Claiming that anti-Zionism is always antisemitism makes it harder to defend Zionism and harder to fight antisemitism because it muddles both terms. We need to understand anti-Zionism, antisemitism, and how to tell the difference.

I am a Zionist. I worry about rising antisemitism. This is personal for me.

The claim that anti-Zionism is always antisemitism is basically that if Zionism is the right of Jews to a homeland in part or all of what is now Israel and the West Bank, and if you are against that, then it must be for three reasons:

It’s not hard to understand why some people feel this way. We are all concerned about rising antisemitism. We’ve seen well-publicized examples of anti-Israel protests bleeding into antisemitism. In some cases, any of these three reasons might explain anti-Zionism.

If we were brought up to see Israel as a weak country surrounded by powerful enemies who sought its destruction, we understandably see protests against Israel and harsh criticism of Israel as threats to Israel itself–and to us.

The question is how we apply these feelings to the reality around us. Our challenge is that facts are often more nuanced than emotions. The three reasons above are not the only explanations for anti-Zionism. Securing a safe Israel and fighting antisemitism successfully requires us to understand the interplay between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.

We cannot say that someone is antisemitic because they are anti-Zionist without understanding what we and they mean by Zionism. As David Schraub writes, we or they can believe

• • “Zionism” is the policy set of the current Israeli government.
  • “Zionism” is the broad sweep of policies that characterize how the Israeli state generally operates across history (and different governments).
  • “Zionism” is the belief in the validity of an autonomous Jewish state in Israel.
  • “Zionism” is the belief in the Jewish right to self-determination.

“As one moves down the list,” says Schraub, “the charge of antisemitism for anti-[that form of] Zionism becomes increasingly plausible.”

We cannot say that someone is antisemitic because they are anti-Zionist without understanding what antisemitism is. Antisemitism is hatred of Jews. President Biden’s National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism defines antisemitism as “a stereotypical and negative perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred of Jews. It is prejudice, bias, hostility, discrimination, or violence against Jews for being Jews or Jewish institutions or property for being Jewish or perceived as Jewish. Antisemitism can manifest as a form of racial, religious, national origin, and/or ethnic discrimination,........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)