zionism racism from center for policy research cpr subject zionism racism diaspora a cancer by julian kossoff and lindsay schusman in jewish chronicle london dec leading israeli author and cultural commentator a b yehoshua launched a ferocious attack on diaspora jewry at a zionist youth council meeting in north london last week the diaspora he claimed was the cancer connected to the main tissue of the jewish people he was scathing about its failure to act before the holocaust he said the diaspora s religious and secular leadership had ignored the warning signs in the s and had fiercely opposed zionism consequently he considered the holocaust the failure of judaism his talk entitled diaspora a neurotic solution covered years of jewish history mr yehoshua s other targets included soviet jews who were he said not staying in israel but running away and all jews outside israel who were using other people s countries like hotels the only conclusion he could draw was that the diaspora was immoral because it looked to israel for its identity but lived elsewhere worse it threatened israel itself creating a distraction for her citizens who were leaving by the thousands mr yehoshua who described himself as a soldier for aliyah ended by calling for the creation of a new total jew living in israel earlier speaking at a meeting of jewish students on the difficulties of forging a national identity in israeli literature mr yehoshua claimed that israeli writers were paralyzed by the country s political situation he said israel s wars had once provided writers with a vital source of inspiration today israeli writers avoided writing directly about the arab israeli conflict no major work had been produced about the intifada instead writers were tackling themes such as jewish identity emigration from israel and personal and family issues mr yehoshua admitted he also felt unable to write about the israeli political situation he could no longer step into an israeli arab s shoes and portray him as a real flesh and blood character he claimed that after years of statehood the problem of israeli identity had not been solved he said jews remained too pre occupied with the borders of identity between jew and non jew and were not concerned with the nature of that identity jewish values in israel embraced every aspect of daily life unlike in the diaspora where jews had no responsibility for the country they lived in he said he warned that modern hebrew a unifying force for the jewish people would have to struggle for its future especially in literary circles it faced fierce competition from the english language
