Zionism and Jewish identity
JVL Introduction
Philp Weiss, draws on an essay by Freddie deBoer to ask why so many American Jews don’t understand that the United States is their Zion, the land of equality.
Rather, they invest their emotional wellbeing in supporting an ethnic supremacist country “over there”, a country in which most American Jews wouldn’t dream of living.
Why? asks Weiss. For them: “Israel is just an idea, not a place; it’s where they put their thoughts and feelings about being Jewish, the repository for their unhappiness over the various forms of disrespect they’ve no doubt endured in their lives for being Jewish.”
Passionate American Zionists know exactly what Israel is and are prepared to defend it to the hilt. And they know that they have an absolutely essential role in supporting it.
A younger generation today has turned its back on this conception. In organisations like in IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace, they are tearing down the notion of the isolated, powerless Jew whose only protection is sticking together against the hostile world, an image so carefully elaborated by the Zionist movement.
They are trying to construct an alternative Jewish identify fit for the modern world.
RK
This article was originally published by Mondoweiss on Thu 7 Mar 2024. Read the original here.
Zionism and Jewish identity
American Zionists are not deluded about Zionism. They know exactly what Israel is, and they are actively supporting blatant supremacy, racism, and apartheid. But that is changing, because Zionism is finally being challenged in the left/liberal press.
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We need quotation marks around the words of dershowitz to make clear what is included in the quotation.
This is a valid argument. However, i worry aout,
Why don’t American Jews understand that this is their Zion, the United States,”
The USA is, like Israel, a setltler colonial state, and there is still not equality for African-Americans, Native Americans or countless migrants. And the USA exploits and oppresses peoples round the world.
I do not support the equally reactionary British State in which I live. It still occupies part of Ireland and the Malvinas, among others.