Anti-Zionism is Pro-Hate

Or, why Italian Americans aren't asked to forsake the Old Country

This has been a terrible time for Jews and allies, both from non-Jewish protesters and from within the Jewish community itself. There’s been a mass movement of hatred led by folks whom liberal Jews and others had assumed were our colleagues, dating back 100 years. Long and meaningful partnerships have been shredded between Jews and Black intellectuals, LGBTQ activists, progressives, feminists, academic administrators, youth movements, faculty, public school teachers, cultural leaders and even labor unions. Some connections remain, but only by threads.

What’s going on?

The activist left is now virulently anti-Israel. They’ve been getting there for years, now the orientation has solidified. They’re not Pro-Palestinian in the sense they want a safe and secure — and presumably democratic, gay inclusive, environmentally-friendly, feminist, and equitable — Palestine existing alongside Israel with free-trade and cultural exchanges. They’re not marching for that. They want blood.

They want Israel to fail. The one state that harbors the largest amount of Jews on the planet now needs to be canceled. The not-so-long view by Jews — that we need to do everything in our power to survive because we will never be safe as a minority without territory and an army — is lost on leftist activists, or worse, gaslit by the Holocaust-deniers and terrorist-supporters among them. Despite a long history of anti-Jewish violence stretching back to antiquity, reaching a horrifying zenith in midcentury Europe and now regularly committed by Islamic theological extremists whose only redeeming feature is a lack of teutonic military sophistication, the left has come to the sanguinary conclusion that there can be no safe haven for Jews.

We’re on our own.

We have allies thankfully, not everyone thinks the answer to the Hamas attacks last year requires a zero-sum game of killing or expelling 7 million Jews from their home of the past 180 years (or for some, much, much longer), but on the left, the American ideological homeland of most domestic Jews, we’ve been exiled.

How do I know? They tell me.

“No Zionists allowed.”

You see it on posters, dating profiles, announcements, store signs, conference invites, town hall meetings, venue cancellations of popular Jewish artists, at rallies on campus and outside synagogues.

“No Zionists.”

When people who claim to be social justice warriors target a minority, you’d think this would be the very moment they’d stop to wonder where their crusade went wrong, but instead they double down.

“Zionists need not apply.” "No entry.” “Non-Zionists only.”

Maximum segregation is their answer.

They’re all in on us being all out.

This does two things. One, when activists exclude Zionists from public and private spaces, it transforms the left into an antisemitic hate group. Think that’s too strong? Aren’t they just concerned with victimized, innocent, peace-loving Palestinians who are brutally savaged by Israel for no reason?

(This formula conveniently erases Palestinian and regional Arab violence dating back to the early 1900s, but that’s my point. They see Israel/Palestine as a one way street, a single violent dynamic. There are no unprovoked Arab-against-Israel wars. There are no intifadas that killed thousands of civilians. There’s just revolution, which they can only romanticize from far away, because they don’t get their hands dirty.)

Here’s how you can tell the Pro-Palestine movement has become a hate group.

If they wanted peace, they’d advocate for a demilitarized and free Palestine. I hope that happens in my lifetime, but that’s not their vision. The social justice crowd demands the destruction of a country, and for it to be replaced by another country: a Palestine “free” of Jews. This is the definition of war.

If you’re with me, you‘ll see that the activist left now advocates violence. When that violence is directed at the one place in the world for Jewish sovereignty, versus, say, the 22 Arab countries, then that makes it literally antisemitic. So the Pro-Palestine camp is an antisemitic hate group.

I enjoy the irony when they rail against Israeli “apartheid” even though Israel has millions of Arab citizens, Knesset members, judges and more. Does that mean their utopian future Palestine will allow Jews to become citizens and live as equals?

According to the self-righteous left, Israel has been canceled. What happens to Israelis? Death, expulsion, voluntary resettlement into DP camps in Europe, they’re vague on next steps.

What about here at home? Will the left allow Jews to live in America?

So far their answer is, “yes, but…”

And we’re back to “No Zionists.”

Jews won’t be targeted if they’re anti-Zionist. It’s only some Jews that aren’t allowed. But when you condition a minority group’s existence according to behavior you dictate, it doesn’t take much imagination to ask what other conditions will be imposed on that minority?

Can American Jews live anywhere they want, or should we be organized into, I don’t know, camps, perhaps taken there by train? Seems climate-change friendly! I’m kidding, but now with the rise of Christian Nationalists on the far right, it doesn’t take much to wonder what will happen if they forge common cause with people like AOC and the Squad. Political alliances are hard to predict. And the irony is that foaming-at-mouth leftists only serves to strengthens the observation that having a well-defended Jewish homeland is wise.

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The Social Justice Warrior has now lost the first two words and gone for the actual jugular. When you see earnest white and Black people in keffiyehs and Free Palestine face paint under their N95 mask, they have moved from activist to militant. That’s not most people’s vision of progress, but it is the definition of a violent sect. A faction. Should we call them the Proud Post-Gender Boys?

