Enemies in our family: Jews who speak up against Zionism
Israel is conducting an “illegal occupation” of the West Bank. It is engaging in an “escalating policy of apartheid.” The country is “demonically evil.”
Classic stuff. The familiar rants and chants of contemporary anti-Semites, people who often hide behind the supposedly less-offensive title of “anti-Zionist.” People who rarely miss the opportunity to take a swipe at Israel, often in the name of “progressive,” knee-jerk “intersectionality” defense of the Palestinian cause.
But this is not your classic criticism of Israel.
All of the above words were uttered by Jews (respectively, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of ice cream fame, MIT linguistics professor Noam Chomsky, and actor Wallace Shawn). In the name of “Jewish values.” Typically using their Jewish identities as a shield against claims that they are anti-Semitic.
Even worse, some of the group of Jews-by-DNA-but-not-by-belief-or-behavior who have turned against Israel in greater volume, if not in greater numbers, are Holocaust survivors, or the children or grand-children of survivors, an assertion of which is designed to give them more immunity against self-hating accusations and elevate them to a higher level of moral superiority.
We know these type of folks – celebrities and not-so-celebrated individuals, they barely register on the Jewish radar screen until they step out of their Jewish closet – who weaponize their Jewish ancestry in order to take shots at Israel. Like Jonathan Glazer, British film director, who used his acceptance speech at the 2024 Oscars ceremony — for “The Zone of Interest,” a drama set in Auschwitz — to denounce Israel’s “occupation” of Palestinian land and the government’s “dehumanization” of Palestinians in Israel and Gaza.
He is just one example of the “’as-a Jew’ Jew[s],” who, according to an essay by Matthew Schultz in Jewish News Service, “think their Jewishness confers credibility” and flaunt their Jewish background when its suits their liberal agenda.
These are men and women who brandish their Jewish bona fides, who (both sexes) often don kipah or tallit, and hide their animus towards Israel behind solemn-sounding Hebrew phrases while taking part in anti-Israel demonstrations … but who rarely participate in any other normative Jewish activity. Bashing Israel is their religion. This is a phenomenon that has intensified since October 7, and the IDF’s campaign to root Hamas out of Gaza, which progressives, and their fellow travelers among like-minded Jews, deign to brand as “genocide.”
Theirs is the Yiddishe form of virtue signaling; if I am Jewish, if I grew up in a Jewish family, if I spent time in a Jewish school – or, better yet, if I lived through the Shoah, or if one of my relatives did — I am entitled to serve as a spokesman for Judaism! I am more enlightened! Attack my motives, and you attack my sincerity! And, my superior sophistication!
How can you take issue with the views of someone who is Jewish? Or who survived the Holocaust? Or – the most egregious example of people attacking the existence of Medinat Israel with the image of Torah-based legitimacy – the most visible, most-frum-looking: Neturei Karta an off-shoot of the Satmar Chasidic group that is largely persona non grata among most (politically aZionistic) haredi Jews.
As an example of so-called horseshoe politics, the Jews on the far ends of the political spectrum, on the left and the right, are the most likely to embrace anti-Israel/anti-Zionist activism. That includes Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), IfNotNow, and, conversely, Neturei Karta – all of whom, representing themselves as relative models of authentic Jewish values, have made common cause in their rejection of accepting the Jewish state. Similarly, JStreet, which bills itself as “pro-peace, pro-Israel” but regularly takes positions at odds with the majority of pro-Zionist Jews in the U.S., was denied admission to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (aka The Presidents Conference) in 2014 and still is not a member of the 50-member “consensus” organization.
These organizations, and individuals who espouse a constant flow of anti-Israel vitriol, stand at odds with the Jewish establishment, which steadfastly praises Israel as a haven for Jewish lives, and as an (imperfect) model of Jewish ideals.
It’s not just in the United States, and it’s not just muddled-thinking students at Columbia University …
In recent weeks, the First Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress convened in Vienna, featuring a “Nakba Day” statement; police in London blocked the latest in a series of intimidating Friday night rallies conducted in a Jewish neighborhood under the auspices of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; and a newly-formed Jewish Council of Australia has raised its public image through anti-Zionist op-ed essays in the country’s newspapers.
These are not ignorant people, those who are typically critical of Israel and non-supportive of Zionism.
They are largely educated, learned fools.
They are not assimilated people who deny their Jewishness.
Instead, they brag about – while misusing and abusing – their Jewish roots.
They do not see themselves as traitors.
Rather, they consider themselves as loyal Jews, the vanguard of what Judaism should be.
And, predictably controversial within most of the Jewish community, they are predictably unpopular; employees of Jewish organizations, particularly Jewish schools, can expect to lose their jobs if they vocally express anti-Israel/Palestinian-sympathetic opinions.
The forthrightness with which they express their views is exceeded only by their obtuseness.
Most people with common sense – in the Jewish community, and in wider society – recognize these anti-Israel Jews as frauds, well-meaning individuals (to give them the benefit of the doubt) who because of personal conviction or communal pressure align with people who do not have the Jewish people’s best interests at heart.
For non-Jews who without reservation and without apology despise Israel, and question its existence, these pliable Jews provide cover – they are the useful idiots of the Antisemiten, who can proclaim “There are Jews” – or “Israelis” – “who are saying what I am saying.”
Abraham Foxman, retired national director of the Anti-Defamation League, agrees. “Needless to say everyone has their right to voice their opinion,” says Foxman, himself a Holocaust survivor. But, “when they” – he cites Neturei Karta and Jews for Justice in Palestine – “use their identity as practicing Jews and or survivors, they are using their identity as a vehicle to promote their opinion. I do not think this influences Jews, but it may non-Jews.”
Jews – whether halachically Jewish or not –who earlier took such strident, vocal, well-publicized positions were deservedly regarded as outliers from the normative Jewish community. They were annoying gadflies, but mostly ineffective distractions. No more. The growth in their viability, aided by the spread of social media, parallels the growth of the “woke” progressive wing of the Democratic Party within the rest of the party – where opposition to Israel today is a sine qua non to left-wing acceptance. Just as Joe Biden, nominally a Centrist, was beholden to the left-wingers of the Democrats during his presidency, and just as the party’s AOC-ites will exert greater influence if Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor of New York City, the anti-Zionists in U.S. Jewry are gaining new respectability.
These anti-Israel MOT’s now feel that their stances on Eretz Israel are not only a, but the authentically proper view about a Jewish country, and how it conducts its affairs.
This is a hubris that is built on sheker.
This is not a new phenomenon in Jewish history. Take Korach. The leader of the unsuccessful rebellion in the Sinai wilderness against the leadership of Moses, and, in essence, against G-d, Korach framed his uprising in terms of self-serving piety.” You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the Lord is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?” he declared, in a blatant, self-righteous attempt to plant seeds of doubt about G-d’s chosen prophet, who was leading Bnei Israel to the Promised Land. In other words, I, and all the people who share my rebellious views, are just as good Jews as the rest of you!
Korach had serious yichus. He was a Levi, a cousin of Moses and Aaron. He had an established connection to the highest level of the Jewish people; as a Levi, he had G-d-given responsibilities.
No one questioned his connection to Klal Israel.
But his genealogy, and his demagoguery, did not help him in the long run. He squandered his position.
G-d made clear who was on His side. It wasn’t Korach – who is remembered as a charlatan. As the men and women who take up arms, verbally, against Israel, one day will be.
Bernie, Ben & Jerry, Wallace, take note!