The genocide in
Gaza, backed by diaspora institutions, requires us to challenge the
Jewish mainstream's embrace of a fascistic Israel
Members of
the French Jewish community hold placards and the Israeli flag during a
protest in Strasbourg against the city's project to twin with the
Palestinian refugee camp of Aida, on 23 June 2025 (Frederick Florin/AFP)
Israel's minister of diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, is worried about the Jews in Britain.
In the aftermath of the hyperbolic media and political reaction to pro-Palestine chants at the Glastonbury music festival, Chikli posted on X that the Jewish community must "leave the country".
His reasons? The supposedly ubiquitous antisemitism across Britain, from the BBC to music fans, was threatening the "blood of Jews and Israelis living in Britain".
He added: "I am deeply disturbed by what is happening in Britain. In a
place where antisemitism flourishes, society sinks into dark and
dangerous depths...Without a conservative revolution, this country is
lost."
Chikli has spent years building close alliances
with some of Europe's far-right parties, many of whom maintain ties
with actual neo-Nazis, because he sees them as useful allies in his
dream of building a global ethno-nationalist movement led by the master
of the model, Israel.
This is Israel in 2025 - pursuing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza, implementing a grotesque system where Palestinians seeking aid are gunned down, and smearing any criticism as akin to Nazism.
Messianic vision
Israel's messianic extremism
is too rarely interrogated in the West, but it is a frightening
phenomenon that threatens the lives of Palestinians, less dogmatic Jews
and the entire Middle East.
Judaism is not Zionism, and those who argue they are one and the same are being fundamentally dishonest
An influential segment of the Israeli Jewish population views Iran's
Islamic Republic or the Taliban's Afghanistan as ideal models to follow
- fundamentalist, theocratic states that accept nobody who does not
conform to their vision - Jew, Christian, Muslim or atheist.
As a Jewish journalist who has been writing
about Israel and Palestine for over 20 years, I sometimes hesitate to
centre uncomfortable Jewish feelings in the face of horrors in Gaza, the
West Bank and beyond.
While it is vital to focus principally on Palestinian lives, suffering
and resistance, it is impossible to ignore the moral, political and
practical culpability of the organised Jewish community in the UK, US and much of the western world.
None of this would be happening if more Jews had refused to partake
in anguished silence or acquiescence over endless occupation and
deprivation in Palestine; refused to lobby
their governments for yet more money and arms for Israel; and resisted
pressuring media outlets to silence legitimate criticism of Israeli
actions.
Collective silence
"Why should any Jew feel obligated to perform emotional penance for
the actions of the Israeli government?" one Australian Jewish writer
recently asked.
It is a fair question - until you recognise the inherent dishonesty in its premise.
When every major (and mostly self-appointed) representative Jewish
organisation in Australia, the UK, US and Europe uncritically endorses
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war aims in Gaza, backs
Israel's illegal military strikes against Iran, and says nothing about
daily settler-led pogroms in the West Bank, it is reasonable to ask: what kind of Judaism is being supported, and in whose name?Judaism is not Zionism, and those who argue they are one and the same are being fundamentally dishonest.
Yet collectively, Jews are often held responsible when the world's only Jewish state claims to act in our name.
Jewish critics are shunned and blacklisted
from Jewish organisations for any deviation from the party line of
"Israel, right or wrong". This leaves no room for disagreement or robust
debate.
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War on Gaza: After Palestinians, Zionism's next victim is the Jewish faith
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Unsurprisingly, many citizens in democracies cannot tell the
difference between Israel and Judaism - the latter's "official"
spokespeople insist there isn't one.
Many of these Zionist organisations have long been right-wing, but
the 21st century has seen a rapid shift towards a more authoritarian
stance on Israel, Palestinians, Islam and immigration.
It is why a growing number of American Jews voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 election (even though a majority still supported former Vice President Kamala Harris).
The American Jewish writer Peter Beinart argues in his new book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza,
that conflating Zionism and Judaism certainly does not make Jews any
safer, nor does a "Free Palestine" sign inherently endanger Jews.
"But if conflating Israel and Zionism is a terrible way to defend
Jews," he writes, "it's an effective way to discredit Palestinians
because it turns Palestinian opposition to Zionism from a natural
response to oppression into a form of bigotry."
For many Jews in the diaspora - and I was instructed to follow these
dictates when growing up in Melbourne, Australia in the 1970s and 1980s -
Israel was framed as a beacon of freedom, a place of refuge in the
event of pogroms or genocide.
But what if the victims of the Nazi genocide are now perpetrating a genocide against the Palestinians?
Zionist conflation
The global Jewish population is around 16 million, with nearly half
living in just two places: Israel and the US. A live and necessary
battle is now under way for the soul of this community.
What does it mean to be Jewish in the 21st century?
As a secular, atheist Jew myself, I would argue it means reckoning
with the catastrophic actions of the Jewish state, supported by much of
the diaspora.
We must build something more humane and robust - a vision that upholds the concept of a multiracial world.
We as Jews urgently need to challenge the Jewish mainstream's embrace
of Jewish supremacy in Israel and its increasing lip-service to
multiculturalism at home - in London, New York or Sydney.
These are inherently contradictory ideologies, and yet Jews are rarely held to account for them.
How is it acceptable to romanticise West Bank settlers, whose vision
is exclusionary and violent, while embracing the diverse cultures, foods
and religions in your own backyard?
To be clear, Jews outside of Israel are not all personally
responsible for the actions of the Israeli state - no more than Muslims
were responsible for the crimes of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or
Catholics for the sins of paedophile priests.
But many Jews have allowed themselves to be represented by the most
militarised - and frankly racist - elements within their communities,
under the delusion that this is what will keep us safe in the century
after the Holocaust.
Moral reckoning
At a time when real antisemitism is rising in many parts of the
world, the pro-Israel lobby and the loudest Zionist voices are
singularly ill-equipped to respond.
The hardline thinking was perhaps best articulated by former Netanyahu spokesperson Eylon Levy, who posted
on X in 2024 after Israel had assassinated an "enemy" leader: "Not your
grandparents' Jews anymore" - an apparent reference to decades of
defenceless Jews killed without revenge or punishment.
In this worldview, Israel is the protector of Jews - and without its
"live by the sword, die by the sword" approach, we would all be
quivering Jews on the cattle train to Auschwitz.
The Jewish community is undergoing a long-overdue moral reckoning with its identity, role and responsibility
Only the most blinkered would look at the Middle East today and
conclude that Israel is more secure for Jews than it was before 7
October 2023. It is not.
It remains more unsafe to be Jewish in Israel than in almost any other part of the globe.
The Jewish community is undergoing a long-overdue moral reckoning
with its identity, role and responsibility. Only some are meeting the
moment.
As Phil Weiss, Jewish founder of the US news website Mondoweiss, recently wrote:
"This is a vulnerable time for American Jews, as [New York mayoral
candidate] Zohran Mamdani says. Overwhelmingly, our community is
identified with a brutal aggressor."
This is our challenge in the 21st century. And it is also a choice.
Do we continue to associate with a fascistic Israel, or build inclusive
communities in the diaspora?
For me, the decision is clear.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.