On the Inherent Anti-Semitism of Zionism and the Recuperation of Jewish Struggle by the West

A personal rejection of Zionism and a critique of the recuperation of anti-Semitism.

“It galls me that a new Fascism should choose to use the experience of the victims of the earlier Fascism among its justifications.”
–Fredy Perlman

I couldn’t have imagined that the genocidal will of the Israeli state or the humbling resilience of the people of Gaza to survive such a relentless massacre could last so long as to have me be in a position to be writing this so many months after October 7th. Small censored rants on my social media only make me feel worse, triggering the futility and desperation I associate with acts like that of Aaron Bushnell. His tragic decision is something many of us can understand more than ever, even those of us who can not understand voluntarily leaving life as he did.

I descend from Jewish heritage, specifically holocaust survivors. The trauma of the ghettos and death camps flows through my blood and is part of a story I refuse to forget. It helped shape my childhood, mind and heart to possess a permanent contempt for all faces and remnants of fascism. I say that, unfortunately, not because my response to the genocide in Gaza as a Jew rather than a human makes for a superior response, but because the relentless and heinous opportunism of today’s political games use identity to divide and conquer. But yes, I feel more than entitled to make the following claims due to this heritage status, although I support any voice seeking to end the genocide in Gaza and eradicate the ideology and logic motivating such a massacre from the world forever.

I am of Ashkenazi Jewish descent (like Netanyahu, for example), meaning I am not even technically Semitic. So when the term anti-semitic is used to shut down every attempt to challenge the wrath of Christian Zionism and Israel’s actions as a military pawn for the West, it’s hard not to cringe, or better put, lose my mind. It’s more than out of hand. Those using “anti-semitism” in such an opportunistic way also seem to see only some of the native Semitic people as human enough to be included in this term. Zionists use semites to mean only for those who serve the West’s Christian prophecies or military objectives, with others deemed terrorists, “barbarians”, or subhuman. But suppose we are defending the semitic people as the defenders of the Israeli state claim to be doing: in that case, our rage must be aimed at the European colonialist legacies, the Christian evangelicals and the militaries of the world that continue to pin semitic people against each other.

Zionism is an inherently anti-Semitic idea. Read that again,  those who just experienced a pause in brain activity, because it’s true. From what I’ve gathered about this so-called savior ideology of the Jewish people, Zionism, as it exists in practice today, has its roots in British colonialist calls to eradicate the Jews from Europe while firmly establishing a white presence in the Middle East. It seems to be a savior for the Jews in the same way the human trafficker waits to “help” those escaping conflict and war.

Zionism, in practice, is a sort of anti-Jew, anti-Arab Eurocentric conspiracy hellbent on killing two birds with one extremely racist and exploitative stone. While pinning Semitic people against each other and plundering the land of Palestine are some of the ‘practical’ or material applications of the heinous ideology, its silly yet terrifying religious roots can be found in Christian prophecies. Zionism’s biggest believers advocate for a land for the Jewish people for very specific and frightening reasons: they seek Jewish consolidation in the Palestinian region, to coordinate the Jew’s isolation by means of equipping them to destroy the non-Jewish communities of the region, making them extremely unsafe under the guise of advocating for the safety of Jews.

This consolidation, however, has nothing to do with safety. Zionists believe that once this is accomplished, their messiah will return, and all non-believers will be punished (the Jews included), and the true believers in Christ will get their armageddon, which is somehow also a sort of salvation, according to them. They actually do believe this, and these are the biggest supporters of Israel, the same people who want to kill all the Semitic natives of the region, both Arabic and Hebrew speaking (as both are Semitic languages).

The evangelical Christian Zionists, who have deep resentment, or better put, deep-seated hatred of Jews for supposedly killing their imaginary savior, Jesus Christ, are at the forefront of support for Israel, far more both in numbers and percentages than the current global Jewish population. There are roughly only 15 million Jews around the world today (many of whom oppose the state of Israel and its Zionist logic) versus over 70 million evangelicals firmly supporting Israel in the United States alone.

So, to embrace Zionism as a Jew, or to be a Jew today who believes reparations for Germany’s behavior can be found in the blood and land of the Palestinians, you are embracing an idea that only supports “preservation” as a means to your own elimination.

