RSS
Who Are the Anti-Zionist Jews?
Members of extreme anti-Zionist group “Jewish Voice for Peace.” Photo: NGO Monitor.
JNS.org – As a teacher of Zionism, one of the more frequent questions I receive is about anti-Zionist Jews.
Zionism is a modern movement built on age-old values that stand for the right of the Jewish people to determine their future in a state in the Jewish people’s historic homeland—the Land of Israel. Zionists maintain that the denial of these rights is antisemitic by nature because it advocates for discriminating against the Jewish people. But I am often asked: If there are anti-Zionist Jews, how can anti-Zionism be considered antisemitism?
The question isn’t without merit, but it assumes that Jews can’t express antisemitic viewpoints or be antisemitic in general. While antisemitic Jews are an odd phenomenon, there’s no reason they can’t exist. At the same time, there are Jews who agree with the values of Zionism but maintain that Zionism’s goal of establishing a Jewish state should not have been pursued at this time due to ancillary reasons having nothing to do with Zionist values.
Jewish opponents of Zionism have diverse views, but there are three main categories of anti-Zionist Jews: 1) Jews who promote a more assimilationist position and are concerned that Zionism can bring on charges of dual loyalty and increase antisemitism. 2) Jews who are fearful of fighting for Jewish rights. They prefer an existence that doesn’t advocate for change and are satisfied with a less-than-ideal reality rather than one that could better their standing in the world. 3) Torah-observant Jews who maintain that Zionism is inconsistent with Torah values either because of its secularism or its timing before a Messianic era.
In his book Arc of a Covenant, Walter Russell Mead wrote: “In 1919, 31 of the most influential Jews in America, led by the former ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau, presented a petition to Woodrow Wilson as he left for the Paris Peace Conference requesting him to oppose the Balfour Declaration: ‘We do not wish to see Palestine, either now or at any time in the future, organized as a Jewish State.’”
These Jews preferred living in a non-Jewish state with Jews who aspired to be more like their non-Jewish neighbors than in their own independent nation.
Many of these Jews exist today, yet an interesting phenomenon has developed with this group. Those who call themselves Zionists but practice a life that is more like the non-Jews around them than the independent Jewish lives of those in Israel. Mead wrote: “Herzl expected an unfavorable response to his [Zionist] pamphlet, and the Jews of Vienna did not disappoint him. A few weeks after publication, Herzl noted in his diary that “The Jews of the upper-class, educated circles … are horrified by me.”
It was not just that the idea of a Jewish “return” to a homeland where no Jewish state had existed for almost 2,000 years struck most sensible Jews as a fantasy rather than as a serious political proposal; it was that most Western Jews had long ago renounced the idea that the Jews were a nation. They thought of Jews as a race of people sharing a common descent or as a religious community.
Every society and community includes individuals who prefer to be viewed with favor of those around them rather than fight for their own rights and independence. They either fear independence and change or are frightened to stand up for their own rights.
Early Zionists denigrated the Jews in their community who acted this way as “Galus Jews” or “Weak-kneed Jews.” The Zionist ethos holds that Jews should stand up for themselves and demand that the nations of the world grant the Jewish people the rights all nations enjoy. Zionist Jews wouldn’t stand for the anti-Zionist Jews who were afraid to stand up for themselves and demand what rightfully belonged to the Jewish people.
Rav Chaim Soloveitchik, a Rabbi who lived at the turn of the 20th century, once said: “The Zionists attract Jews to their movement by dressing it up as ‘the mitzvah of settling in Eretz Yisroel.” Rav Chaim likened Zionists to sane people who had drunk from a poisonous well that caused them to become insane and try to convince the sane people that they are, in fact, insane. His main objection to Zionism was its move away from complete devotion to the observance of Halachah. Other rabbis maintain that Jews are prohibited from governing the Land of Israel until the Messianic era.
Dr. Theodore Herzl and Rav Chaim Soloveitchik lived at the same time. They couldn’t have been more different. Yet both revolutionized the Jewish world. Dr. Herzl’s Zionism created the State of Israel and Rav Chaim created the Brisker Derech (methodology of analysis).
As a self-declared Brisker, I don’t feel comfortable critiquing Rav Chaim’s position and prefer Rabbi Aaron Zimmer’s explanation of Rav Chaim’s position on Zionism.
In psychology, learned helplessness is a state that occurs after a person has experienced a stressful situation repeatedly. They believe that they are unable to control or change the situation, so they do not try, even when opportunities for change are available. For over 2,000 years, the Jewish people had learned helplessness and assumed they couldn’t return to Israel without a Divine command leading to the Messianic era.
Dr. Herzl, a journalist and man of the world, witnessed the political reality around him changing. He understood that the global community’s focus on liberation and move away from colonialism set the ideal conditions for the Jewish people to return to their homeland and establish their own state.
