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Yes, Anti-Zionism Is Antisemitism
Townhall ^ | 12/12/2023 | dennis Prager

Posted on 12/12/2023 10:29:05 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Imagine a group of people who work to destroy Italy because, they claim, Italy's origins are illegitimate. Imagine further that these people maintain that of all the countries in the world, only Italy doesn't deserve to exist. Then imagine that these people vigorously deny that they are anti-Italian. Would you believe them?

Now substitute "Israel" for "Italy," and you'll understand the dishonesty and absurdity of the argument that one can be anti-Zionist -- that is, against the existence of a Jewish state -- but not be anti-Jew.

Yet, that is precisely what anti-Zionists say. They say that Israel's existence is illegitimate. They don't say this about any other country in the world, no matter how bloody its origins. And then they get offended when they're accused of being anti-Jew.

How can they make this argument?

First, they change the topic. They say it's unfair to charge those who merely "criticize" Israel with being antisemitic. No one says criticism of Israel is antisemitic. But anti-Zionism isn't criticism of Israel. Anti-Zionism is opposition to Israel's existence.

Zionism is the name of the movement for the return of the Jews to their historic homeland. Over the past 3,000 years, there were only two independent states located in what is called Israel. Both were Jewish states, and invaders destroyed both. No Arab or Muslim or any other sovereign country ever existed in that land, which was given the name "Palestine" by the Romans so as to remove all memory of the Jewish state they destroyed in the year 70.

Second, anti-Zionists claim they can't be anti-Jew because Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism. That is the same as saying Italy has nothing to do with being Italian. Judaism has always consisted of three components: God, Torah and Israel (the people Israel and the Land of Israel). Israel is as much a part of Judaism as are God and the Bible. Moreover, the most pro-Israel, i.e. the most Zionist, Jews are the Orthodox, the most religious Jews. That there exists one tiny group of ultra-Orthodox Jews (Neturei Karta) that is anti-Zionist means nothing. They are as representative of Judaism as the Ku Klux Klan is of Christianity.

Third, anti-Zionists claim that Judaism is only a religion; therefore, Jews are only members of a religion, not a nation. But the Jews are called a "nation" more than one hundred times in the Bible. That is why there can be irreligious, secular and even atheist Jews -- because Jews are not only a religion, but a people -- a nation. No one thinks non-religious Jews are not Jews. There can be no atheist Christians because Christianity is a religion, not a nation.

Fourth, people point to anti-Zionist Jews to prove that anti-Zionism isn't anti-Jewish. That would be like pointing to Americans who gave Stalin the secrets to the atom bomb to argue that siding with the Soviet Union in the Cold War was not anti-American. Or, to provide another Jewish example, it would be like pointing Jews who eat pork in Yom Kippur to argue that eating pork on Yom Kippur is Jewish. What Jews do or believe is not always the same as Judaism.

Fifth, anti-Zionists claim that Israel is illegitimate because Zionism -- and therefore, Israel -- is "racist." This is a libel. Half of Israel's Jews are not even white, and anyone, of any race or ethnicity, can become a Jew. Furthermore, one in five Israelis isn't a Jew. And these Israeli non-Jews, mostly Arab Muslims, have the same rights as Jewish Israelis. As for Israel's presence in the West Bank and Gaza (Israel completely abandoned Gaza in 2005), that has nothing to do with race and everything to do with security. It is because the Palestinians and other Arabs tried to destroy Israel in 1967 and lost the war.

If the Palestinians would stop killing Israelis, Israel would have no problem with a "two-state solution." But Palestinians have rejected offers to have their own state on four separate occasions since 1947. That is the only reason they don't have their own state.

And why have they always rejected having a Palestinian state? Because the only state they would accept is one that eradicates Israel. They have therefore been solely dedicated to destroying the Jewish state, not in having their own state alongside Israel.

Sixth, and finally, anti-Zionists claim that Israel's origins are illegitimate. Of all the world's 200-plus countries, the only country anti-Zionists declare illegitimate is also the only Jewish one. That's pretty much all you need to know about their motives.

Why don't they make this claim about Pakistan? In 1947, nine months before the establishment of Israel, India was partitioned into a Muslim state (Pakistan) and a Hindu state (India), just as Palestine was partitioned into a Jewish state (Israel) and an Arab one (Palestine).

