I am a Zionist

Today, more than half a century after Israel's founding, it remains all too tempting for friend and foe alike to define Israel, and Zionism, solely by the Arab world's hostility.

To do so is to miss the normal miracles that occur in Israel daily, the millions who are able to live and learn, laugh and play, in the Middle East's only democracy. To do so is to underestimate the power of Zionism, a gutsy and visionary movement which has outlasted the twentieth century's grander and seemingly more permanent revolutions: Bolshevism, Nazism, fascism and communism.

The sad truth is that little more than a century after its founding, Zionism seems to be losing its luster. Arabs have demonized Zionism as the modern bogeyman, and many have clumped Zionists, along with Americans and most Westerners, as the Great Satans. The Palestinian attacks that began with renewed intensity in September 2000 have revived the United Nations libel equating Zionism with racism. In Israel, a small but influential group of intellectuals fancies themselves to be post-Zionists, while a negligible but voluble minority of Jews in the Diaspora please editorial page editors enamored of novelties by proudly proclaiming themselves Jewish anti-Zionists.

During these challenging times, Jews should reaffirm their faith and pride in Zionism, while the world should marvel at its achievements. Zionists must not allow their enemies to define and slander the movement. No nationalism is pure, no movement is perfect, no state ideal, but today Zionism remains legitimate, inspiring, and relevant, to me and to most Jews. A century ago, Zionism revived pride in the label "Jew"; today, Jews must revive pride in the label "Zionist."

I am a Zionist because I am a Jew -and without recognizing a national component in Judaism I cannot explain its unique character. Judaism is a world religion bound to one homeland, a people whose Holy Days are defined by the Israeli agricultural calendar, rooted in theological concepts, and linked with historic events.

I am a Zionist because I know my history -and after being exiled from their homeland more than 1900 years ago, the defenseless, wandering Jews endured repeated persecutions at the hands of both Christians and Muslims -centuries before this anti-Semitism culminated in the Holocaust. I am a Zionist because Jews never forgot their ties to their homeland, their love for Jerusalem. Even when they established autonomous self-governing structures in Babylonia, in Europe, in North Africa, these were governments in exile yearning to return home.

I am a Zionist because those ideological ties nourished and were nurtured by the plucky minority of Jews who remained in the land of Israel, sustaining continued Jewish settlement throughout the exile.

I am a Zionist because in modem times the promise of Emancipation and Enlightenment was a double-edged sword, often offering acceptance for Jews in Europe only after they assimilated, yet never fully respecting them if they did assimilate. I am a Zionist because in establishing the sovereign state of Israel in 1948, the Jews were reconstituting in modem Western terms a relationship with a land they had been attached to for 4,000 years, since the time of Abraham -just as India did in establishing a modem state out of an ancient civilization.

I am a Zionist because in building that state, the Jews were returning to history and embracing normalcy, a condition which gave them power, with all its benefits, responsibilities, and dilemmas.

I am a Zionist because I celebrate the existence of Israel, and like any thoughtful patriot, though I might criticize particular governmental policies which I dislike, I do not delegitimize the state itself.

I am a Zionist because I live in the real world of nation-states, and I see that Zionism is no more or less "racist" than any other nationalism, be it American, Armenian, Canadian, or Czech, all of which rely on some internal cohesion, some tribalism, some sense of solidarity among some historic grouping of individuals, and not others.

I am a Zionist because here in North America we have learned in this multicultural world that pride in one's heritage as a Jew, an Italian, a Greek, can provide essential and time-tested anchors in a world overdosing on materialism, consumerism, and the sensationalism of the here and now.

I am a Zionist because in our world of post-modem identities, I know that we don't have to be "either-ors", we can be "ands and buts" -a Zionist AND an American patriot; a secular and somewhat assimilated Jew BUT also a Zionist.

I am a Zionist because I am a democrat, and for the last two centuries, the history of democracy has been intertwined with the history of nationalism. Similarly, for the last century democracy has been a central Zionist ideal, despite being tested under the most severe conditions.

I am a Zionist because I am an idealist, and just as a century ago, the notion of a strong, independent, viable, sovereign Jewish state was an impossible dream -yet absolutely worth fighting for -so, too, today, the notion of a strong, independent, viable, sovereign Jewish state living in true peace and harmony with its neighbors appears to be an impossible dream -yet absolutely worth striving for.

