Zionism mother of modern-day terrorism: Hamid Ansari

At a discussion here on Tuesday to launch a new book on Mahatma Gandhi and the Jews, former vice-president Hamid Ansari tried to differentiate between Judaism as an ancient faith and its political arm Zionism, holding it responsible for inventing modern-day terrorism. Meanwhile, author Prof PR Kumaraswamy revealed that Gandhi had changed his views about Israel soon after World War II.

Noting that some of the records of meetings of the Mahatma on Israel were not brought to the public by his secretary, Kumaraswamy digs out a conversation between World Jewish Congress member Honick and a Labour Member of British Parliament Sidney Silverman with Gandhi on March 9, 1946. "The Jews have a good case. If the Arabs have a claim in Palestine, the Jews have a prior claim," he had said.

Ansari, also a former diplomat, said while he believed Judaism was an ancient faith, Zionism was a political ideology that took shape late 19th century. "Its power to rekindle itself as an ancient faith and religion was today being emulated by others in different lands in their justification to resort to violence," he said.