But, unlike Israel, no Pakistan had ever existed. And unlike Israel's founding, which created about 700,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands and about 700,000 Arab refugees from what became Israel, the founding of Pakistan created about seven million Muslim refugees from India and about seven million Hindu refugees from Pakistan. And while the highest estimate of Arab deaths in the fighting that took place when Israel was established is 10,000, the number of deaths as a result of Pakistan's creation is around one million. So why is Israel's legitimacy challenged while Pakistan's isn't? The only possible answer is because Israel is Jewish.

Of course, not all anti-Zionists hate all Jews. But if you seek to destroy Italy, you don't have to hate every Italian to be anti-Italian. Not every anti-American hates all Americans, but they are still called anti-American. If you seek to destroy the one Jewish state, you don't have to hate every Jew to be called anti-Jew. And the name for that is antisemite.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Gaza; Israel; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antisemitism; israel; palestine; zionism

1 posted on 12/12/2023 10:29:05 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

These people are so invested in “proving” this argument, like it is going to matter.

One day soon the Left is just going to admit:

“Yes, we are anti-semitic. So what ? We control every insttitution in the country. Now do something. “


2 posted on 12/12/2023 10:32:40 AM PST by Reverend Wright ( Everything touched by progressives, dies !)
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To: SeekAndFind

And Anti-Rastafarianism is anti-black


3 posted on 12/12/2023 10:32:40 AM PST by PGR88
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To: SeekAndFind

of course it is
anti-Zionism seeks the murder of 7 million Jews under a “political” banner (which was unnecessary for the original Nazis since their Jewish victims had not been able to reestablish their corporate political existence yet).

not recognizing the Jews’ right to live in their own homeland translates directly into not recognizing their right to live anywhere (for where else would they have greater rights?)


4 posted on 12/12/2023 10:42:48 AM PST by faithhopecharity (“Politicians are not born. They're excreted.” Marcus Tillius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
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To: SeekAndFind

Depends on what the meaning if “is” is. Ha!

Anyway, the two are related, but not synonymous. One can be anti-semitic without demanding Israel cease to exist.


5 posted on 12/12/2023 11:06:52 AM PST by Fester Chugabrew (May I please have a government shutdown?)
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To: SeekAndFind

All nations were claimed by conquest.

Time tends to cement the claims. So does population dispacement/replacement.

The state of Israel is new.

A connection to ancient Israel is a God-claim, not endorsed by all.

Conquerors tend to make God-claims. Ancient Israelites and modern Israel, Christians and Muslims, and undoubtedly those not Abraham ice as well.


6 posted on 12/12/2023 1:22:28 PM PST by heartwood (Someone has to play devil's advocate.)
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To: Fester Chugabrew

You are delusional if you believe that, but I did actually remark on that particular delusion when I mentioned to my husband that I doubted that the billionaire Harvard critic, probably never voted Republican in his life and probably still cannot believe that Harvard doesn’t really need his money and won’t be influenced by the threat of it’s withdrawal.

Read Gramsci’s Critical Theory rules for getting rid of capitalism. Critical Race Theory is a direct descendant. Wokesters think that Jewish billionaire capitalists are oppressors on the same level as Western White men, no amount of money is going to buy a change in their communist goals.


7 posted on 12/12/2023 1:32:13 PM PST by Eva
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To: SeekAndFind

No, it is not.


8 posted on 12/12/2023 1:32:32 PM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: SeekAndFind
Up to a couple of weeks ago, the website below, and the one from which it originated - https://www.truetorahjews.org/ - were a good resource for articles on subjects pertaining to Judaism, as well as articles pertaining to Zionism. It looked like the old website was in the process of being absorbed into the new website.

Many of these articles have been taken down. The new website has, under Resources > Press > Press Releases - some information, but the large swath of articles is……gone.

Silencing and censoring Rabbis - way to go!

The statement of their Mission remains:

https://torahjews.org/mission/

The Zionist movement began about 130 years ago, launching efforts to build a Jewish state in the Holy Land. The vast majority of rabbis fought against the new movement and discouraged Jews from joining it. Their opposition was rooted in two convictions:

1. Advocating a political and military end to the Jewish exile denies the very essence of our Diaspora existence. We are in exile by Divine decree and may emerge from exile solely via Divine redemption. All human efforts to alter a metaphysical reality are doomed to end in failure and bloodshed. History has clearly borne out this teaching.

2. Zionism not only denied our fundamental belief in Heavenly redemption; it also created a pseudo-Judaism which views the essence of our identity to be a secular nationalism. Accordingly, Zionism and the State of Israel have consistently endeavored, via persuasion and coercion, to replace a Divine and Torah-centered understanding of our peoplehood with an armed materialism.

