Are you antisemitic or just Antizionist?

Let’s start with the answer: Antizionism is a form of antisemitism.

Now let’s explain:

What is Zionism? Zionism is the ideology that the Jewish nation has a right to self-determination. That’s it, nothing more.

Just as the French have the right to self-determination in France and the Japanese in Japan, the Jews have the right in Israel.

The latter, saying that Jews have the right to self-determination in Israel, creates controversy, especially among anti-Semites, the ignorant and the naive. There is a false belief that there was a State called Palestine which was conquered by European settlers, its land colonized and its people oppressed.

The name Palestine was given to the region by the Romans, who expelled the Jewish Israelites into exile and wanting to erase their connection to Judea, changed its name to Syria-Palestina. Since then, the region, without ever managing to become an independent State, changes hands and names between empires and conquerors until reaching the Ottoman Empire in 1516 and after the First World War to the British Empire, who took back the name Palestine as the “Mandate of Palestine” until 1948, when in the UN Partition Plan, the territory is divided between its two main populations, Arabs and Jews. Both groups had a combination of population that had been living in those lands for millennia continuously, as well as emigrants, in the case of the Jews mainly from Eastern European countries, on the part of the Arabs from countries like Egypt. The Jews accept the partition plan and founded the State of Israel; the Arabs do not accept it, and six Arab countries declare war on the newborn State of Israel (Israeli War of Independence). In this war, 1/10 of the Israeli Jewish population is killed and the Arabs suffer the Nakba. Arabs who emigrate to neighboring Arab countries receive refugee status (a status they maintain to this day), while Arabs who decide to remain in Israel obtained Israeli citizenship, Egypt annexes Gaza and Jordan annexes the West Bank, thus frustrating the great opportunity to found, for the first time, an independent Arab State in Palestine.

However, the argument of “who arrived first” does not convince me. If we followed that rule, most, if not all modern countries would be illegal occupiers. Under the same logic, Texas, Arizona, California, New Mexico were stolen from Mexico who in turn stole the territory from the indigenous people, who stole it from other indigenous people. Israel won the war of independence; the State of Israel is a reality.

But what about the occupation? – In fact, Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967 and continues to occupy it to this day. It did not occupy Palestine (a State that has never existed) but rather Jordan, after the Six Day War. Israel also occupied Gaza in the same War, territory that belonged to Egypt. Since the occupation, there have been several rounds of peace negotiations to create a Palestinian state, none accepted by the Palestinian leaders. Israel left Gaza completely in 2005, not a single Jewish settler or soldier was left there. Anyone saying that Hamas is resisting the occupation of Gaza is stupid.

An interesting question: Why, between 1948 when Israel’s War of Independence ended and until 1967 when Israel occupied Gaza and the West Bank, neither Jordan nor Egypt founded a Palestinian State?

But, Israel is an imperialist and expansionist country – In this case, Israel is the greatest failure in the history of expansionist empires. Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in exchange for peace in 1982, left south Lebanon between 1985 and 1990 and completely and unilaterally left Gaza in 2005.

But, Hamas in a national liberation movement – After the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Hamas, acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (Islamic resistance movement), wins in election the majority of parliamentary seats, and in 2007 in a coup of state, imprisons or murders its political opponents, established a dictatorship in the strip and diverted billions of dollars of humanitarian aid to two main destinations: 1) The personal pockets of its leaders (Haniyeh, Marzuk and Mashal are worth $11 billion USD between them three), and 2) its arms industry, especially rocket manufacturing and tunnel construction. Hamas’ reason for existence is not to build but to destroy; They do not seek to build a decent life for their inhabitants, they seek to destroy that of the Israelis. A liberation movement seeks to protect the population it wants to liberate. “We built the tunnels for our fighters… it is the UN’s responsibility to protect the population” – Moussa Abu Marzouk.

“The problem is that the reality in Gaza just doesn´t `make sense´to Westerners. It just can´t be that hospitals are used for terror bases. It just can´t be that terror tunnels are dug under universities and schools. It can´t be that reporters and teachers are also active terrorists. It can´t be that the majority of the population cheered the attrocities of an ISIS-like terror group. It just can´t be the reality. Except that in Gaza, sadly, it is.” – Asher Fredman

But, apartheid – “Apartheid: A policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race” – Oxford Language dictionary.

