Trump, Netanyahu and the Death-throes of the American and Zionist Dreams
The Zionist dream and the American dream have been joined, though often in complicated ways, since Israel's establishment in 1948. Here's what remains the same – and what has changed
This week, I am scheduled to deliver a talk about "liberalism and Zionism," two increasingly fraught topics, at Yale University. What's become obvious, strikingly so in the past few months, is that liberalism is in rapid retreat, both in the United States and in Israel. On many days, I feel I have to squint to see liberal-democratic norms, hovering feebly in the distance. In America, we are shocked by the startlingly fast collapse of many core institutions: law firms, certain sections of the media, some universities and corporations large and small, in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump's onslaught. The Trump-Netanyahu synthesis – the similarity of their power–hungry, profoundly corrupt political projects – has never been more apparent.
The Zionist project and the American one or, one might say, the Zionist dream and the American dream, have been joined, though often in complicated ways, since 1948. Each country was consciously founded on an idea and it is values, even more than economic, military or economic interests, that connect us. Each country, when founded, appealed to the conscience of the world and intended to be an inspiration.
Are we now witnessing the death-throes of each, not as physical entities but as ideals?
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It has been fashionable for some time to say that Israel is not a democracy because of the occupation. This is, I think, a flawed analysis. I don't think Israel is a settler-colonial (much less imperialist-racist-fascist) state, although I do think its occupation of the West Bank is a colonial one. (I'll leave Gaza aside for a moment, since that is obviously a more complicated situation.) But a colonial occupation and democracy are entirely compatible. France was a democracy when it ruled Algeria. Britain was a democracy when it ruled India and much of the rest of the world. What distinguishes Israel's situation is that its colony is right next door, sharing the same tiny piece of land, rather than oceans away. This makes for a profoundly intimate, and extremely gnarly, colonial relation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attack on Israel's democratic institutions began before Trump's, but it has been turbocharged by Trump's second term in office. I would urge those Israelis who think of Trump as a "friend" to think again. As his despicable betrayal of Ukraine shows, Trump has no friends. He will cut off Israel, just as he has other allies, if and when it suits him. The so-called Jewish vote will be no restraint, since he knows full well that only a minority of American Jews have ever supported him. On the contrary: some rabbis and Jewish journalists, university presidents and organizations have been among his most vocal opponents. In fact, according to a recent survey, nearly three quarters of American Jewry disapprove of Trump's job performance.
For an admirably sustained period in 2023, which now seems very long ago, Israelis rose up against Netanyahu's threatened judicial coup. I found their movement heartening, indeed inspiring: The protestors knew how to simultaneously loathe their government and love their country, something that the left in the U.S. has not managed since the Vietnam War. Hamas' October 7 massacres changed that, as it did much else. Still, Israelis seem to be resisting their government amid war more than we Americans are in peace. There is no American corollary to the thousands of Israeli reservists, teachers, academics, scientists and literary figures have demanded an end to the war and the return of the hostages.
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Netanyahu departs the White House in Washington, DCCredit: AFP / Brendan Smialowski
Another crucial difference between Israel and the U.S. is that Israel really does have enemies. For reasons that I don't quite understand, Trump likes to imagine that America does too. Israel, however, is the only country in the world faced with an array of terrorist groups – Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iraqi militias –and one big state, Iran, that are obsessively dedicated to its eradication. It's hard to maintain a healthy democracy, and a healthy democratic culture, in the light of sustained attacks. This does not mean Israel has a carte blanche to do anything it pleases: The crux of self-determination, and Zionism is the movement for the self-determination of the Jewish people, is that one is responsible for the world one makes. Yet, as Karl Marx pointed out, we do not make our world under the conditions that we choose. This is truer for Israel than for any other nation I can think of.
Immediately after October 7, U.S. campuses erupted in demonstrations, often launching diatribes against Jews and Israel, sometimes together and sometimes separately. Indeed, last year's campus protests against the Gaza war suffered from a strain of severe antisemitism, though this does not mean that all or even most of the protestors were antisemites. Many if not most were genuinely appalled by the carnage in Gaza.
