Zionism is a form an anti-semitism, it has long been supported by vitriolic antisemites, and used to support anti-semitic aims. Anti-zionism has in fact been used as a dog whistle by neonazis for flagrant antisemitism. Both of these things are true and they don't undermine each other, but they paint a better picture of the systems of power that we are working with.
I don't want to write something in opposition to the Israeli propaganda I've spent two years undermining, we are all in agreement Israel misuses the term anti-Semitism to defend its ongoing genocide. We are all in agreement that Zionism by actively placing Jewish lives in danger, dismissing their belonging and equal citizenship in countries other than an ethnostate, and recreating systems of Oppression against the Palestinians is bigoted and anti-Semitic. And I am not terribly interested in convincing you that anti-semitism is a issue, even until the 1940s fewer than 50% of American’s believe that Jews should have equal citizenship. I just had a long debate with a groyer, he only mention they were at the very end, and I'll be releasing it soon, but that was the strong prompt for me to developed clearly why we cannot ally with them
So what I’m left with is this as always, a superstructure of addressing the relationship between anti-Semitism, the Zionist state, and anti-Zionist work. Specifically I want to point out cases that I see of anti-Semitism in the anti-zionist movement, and argue that taking anti-Semitism seriously benefits our cause not only by undermining Israeli propaganda but by allowing us to better model bigotry that people face today. I want to argue positively that we should not and cannot afford to ally with fascists of any type, because they do not want to end imperialism they want to bring it home. And as always, I have some additional thoughts that you'll just have to read on to find.
Antisemitism in the Antizionist Movement -
As a starting point I think a lot of (principled) leftists would gain a lot from watching some Neo-Nazi propaganda, only so that they can recognize when things they say edge incredibly close to that propaganda. Neither I, nor anyone with a life can walk you through every single Neo-Nazi dog whistle talking point and belief, they are losers with an infinite amount of time, but there are some general patterns that are easier to just show you than convince you exist, so first please if you have an edible, 12 hours of your life to waste, and a genuine interest in undermining Neo-Nazi propaganda, watch Europa the last battle. It's perhaps the least compelling but most cohesive Neo-Nazi film I've ever seen. That said, a breakdown some basic points.
Believing that Israel controls America is a recreation of a historical anti-Semitic mythos, that there is a cabal of Jews controlling the world. I want to break down that claim.
There are different forms of this claim and I want to ask you at which point you stop thinking it's anti-Semitic. First if they say “the world bankers especially the Rothschilds have blackmail on everyone and control all banking, forcing Christian politicians in America to support Israel” - is this anti-semitism? Yes, this is verbatim a line out of neo-nazis books. Ok what if we drop the Rothschilds bit, or replace it with Epstein as a Mossad agent - “Global Capital has blackmail on every single American politician who is a member of the Epstein class, Epstein working for the israelis push them to support Israel” - okay what if we replace Global Capital with AIPAC. Do you see where I am going? And I think people do this backwards often, where they would look at that final claim - “AIPAC has undue influence through a widespread system of power supported by the global Capital pushing American politicians to support Israel” - and start by looking for the truth in it rather than detecting the bad faith replacements in it.
And it was truth to it, AIPAC is a Lobby that should not exist and is lobbying American politicians unduly to support Israel, but what gets lost here between that truth and the claim is the system of power behind it - and once we start filling in those gaps of why do they have undue influence, why can't people stop them, and why do American politicians keep listening to them, people tend to regress oh well it's Global Capital oh well they have blackmail oh well it's the …….
And I'd like to suggest that that is because neo-nazis are louder online then principled leftists - that point of truth regarding AIPAC, when nuances added the neo-nazis can step in to add infinite level of nuance, because they have an infinite amount of time because they are fucking losers, whereas leftists have shit to do and don't have time to go through every single full theoretical explanation of why AIPAC is a particular avatar of capital in the particular way that it does. And importantly I don't want to spend my time arguing with neo-nazis but they are very pleased to spend their time arguing with me, so ultimately their ideas fill the room, and I want us to be cognizant of when they do.
This process happens in a lot of different ways, from referring to America as occupied by israel, rather than recognizing America in fact controls Israel, the execptionalization of israel in the context of American imperialism. And to be clear I don't think most people are acting out of a place of anti-Semitism I just think the very strong anti-Semitism lobby online is winning, I think neo-nazis are allowed and most people don't know what they're saying, and I beg antizionists that are coming from a leftist position to try to learn from neo-nazis to undermine them, rather than dismissing them out of frustration for how fucking annoying Zionist Liberals are.
Obviously I can't Point everything and I don't aim to, I've made a few videos doing so, but hopefully I've made a pretty basic Bare Bones argument for why I think this is an issue, the reason I think it happened, at a way to think about this process, I want to move to what is to be done about it, and why something should be.
Why Focus, Is not the Time -
There are two main responses I get from leftist when pointing this out, or I guess three barring the majority which is “yay yes anti-Semitism bad”, and those effectively go like this - 1 - now is not the time Jews are not being killed in Gaza, and anti-Semitism is not a structural issue in America in the way anti-black racism is 2 - anti-semitism is actually racism against Arabs, because Arabs are semites and Ashkenazi Jews are not. 1 is the more interesting one, and 2 is the more fucking stupid one. So I’ll address 2 First.