Israel cannot exercise Apartheid in Gaza in the same way that the United States cannot exercise apartheid in Mexico or Canada. In Israel, Arab-Muslims have the same rights as Jewish citizens, holding positions of privilege and power, including hospital directors, university presidents, members of parliament, TV hosts, Miss Israel winners, army officers, Supreme Court judges and soccer team players, including the captain of the Israel national team. In what type of Apartheid is a Muslim judge capable of imprisoning a Jewish Prime Minister and a Jewish President?

Of course I do not deny that there are cases and expressions of racism and discrimination in Israel, but if we make a list of the countries where racism exists, I think we would have to list all the countries on the planet.

The Palestinians do suffer from racism that can be considered Apartheid, but not in Israel. In Lebanon, for example, Palestinians do not have passports, cannot own property and do not have the right to practice some professions. A Palestinian can receive medical care in Israel; In Lebanon, public hospitals are prohibited from hiring Palestinian doctors and are equally prohibited from treating Palestinian patients.

In both Lebanon and Syria, the refugee status that Palestinians received after Israel’s War of Independence is a status that is inherited. In such a way that to this day, a refugee´s grandchildren and great-grandchildren maintain refugee status. Let’s imagine today a Cuban-American, second generation born in Florida, that doesn´t have an American nationality because he maintains the refugee status that was granted to his grandfather over 60 years ago.

But, ethnic cleansing – “ethnic cleansing: The attempt to create ethnically homogeneous geographic areas through the deportation or forcible displacement of persons belonging to a particular ethnic group” – Britannica.

Of course there was ethnic cleansing in the Middle East as a result of the Arab-Israel conflict. Of the more than 850,000 Jews who lived in Arab countries of the Middle East and North Africa in 1948, today there are approximately 3,000 left, mainly in Morocco and Tunisia. Unlike Palestinian refugees, after being expelled from Arab countries, their property confiscated and their bank accounts frozen, those who emigrated to Israel received citizenship and were incorporated into society. Its legacy and ancient history in the Arab world was lost.

In the current war, Israel is blamed for ethnic cleansing of displacing civilians within Gaza. I feel sad and sorrow for them, trapped inside a war zone. Having to leave your house because Hamas clings to stay hidden inside the tunnels they built under it. When Israel begins to attack Hamas squads in northern Gaza, the civilian population is forced to move to the south of the strip. Let us remember, within Israel there are also today nearly 200,000 displaced people who had to abandon their cities and towns near the border of Gaza and Lebanon as a result of the war.

But, Gaza is a concentration camp – Calling Gaza a  “Concentration Camp”, an “Open-Air prison” or even comparing it to Auschwitz. Let’s start here: Between 75% and 80% of the “Prisoners” who arrived at Auschwitz were immediately sent to the gas chambers of Birkenau, for those who survived that first selection and were sent to forced labor, their life expectancy was between 7 and 9 weeks. In total, it is estimated that 1.3 million people arrived at Auschwitz. When the Soviets liberated the camp in 1945, they found 7,000 prisoners alive, several of them died the following days as a result of malnutrition. The Holocaust is the darkest moment in the modern history of the Jewish people where 2/3 of European Jews were murdered. Individual human suffering cannot be compared, the act of creating suffering can; evil is categorizable. Minimizing the Holocaust is a form of anti-Semitism, including comparing what happens in Israel/Palestine with it. No, the Israeli army is not the SS or the Einzatsgruppen, its leaders are not Nazis and Gaza is not Auschwitz.

I have noticed many social media accounts, including those that used to call Gaza a Concentration Camp, now comparing the beauty of Gaza before the war vs. the current destruction. Videos of shopping centers, markets, luxury apartment towers, restaurants, amusement parks, among others. “This was my favorite cafe in Gaza, look at it now.” How many concentration camps had pastry shops and cafeterias? Can anyone tell me?

