When the Jewish community would decry anti-Zionism within its own ranks years ago, the target would be a few small ultra-Orthodox sects in Brooklyn awaiting the messianic era; the mainstream American Jewish community could be counted on to support the Jewish state. But when we speak of Jewish anti-Zionism today, we refer to a growing number of secular, disaffected Jews—many of them students—who oppose Israel on what they claim to be a foundation of humanitarian, liberal and democratic politics: a desire to have the Palestinians’ basic human rights respected and for all groups to have a measure of self-determination in the land.
But these students, like one who said—at a Shabbat dinner, no less—that she believes that Israel “shouldn’t exist as a Jewish state,” maintain a confused ideology. Advocacy for Palestinian human rights and self-determination must come alongside equal support of the same rights for Israelis. Eliminating Israel as a Jewish state will not achieve these goals for either people. The death of Israel will hurt the lives of the former Israelis and will not improve the lives of the oppressed Palestinians, whose leadership is proving unable to run a democratic government.
Whether or not these anti-Zionist Jews choose to recognize it, the state of Israel exists for their benefit and has made significant efforts toward peace with the Palestinians. Israel is a place where all Jews are welcome to live and work. For a Jew to deny Israel’s right to exist as a democratic Jewish state is to deny that the Jews should be able to live with the same amount of self-determination as the deserving, victimized Palestinian populace.
Many liberal Israelis, such as the members of the leftist Zionist group Peace Now, support human rights and self-determination for Palestinians under a two-state solution. But such a voice is weak in the leadership of the Palestinian side and some leading Palestinian groups are dedicated to Israel’s destruction. Screaming to high heaven in the name of human rights, therefore, every time the Israeli government is required to conduct a military operation against these groups is about as confused an action as a liberal political activist can take.
Groups like Students for Justice in Palestine advocate for some reasonable and important goals, like improving the welfare of the Palestinians in the territories, an end to the unnecessary, dangerous, expensive settlements and an emphasis on a fair peace process. But while secular Jews may support those initiatives and even as they correctly assert that Israel has made plenty of mistakes, they should be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Supporting Israel may not be attractive to young, disaffected Jews because they think of the pro-Israel community in terms of guys wearing large Israeli-flag kippot in synagogue to cover their bald spots. The reality, however, has changed: J Street and its campus subsidiary J Street U are new “pro-Israel, pro-peace” organizations that support, according to their website, “Israel as a democratic home for the Jewish people, the full and equal rights of Arab and other non-Jewish citizens of Israel and the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own.” A number of recent J Street press releases indicate that the organization supports the White House’s recent criticisms of increased Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem. J Street has been urging, according to a recent statement, “the Administration to turn this crisis into an opportunity for progress on two states.” Such an organization, which respects the rights of all the people involved in the conflict, would be a more appropriate place for Jews concerned with self-determination and human rights.
But perhaps such a policy is not enough for some of the most disaffected Jews I’ve met at my college, where radical-chic is most definitely in. I suspect that the motivation of the Jew who claims that Israel should not exist as a Jewish state is really a strong desire to break with the past, advocate for radical change and be different from the previous generation, reminiscent of those at my college who protested the flying of the American flag on our main campus building after September 11th because they opposed the imperialist politics of the US government. Like those students, these anti-Zionist Jews may be raising valid protests, but they are taking it too far.
Such anti-Zionist Jews need to rethink their ideology. No matter how disconnected a Jew may feel from the Jewish people or Jewish culture and religion, she should strive to retain some semblance of group identity and belonging. The Jewish communities inside and outside of Israel support each other financially, spiritually, religiously and infrastructurally. Israel needs the Diaspora, and the Diaspora needs Israel.
Maybe the whole “I’m a Jew and I oppose Israel” thing is just a phase. Hopefully such folks are a small enough minority to pose little threat to solid American Jewish support of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. All the same, the Jews who advocate Israel’s end are on a slippery slope toward a break with their Jewish identity and Jewish civilization.
A word of advice: know your roots.