I am a Zionist because I am a romantic, and the vision of the Jews rebuilding their homeland, reclaiming the desert, renewing themselves, was one of the greatest stories of the twentieth century, just as the vision of the Jews maintaining their homeland, reconciling with the Arab world, renewing themselves, and serving as a light to others, a model nation state, could be one of the greatest stories of the twenty-first century. Yes, it sounds farfetched today. But, as Theodor Herzl, the father of modem Zionism, said in an idle boast that has become a cliche: "If you will it, it is no dream."

I am an Anti-Anti Zionist

In honor of Israel's fifty-third anniversary, on Yom Ha 'atzmaut 2001, I wrote the above essay for the Montreal Gazette titled "Why I Am a Zionist." The article sought to return to basics during this difficult passage in Israel's existence. To our non-Jewish friends, I tried to explain why Zionism, which is Jewish nationalism is no more , racist than any other form of nationalism. And to my fellow Jews, I tried to emphasize the big picture beyond the messy and depressing complexities of 200 1.

In this essay, I was very careful to avoid addressing the Palestinian question at all, beyond ending with a hope that just as in the twentieth century Israel made the Jewish dream of restoring a homeland a reality, in the twenty-first century Israel would figure out how to reconcile with the Arab world and make the dream of living in peace with her neighbors a reality.

Nevertheless, some respondents caricatured my essay in subsequent opinion essays and in letters to the editor as an attack on Palestinians and as a racist piece. These reactions made it very clear. Far too many of Israel's enemies see any affirmation of any kind of Zionism as an act of aggression against them.

Even more disturbing were some of the responses the Gazette chose not to publish. One pro-Palestinian organization defines itself as "AntiZionist, Anti-Capitalist, Anti-racism, Anti-US global hegemony, Antiglobalization! ' and "Pro-Hamas, Pro- Taliban, Pro-all Islamic resistance movements fighting occupation and oppression. AND MOST OF ALL PRO-ISLAM." The organization's Web site posted a letter sent to the Gazette saying "'Why I'm a Zionist' reminds me of other possible scenarios. Why I'm a KKK member. To be proud repressing others, feeling superior and a chosen people who deserve to kill, maim and torture ….God help us when we can allow people to stand up and say 'Why I'm [a] Terrorist,' 'Why I kill children,' 'Why I'm a Nazi,' 'Why I agree with State sponsored Terrorism,' 'Why I bulldoze families' home[s].'"

Perhaps most depressing was the letter that began with the by now knee-jerk (if conceptually paradoxical) free association of Zionism "with Bolshevism, Nazism and racism of the worst order." The man equated "the language the Nazis used to describe the Jews in Germany in the 1930s and 40s and the language now being used by the AshkeNAZI Jews to describe the natives of Palestine: snakes, sub-human, foreigners living on the land God gave us, etc."

As so many anti-Zionists do, the man then naturally segued into the ugliest forms of anti-Semitism, saying, "I understand why Herr Hitler rose to power and why the Jewish holocaust -a harsh reaction to the Jewish misdeeds -took place." Calling the "last Jewish holocaust" an "act of 'divine justice,'" he concluded, "You have, without realising [sic] it, given in your article fourteen reasons why the next holocaust is bound to occur.. ..Your article tends to support the view that I have heard about as a child that a Jew is born without a soul; he has no sympathy for anyone unless his own interest is involved in it."

These days, you do not need a Ph.D. to recognize that the Middle East is a very confusing place. And I would never do what my critics have done and tar all critics with the same brush. There is a lot of room for honest and critical debate about Israeli policy toward the Palestinians yesterday and today, and not everyone who questions any Israeli action in any realm is necessarily an Israel-hater or an anti-Zionist.

Nevertheless, I wish to thank my critics for imposing a certain conceptual clarity on the conflict. All Jews, all Americans, all Canadians, all people of good conscience throughout the world, should rise up and strike down this anti-Zionist venom that has seeped into daily political discourse. As the above examples indicate, such new-fangled anti-Zionism is often hard to distinguish from old-fashioned Jew hatred -no matter how many contrarian op-ed essays the few but loud anti-Zionist Jews may publish. We have seen anti-Semitism blur with anti-Zionism in the Syrian president's ugly anti-Jewish remarks when greeting the Pope; we have seen anti-Zionism blur into anti-Semitism with the surge in attacks on Jews throughout the world since the troubles began in Israel in September, 2000; we have seen anti-Zionism blur into anti-Semitism with the booklet of caricatures showing Jews with hook noses and fangs dripping blood some delegates distributed at an anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa.

Decades ago, the great American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., said: "When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews and what is anti-Zionist? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa and freely accord all other nations of the globe."

