This article highlights the main problem with letting a single word – Zionist, or anti-Zionist – speak for itself. I think many idealist, agnostic Jewish-by-birth Jews are against nationalism and by default Zionism.
The problem, that’s only been highlighted by conversations held since October 7, is that non-Jewish “anti-Zionist not anti-Semitic” conspiracy theorists by-and-large view “Zionism” as a sinister conspiracy movement unconnected to “real Jews”, whatever “real Jews” means (I suppose some may be thinking of protesters from Neturei Karta). They say if you consider Zionism to mean Jewish self-determination you are “brainwashed”, even if you’re against Zionism via that definition. A second-generation Australian produced from economic migrants might feel proud to call themselves “Australian” as a product of natural nostalgic brainwashing and neighbourly connectedness, but a second-generation Israeli identifying as Israeli for the same reasons must be part of some sinister plan to control the world, or less ambitiously, establishing “Greater Israel” between the Nile and Euphrates, and whatever else the videos tell them to think ad infinitum.
Having lived among self-declared anarchists, self-identifying Muslim conspiracy theorists and the destitute across continents, I also consider myself privy to more open communication about what non-Jewish “anti-Zionists” really think. I believe one of the reasons for this is my non-conservative appearance. I could be wrong, but I don’t think “writers”, “students” and “academics” are exposed to the same openness of opinion that I am exposed to due to the circles they surround themselves in. My antipathy to the unprovable goes far beyond religion.
But at the end of the day, I am an extremist. I can’t represent Judaism as a religion if I think any form of faith is a sign of intellectual weakness. I can’t represent Jews as an ethnicity if I’m only Jewish when I’m persecuted for my genealogy. We do not chose to be born, who are our parents are or where we are born. On a logical level, I don’t care about self-determination or sovereignty for any “people”, whoever they may be. But I do understand the individual’s instinct to remain alive. Much like I understand people get used to a certain way of living and can feel threatened by others disrupting that way of life, even if I don’t respect their man-made boundaries. Unlike the activists of the world I respond with apathy, admitting I lack the foresight to establish a utopian world based on a series of logical steps.
“Trees have roots, men have legs.”
Comments10
Michael13 January at 06:32 am
What I find contradictory with all these anti-zionist jews is the claim that a Jewish state puts Jews above all citizens in that state. Fine, but then, no state should have a religious base. That means they should also be protesting all states, including Muslim, Christian, Hindu etc. Why do they only target Israel? They reference apartheid, yet none of them lived it and read a few books to form their ideals. They strike me as the same as those Africans who worked with the apartheid govt because they hated their kind or were too cowardly to stand up for their ideals. Esla, in particular, is just simply anti-establishment, young, immature and does not have any thought of the consequences of her actions.
There is a simple reason why Israel is so important to Jewish people, and that is down to thousands of years of persecution. Pro-Palestinians go complain all they like about 80 years of oppression. Try the thousands, try the constant attempts of genocide, expulsions from lands, and theft of property just because they were Jewish. So now that they have a land where they will not be assaulted, property destroyed or verbally assaulted daily. You can be sure they are going to hold onto that!
This hatred of colonisation is a petty excuse for self-hating white people, virtue signalling but in fact, themselves racist. They are just racist of people of another colour than they racists they claim to hate. Now they claim Jews colonised Israel, well, where do you think they came from thousands/hundreds of years ago but were forced out or fled because of antisemitism but that ok for these people because they themselves are antisemitic and it would be ok to see the genocide of Jewish people.
I wish they would just sit down and keep quiet but we know that will never happen but I hope one day when they need the help and support of those who they have ridiculed and offended turn their backs on them and leave them in the dirt. However, Jews aren’t like that so they just better be grateful!
Michael13 January at 04:27 am
Israel is the only country targeted for destruction and the elimination of Jews. So apart from any other reason (including that their heritage is native to the land), the State has no choice to retain its Zionist stance. You don’t see these other leftist/self-loathing Jewish commentators speaking out about all the other ethnocracies around the world, many of which are Arab/Muslim to such a degree, if at all. This just highlights their anti-Semitism and biases.