As the world continues to ostracize Israel and the Jewish people, I never know what to expect from day to day, but I know that the enemy’s creativity is at work 24/7. How would you react if someone told you that it is OK to be French but don’t sing the Marseillaise (French national anthem) and ignore the Eiffel Tower and any of your French heritage? How about, as an American, being asked not to display the US flag or to refrain from supporting our troops who fight for our freedom?
I know this sounds ludicrous. So, why is it that this kind of logic is being pushed on Jewish people and almost nobody seems to care?
Recently, Jewish author and journalist Joshua Leifer was supposed to launch a new book at a bookstore in Brooklyn, NY. His Launch party was cancelled by the store. Leifer heard about the book launch cancellation only one hour before the event. The reason for the cancellation was that Leifer had also invited a Rabbi to participate in the event, and that Rabbi happened to have pro-Israel Zionist views, and the bookstore didn’t want to promote these views. Incidentally, the boycott of Leifer’s book launch boosted his sales quite a bit. It is possible that the bookstore made its decision based on a fear of reprisals in the current tense global atmosphere regarding the Middle East. It is also possible that the decision was purely antisemitic in nature, and it is hard to tell. Somehow, it is connected to the idea of Zionism being a toxic ideology.
What is worth discussing further is the idea that one could be Jewish as long as one refrains from being Zionist.
To be sure, there are a few fringe groups and organizations claiming Jewish identity and rejecting Zionism. The most visible and yet very small is Neturei Karta (Meaning “Guardians of the City”), whose philosophy is: ” Neturei Karta is the voice of Religious Jews worldwide in their Torah-based opposition to the State of Israel.”
This Haredi organization is openly anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and also antisemitic. I believe that they are a living contradiction and also a disgrace to Jewish people worldwide. I have nothing against their members as people, but I find them to be an embarrassment to the rest of world Jewry.
In the case of the Brooklyn bookstore, it is ironic that the Rabbi and local community leader invited by the author also happens to be a very progressive individual. Using his own words, Rabbi Andy Bachman admits to being “Left-wing” and in favor of a two-state solution. The two-state solution continues to be at the core of the Middle East conflict. People are divided on the issue, and the recent events last October in southern Israel have proven that it is most likely not a viable one. But the point is that the very rabbi who raised a red flag at the bookstore should have been allowed to participate and even praised for his more liberal views on Israel.
Before I continue, it would be beneficial to define Zionism briefly. In the words of Abba Eban, Israeli Ambassador to the United States, a diplomat and politician: “Zionism is nothing more โ but also nothing less โ than the Jewish people’s sense of origin and destination in the land linked eternally with its name.” It started in the 1880s and got a boostโso to speakโat the time of the Dreyfus Affair in Paris, France, in 1896. Austrian and Jewish Journalist Theodore Herzl followed the Dreyfus trial and quickly realized that the Enlightenment benefited everyone except the Jews. The drive to move back to the ancestral, biblical land of the Jews was precipitated by that event. Zionism exists in different forms such as cultural, political, religious and even Christian.
There is a lot of scriptural evidence validating the claims of Zionism, not to mention that God Himself said that only HE owned the Land in Leviticus 25:23: “The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.” The foundation for Zionism was established by the very first Zionist โ God Himself โ in the book of Genesis. It continues to weave like an uninterrupted thread through the tapestry of Jewish history. If Zionism has existed for a long time, we also cannot deny that God has used people like Herzl, Haโam, Ben Yehuda, Weizmann, Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir and many others to promote further the right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. What God established, no man can destroy (Jeremiah 31:35-37). What Zionism is not, is colonialism, occupation or racism. It is described as such by those who oppose Israel’s right to exist in its own land purely out of hatred for the Jews. Anti-Zionism is antisemitism repackaged in woke multiculturalism. Aside from a few fringe self-hating Jews who would support such a request, asking a Rabbi not to be supportive of Israel is highly irrational.
We live at a time when anything that displays even a trace of Jewish identity, culture or heritage must be questioned and too often fought and rejected. The grounds for such rejection are seldom, if ever, rooted in factual truth. We no longer live in a postmodern world; we have moved into a post-rational world that tends to render common sense completely obsolete.
People seem to feel good when they can jump on the bandwagon of modern antisemitism because, today, this appears to be the most popular vehicle around the world.
