March 23, 1995
I would like to thank those individuals on the Golden Gater staff for featuring Jon L. Deavers' article "Zionism is not an AS issue" (Gater, March 16).
A lot of unbalanced and untrue reporting about Zionism is often given voice in this paper. It was very encouraging to see that the Golden Gater is allowing educated and more authoritative sources to explain what Zionism really is to those who are not already brain-washed by the hateful and false definitions that many people like Troy Buckner-Nkrumah, Marisol Ruiz and Hatem Bazian often maliciously purport. Most of the time when someone says, "I hate Zionists but not Jews," he or she are usually too cowardly to admit that the truth is they are bigots, and in fact very strongly do hate Jews. It is too bad that in an institution of "high learning" -- such as SF State -- there are still people looking for scapegoats.
Deavers' article was right on target. I encourage as many "open-minded" readers of this paper to verify this information from unbiased experts on this subject. That does not include people like the ones I named earlier in this article, nor does that include a bigoted or anti-Semitic author.
Zionism is part and parcel of Judaism. No ifs, ands or buts. Anyone else who says to the contrary is a fool. That is simply the case because one need only look as far as Jewish prayer books to understand the integral bond that the Jewish people have with their homeland in the land of Israel -- which God promised to all of Jacob's descendants who practice their religion for all time.
I am quite an expert on this topic. I went to intensive orthodox Jewish learning academies for 17 years of my life, so I can tell you who lies about Zionism and who does not. And Jon Deavers speaks the truth.