Arabs are the Real Semites, So Antisemitism is Actually Against them
Oxford Reference definition of Antisemitism - “Hostility towards and discrimination against Jewish people (although there are other Semitic peoples, notably the Arabs, anti‐Semitism is only used to refer to prejudice against Jewish people” - you are definitely wrong, though there is of course more historical context - anti-Semitism historically comes from race science regarding semetic people, over what you are correct Arabs were apart, but due to the historical context of the development of that race science Jews were the primary target of it and this is the race science that developed into modern-day eugenics, and nazi ideology. Absolutely nothing turns on whether Ashkenazi Jews are in fact descendant of “Semitic” people (they are but nothing turns on it because racists will think they are anyway). So this term was developed to attack Jewish people and whether you think the race scientist got their math correct or wrong doesn't matter, they think they got it right and that's what developed the language. The term was primarily developed in that context especially to replace Judenhass, a term that framed anti-semitism as a emotional feeling, instead of what the Nazis wanted it to be which was a scientific reality.
The goal when Claim 2 is made, is often a seemingly good faith misunderstanding of History, with the intention of redirecting the conversation to the more pressing immediate issue of anti-arab racism. But doing it in this way is 1 - dishonest 2 - reaffirms historical race science that we should not engage in 3 - neuters our ability to respond to genuine anti-Semitism which is a long-held historical tradition of the western world, and of course influences the way Zionism develops. - the slight addendum I would point to is that yes Arabs are victims of anti-semitism, but in a more abstract way than the people making this claim tend to make out, something ill expand on below.
Antisemitism Does not matter as Much Right Now
On that third point, i will move to Claim 1 (apologies for the numbers, I am a Law person afterall) - “now is not the time Jews do not face a similar structural oppression” - First I wanna say this is incorrect, rampant and vitriolic antisemitism does exist. But I don't even think that needs to be engaged with to form a really compelling argument that you should care about anti-Semitism regardless of what you think the scale of lived antisemitism is - because understanding anti-Semitism allows us to build an incredible helpful model for how bigotry in the modern world works. Very simply if you understand the models and caricatures and systems of Oppression that anti-Semitism fuel under the Nazis under Mussolini under even the American Regime, then you get a better understanding of the way that Arabs are talked about now.
For example, if you read how Jews were talked about historically by the Nazis, the focus was that they were from another place, they were Outsiders, and they had loyalty to that place. This is the dual loyalty trope (which by the way we see a lot when talking about dual citizens of Israel) something we explicitly see recreated when Congress people are talking about Muslims having higher loyalty to Islam. The consequent call for them to return to their country, and the verbatim calls by DHS for “remigration” are more than reminiscent of the verbatim usage of remigration by neo-nazis and historical Nazis regarding Jewish people. The concept of a secret well funded group of instigators causing all of the social upheaval, is matched perfectly with how these zionist Lobby talks about Qatar and Iran regarding campus protestors.
You should of course care about anti-semitism quo the victims of anti-semitism, but there is also a strong secondary argument that understanding this as a form of historical oppression that is deeply built into how Americans and Israelis perceive the world, will make you a better Ally in fighting anti-arab oppression. And if you don't want to do either you're doing no one any good.
Ok If its not the Jews, What is it? (imperilaism)
American Imperialism. That's what it is. America supports Israel not because there is some Secret cabal of Jewish people or Jewish Bankers controlling America, nor is there a secret plot of blackmailing American politicians into doing what they want, but it is just naturally in the interest of America to have an outpost in the Middle East. Henry Kissinger knew this and wrote about it extensively in his book Joe Biden also knew this and talked publicly about it. They do not need to be blackmailed into doing what they want because maintaining destabilization in the Middle East which has been their goal literally the whole time to extract resources and allow foreign Capital entry into it is literally the whole goal of the American Empire.
This approach accurately contextualizes almost every single claim that could be made regarding Israel's control of America, contextualizing why AIPAC get such outdo funding because it represents the communication between the ruling class of America and the political class. It explains why Israel is allowed to do offenses against the American Empire all the damn time, because they are a chaos actor not a footsoldier. So then occasionally acting chaotic even against the American Empire not only allows for American plausible deniability, but also is perfectly expected if their goal is chaos. Put very plainly the only claim that this doesn't survive is the claim that there is some massive blackmail scheme, but that's equally nonsensical because if this was only held together by a massive blackmail scheme, do you really think this is the only issue that there would be blackmail on? Really? This just becomes a chicken and egg situation with power and blackmail, and his entirely unexplanatory.
The Political Consequence -
The conclusion I want to drive home from this is that anti-Semitism and anti-zionism are not separate issues, but understanding one helps you understand the other. Further the foundation of Zionism is anti-Semitism, and to fully undermine it we must undermine anti-semitism, the necessary consequent of this is that aligning yourself with people that are not only unwilling to undermine anti-Semitism but are actively bringing it to the fore of political discussion *cough* groypers* cough* will never support your cause. They may literally act as pressure against Israel but they will always serve to recreate the systems of Oppression that not only created Israel but created Israel's all over the world (Taiwan, South Korea, North Vietnam, Saudi Arabia), and bring that violence home. Further they will simply be feckless in undermining the core issue, where if they focus on the jews as the problem, not only will oppression internally increase as that power grows, but they also maintained the actual issue with Israel which is that it is yet another Outpost of American imperialism.
Conclusion -
I feel this was a bit all over the place, but when is my writing not. So ill sum it up here, then watch the video bc ill probably do a better job explaining it there: Israel is an outpost of the American Empire, and every argument that people make for it being anything other than that (AIPAC Control, Epstien Blackmail, World Bankers) which just so happens to one to one match anti-semitic tropes, can be very well explained by this super structure. This Falls perfectly well in line with the leftist analysis of fascism, which is replacing class Consciousness and anti-imperial resentment with racial consciousness and racial resentment. And I'm just begging you not to fall for it, and in fact work extremely hard to understand it as a phenomena not only because if they bring a real consequences it has for Jewish people that actually live in it, but for the liberatory struggles that we all want to engage in. Because this is just another Faustian bargain, where we can trade class consciousness for racial resentment, But ultimately we will get nothing done