But the protests were led by two groups: Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. These groups have what can only be termed eliminationist politics: They openly celebrate Hamas, Hezbollah and October 7; they call for the abolition of Israel as a state. As the inaptly named Jewish Voice for Peace recently proclaimed, "'Death to Israel' is not just a threat. It is a moral imperative and the only acceptable solution. May the entire colony burn to the ground for good."
To label such groups "anti-war" is a misnomer; one of their favorite demands is to "Globalize the Intifada!" There is something silly about these armchair revolutionaries and their unself-conscious bombast; Jewish Voice for Peace promised to continue Hassan Nasrallah's "fire of resistance" after he was assassinated by Israel, though it's unclear how the group would do that.
Protesters and members of the Jewish Voice for Peace gather in support of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil outside the Federal Plaza, in New York.Credit: Yuki Iwamura, AP
Nonetheless, the political views these groups espouse, which have undoubtedly normalized a kind of ahistoric, fanatical anti-Israel rage among some college students, deserve scrutiny just as much as antisemitism on the right. And the last time I looked, demanding the destruction of a sovereign state – as Russian President Vladimir Putin is with Ukraine, as Hitler did with Poland, as Pakistan did with Bangladesh – was a fascist position, not a "progressive" one. Indeed, these groups epitomize what the critic and Auschwitz survivor Jean Amery called "virtuous antisemitism" when he addressed, mournfully and angrily, the antizionist politics of the European New Left in the 1960s and 70s.
And frankly, I am tired of the Talmudic debates as to whether antizionism is antisemitism. Calling for the annihilation of a nation which just happens to be the only state in the world where Jews are the majority is calling for the death of Jews. Label it antisemitism, or not: no matter. (The much-vaunted fact that some of the protestors were Jewish is, in my view, entirely irrelevant.)
Yet, the antisemitism of much of this pro-Palestine movement has put me in a bind. I am pretty much a free-speech absolutist: I actually do believe that you can distribute leaflets from the Hamas Media Office, as happened at Barnard College, and that you can chant "Two, four, six, eight, we want all of '48!" as happened at New York University (my employer), and that you can hoist a sign saying, hoist a sign saying, "Israel Deserves 10,000 Oct 7ths," as happened at Berkeley. But I don't believe that you can monopolize the campus commons, attempt to shut down classrooms or speakers, deface property, take over buildings, physically intimidate Jewish students or exclude them from activities, or prevent students from studying and learning, as happened throughout the United States.
But the biggest bind American Jews are in is the one created by Trump, a man who has often allied himself with antisemites and white supremacists, most notably Elon Musk. Trump has launched an unprecedented assault on elite universities – depriving them of billions of dollars in research funds – under the false pretense of fighting antisemitism. Consequently, to address antisemitism now labels one as a Trumpist. Somehow, we must learn to thread that needle: to fight antisemitism where it really exists while remaining stalwart opponents of the Trumpian project.
A student protester against the war in Gaza walks past tents and banners in an encampment in Harvard Yard, at Harvard UniversityCredit: Ben Curtis, AP
Though some Jewish organizations have spoken out against Trump, others have failed the test. The Anti-Defamation League, for instance, praised Trump's executive order purportedly combatting antisemitism, though it later reversed its disastrous support of student deportations.
Even worse are two pernicious groups, Canary Mission and Betar, which allegedly compile lists of foreign students they deem antisemitic and, therefore, candidates for deportation. Clearly these groups know nothing about the history of Jewish persecution, either in the U.S. or elsewhere. It is we who have so often been considered dangerous enemy aliens targeted for expulsion.
This newspaper recently published an article headlined, "Where Were You When Netanyahu Killed Israel as We Know It?" American Jews, and all Americans, now need to ask that question about ourselves and our country. I never imagined that existential fear and dread is what would unite our two nations.
Susie Linfield is a professor of journalism at New York University and the author of "The Lions' Den: Zionism and the Left from Hannah Arendt to Noam Chomsky."