But, proportionality – In effect there is a principle of proportionality in war which has been misinterpreted by the majority; Proportionality does not mean that your armed force is proportional to that of your enemy, proportionality does not seek to count the combatants and weapons of your enemy and be proportional to him. It doesn´t means Israel had a right to rape, kill and kidnapped the same number of civilians as Hamas did.  The principle of proportionality refers to the attack force being proportional to the objective sought to be obtained. If you want to kill a mosquito that got into your living room, it would be appropriate to grab a fly swatter and hit it once, it might be inappropriate to burn down your house.  The aim of the war is to ensure Hamas can´t commit another 10/07, as the war in Afghanistan was to ensure Al-Qaeda couldn´t commit another 9/11. 

But, genocide and war crimes – “Genocide: the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.”

Cries of genocide in Gaza have been heard since before the start of the current war, just as the worst imperialist and apartheist country, Israel is also the worst country at committing genocide. When Israel occupied Gaza in 1967, there were 394,000 inhabitants in the strip, in 2023 the population was 2.1 million, an increase of 5.3x. To give us an idea, population growth worldwide in that period of time was 2.6x. The population in Gaza grew more than twice the world average.

During the Ugandan genocide, 75% of the Tutsi ethnic group were murdered in 100 days (800,000 people), in Cambodia 25% of the population (2 million people) were murdered, in the Holocaust 67% of European Jews (6 million people). It is dangerous and evil to prostitute the term genocide, by using that strong and determining term to criticize any conflict, it takes away its meaning.

Even Human Development indices placed Palestine in the range of “High Human development” with 0.715 points, above Arab countries such as Lebanon, Iraq, Morocco, Syria and Yemen. The average Human Development Index of the entire Arab world is 0.708. Palestine also has a higher life expectancy rate than the average of the rest of the Arab countries. Life expectancy in Palestine is 74.6 years vs 70.82 in the Arab States, and 73.1 as average in the world. Child mortality in Palestine is 14.8/1,000 vs 25.9/1,000 in the Arab countries and 38/1,000 in the world. Should we continue?

Once the war started, the entire world (including me) was in shock seeing the images of the bombs and battles on social networks; the human tragedy of seeing innocent victims of war.

War is hell. War is one of the greatest misfortunes that humanity has created, every war is cruel, every war is tragic. But, “The act of war is not a war crime by itself.” There have been few just wars, this is one of them. After the October 7 attack, it became clear that Israel could not allow a terrorist group like Hamas – with genocidal intentions – to continue to exist on its border. Israel’s goal is to destroy Hamas and recover the kidnapped. The battlefield, that not only did Hamas choose, but prepared for 15 years by building a web of tunnels and booby traps under hospitals, schools and residential areas; I don’t know what war has been fought on a more complicated battlefield than this one. If Israel’s goal was such as to carry out a genocide with the aim of killing as many Palestinians as possible, it would have achieved it in days with its air force and without the need to put its soldiers on the ground, to fight both above and inside the Hamas tunnels.

At the time of writing these lines, Hamas speaks of 24,000 dead. In these numbers they do not distinguish between civilians and Hamas combatants, nor do they distinguish between deaths caused by Hamas (For example, between 10% and 20% of the missiles launched by Hamas at Israel, fall on Palestinian territory). Israel says it has killed 10,000 Hamas fighters. Assuming Hamas’ figures are real (big IF), we are talking about a 2.4 to 1 ratio, which is low for wars fought in urban arenas. Of course every innocent death is a tragedy, of course talking about thousands of innocent deaths is a disgrace, but thinking Israel’s ultimate goal is to kill as many Palestinians as possible is a fallacy.

Around 100 trucks full of humanitarian aid cross from Israel to Gaza daily. If Israel’s goal is genocide, why does it allow that help? In what other war does a country provide humanitarian aid to the population governed by its enemy?

Israel also sent more than 1 million SMSs and automated phone calls to Palestinians in Gaza requesting to vacate the areas that will be attacked.

Without a doubt, every war is complicated, in every war mistakes and injustices are committed. It is valid and necessary, as in any other armed conflict, to demand accountability from the Israeli army and to do everything possible to safeguard the civilian population. It is totally valid to question and criticize the way in which Israel is carrying out the war, it is equally valid to raise your voice in defense of the Palestinian civilian population; But, if for some reason this is the only conflict that creates such a strong passion for you, if this is the only war that you protest, if you are obsessed with Israel but you are not interested in knowing what is happening in Syria  Ethiopia, Ukraine, Congo or Sudan, you have a problem with your moral standards.

