Lethal Irony: The Folly of Zionist Counter-protestors
The pro-Zionist counter-protestors at Columbia University and college campuses across the country are committing the same mistake as Israel, the United States government, and other unwitting pro-Zionists. Here’s a clip from an article in USA Today quoting the pro-Zionist students:
“Hundreds of Jewish Zionist students at Columbia University signed a letter calling for peace amid on-campus antisemitism they said arose in recent pro-Palestinian protests and asserting that “Judaism cannot be separated from Israel” — a message that some other Jewish Columbia students reject.
“We proudly believe in the Jewish People’s right to self-determination in our historic homeland as a fundamental tenet of our Jewish identity,” the students wrote. “Contrary to what many have tried to sell you — no, Judaism cannot be separated from Israel.”
Off the bat, Judaism absolutely can, and is, separated from Israel — at least in good part. Judaism began thousands of years ago, just a wee bit prior to the state of Israel existing. More, 54% Jews worldwide live outside of Israel. Many have no affiliation with Israel and are in fact critical of it and want nothing to do with it, such as myself.
While Zionist students claim that you can’t separate Israel from Judaism, pro-Palestinian Jewish students say that you can. In a sense, both are right and wrong, to varying degrees and in crucial ways.
Israel was formed as a Jewish state, an inherently problematic development, as Einstein also believed. The Jewish genius claimed that “a Jewish state with borders and an army to protect those borders ran counter to ‘the essential nature of Judaism.”’ Professor E thought that a Jewish state was “bad.”
It’s usually not a good idea for a religion to be integrally associated with a government—especially a fascistic, ultra-right-wing government that wages a lot of unlawful war and atrocious killing. Separation of “church” and state is a thing for good reason. So, for better and worse, there is overlap between Judaism and the state of Israel. But not a total overlap.
When it comes to government policy, especially war-making and egregious acts of lawlessness, this is not part of the overlap. This is not a Jewish act. Nor is it even on behalf of Jews, as we’ll unpack soon. So there is no cover for Israel under Judaism for their crimes, which is why they have been brought to court on accounts of genocide and illegal occupation.
Just because you are Jewish doesn’t mean that you get to commit atrocities. Period. In fact, no one more than Jews should know better. But, this is also misleading: this “war” is not about religion; that’s Israeli propaganda.
So, the pro-Zionist students, while right in a partial sense (Israel is an intrinsically Jewish state), are wrong in the specific sense (Jews are intrinsically related to war-making). The pro-Palestinian students, while wrong in a black or white sense (Israel can be wholly separated from Judaism), are correct in a larger sense (Jewishness and Israel can be separated), as well as also largely correct with regard to the specific issue at hand (Israeli war policy is not Jewish, but ironically puts Jews everywhere at greater risk).
When pro-Zionist students proclaim, “We proudly believe in the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in our historical homeland as a fundamental tenet of our Jewish identity,” that’s fine. Form your government, your path, and your choices.
Your self-determination is not what the pro-Palestinian students are protesting. They are resisting US complicity in mass murder of Palestinians and their University’s funding of the US-Israeli war machine.
Zionists have been self-determining themselves prior to Oct. 7. What changed after that day is their beloved Israel has been denying the self-determination of Palestinian people, in new and bigger ways. So, advocating for the immediate halt of plausible genocide is not getting in the way of your self-determination. Ironically, letting the slaughter go on is getting in your way.
The Zionist government is in fact antisemitic.
Israel has been erasing even the possibility for Palestinian self-determination — by killing them, by the tens of thousands, as well as decimating their culture, livelihoods, history, spirituality — everything. Far, far more than Palestinians have been threatening Israeli’s, much less decimating it. And far more than they are physically capable of doing so, given Israel’s extreme power advantage.
So, no one is arguing against Zionist Jew’s self-determination. Fellow Jews are protesting the depravity of the Israeli government which, in this sector of the Venn overlap, has virtually nothing to do with Judaism.
On second thought, it has nothing to do with Judaism in the way you think it does. Ironically, and therefore sadly, the actions of Israel have a lot to do with Judaism—because the Israeli government constantly justifies its actions vis a vis the Jewish cause, the Holocaust, and Jewish persecution generally. It conflates Judaism and government where they do not rightfully overlap. In essence, Israel uses Judaism, and Jews, as a psychological shield for their heinous acts. It is throwing Jews and Judaism under the bus. That’s antisemitic.
Yet, ironically, Israel uses antisemitism falsely, thereby weaponizing it, which has the effect of antisemitism.
The rise in antisemitism (not the weaponized, faux antisemitism being used as a cover for racism, white supremacy, and genocide) is a direct result of Israel’s dishonest propaganda and the virulent spreading of this propaganda among too many Zionist Jews and other unwitting myopics.
It’s a fact that when Israel is involved in violence towards its neighbors, antisemitism rises in the US (and likely elsewhere). Ayal Feinberg, Director of the Center for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights at Gratz College in Pennsylvania, says:
“I think it’s critical to note that even in the United States, which many consider to be the most philosemitic country in the world, that over the last two decades there’s been no factor that explains increases in antisemitism greater than when Israel is engaged in violent conflict with its neighbors.”
Ergo, when Israel commits violence, people assume “it’s the Jews” who did it — because Israel has fully merged its public image with Judaism and Jews. This is the lethal consequence of this lie.
So, while the pro-Zionists believe they are supporting Jews, their blind, black and white allegiance to Israel is doing the opposite.
While here, I want to undo two other false conflations used as lies to discriminate against and put Palestinians at great risk: 1) Being Pro-Palestinian doesn’t mean you’re a terrorist or support terrorists; either call everyone a terrorist or no one a terrorist. I vote for calling out terrorism, by degrees: the IDF is a greater terrorist than Hamas 2) being Pro-Palestinian doesn’t mean that you’re pro-Hamas.
Most of the protestors, as far as I know, are mortified by the carnage. They are simply supporting innocent Palestinian civilians. That’s it. That’s why their demand is for their institutions to divest from supporting the Israeli military. To contort this simple compassion into something else is simply dishonest, and violent.
Protesting genocide does not make you pro-terrorist, pro-Hamas, or antisemitic.
If a pro-Palestinian protestor says they are pro-terrorist or pro-Hamas, that’s the exception. That said, if you want Palestinian justice in the face of plausible genocide, it’s reasonable to support the lesser terroristic Hamas, as they are the only ones with boots on the ground protecting the people of Gaza. Just like one who wants to preserve Israeli lives would be in favor of the greatly terroristic IDF.
To further detail, being pro-Hamas does not necessarily mean favoring the killing of innocent Israelis, as occurred on Oct. 7. Nor does being pro-IDF have to advocate the killing of innocent Palestinians. Yet, the latter is precisely what’s happening in reality, for six months now, and it’s dead wrong. That’s what the protests are about, and they are on the right side of history.
We really do have to tease the generalizations and polarizations apart to arrive at what is specifically reasonable and just. Lazy, undisciplined thinking won’t do it. And ego-driven emotional bias and denial can make an otherwise kind and reasonable person appear to be a poor thinker.
So please, be a good Jew, protect other Jews, other humans, and prevent the curse of persecution from befalling others. Protecting the self-determination of Palestinians will also help protect that of Jews. Supporting the siege on Gaza sabotages everything for everyone . . . except the war-profiteers.
