Zionism is at its heart a political ideology. It’s not a religion or some transcendental idea but a very real-world political solution to the ancient and modern desire for a Jewish homeland in Israel. There have always been Jewish groups associated with anti-Zionism or post-Zionism. Some of those can be found on the far Left. Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Judaism also has anti-Zionist roots. However, there is a new threat, that appears to be ultra-Zionist, but may actually be anti- or – at the very least – post-Zionist.
70 faces of Zionism become a state
Zionism is not a single monolithic idea but an amalgam of often competing ideas. Its founding fathers developed Zionist streams based on competing ideologies. Zionism has had ”70 faces,” the combination of which through political discourse and struggle have been with us from the days of Theodor Herzl, David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin and up to the present day. Part of the vitality of Israel is the constant debate about its Jewish and democratic character.
With this history, we ought to remember that these tensions never lie far from the surface and continue to drive political discourse. Moreover, different ideological, political and religious groupings have deep social scar tissue that has developed over the short life of the state. The Altalena, the assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Gush Katif, October riots, are just some examples of when this scarring has taken place and, at times of political tension it’s not unusual to hear these events brought up and analyzed anew.
However, in spite of this history and tension, leaders of Israel have managed to build Israel without breaking the bonds that tie these ideologies together. It is this basic understanding that allows for Israel’s survival as a unified country. In the early years, the existential threat from without played its part in keeping all the disparate jigsaw pieces together.
Dual-threat
I am concerned that this has been a more delicate and fragile existence that perhaps we have taken for granted. And this fragility is currently under unprecedented attack from two fronts.
One front is by the current government and the radical changes being pushed forward. The details have been written about in this paper and elsewhere and I will limit myself to saying that I am in the camp deeply concerned about the undermining aggregating effect this will have on our democratic infrastructure and foundations. This camp has concerns about the religious camp – that monopolizes the Jewish identity of the state – is now undermining its democratic underpinning, leaving very little remaining of the Jewish and democratic state with which they identify.
There is a second aspect, but no less troubling. The violence carried out in Huwara is just the worst occurrence of law having been taken into private Jewish hands in Samaria. Extremists, inspired by radical ideologues, are now emboldened by the rhetoric of politicians like National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, MK Zvika Fogel, chairman of Knesset National Security Committee, and others including the deputy leader of the Samaria Regional Council. Some have actually called for the type of vigilante violence and collective punishments meted out by this mob.
The video of a group of violent Jewish radicals praying with the flames of burning cars and buildings of Huwara in the background should be an anathema. It is a religious outrage to use God’s name to carry out mob rule and violence but it is ultimately an expression of political anti-Zionism as it undermines the very basic fabric that keeps us together as a country. They are not interested in maintaining and strengthening the State of Israel, but in separating from it to form their own “Jewish state” based on a radical political theology.
The police and the army have thus far been completely unsuccessful in bringing the perpetrators to justice and with either soft condemnation, or worse, including the dangerous initial call – before backing down – by Minister of Finance and Minister in the Defense Ministry Bezalel Smotrich that the state itself should wipe Huwara off the map, only opens the door to more violence in the future. The encouragement or tacit acceptance of the outsourcing of state power to private militias driven by messianic and often apocalyptic ideologists could develop into no less of a threat to the Zionist dream than the terror to which it purports to respond. I have always been concerned that the threat from within is ultimately greater than that from without.
‘Zionism must be freed from its shell’
One of the key ideologues is Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg who, while recognizing the importance of secular Zionism as having created the state, believes that the time has come for a new Israel to emerge based wholly on Jewish law and without any democratic framework. In order for this to happen, Ginsburg uses the metaphor of a “nutcracker” which will break the outer shell releasing the soft fruit from the shackles of the secular state allowing the formation of a new Torah-based monarchy. This is not about changing the makeup of the Israeli government, but “to uproot the Zionist spirit... and defeat governments whether Left or Right” until a system based on the Torah itself is established.
Ginsburg has a number of students who have emerged as players. Some have chosen the route of mainstream politics, others work in education and the most extreme act out the metaphor of the nutcracker with what is, in effect, a plan for a violent overthrow of the government. It is very hard to tell just what sort of broad support these ideologies have, if any, but we ought to be concerned that just as the extreme ideology of Rabbi Meir Kahane found its way into the heart of Israeli politics, no one can say whether or not the same could happen with other extreme religious and political manifestos.
Many, including myself, considered the basic political contract of Zionism strong enough to defend itself from the extremities of post- and anti-Zionist ideologies. Our current predicament should give us all pause for thought and it is time that we recognize that one can wear a crocheted kippah and still be an anti-Zionist. It should be in all of our interests to defeat this extremism.
The writer is founding partner of Goldrock Capital and founder of The Institute for Jewish and Zionist Research. He was a founding chair of the Coalition for Haredi Employment and is a former chair of Gesher and World Bnei Akiva.