They are no longer honest when they say they’re guided by goals of justice, goals of equity or inclusion or diversity.

To test this, when these advocates demand justice, inclusion and protection, please ask them, “for whom?” After thirty minutes of anti-colonial identitarian explanations that contort time, genetics and history, you’ll eventually have your answer. I will summarize it in two words: For them.

The left has devolved into a group competing with all the other groups for self-interested goals, like MAGA book banners and anti-abortion activists. When you say “I am for a Free Palestine and I’m anti-Zionist,” you are taking sides in a violent struggle that will result in much more violence. Justice exits stage Left.

Some of you might think, finally, it’s about time! Zachary gets it! They’ve been like this all along, defund-the-police signified this, #MeToo excesses against people like Al Franken showed this, and so on.

I hope you’re wrong. I think the left once did have a claim for social justice, I’m glad I marched for marriage equality, a women’s right to control their bodies, for migrants to be treated with dignity and compassion, and much more. I was and will always be anti-Trump, Medicare for all, gay inclusive and feminist, but once you make Israel-Palestine a zero-sum game, once you take a side in an irredentist war (and the reality is most Israelis want a peaceful Palestine, while Palestinians seems to want the converse), then you’ve left the realm of progress. You’ve committed yourself to the paramilitary cosplay of militias.

The second thing that happens when the left goes all in for an illiberal and absolutist Palestine, is that they necessarily alienate Jews here in America to the point of total exclusion. Which is perhaps the point.

Is this antisemitism? Is it just commonplace bigotry commonly practiced by sects? Is it less personal and just a “hey, we’re circling the wagons and sorry, Jews aren’t allowed in unless they commit to the destruction of their homeland?”

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Fun to note, there are some Jews on the far left who do advocate for a zero-sum, um, solution as they demand a ceasefire, and they get a lot of airtime despite their small numbers. Does their heritage as Jews inoculate them from hatred? Does a Palestinian’s heritage predispose them to violence?

Now that the left/progressives/very liberals — whatever you want to call this movement — are anti-Zionist, does this mean that they’re dog whistling their anti-Jewish bigotry?

No, they’ll say. You don’t understand, we’re antiracists! That’s our whole identity! We’re not racists, we’re just viciously against a 19th-century theory that says a persecuted diasporic minority, if they work real hard, can make a home country in a place where other people had also been living; and when these groups started fighting, and there were many wars despite lots of failed peace agreements, and boundaries were drawn, we’re against that!

It’s just a giant coincidence these people are Jewish. It’s just a weird quirk that we never talk about other examples of people doing this very same thing in the 20th century as the world transitioned from empires to nation states, like in India/Bangladesh/Pakistan, the Balkans, much of Africa, the Anatolian peninsula and in China/Taiwan/Hong Kong/Xinjiang. All of those places are fine. We just want the one tiny Jewish country gone.

Hmmmm.

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Let’s take their word for it. They’re not anti-Jewish, that’s racism. They’re anti-Zionist. That’s, um, religio-politicalism? It’s their statement in favor of minority ethnic rights, but confusingly, there are only 7 million formerly indigenous Jews in a region of 450 million Arab Muslims who colonized the territory via violent jihad and assimilation? Let’s not go there. That’s too detail oriented.

They’re anti Zionist because the very idea of Israel is inherently evil. So what does this do to Jews who are on the receiving end of this vitriol? Is it our fault for taking it personally? Are all Jews Zionists?

That’s sort of complicated, sort of easy. For now, let’s think, “why are you asking?”

Do people ask Italian Americans if they support Italy, despite the fact that Italy has had shifting borders formed by centuries of warfare and imperial aggression? Should Italian Americans decry a country that exterminated minorities in World War II and now, with a far right government, targets immigrants, LGBTQs and supports Russian aggression? Should Italian Americans advocate for the destruction of Italy because American non-Italian activists demand a borderless, DEI-regime for immigrants from Africa and Central Asia, and lose the Italian language?

If your answer is: “no, those are deeply weird questions, what’s the matter with you?” — then take a step back to ask, if no one should be anti-Italy, how can anyone but a terrorist be anti-Israel?

Most diasporic Jews want other Jews to live in safety and security in their country, Israel, the same way most diasporic Italians want Italians to live in safety and security. It’s not political. It’s not specific to a governing coalition. It’s familial.

Jews are going to love Israel no matter what someone says, because we are part of a larger transnational picture. Does this make us exceptional, or like all diasporic immigrants?

If the activist left wants to claim the mantle of social justice, they’ll drop the costumes — I love seeing white folks in keffiyehs drinking beers during Ramadan, I only wish they’d add a Native American headdress. More importantly, they’ll advocate against anti-Zionism, because, if you are on the left, you should be against war. And no, a unilateral ceasefire doesn’t cut it, because that’s war delayed.

Maybe we should take the left at their word. They are now an unarmed militia stoking violence, using dog whistles and gas lighting to obfuscate intent, just as their peers do across the aisle, on cable news and the internet.

Here’s to hoping they cancel each other out and the rest of American finds the center path forward.