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Anti-Zionism Is an Abhorrent Ideology Regardless of Antisemitism
Worshipers pray in distance from each other at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City, amid coronavirus restrictions, March 26, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Ammar Awad.
The claim that “anti-Zionism is not antisemitism” is often used as a defense by anti-Israel activists. Even if this were true — and in most cases, it is not — the claim still presupposes that by virtue of not being antisemitic, anti-Zionism is therefore a normal and legitimate political position.
Anti-Zionism, however, is a fundamentally illegitimate and abhorrent ideology in its own right.
Having fulfilled its purpose with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and its acceptance at the United Nations, “Zionism” means that the Jewish State should continue to exist — like every other internationally-recognized country.
The term Zionism has no relevant meaning anymore, besides upholding the continued existence of Israel.
The “anti-Zionist” movement today demands the opposite. Aside from being an explicit rejection of the entire post-World War II international order in its call to destroy a long-standing UN member state, anti-Zionism is functionally a call for the death, expulsion, or subjugation of all Israel’s Jewish citizens.
As the Jews would not go quietly without a fight, it is also functionally a call for the death and displacement of millions of Arabs in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon.
Some ardent anti-Zionists argue that their cause is just another “national liberation movement,” akin to anti-apartheid activism in South Africa, and anti-colonial independence movements elsewhere. This is a severely flawed analogy for a variety of reasons, not least because these movements never called for the destruction of the metropoles they were connected to, or, in the case of South Africa, for the destruction of the country.
The only contemporary parallel with anti-Zionism is the Russian imperial attitude towards Ukraine, and consequent genocidal attempt to destroy it. However, anti-Zionism, unlike Russian imperialism, is a global and popular ideology, and is therefore a unique phenomenon in world affairs.
Anti-Zionism should be as beyond the pale as Russia’s imperialist desire to destroy Ukraine, yet anti-Zionism is treated as a normal political opinion. It is notable that, alone among ideologies, peoples, and states, only Jewish national identity and the existence of a Jewish State is so widely impugned across the world.
The despicable ideology of anti-Zionism comes in two variants, both of which are based on distinct delusions that nevertheless would lead to the same horrific outcome.
The first and more honest of these strains is that of the Arab and Muslim world, which generally believes, incorrectly, that all Israeli Jews are foreign “colonialists” and therefore all dual citizens with second passports, and that if they are killed and terrorized enough, the remainder will eventually decide it is not worth the trouble and return to their countries of origin.
In fact, 20% or less of Israel’s population have more than one passport; most Israelis were born there and have never lived anywhere else. Additionally, Israelis have no common country of origin, and no country would be willing to take in millions of Jewish refugees. Finally, Jewish national identity is real, and Jews are deeply attached to Israel, so Israelis will fight resolutely and, because they have nowhere to go, desperately in its defense.
This strain of anti-Zionism, which encompasses almost the entire Palestinian national movement, has made it quite clear for decades in word and deed that the entirety of the land “from the river to the sea” must be cleansed of Jews, one way or another.
The October 7 massacre and kidnapping and the consequent humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a result of Israel’s defensive war against Hamas are the direct result of this strain of anti-Zionism. So is the entire nearly century-long Palestinian predicament. Anti-Zionism, not Zionism, has been the cause of every Palestinian refugee and death since before the establishment of Israel.
The second strain of anti-Zionism is the even more delusional Western form, the advocates of which insist that all they want is to dissolve Israel into a single “democratic” state of Palestine, with equal rights for both Jews and Arabs. Of course, there is no prospect of any such “democratic” Palestine: only the brutal, theocratic dictatorship of the terrorist organization Hamas or the thuggish autocracy of the PLO.
These Western anti-Zionists are apparently unaware that fewer than 10% of Palestinians support such a goal. Moreover, not only is much of the Palestinian national movement eliminationist, as mentioned above, but according to surveys on traditional antisemitic beliefs unrelated to Israel or its activities, Palestinians are among the most antisemitic people in the world.
Why Israel’s Jews would repudiate their national identity and suicidally dissolve their state to become a minority among such a people, is a question these anti-Zionists appear too detached from reality to answer.
The bottom line is that Israel has existed as a legal fact for 75 years, and calling for its destruction or dissolution is extreme, immoral, illegitimate, and a recipe for endless violence.
If the massacres and kidnappings on October 7 and the humanitarian consequences of Israel’s war of self-defense in Gaza are not desirable outcomes — and if people still believe in the international order and the illegitimacy of advocating genocide and the destruction of recognized UN member states — then anti-Zionist advocacy of any sort must be socially and politically stigmatized regardless of whether anti-Zionism is considered antisemitic.
Oved Lobel is a policy analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).
The post Anti-Zionism Is an Abhorrent Ideology Regardless of Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.