But, the ceasefire – Only a sadist wants an endless war. Israel and its allies also want a ceasefire, with different conditions. The day Hamas surrenders and returns the hostages, the war ends. The only question to ask those who shout “ceasefire” is: And what happens the day after the ceasefire? If they seek to maintain a status quo, they are not seeking peace, they seek to allow Hamas to repeat the October massacre over and over again by denying Israel’s right to defend itself.

It seems like a broken record, but there was a cease fire on October 6 that Hamas broke up.

But, Netanyahu and his right-wing government – Netanyahu is considered the worst Prime Minister in the history of Israel by a large number of the Israeli society and the worlds Zionists. His actions and policies are criticized daily by the Israeli media, analysts, intellectuals and people on the street. Criticizing the actions of the Israeli government or army does not make you anti-Zionist.

You can be against the theocracy of the Ayatollhas without wishing the destruction of Iran as a sovereign country, you can hate Biden or Trump without saying the USA has no legitimacy to exist as a country. In any country in the world you can criticize your government and remain a patriot (even a real patriot should criticize and demand accountability from his government), you can also criticize the government of Israel without ceasing to be a Zionist.  What you can´t do, is to use double standards with Israel vs the rest of the countries or to delegitimize it as a State for its leaders’ actions. 

But, the Palestinian leaders “don’t know better” – There is this tendency to observe everything that Israel does and says with a microscope and on the contrary what the Palestinians do and say with a telescope, one is maximized, the other is minimized. Infantizing Palestinian leaders is a form of racism by not accepting that they have the ability to make their own decisions and be accountable for them.

But, none of this is true – I know, many will say every word I wrote is a lie and propaganda. Of course, I am a Zionist and Zionists only know how to lie, it doesn´t matter if they use facts and hard data on their arguments. The truth is what 17-year-old Jean and Mike said on Tiktok, you only accept what is aligned with your own narrative.

Any Jew who advocates for Israeli is a bloody Zionist Nazi, any non-Jew who supports Israel sold his soul for money to the powerful international Jewish financing organization (sorry, Zionist international financing organization.)

But, despite everything, Israel has no right to exist – If you are an anarchist who advocates for the destruction of all countries in the world, if like John Lennon you imagine a world without borders, then it is valid (although naive), for you to be against the existence of Israel. But if, of the 193 countries recognized by the UN, you only invalidate and delegitimize the Jewish State, then you have a problem of anti-Semitism.

It strikes me how the term Zionist has become an insult, anti-Zionists place the Zionist in the same category as the Nazi, the KKK member, the mass shooter, the psychopath. In a world where it is not a good idea to openly say “I hate Jews”, anti-Semites who don’t want to be exposed as such have it easy, they just have to change the word “Jew” to “Zionist” and in exchange they receive votes of support, affirmation and admiration.

Let’s return to the initial question of the article. Are you anti-Semitic or just anti-Zionist?

If you criticize the policies of the Israeli government, you are not anti-Semitic.

If you question the way the Israeli army is conducting this war, you are not anti-Semitic.

If you care about the well-being of innocent Palestinian civilians, you are not an anti-Semite.

If you shout “free free Palestine”, you are not anti-Semitic.

If you believe everything you see on social networks vs Israel and you share it without questioning it, if you are obsessed marching against Israel but no other conflict gets your attention and passion, if you believe Israel is the only illegitimate country in the world, if you took all the old stories of the anti-Semite and you repeat them only changing the word “Jew” for the word “Zionist”, if you demonize Israel and believe it is the reason for all the evil in the world, if you use the word Zionist as an insult, then congratulations, you are anti-semitic

Anyhow, any doubt before 10/07 about whether anti-Zionism was different from anti-Semitism is unfortunately resolved today and the discussion loses all its meaning. If the problem of these pseudo-activists was really Israel’s actions, why did anti-Semitic attacks increase almost 500% in the US alone? Why aren’t the demonstrations exclusively in front of the Israeli embassy? Why do we find antisemitic graffiti on the walls of a Jewish school? Why intimidate Jews in the street just for wearing a yarmulke? Why break the windows of a cafeteria just because its owner is Jewish? Why is a Jewish personality, without knowing his position on Israel, is automatically called a Zionist?