has smeared the Jewish state’s defensive military operations as a “genocide,” calling on US President Joe Biden to force a “ceasefire” between Israel and the terrorist group and implement an “arms embargo” against the Jewish state.
On Thursday, Tlaib slammed the House for passing a bill which would sanction members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its issuing of arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant
“What’s their top priority the first week of the new Congress? Lowering costs? Addressing the housing crisis? No, it’s sanctioning the International Criminal Court to protect genocidal maniac Netanyahu so he can continue the genocide in Gaza,” Tlaib wrote on social media.
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Sydney Synagogue Daubed in Antisemitic Graffiti in Latest Attack on Australian Jews
Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah, Australia, was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti on Jan. 10, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
A synagogue in Sydney was daubed in antisemitic graffiti on Friday, police said, the latest in a spate of incidents targeting Jews in Australia.
Police will deploy a special task force to investigate the attack on the Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah that happened in the early hours of Friday morning, New South Wales state Police Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna told a news conference.
“The people who do the sort of thing should realize we will be out in force to look for them; we will catch them and prosecute them,” he said.
Television footage showed multiple swastikas painted on the building, along with a message reading “Hitler on top.”
“[There is] no place in Australia, our tolerant multicultural community, for this sort of criminal activity,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a news conference.
The incident is the latest in a series of antisemitic incidents in Australia in the last year, including multiple incidents of graffiti on buildings and cars in Sydney, as well as arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne that police have ruled as terrorism.
Australia has seen an increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and Israel launched its war against the Palestinian terrorist group in Gaza. Some Jewish organizations have said the government has not taken sufficient action in response.
The country launched a task force last month following the Melbourne synagogue blaze, focusing on threats, violence, and hatred towards the Australian Jewish community.
Australia’s ice hockey federation said on Tuesday it had cancelled a planned international qualifying tournament due to safety concerns, with local media reporting the decision was linked to the participation of the Israeli national team.
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Netanyahu Says Houthis Paying ‘Heavy Price’ After Israel Strikes Yemen
Smoke rises after Israeli strikes near Sanaa airport, in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
Israeli warplanes bombed a power station and two ports in Houthi-controlled Yemen on Friday in retaliation for the Iran-backed terrorist group’s drone and missile strikes against Israel, and pro-Houthi media said at least one person had been killed and nine wounded.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the Houthi rebels in Yemen were “paying and will continue to pay a heavy price for their aggression against us.”
“Today, we attacked terrorist targets of the Houthi terrorist regime along the western coastal strip and deep in Yemen. The Houthis are a proxy of Iran, and they serve the terrorist objectives of the Iranian axis in the Middle East,” Netanyahu added. “They constitute a danger to Israel and the entire region, including global freedom of navigation.”
The strikes hit the Red Sea port of Ras Issa and the major port of Hodeidah and the Hezyaz central power station in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, and Harf Sufyan District in Amran province also came under air attack, said Al Masirah TV, the main news outlet run by the Houthis.
An employee at the Ras Issa port was killed and six others were injured, while three people, including a worker, were wounded in the strikes on Hezyaz, the outlet said.
The Israeli military said more than 20 aircraft took part in the attack, dropping around 50 bombs and missiles in an operation which required airborne refueling during the 2,000-km (1,240-mile) flight.
Earlier, British security firm Ambrey said airstrikes on the Ras Issa port targeted oil storage facilities in the vicinity of shipping berths, though no merchant vessels were reported to have been damaged.
The supply of petroleum derivatives is stable, the Houthi government spokesperson Hashem Sharaf Eddine said after the attack.
An Israeli military statement confirmed the targets, saying the power station served as a “central source of energy for the Houthi terrorist regime in its military activities.” It added that the targets struck were examples of the “Houthis’ exploitation of civilian infrastructure.”
“The Houthi terrorist regime has repeatedly attacked the State of Israel, its citizens and civilian infrastructure in Israel,” including using drones and surface-to-surface missiles, the IDF said. “The State of Israel has the right and obligation to defend itself.”
The Israeli military added that Houthi “attacks on international shipping vessels and routes continue to destabilize the region and the wider world.”
“While the Houthi terrorist regime operates as an independent terrorist organization, it relies on Iranian cooperation and funding to attack the State of Israel and its citizens,” it continued. “The IDF will continue to operate at any distance against any threat to the State of Israel and its citizens.”
Within the past 48 hours, the Houthis have fired three drones at Israel‘s commercial hub Tel Aviv and more drones and missiles at the US aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said.
The Houthis have targeted Israel, hundreds of kilometers to the north as well as international shipping in waters near Yemen since November 2023 in support of Palestinian terrorists at war with Israel in Gaza.
Israel has responded with airstrikes in Houthi-held areas of Yemen, as have British and US forces in the region.
Netanyahu said last month Israel was only at the beginning of its campaign against the Houthis.
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