i just read this little book put out by JVP containing stories by members about how they arrived at anti-zionism, and a few things stick out. most writers come from academic and middle or upper-middle class backgrounds. many writers connect anti-zionism to other movements rhetorically, but not materially; they have no conscious political ideology underpinning their anti-zionism or connecting it to other political movements. most writers recount the same story: zionist upbringing, personal moral awakening, political activism through JVP.
for a movement so often called radical or leftist, the more i learn about JVP the more they look like liberal jews using activism to assuage their moral guilt over israeli occupation of palestinians. guilt cannot form the basis for any meaningful political program (it’s time for INN to retire the “moral disaster” refrain and find a material basis for its politics). it’s ridiculous that they have a near monopoly on the jewish left.
The term ‘radical’ is at this point absolutely meaningless and can be used by pretty much anyone. And considering that JVP put out a statement on how to fight antisemitism by ignoring it and fighting every other form of bigotry instead, I’m not in the least surprised.
This is what most leftists in America are like, tbh. As someone who went from anti-Zionist to becoming a Zionist, a big part of what changed me was realizing that the Jewish communities that tended to be the most Zionistic were also the most precarious: working class, less “rooted” in their home countries (former USSR, Latin America, Middle East/North Africa), recent immigrant status, facing political turmoil or rising ant-semitism.
A common, unexamined trope in leftist “de-Zionification” narratives is “I realized that I don’t need Israel, so why should you?” But “you,” a white American who went to Oberlin, don’t speak for everyone: certainly not the masses of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe and MENA after WW2, certainly not Jews fleeing Venezeula or Yemen or Ethiopia in the past 20-30 years, and certainly not the millions of Jews currently living in Israel. It’s actually pretty ballsy to be living in America, the richest country in the world, the economic and military powerhouse of the Western World, while campaigning to take away the democratic rights of Jews living in a tiny country in the Middle East because Jews are just so, like, so white and annoying.
There’s a lot of intra-community American-centrism and colourism involved in Jewish American political thought on the left, tbh.
Author: forlovefromfear
Casting Zionism As ‘White Nationalism’ Is Anti-Semitism
When neo-Nazis and white nationalists marched through Charlottesville, Virginia, last week, they chanted anti-Semitic slogans like, “Jews will not replace us.” Even before the “march,” Nazi websites had posted calls to marchers to burn down a synagogue there. As The Atlantic observed, they are “obsessed with Jews.” This comes as no surprise to Jews — and should not be a surprise to anyone with even a passing familiarity with the history of anti-Semitism, white nationalism, or Nazism. When the Ku Klux Klan was re-founded in 1915, for example, one of its key precepts was anti-Semitism, alongside anti-Black racism and xenophobia. That is why when, last week, white nationalists marched, it was an attack on Jews and Jewish institutions, as well as on people of color: when white nationalists gain power and influence, they use it to terrorize us.
It has therefore come as a shock to me to discover the growing popularity, among some on the left, of the notion that Zionism actually is white nationalism ― a position as anti-Semitic as it is intellectually disingenuous. The most offensive aspect of this idea’s growing popularity is that it has come primarily since the march in Charlottesville, but the significance of the timing goes beyond mere insensitivity. In the aftermath of the march, many Jews on the left insisted upon, at long last, recognition by our allies on the left that white nationalism is a threat to Jews. The growing power of white nationalists represents, as it always has, a direct challenge to the ability of Jews to feel at home or safe.
Yair Rosenberg, for example, suggested that the left set aside the longstanding debate over whether Jews are “white” or not — an important debate because, he explained, “implicitly at stake … is whether efforts to combat racism should prioritize prejudice against Jews” or whether other groups should take precedence. In practice, however, the question has been settled by the growing power of white nationalists, who uniformly contend that Jews are not white, and have no place in their vision for America. Though with some notable exceptions, the general response to this call was deafening silence.
Soon after, and ostensibly out of nowhere, some anti-Zionists began to suggest that Zionism is a form of white nationalism. This represents a direct rebuke of Rosenberg’s, and others’, pleas. In fact, the exclusive effect of this line of argument — there are innumerable other ways to criticize Israel — was, and is, to distract from and undermine the insistence of Jewish leftists that the threats to us and our communities be taken seriously. If Zionism is simply one form of white nationalism, and Jews are not threatened by Zionism, then how much could Jews really be threatened by white nationalism? Even without the dangerous underlying logic, the effect would be the same — to reorient the conversation about white nationalism to be about Zionism instead of anti-Semitism. And, as with so many discussions pertaining to Israel on the left, leftist Jews again find ourselves having to first disclaim any support for Israel before our concerns about anti-Semitism will be heard, let alone taken seriously.