Rav Chaim and many rabbis opposed to Zionism weren’t aware of global trends and couldn’t see that the time had come to return to the Land of Israel. They saw Zionism as a movement bent on veering Jews away from the Torah with false promises of a return to Zion.
Dr. Herzl was able to take advantage of global trends and actualize the 2,000-year-old dream of the Jewish people to return to the Land of Israel.
The existence of anti-Zionist Jews troubles the Zionist community for numerous reasons, but most of all because they provide support for the antisemites of the world who mask their Jew-hatred with the “legitimate” veneer of anti-Zionism.
Anti-Zionist Jews exist on the fringes of Judaism and aren’t representative of today’s mainstream Jewish community, which overwhelmingly identifies as Zionist and supports the State of Israel. They should be given as much credence as racist black people and self-hating Catholics.
Those who point to the anti-Zionist fringes of the Jewish community and play them off as mainstream to legitimize their hate reveal themselves as antisemites.
The post Who Are the Anti-Zionist Jews? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Trump Holds 10-Point Lead Over Harris With New York Jews, Poll Finds
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump speaks as he campaigns at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, US, August 12, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds a commanding lead over her Democratic opponent Kamala Harris among New York Jewish voters in the 2024 election, according to the latest Siena College poll.
The poll found that Jewish New Yorkers prefer Trump, who previously served as the 45th US president, over Harris, the current vice president, by a margin of 54 percent to 44 percent when including third-party candidates. If the US presidential election were held today and it was just a two-person race, the figures would only change slightly, with Trump beating Harris among Jewish voters in the Empire State by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent.
Conducted from Sept. 11-16, the findings suggest that Trump has made significant inroads with the Jewish community.
Additional polling data from Siena indicates that Jewish voters are rapidly warming up to Trump as Election Day in the US inches closer. Trump led Harris 50 percent to 49 percent among Jewish New York voters in August, according to Siena College. In June, Jewish voters preferred then-presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden over Trump 52 percent to 46 percent.
Trump’s favorability among Jewish voters has also significantly increased in recent months, according to the polling data. In July, 44 percent of Jewish voters indicated a “favorable” view of Trump and 52 percent indicated an “unfavorable” view of the former president. That number has surged since then, with 52 percent of Jewish voters revealing a “favorable” view of Trump and 48 percent revealing an “unfavorable” view of the Republican nominee in the latest poll.
The poll represents the latest indication that at least some Jewish voters could be fleeing the Democratic Party, potentially over frustrations stemming from the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war and surging antisemitism within traditionally-liberal institutions.
The data also indicates that Harris possesses notably weaker support among New York Jews than Biden, potentially suggesting dissatisfaction over the vice president’s positions on Israel or a lack of trust that she will forcefully defend the Jewish state’s interests.
Trump has made numerous overtures to the Jewish community in recent months, attempting to win over a significant share of the traditionally-liberal voting bloc. He has delivered speeches at various events catered toward the Jewish community, including the Republican Jewish Coalition. The former president also co-hosted an event focusing on antisemitism at his Trump National Golf Club Bedminster alongside prominent Jewish donor Miriam Adelson.
The former president has touted his former administration’s support for Israel as a centerpiece of his 2024 campaign. During his single term in office, Trump recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria. He also moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as the Jewish state’s capital. The Trump administration also helped to broker the Abraham Accords, which normalized Israel’s relations with four Arab countries in 2020.
Evidence of Trump’s success in wooing Jewish voters has been replicated by other polls. A July survey conducted by pollster Richard Baris showed that Jewish voters nationally prefer Harris over Trump by a margin of 52.7 percent to 45.9 percent.
However, a poll commissioned by the Jewish Democratic Council of America released earlier this month found that 72 percent of Jewish Americans plan on casting a ballot for Harris and 25 percent are poised to do the same for Trump.
The post Trump Holds 10-Point Lead Over Harris With New York Jews, Poll Finds first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel’s Ambassador Tells UN Security Council: ‘Wake Up,’ Stop Turning ‘Blind Eye’ to Iran’s Support for Terrorism
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon addressing the UN Security Council on Sept. 19, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon lambasted Iran for being a puppet master “pulling the strings” of terrorist groups across the Middle East, describing them as “Iran’s attack dogs” while addressing the UN Security Council on Thursday.
Danon stressed that the Islamic Republic of Iran, which he described as “the most oppressive regime in the world,” wants “dominance, not diplomacy.” The country’s “grand ambition” is the “creation of a Shiite supremacist empire that stretches across the entire Middle East and beyond,” he insisted.
“This council and the world must wake up to the reality of the threat Iran poses,” Danon added. “The dark force driving the violence we see today is not a collection of independent groups. It is Iran pulling the strings. The Iran proxies — Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthis in Yemen, Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria, and terrorist cells in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] — are all Iran’s attack dogs unleashed to spread death and destruction across the region.”
