Why Zionism is not a dirty word

About a year ago I was chatting on the phone with a friend, although at the time we had gone out on a couple of dates.

Oh, and she’s a Muslim.

Obviously she’s not the most observant Muslim, but she was raised in a religious family. A big part of her identity is Muslim. Anyway, during the conversation she told me she mentioned to one of her Muslim friends that she went out with a Jewish guy (me). I don’t remember the specifics, but I recall her telling me that she told her friend that dating a Jewish guy wasn’t that big of a deal since it’s not like he was a Zionist.

Ahem.

I told that, in fact, that I am a Zionist. I explained that a Zionist is simply a person who believes the Jewish people have a right to self-determination. Because, really, that’s all that Zionism is when you boil it down. Sure, there are different types of Zionists—Labor Zionists, Revisionist Zionists, religious Zionists—but the bottom line is that Zionism is simply Jewish nationalism, plain and simple.

But I don’t blame my friend for her ignorance regarding Zionism. Indeed, to be honest, I find myself almost bristling at the term these days.Why? Recent history can shed light.

The defamation of Zionism began during the Cold War. The USSR played spoiler to the West, of which Israel is a part (although a majority of Israelis are descended from Jews indigenous to the region, but that’s for another post). The Soviets played a big role in the propaganda war against Israel, as well as arming Israel’s Arab enemies. The Soviets were politically astute; they knew that opposition to Israel couched in anti-Semitism was somewhat self-defeating. Instead of attacking Jews and Judaism, they attacked Jewish nationalism—Zionism—and the culmination of Zionism: Israel.

The Arab states, Islamic states, Eastern bloc countries and many developing nations jumped on the anti-Zionism bandwagon, since they were loosely or closely allied with the Soviets.

But anti-Zionism took on a life of its own. Soon, any imagined evil that an Israel-hater (anti-Semite?) could conjure became attributed to Zionism. Soon, there was rhetoric denouncing Zionists for being behind wars all over the world, or controlling the media, international banking, or manipulating Western governments.

These so-called anti-Zionists thought they were very cleaver, but anybody remotely familiar with the history of anti-Semitism will recognize that the such accusations are simply recycled anti-Semitic motifs. It’s the same shit the Nazis raved about.

Sadly, this has been going on since the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. In fact, it you listen to the rhetoric emanating from many Islamic states, like Iran, there seems to be no diabolical evil that the Zionists are not capable of. Far Leftists, Arab nationalists, Islamists—all have been lumping Zionism in with the evils of the world, like racism, or Apartheid, or colonialism, etc (I’m surprised global warming hasn’t been blamed on Zionism yet).

As Hitler—or was it Goebbels?—said: Repeat a lie enough and people will begin to believe it. Thanks to the endless bile about Zionism, it’s understandable if the average Shmo begins to imagine that Zionism is on par with the evils of the world.

What is of course worrisome and creepy about all of this is that just as the Nazis had to dehumanize the Jews in order to justify genocide, anti-Zionists have to de-legitimize Zionism in order to justify the destruction of Israel.

When I say I am a Zionist, I am only saying that I believe the Jewish people have a right to self-determination in their own land, just like most other peoples around the world. Now, if one believes that nationalism is inherently racist, then one should also equally oppose the existence of a French state, or Japanese state, or German state, or Italian state, or Ethiopian state, or Egyptian state, etc.

Self-described anti-Zionists should realize it is utterly futile to draw a distinction between Jews that live in the Diaspora and Israeli Jews. That’s because 99.999% of all Jews are Zionists—they support Israel’s right to exist, even though over half of all Jews in the world opt to live outside of Israel.

And I reject that idea that simply living in Israel means one deserves to be marked for death, or that living in Israel makes one a racist. Haters of Zionism must realize that the logical outcome of their view translates into millions of dead Jewish Israelis. If they can't stomach that, they should reevaluate their views.

If you believe in a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, you then by extension believe that Israel has a right to exist. In a sense, you are a Zionist.

But don’t worry—Zionism is not a dirty word.