Unspoken in the position is the erasure of any difference between Jews and non-Jewish whites (for the sake of simplicity, let’s ignore the fact that the vast majority of Israeli Jews would not be seen as white in nearly any part of the world). After all, for Zionism to be considered white nationalism, it must involve support for a white nation. This distinction between “whites” and “Jews,” is of importance not because of any inherent difference between us but rather because centuries of oppression have created that difference. Regardless of whether Jews are counted as “white,” we remain a small minority, frequently discriminated against on the basis of being Jews. When the left-Twitterati pretends this not to be the case, it tacitly suggests that there is no history of Jewish oppression or, at least, that such history is irrelevant.
Obscuring the history of and invidiousness of Jewish persecution is both vital to and inherent in this theory. At its core, white nationalism is ideological dishonesty in pursuit of greater power for the already powerful. White nationalists claim they seek the creation of a nation exclusively for them on the basis that white people are an oppressed minority whose coherent culture requires protection. This, obviously, has no basis in reality: white nationalism is not aimed at the vindication of any oppressed group but rather the further empowerment of those who have occupied positions of privilege for most of the world’s history, and continue to do so now. (Also, the notion that there is a single, “white” culture is laughable.)
By contrast, Jews clearly are a coherent cultural group; we actually have been oppressed, in fact by the majority in every nation we have inhabited; our shared culture, and even our people, has often teetered on the brink of extinction. The existence of Israel does not undo that history or the fact that half the world’s Jews continue to live as precarious minorities. To suggest otherwise is to appeal to the age-old anti-Semitic canard that Jews are a powerful global cabal, under which the power of some of us anywhere enhances the power of all us, everywhere.
The left has too often allowed our critique of Israel to obscure the demands of our better angels. If we embrace the notion that Zionism is a form of — or indistinguishable from — white nationalism, we will commit that error yet again, endorsing by implication the idea that Jews wield as much as, or more power than, non-Jewish whites — a neo-Nazi talking point. Instead, we must directly confront the ugly problem of anti-Semitism which has again reared its head in the form of white nationalism.
We can, and must, do better.
I know a lot of my non-Jewish followers are very critical of Israel. And that’s okay! The Israeli government is frequently shitty and deserves criticism (the same criticism many governments deserve). But that criticism must come without antisemitism or advocating beliefs that strengthen antisemitic conspiracies.
There are many valid critiques of Israel, the way Israel was founded, and Zionism itself. But “Jews are European colonizers who are really from Poland and Russia,” isn’t one of them, for four reasons:
– Roughly half of Israeli Jews aren’t even European, at all. They’re Levantine, Persian, Iraqi, Indian, North African, Ethiopian, etc.
– You can’t be a colonizer if your “colony” doesn’t have a mother country.
– Ashkenazim did spend 1000 years in Eastern/Central Europe, but we were never really considered European. In fact, we consistently faced discrimination and violence *because* we were seen as foreigners from the Middle East. By saying we’re “really European” you are foisting on us the identity of our oppressors.
– Ethnic Ashkenazim are not genetically Eastern/Central European. Roughly half of our DNA is from the Levant (the area where Israel and Palestine are) and the other half is from Southern Europe (like, Northern Italy). We have next to no Eastern/Central European admixture.
You can’t assign us an ethnicity just because you don’t like us. You can’t rewrite history or ignore science just because you don’t like us.
OMG SHE JUST SAID ‘NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM’ THAT IS THE MOST JEWISH IN-JOKE OF MY LIFE
=||||||
Zionism is a trip
It has nothing to do with Zionism? That’s something we’ve been saying at Passover seders for literally hundreds upon hundreds of years. The phrase outdates the modern state of Israel by centuries.
You can have feelings about Israel existing as a state without literally dismissing half the world’s Jews. Like, sorry, I’m not going to pretend 6 million of my people don’t exist because they live somewhere I don’t like. FFS.
haven’t u heard? admitting jews have referenced jerusalem for literal centuries is evil zionism now
I’m really tired of people saying they have no problems with Jews, and that they certainly support Jews living in a unified post-Israel Palestinian state, but then expecting that in the meantime, we will all pretend that those Jews living in Israel don’t exist as Jews.
Like, sorry, but we’re still not back to pre-Holocaust numbers, I don’t have the luxury of acting like diaspora Jews are the only Jews in the world, maybe y’all shouldn’t have killed so many of us and expelled us from your countries if you wanted us to act like the Jews in Israel just pulled an Infinity War and disappeared off the face of the earth.