Danon also described the different terror cells as the “claws of a beast” that is Iran.
The ambassador then shifted his attention to the Palestinian Authority, accusing it of “standing by, utterly weak and impotent,” by turning a blind eye to Iran’s terrorist actions or “actively collaborating with these terror networks.” He once the PA’s leadership, including President Mahmoud Abbas, for refusing to condemn Hamas since the terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
“With leaders such as them, is it any wonder that terrorism continues to worsen in Judea and Samaria?” he asked, before noting how Iran is funding, arming, and recruiting terrorists in the West Bank to target Israelis.
“Iran has transformed our region into a railway of terror” and is operating a “murderous Orient Express” that is “right under the world’s nose,” Danon said. He talked at length about the “dark web of terror Iran and its proxies continue to weave in Judea and Samaria, and said these reasons are why Israel must take “preventative steps” to protect its borders and civilians.
“Let me ask you all: What would your security forces do if they had intelligence about terrorists planning a massive attack on your civilian populations?” he asked the Security Council. “Think about your capital cities. Would there be any doubt about what to do? Well, we have no such doubts and neither do any of you … but when Israel takes reasonable steps regarding intelligence to neutralize a threat, preventing terror attacks against our civilians, we are condemned.”
“This council remains paralyzed by indecision,” he added. “We are not dealing with isolated acts of terror. We are dealing with an orchestrated campaign of distraction directed by the ayatollahs in Iran. And while this body debates restraint and diplomacy, Iran’s terror network grows stronger. The time for half-measures, blind eyes, and empty statements are over. What is required now is not talk about the symptoms, but action against the disease itself, which is the Iranian regime.”
He concluded his remarks by calling for Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to be designated as terrorist organizations worldwide, and urged the UN to apply more sanctions against the Iranian regime until its “capacity to support terror is completely diminished.”
“We expect this council to stop them at the root,” Danon said of Iran, before reiterating that Israel will take all measures necessary to protect itself.
“Israel will defend itself with all the force necessary to protect our people,” he said. “We will dismantle every terrorist network, uproot every Iranian proxy and strike down those who seek to harm us. The international community for must stand with us, for the very future of the Middle East. The stakes could not be higher [and the] time for inaction has passed.”
Also on Thursday, Danon sent a letter to UN Security Council President Samuel Zbogar that pressured the 15-member Security Council to condemn a ballistic missile attack from the Houthis in Yemen that hit central Israel on Sunday. The Israeli ambassador sent an identical letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
On Wednesday, the UN General Assembly passed with an overwhelming majority a non-binding Palestinian resolution that demands Israel end its “occupation” of the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem within 12 months.
The resolution, which calls for the end of Israel’s “unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” was passed by a 124-14 margin with 43 abstentions. It backs an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July, which ruled that Israel is illegally occupying the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip against international law.
The General Assembly resolution also called on states to “take steps towards ceasing the importation of any products originating in the Israeli settlements, as well as the provision or transfer of arms, munitions and related equipment to Israel … where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” It further urged Israel to withdraw all military forces and Israeli Jewish settlements from those territories. Those who voted against the resolution on Wednesday included the United States, Argentina, the Czech Republic, Fiji, Hungary, Malawi, Nauru, Paraguay, and Papau New Guinea.
The resolution made no mention of Israel’s security concerns and terrorist threats from its neighboring countries, the state of Israel or the Jewish people’s historical ties to the land, or the deadly Oct. 7 terrorist attacks orchestrated by Hamas that took place across southern Israel.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said that by omitting all these facts, the resolution “tells a one-sided, fictional story.” The MFA condemned the resolution in a released statement on Wednesday, describing the General Assembly as a “political theater” that has adopted “a distorted decision disconnected from reality, encourages terrorism and harms the chances for peace.”
“This is what being disconnected looks like; this is what cynical international politics looks like,” the MFA added.
“The General Assembly decision bolsters and strengthens the Hamas terrorist organization and the Iranian terrorist state that stands behind it,” the ministry continued. “The resolution sends a message that terrorism pays off and yields international resolutions. The decision only encourages Hamas’ rejectionism with regards to the deal for the release of the hostages and a ceasefire and further distances the possibility of reaching such a deal.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry went on to argue that the resolution “undermines the foundation of any attempt to promote a peaceful solution to the conflict,” arguing that the PA, which initiated the measure, “is not interested in peace, but in defaming Israel.”
The Jewish state “will respond accordingly,” the statement warned.
Danon called the resolution “a shameful decision that backs the Palestinian Authority’s diplomatic terrorism.”
“Instead of marking the anniversary of the October 7 massacre by condemning Hamas and calling for the release of all 101 of the remaining hostages, the General Assembly continues to dance to the music of the Palestinian Authority, which backs the Hamas murderers,” he said.
