Someone wrote on a post the other day wanting to educate us by saying that not all anti-zionists are antisemites.
In other words, you can be against the State of Israel existing, but you can still love Jews.
And for too long, this argument by so many who consider themselves progressive thinkers, or enlightened intellectuals, or human rights activists has been that they have nothing against Jews themselves, but they just don’t really like the country of Israel. Like Jeremy Corbyn. Or Roger Waters. Or Iran. It bothers them.
Well, I’m going to tell you what bothers me.
What bothers me is that all these people who think that somehow they stand on a heightened pedestal preaching morality are among the most immoral among us. Not only are they against the State of Israel existing in any form, they are against Jews existing themselves. Now sure, they’ll say they have many Jewish friends – in fact I’m sure some of their best friends are Jews – but in reality the Jews that would ‘fit’ their criteria of being counted as friends are the kind of Jews that have turned their backs on their religion, on their culture, on their heritage and on their identity. They are lost among us – and unless they can find their way back, in a generation or two, would cease to exist as Jews anyway.
Contrary to what many people might think, Zionism is not a political movement. It’s a Jewish movement that is entrenched in Jewish life, Jewish culture, Jewish nationality and Jewish thinking. It’s in our songs, our prayers, our books – our everything. Now, it’s true that there are many aspects that some might see as political, but that’s just a manifestation of what exists already and what has existed since the dawn of the Jewish people.
The first Zionist was not Theodore Herzl, but Abraham, son of Terah.
Abraham was the first Jew and it was he that made his home in the land of Canaan, which became the Land of Israel and the Jewish Homeland. The Canaanites are long gone, but the Jews are still here. And whether you believe it was God who sent Abraham or not, doesn’t really matter, because what Abraham did about 3830 years ago is the same thing that Jews are doing today – determining their own future and their own destiny in their own land.
You cannot support Jews and be against Israel, for Israel is part of the Jewish people from Abraham until today. It lives in our culture, it flows in our blood, it soars in our spirit. If you’re against Israel, then you’re against the very first Jew that ever existed.
So the next time someone tells you that not all anti-zionists are antisemites, you can simply respond: You’re wrong.