Anti-Zionism: Ugly Rhetoric with Lethal Consequences

For too long too many of us ignored the vitriol. We forgot that peace has to be made between peoples, not leaders, and that making nice to one another is an essential precondition for making peace. While Israelis were arguing about how to acknowledge Palestinian nationalism in their curricula, Palestinian curricula were fomenting anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Palestinian maps did not even acknowledge Israel's existence. There was also, we must admit, some liberal racism, some Western condescension, at work. Too many observers explained away Yasir Arafat's calls in Arabic for jihad (Holy War) against the Jews, as being necessary for domestic consumption, as simply the way "they" speak to each other over there.

Today, the intensity of the hatred, the ubiquity of the calls, has deadly Consequences -and can no longer be ignored. What are we to make, for example, of this snippet from a sermon broadcast on official Palestinian Authority television in the summer of 200 1, which cried: "All weapons must be aimed at the Jews, at the enemies of Allah, the cursed nation ill the Koran whom the Koran describes as monkeys and pigs, worshippers of the calf and idol worshippers. Allah shall make the Moslem rule over the Jew, we will blow them up in Hadera, we will blow them up in TelAviv and in Netanya in the righteousness of Allah against this riff -raff. ...We will enter Jerusalem as conquerors, and Jaffa as conquerors, and Haifa as conquerors and Ashkelon as conquerors. We bless all those who educate their children to Jihad and to Martyrdom, blessings to he who shot a bullet into the head of a Jew. ..." What are we to make of the final interview Faisal Husseini reportedly gave before he died of a heart attack that spring? Husseini, whom the Western world eulogized as a moderate, as a Palestinian dove, characterized Oslo as a Trojan Horse. "The Intifada itself is the coming down out of the [wooden] horse," he said. "The Oslo agreement, or any other agreement, is just a temporary procedure, or just a step toward something bigger... [which] is the liberation of all historical Palestine from the river to the sea." What are we to make of the fact that mainstream Palestinian press organs and leaders of the Palestinian authority have accused Israel of spreading AIDS to Arab children, of disseminating Mad Cow disease in the West Bank, of , 'distributing food containing material that causes cancer and hormones that harm male virility and other spoiled food products in the Palestinian Authority's territories in order to poison and harm the Palestinian population"?

It is tragic and ironic that this resurgence of anti-Zionism comes almost a decade after the Oslo peace treaties, when, polls show, a majority of Israelis and a majority of Jews throughout the world began to acknowledge Palestinian nationalism. It is tragic and pathetic that these blood libels, new and old, come after Ehud Barak offered a sweeping set of concessions at Camp David in July of 2000. It is tragic and diabolic that these attacks on the right of Israel to exist are echoing throughout the world and affirming the choice many Palestinians made to resort to violence instead of peaceful negotiations.

We in the Jewish community need to focus on these fundamental issues, on the right of Israel to exist, and on the violent repudiation by so many Palestinians of Israelis' attempts at peace, even as we struggle with the political, strategic, moral, and existential challenges of today. We must not get so bogged down in apologias and defensiveness that we ignore the bigger picture. A quarter of a century ago, America's ambassador to the United Nations, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, rejected the infamous UN "Zionism is racism" resolution as "an obscene act." Moynihan later explained that he recognized more than "uninformed bigotry" at play, "it is conscious politics. It is not merely that our adversaries have commenced an effort to destroy the legitimacy of a kindred democracy through the incessant repetition of the Zionist-racist lie. It is that others can come to believe it also."

The poisonous seeds Moynihan saw sown in the mid-l970s are bearing deadly fruit today. We cannot sit by idly and let these libels fester. We must as Jews and as proud citizens of great democracies like the United States and Canada stand up and fight. Just as the women's movement marched to "take back the night" from assailants, we Jews need to "take back" Zionism from its critics. Not only must we not let them define us, we also cannot let our reaction to them define us. Too much modern Judaism is defined by our enemies -of yesterday and today. In taking back Zionism, we need to articulate a positive vision that speaks to us and inspires us.

Alas, the sad truth is that this renewed assault on Israel and on Zionism comes at an awkward time in Jewish history. As the next chapter will argue, despite all the speeches and rallies and essays generated after September 2000, despite all the "we are one" solidarity missions and statements, many North American Jews today remain ambivalent about Zionism and the State of Israel itself. Many say that the term "Zionism" makes them "uncomfortable," while others buy into the conventional wisdom that sets the Israelis as the colonialist "Goliaths" oppressing the Palestinian "Davids," or simply dismisses both sides as equally violent and barbaric. And even those who call themselves Zionist who defend the State of Israel, often find themselves unable to articulate why -or to navigate around the complexities of Middle East politics.

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Zionism » Who is a Zionist?