“We will continue to defend Israel in the international arena and fight against the diplomatic terrorism of the Palestinians,” he added.
The UN General Assembly resolution politically isolating Israel was passed days before world leaders will assemble for the annual UN gathering. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are both due to address the 193-member General Assembly on Sept. 26.
The post Israel’s Ambassador Tells UN Security Council: ‘Wake Up,’ Stop Turning ‘Blind Eye’ to Iran’s Support for Terrorism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Used Shell Company to Make Hezbollah’s Exploding Pagers: New York Times Report
An ambulance arrives at a hospital as thousands of people, mainly Hezbollah fighters, were wounded on Sept. 17, 2024 when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A Hungary-based company suspected of supplying Hezbollah with the pagers that exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday was actually an Israeli shell company established by Israeli spies, The New York Times reported on Thursday citing three American intelligence officers.
The large-scale operation killed several Hezbollah members and injured thousands across Lebanon, where the Iran-backed terrorist group is based, and Syria.
Rather than tampering with existing devices during production or distribution, Israel actually “manufactured them as part of an elaborate ruse,” the report said. While the company did indeed manufacture standard pagers for other customers, these were “produced separately, [and] contained batteries laced with PETN,” a highly explosive stable material.
Following the first round of explosions, hundreds of walkie-talkies used by the group also detonated on Wednesday, causing mass panic across Lebanon.
According to The New York Times, the firm, BAC Consulting, was listed as an LTD in 2022 but its website was established in October 2020.
Two other shell companies were also reportedly created to obscure the connection between BAC and Israel, the unnamed officers said.
The devices reportedly began arriving in small numbers to Lebanon in 2022, with production increasing as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah publicly urged followers to avoid cellphones due to concerns they could be tracked by Israel.
Nasrallah warned supporters during a speech in February, saying, “The phone in your hands, in your wife’s hands, and in your children’s hands is the agent … Bury it. Put it in an iron box and lock it.”
“Israeli intelligence officials saw an opportunity,” the Times report noted.
With Hezbollah relying more heavily on the explosive-laden pagers, Israeli intelligence viewed them as “buttons” that could be triggered at any moment, ultimately leading to Tuesday’s explosions.
The pagers that detonated in Lebanon were branded with the logo of a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. While BAC was authorized to use Gold Apollo’s branding, the latter stated that “the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC.”
Lebanese authorities said the explosions were catastrophic, killing 12 people and injuring nearly 3,000 bystanders, most of whom were either Hezbollah operatives or civilians nearby. Another 20 died when walkie-talkies exploded the following day. Both devices, the report claimed, were rigged with PETN.
BAC Consulting denied any involvement, with its CEO Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono saying that her firm only acted as an intermediary in the transactions and was not responsible for manufacturing the pagers. “I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediary. I think you got it wrong,” Bársony-Arcidiacono told NBC News.
A Hungarian government spokesperson echoed this, stating that BAC merely facilitated the trade and that the pagers had never actually entered Hungary. “Authorities have confirmed that the company in question is a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary. It has one manager registered at its declared address, and the referenced devices have never been in Hungary,” wrote Zoltán Kovács on X.
Hezbollah holds Israel responsible for the explosions and has vowed retaliation. Israel has neither publicly confirmed nor denied responsibility for the blasts.
In a televised address on Thursday, Nasrallah admitted that the terror group had sustained a “major and unprecedented massacre.”
“We have undoubtedly experienced a significant security and military setback, one that is unparalleled in the history of the resistance and in the history of Lebanon,” Nasrallah stated in his address.
“This kind of killing, targeting, and crime may be unprecedented in the world,” he added, saying the attacks were “a declaration of war.”
“The enemy has lost all control, laws, and morals,” he said. “Israel intended to kill 4,000 people in one minute by detonating the pagers. Many of them were civilians,” Nasrallah said, despite the fact that the devices were carried exclusively by Hezbollah operatives. “The following day, 1,000 more in one minute. In two minutes, Israel intended to kill 5,000.”
He vowed that the more than 60,000 Israelis from northern Israel who have been evacuated from their homes would not return.
Hours after his speech, Israeli fighter jets targeted more than 60 Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, in one of the biggest waves of attacks since the beginning of the war.
Earlier in the day, two Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers were killed and nine more wounded after Hezbollah launched a barrage of anti-tank missiles and drones in the north.
During a visit to Northern Command on Wednesday, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi alluded to the fact that Israel has yet unseen methods of war to be deployed against Hezbollah.
“We have many more capabilities that we have not yet used,” he said. “We are well prepared and we are laying the groundwork for these plans going forward.”
The post Israel Used Shell Company to Make Hezbollah’s Exploding Pagers: New York Times Report first appeared on Algemeiner.com.