Please stop talking about ‘zionism’

Seeing the word “zionism” is now a yellow flag for me, with “zionists” a bright red flag.

I hate having this reaction.

After the decades of homework I have done as an American Jew climbing out of pro-Israel propaganda — after a history rich in injustices committed under the flag of Israel — in this moment when worst Israel hardliners are driving a genocide — I resent developing a reflexive cringe which makes me resemble apologists who dismiss every criticism of Israel as “antisemitism”.

I have no investment in zionism. Though I place myself as “post-zionist” rather than “anti-zionist”, I count some schools of anti-zionism as allies, and disagree respectfully with others.

But those are not the criticisms of ‘zionism’ filling my feed daily, describing a moustache-twirling evil ideology defining & directing the state of Israel, enthusastic about every wrong, thirsty for genocide, filling all ‘zionists’ with hot malice toward Arab Palestinians. An imaginary ‘zionism’ which is false, facile, and dangerous.

The word “zionism” just does not mean this thing I constantly see people talking about. Many early zionists opposed the homeland they sought taking the form of a Westphalian nation-state like Israel; after the founding of the state in 1948, the core of zionism becomes nothing other than support for Israel continuing to exist in some form. The history of the zionist movement is riddled with bad ideas and brutality, but those do not define a multifaceted movement which also includes strains directly opposed to the violences committed by early zionists, by Israel historically, and by Israel’s Likudnik leadership now.

There is plenty in zionism to criticize — don’t get me started! — but one cannot dismiss support for the existence of Israel as so transparently evil that it is illegitimate … especially for Israelis who have never had another home.

Nor can one point to the specific injustices found in the bloody history of Israel as proof of zionism’s aims or inevitable consequences. Zionism is not A Plan For All This. Wariness of apologists who shrug over Israel-Palestine as Too Complex For Mortals To Judge should not drive us to overreact by dismissing the genuine complexity of the overlapping, historically-contingent actors and forces which brought us here.

The terms “Kahanism” and “Revisionist Zionism” are right there if you need them, but one needs to understand the history of zionism to know them.

Whether one misrepresents ‘zionism’ out of ignorance of what actual Zionists say & do, or out of arrogance claiming a right to decide what the word means —

— whether one faults ‘zionism’ for making Israel an exceptionally evil nation, or sees it as exemplifying an evil inherent in all nations but chooses to single out and emphasize the particular example of ‘zionism’ —

— whether one curses ‘zionists’ unaware how how this parallels actual Nazis using “zionists” as a euphemism for “Jews”, or unconcerned about the parallel —

— these moves are ugly.

I know many of the people offering faux ‘zionism’ well enough to see that they share my lefty commitments to justice, to see that antisemitic bigotry does not animate what they say, to see that they are hungry for explanations of the real evils of Israel’s ongoing attack on Gaza. But bigots did originally author this story of ‘zionism’, and antisemitism is the payload. Getting played by this kind of propaganda is among many ways the left has not been thoughtful enough about the moves we make in response to the Gaza crisis.

It is unfair that having to step even more carefully than usual to avoid disinformation from crafty bad actors on all sides compounds the other burdens on advocacy for Palestinian liberation. Wrestling over the meaning of “zionism” and over the roots of the horrors in Israel-Palestine distracts from talking directly about stopping Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza.

But here we are. Talk of nonsense ‘zionism’ riddled with antisemitism has already eroded my trust in too many people.

This need not deter us from doing what we must. The most important things are simple. Israel’s current attack on Gaza is unjustified and brutal and must stop. The longstanding oppression of Arab Palestinians under the power of the state of Israel is unjust and must stop. Please stand there so that I can stand with you.