The Jewish Left’s Trek from Zionism
JVL Introduction
Shaul Magid reflects on how the American Jewish left has moved from a default position of ‘Liberal Zionism’ to anti-Zionism. The impossibility of having any alignment to an increasingly illiberal Israeli state became increasingly apparent and reached a critical point for many with the genocide in Gaza.
While the left and liberal Zionists have common interests in opposing Trump’s authoritarianism and abusive regimes abroad, liberal Zionists persist in demanding an exceptional status for Israel.
However Magid sees anti-Zionism as a stage towards non Zionism where Jews no longer have to subject themselves to a Zionist gaze and can construct a new diasporism centred on the places where we live.
MC
This article was originally published by Shaul’s Substack on Sun 15 Feb 2026. Read the original here.
What Does the Jewish Left Want?
“To be non-Zionist one first must be anti-Zionist” – Adi Ophir
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This is a deeply self-indulgent piece. It is a nonsense to suggest that anti-Zionism is a halfway house to non-Zionism, whatever that means. Perhaps our goal is non-racism rather than anti-racism? This is verbal masturbation.
The real question is whether Jewish intellectuals have the courage and honesty to call Zionism out for what it is. Clearly Shaul Magid doesn’t have that courage.
Magid says ‘Many Jews who define themselves as anti-Zionist do not think the state of Israel should cease to exist. Rather, they contest Zionist hegemony.’
So the internal battle within the Jewish community takes precedence over genocide and ethnic cleansing? Is it any wonder that Palestinians get tired of this Jewish preciousness?
If you are an anti-Zionist then Israel as a Jewish state must disappear. Not the people but the state. All that concerns Magid is that ‘Zionism is a requirement for legitimate Jewish identity in the twenty-first century.’’
Magid backs up this frivolity with ‘an important distinction… between Zionism and Israel. Israel is a country; Zionism is an ideology.’
What Magid demonstrates is that he hasn’t a clue about the specificity of Zionism as a settler colonial ideology whose aim was as pure a Jewish state as possible, i.e. a land with maximum Jews, maximum land and minimum Arabs (Lapid)
Magid quotes Joel Swanson’s assertion that ‘“Historically, Zionism has never been one single concept. It has been a family of arguments, … To say ‘Zionism’ without adjectives is already to erase its internal diversity.’
Here we really come to the crux of the argument. Is there any difference between Herzog and Netanyahu, between Labour and Revisionist Zionism or did they merely argue about the means of achieving a Jewish Supremacist state beholden to the West as an armed watchdog?
In fact cultural and socialist Zionism have disappeared.
A thoughtful and far reaching article, it examines the meanings of Zionism in the US and, most importantly, takes us beyond the present. Thank you.
This speaks to the difficulty facing so many Jews who grew up with Zionism (whatever the were told that means and they were told many things about it) and have great difficulty imagining being Jewish without it. This may sound like naval-gazing to activists, but Zionism will not be defeated within the Jewish community until Jews can match the pride and self-confidence of Zionists, minus this racist ideology. As much as Magid looks forward to non-Zionism, whatever that will be, he is clear isn’t he that anti-Zionism comes first and is the only way to get there.
We should let Israel work itself out, while we focus instead on building a new diaspora Jewish identity. Israel has nothing to do with us, so let’s move on. What a complex and dishonest dance of liberal obfuscation, to forge a new “cultural Zionism” whilst washing our hands of the genocide committed in our name. I don’t understand why JVL has published this.