I, of all people, understand the generational trauma that has been passed from my grandparents to me. Many see Jewish sitcoms as a comedic gift of this trauma-induced neurosis; I see it play out in constant anxiety and family dysfunction. But does it not make your blood boil to see Germany with their noses up, flaunting their support for this current genocide that Israel inflicts?

How is it that people who share my hereditary trauma from the wounds of Europe’s Holocaust on the Jewish people rush to kill the families of a population utterly unrelated to Europe’s relentless persecution of Jews (Roma, disabled people, black people, homosexuals and all who challenge the Nationalist-Christian-Eurocentric ideal)? The Israelis and their so-called Jewish supporters resemble more than ever impoverished nationalists who willingly reject social welfare to support the political interests of billionaires. How is it that we see any semblance of reparation, redemption or self-preservation when a political genocide committed by the German state is resolved by gifting a land unrelated to Germany’s vicious pogroms, a place determined by religious anti-Semitic doctrine intent on eradicating our people in the long term, which in the process makes Jews as unsafe as maybe they ever have been in the history of the Jewish people?

Note that in Israel, even Jewish Palestinians get murdered, as in the case of David Ben Avraham, because it is a Eurocentric occupation as much as a so-called Jewish state. Israel is not a redemption for Jews; it is a sad phenomenon sanctioned by those who look to eradicate and or exploit Jews to achieve their religious and military goals. It determines Jewish freedom by the standards of their historical oppressors, offering “freedom” following the Holocaust in a way that only serves the West. Therefore, because the times call for bluntness, I’m going to say that Jewish Zionists, particularly those finding a means for overcoming their generational trauma through the brutal murder and torture of Palestinians (or if given the chance, anyone questioning the obscene and absurd logic of Zionism), are boot-lickers, plain and simple: dogs finding pride on a leash of the most anti-Semitic scum of the West.

The lands of Palestine and what is called Israel over the last 70-plus years are a result of British colonialism, German audacity and American self-interest. The creation of Israel, its preservation and its continuance have nothing to do with Jewish liberation or survival. The state of Israel is a self-hating Jew, and a racist one at that.

If one cites the Holocaust and seeks reparation, why did Germany not provide a Jewish state on its own vast land? Why is it that those bringing up the racist question of why the world doesn’t transfer the millions of non-Jewish Palestinians to other Muslim or Arab-dominant countries  never mention Britain’s legacy of conquest in the region? Colonialist Brits carelessly drew up the borders themselves!

Honestly, why not rename London “Rammalah” if you really want to factor in history when determining the fate of the people of Palestine concerning the current colonialist-made crisis they face? To those who claim Zionism is a salvation for Jews, why do the vast majority of Zionists want that we all die? How have we gone from a proud, resilient people to a people divided and dictated by our enemies and those who wish to see us destroyed? How have we given our faith to false idols that command us to hate those who most closely share our struggles and history, rather than directing our animosity towards those (repeatedly) responsible for our suffering and trauma?

Europe’s audacity and defining hypocrisy are the last thing the Jewish people should be expected to defend or, even worse, carry out.

Why is it that now we hear support for “Jews” from the world’s far-right, with the most vicious anti-Semites now being the most staunch supporters of Israel? Is this absurdity not enough to understand how much Israel serves the West rather than the interests of the Jewish people?

To embrace Zionism as Jews today, alongside its firmest supporters, is to take a similar stance to the American or “moderate” right-wing position that the Germans weren’t so bad: our need for their science, their might, and their support outweighs all principles of justice. To embrace Zionism as a victory for the Jewish people is an inherent collaboration with the oppressors of Jewish people. This is why it’s no coincidence that the biggest enemies of Zionism today are those who would have fought and risked death to support and protect Jewish people during the Holocaust.

The Christian Zionists and military support behind Israel today would, in contrast, be supporting the Nazis of WW2 and likely help plenty of Nazis shift into new roles after the war. It’s well-known that the Nazis found their asylum in the open arms of those who would support Israel today, who call the Palestinians savages, and who all along see the Jews as pawns in division, scapegoating and religious prophecy. Honestly, embracing Zionism as a supporter of Jews is humiliating as much as it is infuriating.

