עם ישראל חי

והיא שעמדה לאבותינו ולנו. שלא אחד בלבד עמד עלינו לכלותנו, אלא שבכל דור ודור עומדים עלינו לכלותנו, והקדוש ברוך הוא מצילנו מידם

This is what has stood by our fathers and us! For not just one alone has risen against us to destroy us, but in every generation they rise against us to destroy us; and the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hand!

I live in Israel because I am a Jew, and Jews have a commandment to live here. It’s that simple. I don’t care if anyone else wants to live here. I respect the government because it’s a public good we all need, and it’s a hell of a lot better than the offerings next door. Would I have created the state? No. It’s here now, though, and the reality is that everyone’s best interest is to support it. I am not a Zionist. Non-Jews tend to use the word Zionist now as an insult when it was previously reserved for use by Chareidim (“ultra-orthodox” to the English news-readers) to reject the secularism and religious principles of the Zionist movement.

The word Zionist is now confused. Its usage targets anyone who dares to believe in the original Abrahamic faith. Our Torah tells us to live here. So, we live here. It’s not a political move. It’s not a “settler colonial project.” It’s a reality that every religious Jew has striven for for millennia. Now that it’s possible, more of us are doing it. One could argue the facts of the War of Independence and the claims of a “nakba”. One could argue that absentee landlords placed their interests before their tenants. One could argue that the land was essentially uninhabited and unhospitable before Zionism. Jews returning to Israel are no different than other displaced populations returning home. The circumstance of the return—its individual injustices and justifications—are irrelevant to the accusations levied. One could argue the merits of the Chickasaw nation returning to their ancestral lands from Oklahoma, but none would dare call it “settler colonialism.” Even if they had forgotten their customs and language, none would dare question the legitimacy.

Despite my rejection of Zionism as a political ideology, I am absolutely certain that the murderous supporters of the “Palestinian cause” who claim to reject Zionism but not Judaism consider me a Zionist. I am a Jew who believes that Jews should live in our land and observe our religion. This is a threat to their belief system. They live in a binary world where the presence of any Jew between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean is unacceptable. They live in an imagined world where Jews are not massacred globally—including in the land of Israel—for simply being Jewish. They live in a world with an altered history where poor migrants, who were welcomed with open arms by noble natives, subjugated and slaughtered to make way for themselves. (Perhaps this is some generational guilt about the colonization of the New World.)

So, I’m not a Zionist, but I believe every single “I’m not anti-semitic, I’m anti-Zionist” activist would readily brand me as such. Even if they didn’t, I will proudly stand up for the right of every Zionist Jew, every anti-Zionist Jew, and every other Jew to live peacefully in our land. Don’t fall for the lie of social justice. It’s makeup on the age-old pig of anti-semitism.

Advocate all you want for the rights of any oppressed people. Advocate for a new government in Israel, if that’s your wish. Just understand what you mean and what Jews hear before you say “I’m not against Judaism, I’m against Zionism.” Also remember, no matter how many times you’ve tried to destroy us, עם ישראל חי.