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Just How Useful are the ‘Useful Idiots’?
Anti-Israel demonstrators protest, on the day of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of the US Congress, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Seth Herald
JNS.org – Ever since political Zionism emerged at the end of the 19th century as a movement to create and sustain a Jewish state in the historic Land of Israel, it has encountered Jewish opposition to its goals. Some of these opponents were decently motivated but proven tragically wrong by history; some were driven by broader political beliefs and loyalties that they regarded as incompatible with Zionism; while some, particularly in the current generation, are just plain reprehensible, expressing a pathology that seeks the adoration of strangers by hatefully dissociating from their own community.
Jewish antagonism towards Zionism is not homogeneous. Particularly before the emergence of the independent State of Israel in 1948, there were bourgeois Jewish anti-Zionists who worried that Zionism would jeopardize their social position and encourage non-Jews to regard them as innately disloyal to their countries of citizenship. There were also proletarian Jewish anti-Zionists, wedded to a vision of socialism in which Jews would have, at best, “cultural autonomy.” Among American Jews, there was a section of the community that regarded the United States as the Promised Land, viewing the repeated references to “Zion” in Jewish liturgy as a purely spiritual aspiration, rather than as a part of the argument for the restitution of the biblical Land of Israel. Among many Haredi groups, Zionism was seen as a secular heresy.
Yet polling these days repeatedly shows that the vast majority of Jews, religious and secular, identify with and support Israel, and many of them are even more inclined to identify as “Zionists” in the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas atrocities. Those trends I outlined above have largely faded among Jews around the world, with a new consensus forming following World War II that the Jews, like other peoples and nations, can live happily in a world that contains both a Jewish state and vibrant Jewish communities outside Israel’s borders.
But Jewish opposition to Zionism has not disappeared. As the number of Jews identifying as anti-Zionists has dwindled, the output of those who declare themselves anti-Zionists has become all the more venomous. Among pro-Israel Jews, it’s common to denounce such people as “self-haters” or as “useful idiots,” a phrase incorrectly attributed to Lenin to denote those Western liberals in thrall to the Soviet Union who played a “useful” role in advancing Moscow’s propaganda. But how “useful” are the Jewish anti-Zionists?
After 1945, Jewish anti-Zionism was largely the preserve of the left. Inside the Jewish state, its main proponents were found in the Israeli Communist Party (whose Jewish leader, Meir Wilner, signed the Declaration of Independence) which became militantly anti-Zionist as the Soviet Union increasingly aligned itself with the Arab states in their quest to annihilate Israel. However, at a time when anti-Zionists were much keener than they are now to deflect accusations of antisemitism, the Jewish anti-Zionists certainly had a useful role. “We as a party are … against the ideology and practice of Zionism, though you have to ask the question how to best fight against it,” Wilner told the East German Communist dictator Erich Honecker when they met in 1979. “This is about leading the struggle from the clear perspective of socialism and progress, and thus convincing the Jewish masses that the fight against Zionism is in their national interest. This is about making clear and convincing that anti-Zionism is not directed against the Jews.”
The idea that Jews of any social class in Israel would abandon their own state to become a minority in an Arab-dominated, Soviet-controlled republic was always outlandish. But for the Israeli Communists—and even the handful of Israelis further to the left, such as the Matzpen group that actively identified with Palestinian terrorist groups—the abiding belief was that Jews would be a welcome presence in the socialist Palestinian state that would replace Israel.
It is on this last point that the current crop of Jewish anti-Zionists has shifted. However ridiculous all the old slogans about a “joint struggle” with the Arabs against Zionism were, and however shameful the political alliances these beliefs nurtured, all this was preferable to what we have now. This generation of anti-Zionists fervently believes that Jews have no rightful place in the Middle East at all, regardless of who governs them.
In the last 20 years, social media has dramatically amplified the voices of the miniscule number of Jews who hold this position. Some readers might remember Israel Shamir, a Russian-Israeli writer who converted to Christianity and whom many were convinced was an agent of the Russian secret services, and Gilad Atzmon, an Israeli jazz musician who relocated to London, both of whom delighted in baiting other Jews with antisemitic tropes and who spoke and wrote about Israel in demonic terms, particularly during the wars in Gaza in 2008-09 and 2014. A decade on, Shamir and Atzmon have become pretty much invisible, but their inheritors are out there.
The best, and therefore the worst, current example of what I’m talking about is an individual I’d never heard of before the Hamas atrocities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. His name is Alon Mizrahi, and from what I can tell from his social-media presence, he is a former Israeli who quite literally sees his homeland as the root of all the evil in the world. In a sane environment, someone like this would have only a handful of followers, but Mizrahi has close to 100,000. His imbecilic posts are lauded by Hamas supporters and attract the ire of Jews. Even the identity he adopts—an “Arab Jew” because his family are Mizrahim—is scorned by other Jews of Mizrahi and Sephardi origin, me among them.
What distinguishes Mizrahi is the unvarnished pathology he displays. Whereas Meir Wilner was guilty of holding the ludicrous belief that the promise of the Soviet Union could sway the Jews away from Zionism, Mizrahi is guilty of spitting uncontrolled bile in their direction. In one post, he said the claim that the Nazis were driven by antisemitism is rooted in Jewish “narcissism.” In another post after last week’s release of three female Israeli hostages, he viciously mocked concerns about sexual abuse in captivity, in turn, sparked by the ordeals of the Israeli women raped and violated on Oct. 7. “Deep sense of disappointment in Israel: None of the returning hostages is pregnant,” he wrote.
The question persists: How useful is this latest iteration of “useful idiocy”? Not that useful. Unlike the PLO, Hamas doesn’t care whether it has Jewish cheerleaders since its goal is to eradicate Jews from the face of the earth. The millions across the globe who have attended pro-Hamas demonstrations similarly don’t care whether they are joined by dissenting Jews because theirs is the Palestinian cause, and Jews are simply in the way. There’s no need, anymore, for people on the left to protest that some of their best friends are Jews because in these circles, Jews are not a historically persecuted minority but the most affluent white community out there. Therefore, the function of someone like Alon Mizrahi is to entertain Hamas supporters when he trolls Jews and Jewish concerns, but nothing more than that. He may think of himself in heroic terms, but he is actually one of the clowns in the circus of the left.
If history is any guide, there will be other Jews and Israelis tempted to follow in the footsteps of Mizrahi and his forebears. At one time, I might have said that solid, informed political argument was the best way to win them over. But now, I would advise those friends and family members who love them to get them in front of a therapist. Because what today’s Jewish anti-Zionism shows us is it is no longer political. It is a mental disorder that traffics in antisemitic hate to win the respect and admiration of non-Jews. Don’t be that guy.
The post Just How Useful are the ‘Useful Idiots’? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.