At the moment I’m writing this, universities are occupied across the states in solidarity with Gaza. While we all know well that many of these occupations include various Jewish students and faculty participants, Netanyahu shamefully compares them with German students’ expulsion of Jewish and non-Aryan students at the dawn of Germany’s Third Reich. Simultaneously, Trump has declared that such occupations make the 2017 “Unite the Right” Charlottesville rally look like a “peanut.” The Charlottesville rally included Neo-nazis and white supremacists; beyond the murder of protestor Heather Heyer, it was best known for its chant “Jews will not replace us,” referencing the right-wing conspiracy theory that Jews seek to replace the white race with immigrants and non-Aryan populations.

Proud Boys, Israeli nationalists and the worst of the police are all working together to attack today’s campus occupations. While the absurdity can make your blood boil, it was only a few months ago when well-known televangelist and anti-semite John Hagee spoke at a rally in Washington D.C in support of the Israeli state and its genocide on Gaza, with thousands of Christian evangelicals and Israeli nationalists cheering him on in unison. This is someone well known for claiming in a sermon he gave in 1999 that “God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land”. This surreal phenomenon of Israeli and Jewish fascists now finding shelter in a camp of Nazis and Christian fascists reflects the tragedy of Jews being forced to define themselves via a western-sanctioned nationalism. Those who refuse to face mind-boggling accusations of being “self-hating” or somehow having antisemitic genocidal tendencies — tendencies which are in fact at the forefront of Israel’s supporters.

If you are furious or inspired by what I’m writing, the means to fact-check me are there. My point is that Jews are as unsafe now as they have been since the Holocaust, and we are being forced to direct the rage and anguish of our trauma against the wrong people. Because, yes, the Germans, not the Palestinians, committed the Holocaust. The danger Israeli Jews feel in the Middle East is a continuance of Western attempts to torture, exploit and traumatize the Jewish people.

It is patently absurd to claim that Hamas, Iran or any other group or conflict directly created as a result of the Western-coordinated creation of Israel could ever compare to the might of the German Reich eliminating Jewish populations without an army during the Holocaust. Anyone who would make such a claim might as well watch a Ferrari race a bicycle and claim there’s no discrepancy. The comparison is so offensive to those who survived the Holocaust that it’s hard to even laugh at. Still, when you see the American congressman, Brian Mast, comparing Palestinian civilians to Nazis, it is objectively comedic in light of America funding genocide and “humanitarian efforts” at the same time. To the cynical heart, the absurdity of such an approach is almost funny. However, it seems to be the norm for those Jews who unquestioningly accept the poisonous embrace of Zionism. Sadly, too many are eating from the hand that has beaten them time and time again.

Earlier I mentioned Aaron Bushnell. As I write, I want to cry, with the same desperation we all felt when Aaron Bushnell lit himself on fire: even those of us who do not see martyrdom as a liberatory act took a moment to say, “I understand” as goosebumps shot up our arms. The tragedy of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians goes on and on and on, and for those of us watching Palestine from abroad, we struggle even to know where to begin to resist in any efficient way. Even if this current onslaught on Gaza ended now, only some of the suffering would stop.

The type of generational trauma I feel from my grandparents, that makes me wish the worst for Nazis and anyone resembling their thought patterns, is something  many Palestinians will endure for decades to come. It’s a trauma that pre-dates this current ‘war’, going back generations to the forced creation of Israel. Unfortunately, this resentment may likely end up against Jews rather than against the British or Germans, reflecting a displaced rage similar to that of Israeli Jews who compare Palestinians to Nazis.

This hereditary rage will be a direct result of the current genocide happening against them, a genocide being carried out by a people who suffered a genocide. It is a sad, sad reality, only comparable to a child molester who rationalizes their actions due to having been molested as a child. One can only hope that resistance will prevail, and we can all one day know who to blame.

I have been called a self-hating Jew too many times, but I want to say that I feel the true self-hating Jews are those who continue to fight on behalf of those who despise us, like dogs. Let us not be the dogs of the West, let us not be the knights of the Christian right, and may we remember that our political persecution can never be resolved with religious logic or at the expense of anyone but those who genuinely have and intend to make us suffer.

May we begin to love ourselves again and never again kiss the hand of those responsible for our trauma. Because “never again” is not reserved for a chosen few: it is for all who face the wrath of nationalism, bigotry and the political logic of genocide.

-An Anonymous Jew against the logic Genocide

photo: Cindy Milstein