Q & A 5 SHORT ANSWERS TO VERY BIG QUESTIONS

What is Zionism?

Zionism is the movement of Jewish national liberation. Rooted in the Jewish people׳s 3,500-year-old connection to the land of Israel, founded formally in the 1800s, until 1948, Zionism focused on establishing a democratic Jewish state in the Land of Israel, the Jews׳ indigenous homeland – while rebuilding Jews׳ pride after centuries of homelessness and oppression. Today, Zionism is the movement to defend Israel and the Jewish people when necessary, while building Israel communally and being rebuilt individually always. Zionism acknowledges:

• that the Jews are a people as well as adherents of Judaism, the Jewish religion;
• that, as the Jewish homeland, the land of Israel is central to Judaism, Jewish life, and the Jewish people, wherever they live;
• and that the Jewish people have rights to establish a state on their homeland, paralleling 192 other countries in today׳s United Nations.

Pivoting around this old-new homeland, Zionism is more than a political movement: it׳s a spiritual and ideological journey, rooted in Judaism, Jewish history, Jewish values, and the Jewish people. Especially since the Holocaust ended in 1945 and Israel emerged in 1948, Zionism is foundational to Jewish identity.

What is Anti-Zionism?

Anti-Zionism, as an idea, rejects Zionism and Jewish nationalism. While it is theoretically possible to have a ״pure״ anti-Zionism, questioning all forms of nationalism, carefully avoiding antisemitism, the ״applied״ anti-Zionist movement today is fueled by an obsessive hatred of Israel and Zionism. Going far beyond criticisms of what Israel does, it rejects that Israel is – then blames Jews everywhere for anything anti-Zionists hate about the Jewish state. Anti-Zionists delegitimize Israel׳s right to exist, denying Jews׳ historical ties to the Land of Israel. In embracing a one-sided view of the conflicting claims of Jews and Palestinians, anti-Zionism starts with three basic libels.

First, anti-Zionists tar Israel as a ״settler-colonialist state.״ Negating Jews׳ 3,500-year-old ties to their homeland is an assault on history. That ״historicide״ tacitly repudiates Christianity, which honors Jesus, a Jew who crisscrossed the Land of Israel 2,000 years ago. Delegitimizing Israel justifies any attack on Israel, no matter how vicious.

Second, anti-Zionists deem Zionism ״racism״ and Israel an ״apartheid״ state. Injecting the question of biologically-based bigotry, which the world justifiably abhors, falsely racializes a nationalist conflict: in fact, both Palestinians and Jews may be dark-skinned or light-skinned. Unlike South Africa׳s apartheid regime, Israel never defined people by their biological race. South Africa once enforced 148 laws characterizing humans by these categories: as ״Native״ – meaning Black – ״Coloured,״ ״Asian,״ or ״White.״

Finally, anti-Zionists brand Jews and Israelis as ״oppressors.״ This accusation ignores Israel׳s democracy while repeatedly minimizing the violence anti-Zionist terrorists have unleashed against Jews, Israelis, and passersby. An ideological position and a political movement, anti-Zionism fuels the pro-Palestinian movement. But not every Palestinian or supporter of a Palestinian state is an anti-Zionist.

How do Anti-Zionism and antisemitism overlap, how do they differ, and why are both surging now?

Antisemitism is a conspiracy theory and an obsessive hatred, exaggerating the centrality and supposed wickedness of Jews and anything Jewish – the Jewish people, Jewish tradition and values, Jewish institutions, and Israel, the Jewish state. The disproportionate hatred often results in demonization, delegitimization and double-standards – Natan Sharansky׳s ״3Ds.״ Anti-Zionists aren׳t necessarily antisemitic. The burden of proof in distinguishing the two, however, is on anti-Zionists, not their targets. True, some people reject all nationalisms, and a marginal minority of Jews reject Jewish nationalism. But ״anti-nationalists״ who don׳t truly reject nationalism because they support Palestinian nationalism while condemning Jewish nationalism – or anti-Zionist Jews who validate the demonizers׳ obsessive slurring of Israel – should take responsibility for emboldening Jew-haters. As Harvard׳s former President Larry Summers acknowledged, sometimes it׳s not an antisemitism of ״intent,״ but it still has harmful effects, especially today. Most anti-Zionists tap into the foundations of traditional antisemitism. In medieval times, haters targeted ״the Jew,״ but today׳s anti-Zionist haters target ״the Jewish state.״ Far-right bigots take out their hatred of ״the Jews״ on individual Jews. And far left anti-Zionists take out their hatred of ״the Jewish state״ on individual Jews, too. The historian Robert Wistrich called Jew-hatred the ״longest hatred.״ It is also the most plastic hatred: moldable, artificial, and often toxic, surging when liberalism and democracies languish and totalitarian thought spreads. Its obsessiveness, venom, violence, and exaggerations of Jewish power, wickedness, and dishonesty have made this kind of ״applied״ anti-Zionism the ״new antisemitism,״ the latest strain of an ancient disease, which becomes more virulent and contagious as Israel׳s public image comes under increasing international fire.

Are all pro-Palestinian activists and critics of Israel antisemitic?

Of course not. Like all countries, Israel makes right moves and wrong moves. It includes good people and bad people. And some pro-Palestinian activists criticize Israeli policy without delegitimizing Israel or libeling Jews. Moreover, many liberal Zionists believe their Zionist dreams won׳t be fulfilled until a Palestinian state co-exists peacefully with the Jewish state. A dynamic democracy, Israel has many patriotic citizens who criticize their government – while supporting Palestinian nationalist aspirations. Therefore, criticizing Israel or supporting the Palestinians is not inherently antisemitic or anti-Zionist. But pro-Palestinian haters keep blurring the two. They fuse them together when they attack synagogues and Jewish schools, hit Jews wearing yarmulkes, or tell Jewish students ״the only good Zionist is a dead Zionist.״ Pro-Palestinianism and antisemitism reinforce one another when the pro-Palestinian movement celebrates Hamas terrorists yelling ״Itbach al Yahud״ – slaughter the Jew. The BBC implicitly acknowledged how bigoted that well-known Arabic cry is by mistranslating it in a documentary as ״Kill the Israelis״ – as if that׳s not bad enough. Far too many Palestinians and their supporters have made it too easy to conflate any criticism of Israel, any support of the Palestinian cause, with today׳s Jew-hating epidemic.

What can Jews and Zionists do to lessen the hatred against them?

Historically, some initiatives have reduced bigotry, from the Civil Rights Movement against anti-Black racism to the Women׳s Liberation Movement to Zionism itself – which, along with the mass shock provided by the Nazi mass murder, had sidelined most Western haters for decades following the Holocaust. Still, the question unfairly blames the victim. It implies that Jews or Zionists are responsible for today׳s demonization of Israel, Jews, and Zionists. Jew-haters are responsible for Jew-hatred, not Jews. Jews should not be targeted as Jews, anytime, anywhere. And the best response to today׳s antisemitism is Jewish and Zionist pride – twinned with a broader commitment among Jews and non-Jews to defend liberalism, democracy, and common decency. We need zero-tolerance for intolerance on all fronts – and far more tolerance of political differences among fellow citizens in every democracy. Jew-hatred, in all its manifestations, like all forms of prejudice, is a totalitarian assault on democratic norms – and symptomatic of deeper social, political, and cultural dysfunctions.