Zionism is a nationalist movement that supports the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the Biblical Land of Israel.
Organized opposition to Zionism outside the Arab world goes back to 1975, when the General Assembly of the United Nations declared that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination”. Fifty years later, the status of Israel at the UN and elsewhere is worse than ever. According to Visual Capitalist, the Jewish State is number one in a list of “The World’s Least Liked Countries.” (The U.S. is # 5, after North Korea, Afghanistan, and Iran.) Israel is shunned and ostracized by other countries at various international events, from sports to the Eurovision Song Contest. When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the General Assembly last month, 77 delegations walked out. Though I am not fond of Netanyahu, it should be said that most of the delegates who refused to listen to his speech represented governments whose actions are as bad as, or worse than, Israel’s.
Public opinion in the United States, once mostly pro-Zionist, is not immune to this new wave of anti-Israeli sentiment that often crosses the line into anti-Semitism. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whom I support on other issues, called for the arrest of Netanyahu during his recent visit to the UN. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a far-Left movement loosely allied with the Democratic Party, defines Israel as settler-colonial and apartheid; and rejects its existence as a Jewish State. According to the Arab Center in Washington DC, up to 80% of Democrats now hold negative views of Israel and of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a group that lobbies in support of Israeli interests. But anti-Israeli opposition in America is not limited to the political Left. Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson said in an interview that “Israel is not part of Western Civilization” and added that the Israelis are “going to have to repent for what they did in the same way that the Nazis had to repent for what they did.” To compare Israel to the Nazis, who killed six million Jews, is beyond the pale.
Incredibly, many LGBTQ activists have joined the anti-Israel bandwagon, forgetting that the Jewish State is the only place in the Middle East where queer people can live our lives without fear of violence or death. They organized protests, disrupted Pride events, and accused the Israeli government of “pinkwashing” by using its admirable pro-gay policies for propaganda purposes. During Netanyahu’s recent UN visit, queer celebrities like Hannah Einbinder, Susan Sarandon, Elliot Page, and Chelsea Manning joined others in protest against Netanyahu, some demanding his arrest.
People who oppose the Zionist Movement and the State of Israel say they do so in support of the Palestinian people, especially those who live in the Gaza Strip. They accuse Israel of “genocide,” which allegedly occurred when Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) invaded and bombed Gaza from 2023 to 2026, devastating the Strip and killing more than 73,000 Palestinians. They forget, or choose to ignore, that the Israeli assault was in response to a devastating attack against Israel by Hamas, which controlled Gaza, on October 7, 2023. That day 1,195 Israelis were killed and 251 were taken hostage, the greatest number of Jewish casualties since the Holocaust. Israel acted in self defense and in retaliation against this atrocity, like any other country would do in similar circumstances.
Genocide is defined as “the deliberate and systematic killing or persecution of a large number of people from a particular national or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.” There are many things that we can accuse the Israeli government or the IDF of doing but genocide is not one of them. Israel wanted to obliterate Hamas and their leaders, and in this it was successful. It did not intend to eliminate Palestinian civilians in Gaza, though its bombing and its blockade did much to kill many of them.
There are legitimate reasons to criticize Netanyahu and his Likud government: their encouragement of Israeli settlers in the Palestinian West Bank (Judea and Samaria); their attack against Lebanon (to obliterate Hezbollah); their use of flattery and deceit to lead the Trump Administration into an unnecessary and still insoluble war against Iran. Israel will hold parliamentary elections later this month, and I trust the Israeli people will use this opportunity to send Netanyahu into retirement (or prison). This will happen because Israel is a democracy, like the United States, something that most of its enemies are not. I trust the Israelis will correct their mistake, just as I hope that the American people will soon correct our mistake.