Jews and Zionists
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.
tbh, goyim, you have really got to stop thinking of being jewish as only a religion. PSAs about antisemitism are a little more widespread nowadays but it’s still very obvious you only see us as a religion, or a “faith”, or whatever. yes, judaism is a religion, and yes, you can convert into it, but it’s difficult to convert in and you have to be the one to initiate it because we don’t proselytize.
the jewish people are an ethnicity as well as a religion. judaism is the religion of the jewish people. we are a people indigenous to the levant, exiled 1800 years ago, and forced to resettle in other countries where we were force-assimilated and many of us through those 1800 years lost our ethnic features while still retaining some—our noses, our dark curly hair, etc., which obviously aren’t on every jew but are common in families where the bloodline was kept strong.
it’s really tiring to see people saying “your religion” or “the jewish religion” or “freedom of religion” with reference to us because we are a people and a culture and an ethnicity. we’re far less persecuted for our religion than we are for our cultural dress and our ethnic features. a lot of us don’t even subscribe to the religion part but still celebrate the holidays bc they’re cultural holidays.
so please, like … remember this when you talk about our people or antisemitism. antisemitism is not a religion issue as much as it is an ethnicity issue and a particular brand of racism that has somewhat different rules because we’ve been exiled from israel for so long. like … just keep that in mind when you start discussion about our people pls lol
and yes goyim can reblog
Antisemitism on the Left
Gentiles (AKA non-Jewish people) who talk about social justice seem to be confused or completely oblivious to what antisemitism is.
It’s not just calling for Jewish people to die or being a literal neo-nazi.
I regularly see Leftist/Liberal/Progressive/Social Justice gentiles that claim to be against antisemitism/nazis act incredibly antisemitic, so here’s a helpful list!
And if you’re wondering WHY something on this list is antisemitic, Google is free!
- Saying you hate X group of Jews (white Jews, Israeli Jews, etc)
- Accusing a random Jew (ex: Gal Gadot) of killing children/being a war criminal with absolutely nothing to back up your claims.
- Calling Jewish people murderers, child-killers, etc. in general
- Calling Israel a white supremacist state.
- Celebrating the deaths of Jewish people (yes EVEN if they’re Israeli!)
- Holding all Jewish people (EVEN Israeli Jews) accountable for the actions of the Israeli government
- Asking Jewish people their stance on Israel out of any context.
- Dismissing any group of Jews as “white” (note: this does not include holding white-passing Jews accountable for their conditional white privilege/racism)
- Ignoring the fact that Jewish people can be of any ethnicity
- Dismissing the fact that Jewish people are an ethno-religious group
- Dismissing our connection to Israel
- Calling a Jewish person you don’t know a reptile/lizard person/goblin (example: The FineBros)
- Comparing acts of racism/genocides to the Holocaust (there are certain situations in which this is appropriate, but that’s up to Jewish people to decide)
- Acting like antisemitism isn’t only about discrimination against Jews and includes ALL semites.
- Acting like Jewish people are privileged for being Jewish (even if they’re white-passing!)
- Using anything involving Israelis/non-government related Israel events to Discourse about Israel.
- Bringing up the actions of the Israeli government in response to antisemitism.
- Acting as if antisemitism is deserved because of the actions of the Israeli government.
- Giving antisemitic gentiles a pass because they do other kinds of activism.
- “But Jews voted for Trump!”
- Inserting yourself into Jewish-only discussions.
Non-Jews are absolutely encouraged to reblog! But this is not an invitation to argue these points!
Jewish people are encouraged to add on!
Refusing to research and try to understand antisemitism the way you do with other forms of oppression and then just using ignorance as an excuse
GOOD ADDITION
why do you reblog from outspoken zionists like definitelywicked?
Okay, anon, I don’t know who you are or how long you’ve been here, but obviously you’ve missed a lot chez wetwareproblem if you thought this was a good idea.
So first of all, a disclaimer: I am white. I am neither ethnically Jewish nor Palestinian. As such, my primary stance on Israel and Palestine is that, for the most part, it is not my conflict. It is a conflicting-access problem between two indigenous peoples, neither of which I’m a member of. I think that both Jews (ethnic and gerim) and Palestinians have a right to self-determination and safety in their ancestral homeland, especially in light of the very real danger both groups are in in diaspora. I believe that people who are not Jewish or Palestinian have no fucking right to a voice in this argument, or to declare one side right and the other wrong, period.
Now, let’s look at what you’re actually saying here: You claim that @definitelywicked is an “outspoken Zionist.” But… “Zionist” is a word that, in political use, has wandered far from its roots and in fact turned into an epithet for “Jew I don’t like.” All Zionism actually means is that you believe that the Jewish people have a right to self-determination and to live in the lands to which they are indigenous. It says literally nothing about the policies and practices of the Israeli government or the treatment of the Palestinian people. And, in fact, when I look at definitelywicked’s blog, I see exactly that – someone who is critical of the Israeli government and wants better treatment for Palestinian people, but is unwilling to bargain away Jewish rights in the process.
