Shaul Magid in the Los Angeles Review of Books:
Anti-Zionism is not new among Jews; in fact, it was arguably created by Jews. Over its long history, Jewish anti-Zionism has taken many forms—certainly before the establishment of the State of Israel, but even after. Many Orthodox Jews viewed Zionism as a transgressive attempt to bring the exile to an end before the arrival of the Messiah. Socialist Jews opposed it because it was a form of nationalism. Many liberal Jews in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century saw it as an obstacle to integrating into a post-emancipation society that had finally removed the barriers to Jewish equality and citizenship rights. And many, even most, American Jews, through the early decades of the 20th century, rejected Zionism for its implications of a dual allegiance, which seemed to present an impediment in the process of “Americanization.” But except among the ultra-Orthodox, anti-Zionism had mostly been “put to bed” with the emergence of the Zionist consensus in the early 1970s. It has now woken up.
I separate here the anti-Zionism of Jews and anti-Zionism more generally because they are not identical.
More here.
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.