Originally published as an opinion piece in the Tufts Observer.
Trigger warning: Mentions of white supremacy, anti-Arab racism, and antisemitism
On September 20, 2023, US President Joe Biden stated that “without Israel, there’s not a Jew in the world who’s secure.” The statement professes a deep cynicism about American antisemitism that is the culmination of the ideology of Zionist philosemitism. Zionist philosemitism is when Western countries justify their support for Israel by claiming it is necessary to protect Jews while sustaining the same colonial systems that cause antisemitism. Zionist philosemitism, which prompts American gentiles to wear the Magen David in solidarity with Israel, assuages the guilt of Western powers over their colonial pasts while supporting the ongoing colonization of Palestine. This philosemitism is in reality a form of white supremacy that harms Palestinians and does nothing to stop actual antisemitism.
Equating Jews and the state of Israel is a major aim of Zionist philosemitism. Not only does dismissing anti-Zionists as antisemites protect Israel, but equating Jews and Zionism allows Western powers to achieve absolution for past antisemitic crimes by supporting Israel. Before World War II, state-sponsored antisemitism was the norm in many countries—for example, the US turned away refugee ships full of Jews fleeing the Holocaust, claiming Jewish immigrants threatened national security. Antisemitism still runs rampant in the United States, from right-wing figures spreading the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory and Neo-Nazis groups [marching] through major American cities. However, as the primary supporter of Israel, the United States government is allowed to stand against antisemitism while actually enabling it.
Using this logic of Zionist philosemitism, because Biden supports Israel, he cannot be antisemitic. Biden’s fatalistic remarks imply that since antisemitism outside of Israel is apparently a constant, Jews are responsible for their persecution. Biden’s remarks also reproduce the dual loyalty myth: the idea that all Jews are connected to the state of Israel. But because Jewish loyalty, in the eyes of Zionists, is linked to the state of Israel, Biden’s unconditional support for the genocidal Zionist regime disqualifies him from any antisemitism.
Philosemitic Zionism’s attempt to absolve Western powers from guilt for past atrocities became crystal clear when Benjamin Netanyhau, the current Prime Minister of Israel, dabbled in Holocaust denial. Netanyahu claimed that Hitler only wanted to expel Jews and that Palestinians convinced him to murder Jews, an ahistorical claim that primarily functions to incite anti-Palestinian racism. However, it also shifts the blame for the Holocaust away from Europe and obscures non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
Despite being associated with Judaism, Christian evangelism is another cornerstone of philosemitic Zionism. Many Christians support Israel because they believe Christ will only return when all Jews have returned to Palestine, at which point Jews living in Israel will be massacred. This mania—which, unlike “from the river to the sea”, is actually a call for genocide—has crept into the mainstream Zionist movements. Christians United for Israel is the largest pro-Israel lobby group, and one of the speakers at the November 14, 2023 March for Israel John Hagee. Hagee is a raging antisemitic Christian Zionist who believes that Adolf Hitler was a Jew sent by God to punish other Jews for disobedience.
Germany’s state-sponsored philosemitic Zionism has managed to top that exhibited in the US, as Jewish anti-Zionists are attacked by “antisemitism commissioners” working for the German government, few of whom are Jewish. The belief that the country that committed the Holocaust knows more about antisemitism than the descendants of its victims is the culmination of philosemitic Zionism. But because Germany supports Israel, it cannot be antisemitic, Zionist philosemitism posits—even as Germany speaks over actual Jews and the fascist Alternative for Deutschland has become the second largest party in Germany.
These are only a few examples of how Zionist philosemitism is, in reality, openly antisemitic. Richard Spencer, a leading American Neo-Nazi, supports Israel and calls himself a “white Zionist.” Though the attitudes of the American far-right towards Israel are divided, Spencer’s support for Israel is not entirely unique. While many fascists support Israel because they want a genocidal ethnostate in their own countries, Zionism is also convenient for antisemites because it encourages Jews to leave Western countries to settle in Palestine. In fact, Arthur Balfour, who made British support for Zionism explicit in 1917 with the Balfour Declaration, was a well-known antisemite who wanted Jews to leave Britain for Israel.
