There is a famous story about the founder of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl. As a young journalist in late-19th-century Vienna, Herzl came to believe that the solution to the problem of Jewish emancipation in Europe was the creation of a Jewish state. His ideas remained fringe across European Jewish communities until after the Holocaust, but they did raise some eyebrows with Jewish leaders.
Upon hearing Herzl’s plans to redeem the Jewish people, the chief Rabbi of Vienna decided to visit him. When he arrived on a cold December day at Herzl’s apartment, he found a Christmas tree in the living room. Legend has it that the Rabbi simply left and never even spoke with Herzl, believing him far too assimilated to Christian customs to be a savior for the Jews.
This story highlights the myriad counter-narratives and differing opinions within the Jewish community over political Zionism. Since the earliest days of Herzl’s plans to create a Jewish state, Jewish communities have been divided on whether Jews even needed a state in the first place.
Even today, there are almost equal numbers of Jews who live outside of Israel as there are living in the Jewish state. While many Jewish diaspora communities call themselves Zionist, the fact is that they refuse to realize the basic tenet of modern Zionist ideology and emigrate to Israel.
Despite the deep difference inside the Jewish community over Zionism, the Israeli government and its allies have long pushed the idea that anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are two sides of the same coin. The conflation of these terms over the past month of fighting in the Gaza Strip has reached fever pitch and is contributing to a flare-up of anti-Semitism worldwide.
Professor Avi Shlaim, one of the revisionist Israeli scholars known as the “new historians,” spoke about the differences between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism in a recent clip that went viral across the Internet. Anti-Semitism, Shlaim notes, is the hatred of Jewish people because they are Jews. Anti-Zionism is opposition either to the Zionist ideology or, more commonly, criticism of specific policies of the Israeli government.
While anti-Semitism is a grotesque form of hatred that should never be justified, anti-Zionist rhetoric tends to be evidence-based.
The Israeli government and its supporters argue that anti-Zionism deprives the Jews of a state of their own because they are Jews. Thus anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism because it singles out the group.
This argument doesn’t hold much water, as anti-Zionists don’t say that Jews can’t have their self-determination. Instead, the issue is how Zionism has sought to exercise that self-determination in a specific place at the expense of another people’s self-determination.
Israel’s Palestinian policy
The deep issue is how Israel deliberately conflates anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism to silence any criticism of the Israeli government or its policies of occupation vis-à-vis the Palestinians.
When the UN secretary general called for a ceasefire to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip early in the war, the Israeli representative immediately branded his position anti-Semitic. This is a clear example of how the conflation strategy is deployed to divert attention over legitimate criticism of Israeli policy.
Israel’s aggressive PR tactics have allowed the far right to push anti-Semitic ideas without getting into trouble. For decades, far-right leaders worldwide have claimed to be pro-Israel while directly or indirectly supporting anti-Semitism at home. Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, is one of the most vocal supporters of Israel in the European Union and also flames anti-Semitism at home.
Elon Musk recently found himself in hot water after agreeing with anti-Semitic comments on his social-media platform X. Media watchdogs have since claimed that anti-Semitism is flourishing on the platform.
Musk says X is a place for free speech, and that’s why such rhetoric is shared. Yet, in response to high-profile advertisers fleeing his platform, Musk announced that using terms like “decolonization” and “from the river to the sea” in support of Palestinians will get you banned from X. So much for free speech.
Musk is rushing to embrace pro-Israel positions in the hope people will overlook his alleged anti-Semitic tendencies. The very fact he can do that is a by-product of the Israeli government’s conflation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
The Jewish people never elected the Israeli government to represent it worldwide. Given the varied nature of Judaism today, such an election would be impossible. Yet Israel speaks in the name of all Jews to provide cover for its policies with the Palestinians.
With rising anti-Semitism worldwide, there will need to be some sort of reckoning between Jewish communities and Israel, but such an event feels far off.
This article was provided by Syndication Bureau, which holds copyright.