In its coverage of Jewish Voice for Peace’s Trump Tower protest, Fox News obscured the Jewish identity of protesters—while echoing antisemitic conspiracy theories and racist tropes.
Anti Zionist is not anti Semite.
As a Texan Jew with some real shitheads living near me, I can confirm this. I can also confirm that you can be pro-Zionist while anti-Semite.
The idea of giving Jews their own country and sending them all there has historically been quite popular with anti-semites. When we talk about Nazi’s “final solution” we often skip over their earlier solution to the Jewish Question, which was to send us all to Madagascar [0]. In 1933, Nazi Germany signed the Haavara agreement, which would have Germany subsidize Jews emigrating to Palestine. This caused a divide within the global Jewish community, most of which was attempting boycott German exports (which funded the Haavara program), and viewed the program as legitimizing the Nazis. Despite this general opposition among the global Jewelry, the Zionist Congress of 1935 voted overwhelmingly in favor of the program.
Fundamentally, most anti-semitism (and racism in general) is rooted in an ideology of ethnonationalism. In this view, the concept of an anti-semetic Zionist is not a contradiction at all. They don’t hate Jews, they just want them to go away so that the anti-semites can get their pure Aryan/Christian/Arab nation back. If that means that the Jews get their own pure Jewish nation for themselves, then that seems quite reasonable.
Dr. Achim Gercke seved in Nazi Germany’s Ministry of the Interior, where he was an expert on racial matters. He decided the system banning marriage between Jews and Aryans. In his article entitled “Solving the Jewish Question”, he writes
If we support Zionist plans and attempt an international solution by establishing a homeland for the Jews, we will be able to solve the Jewish Question not only in Germany, but in Europe and the entire world.
Dr. Johann von Leers served in the Ministry of Propaganda and was a highly influential Nazi thinker. In his paper,The End of Jewish Migration, he writes:
Only a barbarian standing outside of the last great divine manifestation of world history would propose a general anti-Semitic battle aimed at the extermination of this people. The goal of the highly developed peoples is not to promote hatred where there is a decent way to solve the problem.
The only imaginable, positive solution that will finally resolve the Jewish problem in Europe, and at the same time provide the real possibility of becoming a people, of becoming rooted to land, and even perhaps allowing its less valuable elements to be influenced by the more valuable elements, is a healthy region outside Europe.
Both of these articles are well worth reading to understand the thinking that ultimately led to the Holocaust. The final solution was only devised, when the Nazis realized that their other solutions would not work.
[0] Not that they were particularly tied to that location, it is just what they thought was most practical. They were initially concerned that attempting to establish a Jewish colony in mandatory Palestine would end up being a political and humanitarian disaster. A position that is difficult to dispute with the benefit of hindsight.
Yeah, but any time I slightly question my Israeli family about parts of that, I’m told that I’m repeating antisemitic talking points, that the media in my country is full of idiots, and that I don’t understand how it is because I don’t live there.
The weirdest part is that the people whose opinions I’m raising are pre-Jewish state rabbis. Those dang antisemitic rabbis…
Yep I have couple of Jewish friend who are same as u. Neytanhu is giving them the bad name. I still believe two state solution is possible, but politic and power will not let it happen.
After visiting Israel a few times and knowing my family, foreign exchange students, members of my community, etc. I can assure you that Netanyahu is not the only problem. Granted, he’s certainly making things way worse. But Zionists are fucking terrifying with how thirsty they are to kill Palestinians.
I’ve got some cousins who absolutely see through all that bullshit and they are miserable because they nearly feel alone in a sea of hatred. It’s a really dangerous time to be an Israeli protestor. One of my cousins has already been arrested at least once for dissenting and refusing to kill peaceful protestors, and this was years before Oct. 7th.
Are Orthodox Jews mostly Zionist? I saw some videos coming out of Orthodox Jews harassing other Jews who were protesting in Jerusalem?
Mostly? I don’t know. Before Israel was founded as a state, many Orthodox complaints were about Jews seen as “less than” being allowed to live in the holy land, or people of any other religion for that matter. They also were incensed at the proposal of Hebrew becoming the official language because that’s the language of the Torah and the language of God, therefore it is sacrilegious for people who aren’t Jewish enough to sully the language by speaking it.
From the numerous conversations I’ve had with members of the Orthodox community, I’ve found such vast social distances that I can’t find enough political common ground to begin understanding their perspective. From my POV, they believe in such a tangled web of hypocrisy that I’m not even sure what their core belief is, beyond “I’m right.” And as best as I can tell, their perspective of me is that I’m an idiot with no credibility.
Orthodox members of the Texas community have been more approachable but less open about their beliefs on all Jews expressing ownership of Israel. Orthodox Jews in the American northeast would spit on me when I’d try to talk to them, so I stopped trying. And Orthodox Jews in Israel would throw rocks at me before I could even speak to them.
Without knowing what their definition of Zionism is, I couldn’t tell you what they believe.
But Zionism is anti-Semitic.
Fox News’s hesitancy to identify JVP is a striking contrast to Fox’s general proclivity for naming enemies. A search on FoxNews.com for the “New Black Panther Party,” a fringe Black nationalist group, yields more than 100 results; compare that to less than 30 hits on AP‘s website. A Search for “Dylan Mulvaney,” a trans influencer who was targeted in a mass-hate campaign in 2023, yields more than 5,000 results on Fox, compared to AP’s 50. Fox News thrives upon enemies—but Jewish Voice for Peace is different. As an openly Jewish-American group, JVP challenges Fox News’ narrative that protests against genocide in Gaza are rooted in antisemitism. “We organize our people and we resist Zionism because we love Jews, Jewishness and Judaism,” JVP’s website says. “Our struggle against Zionism is not only an act of solidarity with Palestinians, but also a concrete commitment to creating the Jewish futures we all deserve.”
JVP protests never get coverage. That’s why they usually protest in high traffic areas, like Grand Central, to get them most attention from passers by.
Being anti-Semitic and pro-Israel is already a cognitive dissonance overload. Finding out that actual Jewish people don’t like war and genocide is way too much to process.
I’d argue that most anti-Semites are probably fine with a Jewish ethnostate if it means no Jews in whatever country they’re from.
The inconsistency lies with their application of who is “ethnic” and needs to “go back where they came from.” They ignore the fact that white people are not indigenous to North America.
Obligatory Sartre quote regarding anti-Semites:
Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.
Not really. Anti semites want Jews to go away. Israel is away. There is no inherent contradiction in them supporting Israel. In fact, there is significant ideological alignment between anti-Semitism and Zionism, as both tend towards ethnononationalism.
