What Zionism Means to Me Today

My Quirky Approach Offers a Much Simpler Concept Than Any Other Ideology

Jan 02, 2023

soldiers in green and brown camouflage uniform standing on gray concrete floor during daytime — Photo by Benjamin Rascoe on Unsplash

This post is the nineteenth in an ongoing series on antisemitism and culture. See the previous installments here:

These writings are part of my ongoing effort to overcome my PTSD by forcing myself to try to write and publish something every day commenting on and analyzing current cultural affairs and their impacts on politics, faith, and, well, everything. “Politics is downstream from culture,” the late Andrew Breitbart popularized among conservative bloggers while he was alive. I’d go a step further: Everything is downstream from culture. The cultures you embrace determine who you are and who you become. You become what you worship.

In the previous installment in this series I laid out the various life experiences - from childhood and adolescence through my career journey and the recent deaths of colleagues - which had transformed me into a zealous Zionist activist today.

But what exactly do I mean by “Zionist”? What does the ideology of “Zionism” believe in today?

Perhaps the best overview I’ve yet encountered was written by

Yisrael M. Eliashiv

at his wonderful

Magen Yehudi

substack. Read the whole article:

Magen Yehudi

The Four Conversations about Zionism

Defining terms is one of the most crucial tasks that ought to be performed prior to holding a debate or discussion. The lack of defining terms regarding Zionism in our public discourse leads to confusion and unnecessary friction within the Jewish community…

2 years ago · 6 likes · 3 comments · Yisrael M. Eliashiv

Eliashiv explains the different traditions and dimensions of Zionist thought, explicating its political, religious, and cultural dimensions as well as the arguments they engender. The most basic political definition he offers is the most common fight now as the others are more intra-Jewish debates:

Zionism as a Political Question post-1948 can be summed up as 'Does Israel have a right to exist as a Jewish State.' Doesn't have anything to do with settlements, going back to '67 lines, a one-state* or two-state solution. That's it. It's simply whether Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state, regardless of the form it takes.
It's a simple yes (you're a zionist) or no (you're not a zionist) question.
When discussing Zionism not only within the Jewish community but especially outside with non-Jews, it's crucial to thoroughly explain to them that politically, if they believe that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish, they are a political zionist. One of the most potent tools of antisemitic political antizionists has been to obfuscate the issue and misrepresent the idea of political Zionism so much that it has become a slur and creates cover for antisemites to attack Jews under that label as well.

So this means that a whole lot of people are Zionists and don’t even realize it. Sort of how most people are feminists even if they don’t think of themselves as such. The state of Israel should be allowed to continue to exist as it now does, as a Jewish-majority state based on Jewish values. Women should have equal rights with men and the right of self-determination, to live their lives as they see fit. Ask most generally apolitical Americans these questions and they’re likely to respond in the affirmative. Believing that the state of Israel should be obliterated and replaced with another Muslim state or that women are sub-human and should be sold like cattle are both thankfully deeply fringe positions.

So why then be a Zionist activist? Why such a need when 55% of Americans sympathize with Israel and only 26% side with the Palestinians? What does Zionism really mean to me, a non-Jew, and why has it become so important in my work as a writer, editor, publisher, researcher, and activist, so much so that I would center this publishing company around it?

As perhaps is to be expected given my repeated advocacy of taking oddball, counterculture, provocative positions on many subjects, my personal position on what Zionism means is perhaps a bit much for some, but I will explain myself. This is the best definition of “Zionism” in my view and what primarily informs my engagement with the cause:

FUCK ANTISEMITISM

That’s it. It’s really that simple: two words that drive my efforts and that I urge everyone - Jew and Gentile alike - to embrace.

To me “Zionism” is not merely about defending the right of the Jewish state to exist. Rather, it’s defending the right of the Jewish people to exist. In my Zionist activism over the last decade defending Israel the state has only been one component, opposing antisemitic sentiment globally has been just as much a part of it too. Being a Zionist isn’t just about defending the Jews living in Israel, it’s about defending Jews everywhere.

And Israel just happens to be the strongest, most effective shield the Jewish people have for defending themselves from genocidal antisemites. It serves the primary purpose which all states are supposed to serve: protecting its citizens from mass murder and plunder from groups and countries which want to conquer them.

But for me, with Zionism simply the polite stand in for “FUCK ANTISEMITISM” I take this a step further. Just reactively defending Jewish people is not enough. Being a Zionist really means taking the fight to the antisemites, and fucking them up. One of my favorite Talmudic aphorisms is among the most famous:

“If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.”

This sentiment aligns with one of the boldest statements from the 20th century’s most influential occultist, Aleister Crowley, in his notorious Liber Oz proclamation:

“Man has the right to kill those who would thwart these rights.”

This is my Zionism today and what I advocate for all to embrace as well: those who embrace the creed of the Nazis need to be obliterated. Those who seek to murder Jews - Hamas, Hezbollah, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood’s hydra of front groups - should be defeated militarily. And nonviolent antisemites operating in pluralistic western societies should be culturally obliterated, what’s referred to today as being “canceled” - what that son of a bitch Kanye West is experiencing now.

Those promoting Jew Hatred throughout the west in one form of media or another, whether it be social media, online videos, or hanging banners from overpasses - should be culturally ostracized and undermined through whatever means are within the law. That means waging Lawfare through lawsuits, that means disrupting their sources of income, and it especially means doing the research and investigative journalism to expose them for the whole world to see.

The best defense is a good offense, and that’s what our Jewish family needs to thrive in the 21st century. Fuck the antisemites. Let’s bring the fight to them before they can inspire any more violence against the Jewish people and the Jewish state.