Anti-Semitism & Anti-Zionism: Different Things, Same Source

Are anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism the same phenomenon? No. But they do (in part) emanate from the same emotional state. What I am about to put forward here is certainly not the only explanation of these phenomena – there are several others too, especially religious (the original cause). But I don’t think that the factor I offer here has been given enough consideration, if at all.

Yes, these two anti’s occasionally can be related. Someone hates Jews so they’ll hate the state that the Jews established. From their perspective, if Jews don’t have the right to live (a la Hitler), then certainly they don’t have rights to live in their own country.

However, most anti-Zionists don’t hate Jews qua Jews. From their perspective, the Jews “stole” (or “colonized”) land that isn’t theirs and/or they are cruelly “lording over” the local “Palestinians” – or worse (““Genocide””; that’s not a misprint – two pairs of quote marks, given how totally absurd is the accusation). For anti-Zionists, Jews do have the right to live, but only in the countries from where they came from. Of course, that’s another absurdity, given that close to a million Middle Eastern Jews were forced to leave their countries in 1948, and few if any of those nations would welcome back “their” Jews.

Yet, if one looks for the source of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, there’s at least one which constitutes a common denominator, but is hardly mentioned: jealousy. It’s occasionally noted as an important basis of anti-Semitism, but what’s the connection to anti-Zionism?

Let’s start with anti-Semitism. Jews constitute about one-fifth of one percent (0.2%!) of the world’s overall population, but when it comes to Jewish success and contributions to humanity, the percentages are “off the charts.” To give but one example from a source that has no “Jew-loving” background: Jews have garnered approximately 18% of all science-based Nobel Prizes – that’s 90 times their world population numbers!!

Thus, looking at Jewish success from the perspective of the jaundiced (and not-too- successful-in-life) eyes of some Gentiles (certainly not all), it’s an intolerable situation psychologically. “Why them and not me?”

And now to Israel. Those on the “Woke” Left are inherently anti-colonialist – or if you wish, pro-nativist. So, what do we have here in the Israeli situation? Much the same story: there are eight million Israeli Jews; in the entire Middle East, close to a billion Moslems/Arabs reside (not all Moslems are Arab e.g., Iranians). Other than the lucky Arab petro-countries, all the rest are far beneath the Jewish State on almost every socio-economic indicator: Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey… the list goes on and on. And the Arabs have been living in the area for millennia; almost all the Jews (or their grand/parents) living in Israel today came from outside the area, most as immigrants escaping depredations.

Forget for the moment “Gaza” and other supposed Israeli “colonial” sins (West Bank etc.). The fact that the Jewish State is doing so well, despite being comprised mostly of Jews that left their former countries and arrived with not much in terms of money or even education – that’s especially grating to anyone (invariably on the Left) who wishes to see the “natives” beating the “invaders.” At this point, anti-Semitism meets anti-Zionism.

Anti-Semitism on the Right is more religiously oriented. Here the “problem” is that the Jewish State is doing “too well” for a people who supposedly are on the wrong side of theological history. True, there are many Evangelical (and other) Christians who support Israel; there is nothing intrinsic to Christianity that demands the subservience of the Jews (for Catholics, certainly not after Vatican II). But that doesn’t prevent religious jealousy from bursting out among those Christians who retain the Church’s millennia-long antipathy to the Jews.

To be sure, Jewish and Zionist success historically are relatively recent phenomena: general Jewish success post-Emancipation (the past 200 years); Jewish-state Zionist success over the past eight decades, especially from the 1990s onwards. But this only deepens the feelings of jealousy, as the “anti’s” know that in the not-so-distant past most Jews weren’t “up there” but rather somewhere near the bottom of the social and economic hierarchy – not to mention stateless.

A final point further underscoring socio-economic jealousy as a potent force is anti-“Other” prejudice. Think of American antipathy to Chinese-American success; to Afro-American upscale movement (after the Jews, the socio-economic group that is most successful in the U.S. is… Nigerians! U.S.-born children of Nigerian immigrants have exceptionally high college graduation rates, far surpassing the national average of white and native-born Black Americans).

To repeat: social jealousy is but one of several factors underlying anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Moreover, not only Jews suffer from such a syndrome. But that’s not much comfort for Jews and the Jewish State. In fact, it’s downright depressing because the better Jews and Israel do, the worse the animosity from the other side. The one “comfort”: anti-Semitism and/or anti-Zionism leads to many Jews rediscovering and reinforcing their feelings and actions related to their Jewish heritage.
But that’s a topic for another day.