The Zionist movement went on to found the State of Israel in 1948, and Orthodox Jewish opposition to the State of Israel continues to this day. The organization Torah Jews is dedicated to informing the world, and in particular the American public and politicians, that not all Jews support the ideology of the State of Israel. In fact, a great number of Orthodox Jews view the ideology of that state as diametrically opposed to the teachings of traditional Judaism.

While the rabbis opposed the movement to found a state, they did not oppose Jews living in the Holy Land, and in fact many important rabbis and their communities were transplanted to the Holy Land after the Holocaust. Our paramount concern is the peace and safety of all people throughout the world, including those living in the Holy Land. We support and pray for peace for the people of the State of Israel, but we believe they should ideally be living there under a non-Jewish state, not a Jewish one.

We are concerned that the widespread misconception that all Jews support the State of Israel and its actions endangers Jews worldwide.

We seek to disassociate Jews and traditional Judaism from the Zionist ideology by:

1. Proving that founding an independent Jewish state is totally contrary to the teachings of traditional Judaism, drawing on quotations from Holy Scriptures, the Talmudic Sages and Rabbis in all generations.

2. Providing historical documentation on the ideology and creation of Zionism, the supporters of Zionism and the negative impact of their actions on the Jewish people over the past hundred years, including their activities during the Holocaust and up to the present day.

3. Publicizing the efforts of traditional Jews to demonstrate their opposition to the State of Israel, efforts which are often ignored by the mainstream media. We also aim to reach out to our Jewish brethren who have never studied the subject of Zionism from a Torah perspective, and have only been taught the Zionist side of the story. It is our hope that all of our fellow Jews will soon open their eyes, return to Torah and reject this ideology that replaces the Jew’s age-old hope for G-d’s redemption with a false redemption and a human-initiated state.


Press release from 16 Sep, 2010:

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/in-israeli-palestinian-conflict-some-religious-jews-show-the-world-misleading-picture-of-judaism-103047774.html

In Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Some Religious Jews Show the World Misleading Picture of Judaism

NEW YORK, Sept. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As Israeli and Palestinian leaders sit down for another round of peace talks, the world sees once again that religious elements in the Israeli government are an obstacle to achieving that peace.  These parties declare that they are against the extension of the current building freeze in West Bank settlements  - which Palestinian negotiators have made a precondition to further talks.  

"Torah-true Jews are concerned that the stance of these parties may give the impression that the Torah plays some role in this political conflict," said Rabbi Lepold Klein, a spokesman for True Torah Jews. "In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. In the morning prayers, every religious Jew recites the verse from Psalms (147:2), 'G-d builds Jerusalem, He gathers the dispersed of Israel.' It is only G-d who can build Jerusalem and gather in the Jewish people - not us on our own. We have no claim to sovereignty over Jerusalem, or any part of the Holy Land. We are simply waiting for Heavenly redemption, when there will peace for all of humanity.

"The religious Zionist parties and their rabbis tailor the Torah and use it to further their political goals. Instead of serving G-d as a Jew is expected to do, they use G-d for political gain. But true religious Jews don't use the Torah. They follow it - whether it is convenient for them or not.

"We hope that the world will recognize the distinction between Judaism and Zionism and that Zionists cannot claim to represent Jews.”

9 posted on 12/12/2023 1:39:10 PM PST by yelostar (Spook codes 33 and 13. See them often in headlines and news stories. )
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To: Eva

My way of stating things would be, “All anti-Zionism is anti-semitism, but not all antisemitism is anti-zionism. The one renders existence unacceptable altogether (anti-zionism). The other renders existence under cruel circumstances.

As far as what “is” is, that was a sarcastic reference to Billy Bob Rapist.


10 posted on 12/12/2023 2:52:11 PM PST by Fester Chugabrew (May I please have a government shutdown?)
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To: Fester Chugabrew

I think that you have that backwards.


11 posted on 12/12/2023 3:12:57 PM PST by Eva
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To: Eva

I might. The bottom line is unwarranted hatred. It is all too common, and not unique to Jews.


12 posted on 12/12/2023 4:19:05 PM PST by Fester Chugabrew (May I please have a government shutdown?)
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To: Fester Chugabrew

Unwarranted, irrational hatred. Rational thought is anathema to to DEI.


13 posted on 12/12/2023 4:51:20 PM PST by Eva
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