Of all the anti-Israel media eager to put Jewish anti-Zionists to the fore Zeteo, a digital outlet, is perhaps the keenest. Such an approach adds plausibility to its ideological crusade against Israel and helps it to distance it from any accusations of anti-Semitism.
Although anti-Zionist Jews represent a small minority of the American community it typically presents them as expressing a largely hidden truth about Israel. The majority Jewish view, in contrast, is generally either ignored or presented as out-of-touch and mendaciously far right. When a mainstream Jewish voice is heard it is only there to be delegitimised (word corrected as "de" was missing in the original).
Under these circumstances it is unsurprising that Zeteo has launched a new podcast, Beyond Israelism with Simone Zimmerman, to double down on these tropes. The eponymous Zimmerman is the star of Israelism, a 2023 documentary on this theme (available on Amazon Prime in Britain), and a high-profile anti-Israel activist. Among other things she is the founder of the IfNotNow movement in America, which describes itself as “a movement of U.S. Jews organizing our community to end U.S. support for Israel’s apartheid system”.
The term Israelism refers to the view that Zionism and Judaism are inextricably linked. Zimmerman and her colleagues are intent on breaking this supposed connection.
In the first episode of the podcast she interviews Hannah Einbinder, a previously little-known actress who raised her profile by shouting “free Palestine" at her recent Emmy awards acceptance speech. In their podcast they discuss how they as young Jews are breaking away from what they see as the stifling Zionist consensus in the ageing Jewish community.
These themes are explored in more detail in Israelism itself. The documentary is worth watching as a slick example of the anti-Israel narrative in America. It is informed by the premises of identity politics with mainstream Jews cast as inherently privileged with no concern for the downtrodden.
The film focuses mainly on Zimmerman as a young woman brought up in a conservative Jewish community including attending a Jewish day school. She even worked as a volunteer for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a high-profile pro-Israel lobbying organisation, at one point. Then, so her story goes, when she arrived at Berkeley she was shocked to come across Palestinian students talking about Israeli apartheid, occupation and settlements. She says she had not heard these terms before even though she was, by her own account, one of the best pro-Israel students. That someone who had spent significant time in Israel and worked for AIPAC had not previously encountered such accusations stretches credulity.
A parallel story is that of Eitan (surname not given), a young American man who served in the Israeli army. During his army service he found himself, in his account, policing the West Bank and witnessing brutality by Israeli soldiers against Palestinians.
Pro-Israel figures do feature in the film but only to be knocked down. For example, Abe Foxman, a prominent pro-Israel figure who escaped the Holocaust as a child, is cast as having an irrational aversion to Zimmerman. Through no fault of his own he is of course an old white male. In this telling he is a staunch defender of Zionism with no concern for Palestinian rights.
Among other Jewish figures in the film is Rabbi Miriam Gross, a youngish woman who seems to want to develop a kind of anti-Israelism. Rather than conflating Zionism and Judaism her goal seems to be to conflate Judaism with anti-Zionism. She can certainly be seen as part of the woke tradition. On her website she describes herself as “inaugural Talmud Fellow at SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva dedicated to queer Talmud study”.
The premises of the film are simplistic. For a start the conflict is not, as the documentary suggests, a binary dispute between an oppressive Israel and Palestinian victims. This ignores the fact that the aim of much of the anti-Israel movement is to destroy Israel. In relation to that point it is notable that there is no discussion of Hamas. The Islamist movement has never revoked its 1988 charter which talks openly of slaughtering Jews and destroying Israel. This is far from an incidental factor in the current tragic war in the region.
The anti-Israel movement is intent on purging traces of an Israeli presence in the West. This includes barring Israeli participation at cultural events and sports tournaments as well as corporate activity. Such boycotts do not further Palestinian rights but they do amount to an attempt to boycott Jews – since, as the film recognises, many diaspora Jews have Israeli connections.
To the extent it acknowledges anti-Semitism it is the extreme right kind. In the blinkered view of the documentary-makers genuine anti-Semitism is typically a neo-fascist phenomenon. There is no recognition of surging anti-Semitism on the left or that emanating from within the Muslim community. Such forms of animosity to Jews are not even recognised.
Nor, as the documentary seems to suggest, is Israel a powerful force in the world. On the contrary, in many respects it is isolated. There are many influential elements ranged against Israel including a significant section of America’s Democratic party, international institutions such as the United Nations and many non-western nations. European countries too, as well as Australia and Canada, are increasingly turning against Israel.
The presentation of the American Jewish community as split between elderly Zionists and youthful anti-Zionists is also misleading. It is true that among secular Jews the anti-Zionist component tends to be more youthful. However, the observant religious community is on average younger and more pro-Israel. At the same time secular Jews tend to assimilate into wider American non-Jewish society whereas orthodox Jews more often retain their Jewish identity. The depiction of youthful enlightened anti-Zionist Jews versus their blinkered ageing far right parents is self-serving.
Jews are of course, like anyone else, entitled to their political preferences. But the cynical elevation of anti-Zionist Jews to further the case against Israel, and the parallel dismissal of mainstream Jewish opinion, should be staunchly resisted.