The weaponization of the Holocaust is another cornerstone of philosemitic Zionism. As a Jew whose family history is marred with antisemitism, I am acutely aware of the devastating impact the Holocaust had and continues to have through generational trauma. Nevertheless, philosemitic Zionists seek to portray the Holocaust as a unique historical event, unparalleled in history, and a crime committed solely against Jewish people.
There are several issues with this framing. First, we cannot divorce the Holocaust from the history of colonialism. Germany’s practices during the Holocaust were informed by Germany’s genocide of indigenous Herero and Nama people in Namibia. Secondly, portraying the Holocaust as somehow worse than any other genocide provides some sort of moral superiority to Western powers. Yes, the Unites States was founded on a genocide so massive it cooled Earth’s climate.Yes, Western powers are currently supporting a genocide in Palestine. But because the Holocaust is viewed as being on a higher plane than other genocides, according to Zionist philosemitism, the same Western powers can maintain moral security knowing that they either opposed the Holocaust or have apologized for it since. Besides, they have redeemed any complicity in the Holocaust by supporting Israel. To be clear, I am not trying to compare one genocide to another. But just as it is impossible to morally compare genocides to each other, it is also impossible to put one on a plane above the others.
Zionist philosemitism also obscures non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust because recognizing non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust forces Western nations to grapple with the current oppression they inflict. Roma people, who were persecuted just as fiercely by the Nazis as Jews were, are still overtly discriminated against in many European nations. Recognizing the ongoing persecution of Roma people is inconvenient for a European establishment that has little incentive to do so. Additionally, linking queerphobia and antisemitism in pre-war Germany portrays modern-day queerphobia in a light uncomfortable for many Americans. The overlap between queerphobia and antisemitism began in Nazi Germany, where homosexuality was viewed as a Jewish plot to subvert young boys. Just as Jews were considered a foreign enemy subverting Nazi Germany, because the Nazis linked masculinity and the state, gay people were seen as similarly threatening. Nowadays, many of the tropes leveled against Jews are also leveled at queer people—that they’re grooming children, they violate traditional Christian values, and, in the case of gay men, they’re overly effeminate (in the early 20th century, Jewish men were emasculated in antisemitic media and were even accused of menstruating).
Germany, the citadel of philosemitic Zionism, has reused antisemitic tropes against Palestinians. A recent parade in Cologne represented the concept of antisemitism with a float consisting of a hook-nosed woman wearing a keffiyeh, with “hatred” and “violence” being portrayed as dogs wearing collars adorned with the Palestinian flag. The reuse of antisemitic tropes to attack Palestinians demonstrates how philosemitic Zionism is primarily a form of white supremacism, a system in which Palestinians are primarily victimized.
Part of the antidote for Zionist philosemitism can be found in the concept of “Doikayt.” Developed by the Jewish Labor Bund in the early 20th century and Yiddish for “hereness,” Doikayt means staying and fighting antisemitism at home rather than immigrating to Palestine. Doikayt refuses to allow Western powers to cheaply absolve themselves from the responsibility of fighting antisemitism by supporting Israel. Doikayt recognizes that Jews are a diasporic community and that building a Jewish ethnostate in the Holy Land helps nothing except white supremacy. Doikayt understands that antisemitism is not a societal concept, but rather a system of oppression that can be demolished.
The idea of collective liberation is also crucial to opposing Zionist philosemitism. Western powers seek to use Jews as expendable foot soldiers in the colonization of Palestine. Allying with other marginalized groups to fight colonialism is both the only ethical option for Jews and the only way to ensure our long-term safety. While Jews shouldn’t need any reason to oppose Zionism other than a revulsion to colonialism, apartheid, and genocide, the fact that antisemitic tropes are recycled by Zionists to oppress Palestinians highlights the need for intergroup solidarity.
Collective liberation also means centering Palestinian voices and understanding that Palestinians are the primary victims of Zionism. While philosemitic Zionism is deeply antisemitic, it is Palestinians, not Israelis or American Jews, who are currently experiencing genocide. It is particularly important for Jews to speak up against the genocide in Palestine because the genocide is being committed in our name. However, Jews do not have any special wisdom on Palestine by virtue of being Jewish. Additionally, we should recognize that Palestinians, not anyone else, are the primary protagonists in the struggle against Zionism. Still, ending the occupation of Palestine will hopefully strike a blow to Western colonialism that will eventually lead to the liberation of all people, not just Palestinians.