What’s more, I see that she is an Iraqi Jew currently living, as most Iraqi Jews do, in Israel. There is a reason for this, and there is a reason that most MENA Jewish people live in Israel and strongly support its existence: Because without it, they or their families would probably be dead.
When you criticize somebody for simply supporting the existence of a self-governed Jewish polity in the Jewish homeland, without which they would not exist, what I hear is “The only good Jew is a dead Jew.” Because that’s literally what you’re asking here.
When you use a whopping two appearances of someone in the above position, one of which was in a ha-ha-only-serious joke post about the violence and danger Diaspora Jews are facing right now, to try to delegitimize random Jewish bloggers, especially in the wake of a high-profile example of leftist antisemitism, your motives become extremely transparent.
TL;DR: I/P is a complex situation with no clear good guys and bad guys, bleating “Palestine good, Israel bad” does nobody any favours, and you can save a lot of time if you just say “I hate Jews and want them dead.”
you know what, i’m about to say it
it’s not just expecting jews to be or proclaim to being pro-palestine/anti-israel/antizionist that is antisemitic, it’s also expecting them to hold or proclaim to holding perfect pro-palestine/anti-israel/antizionist views and politics all the time. and by ‘perfect’ i certainly don’t mean sensible, nuanced, or productive views and politics, i mean views and politics that unchallengingly espouse the mainstream narrative of a solidarity movement riddled with antisemitism. pro-palestine jews become agents of zionism the second they express the slightest discomfort at the unchecked and rampant antisemitism in the movement, the tokenization of their activism, the exterminatory rhetoric surrounding israel, the use of material produced by people with a history of antisemitism, the abuses of bds, the support for deeply antisemitic & armed religious movements, the celebration of people who killed civilians, the erasure of jewish diversity, history and culture, the denial of antisemitism from the holocaust to the jewish exodus from muslim countries, the inappropriate and ahistorical nazi comparisons, the toxic strategies used to dodge accusations of antisemitism – i could go on. expecting jews to be uncritical supporters of a movement in which antisemitism – that is, for those who forget, anti-jewish racism – has such a large audience and amount of offenders, that’s antisemitism, always.
Please feel free to stop me if I’m overstepping my bounds here. But this got me thinking about a whole new facet of the privilege I have as someone who’s not Jewish that just…didn’t hit me until this moment.
I have the ability to say that I don’t know enough to state an opinion, and I won’t be attacked but lauded for it. I can say that I don’t have the background or the nuance to be able to explain everything, or to give opinions on aspects of the situation, and I won’t be judged for it. I won’t face backlash for it. I won’t be in danger for it. People will praise me for my nuance and for my ability to admit that I don’t have to know everything, while Jewish people are not only expected to know each and every detail of the situation, they’re expected to espouse letter-perfect Ideologically Pure™ views as a prerequisite for their mere existence in seemingly progressive spaces. I can literally exert the least possible effort and be praised for it, while Jewish people are expected to throw themselves in with words and actions that are actively harming them in order to simply be invited to the table, and that’s honestly the most horrifying realization I’ve had in a while. ‘
I’m attempting–and please let me know if I’m failing–not to center myself in this narrative, but hopefully to convey to people who previously considered themselves outside it that they’re not. That the ability to walk in activist spaces WITHOUT thinking about it is something not everyone can do, and that not actively opening doors is as good as holding them shut.
An identity that isn’t inherently politicized by others by mere virtue of existence is a privilege. Ignorance is a privilege.
You are 100% dead on and not overstepping at all imo. A+
Thank you for vocalizing it, too. It really, really helps when this comes from allies rather than Jewish people sometimes.
An identity that isn’t inherently politicized by others by mere virtue of existence is a privilege. Ignorance is a privilege.
antisemitic conspiracy theories about jewish power/money/influence work to obfuscate real power dynamics to shield the ruling class from rightful anger and criticism. that’s how antisemitism has always worked: create a scapegoat to divert attention away from yourself, a buffer between the oppressed and their oppressors. as a leftist if you are committed to exposing and dismantling systems of power and you engage in this type of rhetoric you are hurting yourself and the validity of your own movement. i shouldn’t have to frame this as “antisemitism is not beneficial for you” but since so many of you still don’t get it this is what it has to take. antisemitism doesn’t just endanger jews, it hurts all of us committed to the same goal. the sooner we realize that, the closer we can come to actually achieving it.
ForLoveFromFear 