Jews and Zionists

socialismoffools:

Looking at the trainwreck comments on this meme, I notice something. Well, two things. One, people have no self-awareness and will instantly prove a satirical point true with their reaction to it, and, two, a lot of non-Jewish people are now using and exploiting what was once a Jewish protectant against antisemitism: Jewishness and Zionism aren’t the same things.

In principle, that distinction is valid and important. Jews obviously have a range of feelings about the state of Israel and they may or may not use the political label “Zionist” for a variety of reasons. And, frankly, whether or not someone uses the political label “Zionist” doesn’t tell you a whole lot about their positions on anything. Extremely religious people often don’t call themselves Zionists, because they see it as a secular word, but that doesn’t mean that they are peaceniks (although, of course, some extremely religious people are).

But there’s more to it than that. Just as the distinction between Muslims and Islamists is valid but can also act as a smokescreen for Islamaphobia, so can the distinction between Jews and Zionists.

First of all, leftists often use it as an ideological “test” against Jews. Prove you’re not a Zionist and you can belong. Denounce Israel and we’ll let you stay. It’s not presented as an ideological test against Jews (how could it be? Jews and Zionism are different!) but the question is more likely to be leveled against you if you wear a Magen David, excuse yourself to go to Shabbat services, or otherwise appear Jewish. The nefarious aspect of this “test” is that its supposedly anti-racist aspect (prove YOU’RE not oppressing ME by being a secret racist!) inoculates it from critique and ties it into a feedback loop.

I also find that, when asked to expound on this supposedly clear distinction between Jews and Zionists, leftists talk about Zionism in terms that haven’t been relevant since well before 1948. Prior to Israel’s founding, Zionism was only an idea and a political movement – and, yes, only a minority of Jews were involved with it. Back then, if you talked about “Zionists,” you probably meant the minority of Jews who belonged to certain organizations or immigrated in small numbers to work land in British Palestine. (The fact that these people were generally secular socialists doesn’t interest many contemporary leftists.)

However, when we look at the world today, that reality is gone. “Zionist” is no longer a self-selected political descriptor. 43 percent of the world’s Jews live in Israel and, soon, that number will be even higher because America’s Jewish population is rapidly aging. Israel is home to the only demographically significant communities of Mizrahi and African Jews (not to mention other non-European Jewish communities that don’t fall under those two umbrellas). The idea that the Zionist project is an ideological position that could be abandoned is false. It’s a reality and millions of real people are enmeshed in it. Many American Jews can say “OMG I hate Zionists” with no real effect on them. But that’s not so for any of the Jews living in Israel or any of the diaspora Jews whose ties to Israel are more intimate – e.g. the mostly Mizrahi French Jews who have family living there and a recent cultural memory of living in the Middle East.

The term “Zionist” is also defined much more broadly than it used to be. No longer is it a Jewish person who wants to go and build the Jewish state. The capacious leftist definition of “unacceptable levels of Zionism” means a Zionist could be anything from being a hardline religious settler to a two-stater to a harsh critic of Israel who nevertheless supports the continuation of some form of semi-autonomous Jewish state. And because of the cultural and academic boycott, the definition of “supporting Israel” has now crept out of the realm of the political. People who like Israeli films or who learn Modern Hebrew are now Zionists, too. 

The “I love Jews but I hate Zionists” line of thinking also has a dark origin: the anti-Jewish campaigns of the former Soviet Union. Jews faced terrible persecution in the Soviet Union (this is not up for debate with me, so don’t message me to be like “but muh precious Stalin”) even though anti-semitism was ostensibly illegal. The Soviets conducted a vicious campaign against “Zionism” and many Jews were killled, imprisoned or otherwise persecuted (made to swear oaths, issue public apology, or harrassed by the government) because they were “Zionists.” At the same time, Soviet propagandists were painting themselves as victims of Zionist machinations and supporters of the poor, put-upons Jews. Zionists were ethnic supremacists and anti-communist, they claimed. Zionists were conspiratorial liars. The Soviets also originated the now-ubiquitous talking points “Zionism is racism” and “Zionists collaborated with the Nazis.” Accoridng to them, none of these criticisms had anything to do with Jews. The fact that it was only Jews getting removed from their jobs or imprisoned was just a coincidence. 

In summation, the distinction between Jews and Zionists isn’t a “get out of jail free” card. Don’t let people treat it like it is.