Breaking Down Delusions about Zionism, Racism, and Jewish Identity

A Response to October 18th protest on Capitol Hill in support of Hamas

On October 18th, 2023, only twelve days after the largest in modern history attack on Israeli civilians by the terrorist organization Hamas, demonstrators at a U.S. Capitol rally demanded an Israel-Gaza cease-fire. Protesters included American Jews, believed to be associated with the anti-Zionist organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Over 300 were arrested after refusing to leave the building. 

What struck me as I watched the event coverage were the banners held by the protesters. Since the atrocities of October 7th, I thought I couldn’t be shocked anymore, but the signs stunned me. “Zionism is Racism.” “Never again for anyone.” “Our blood is the same color.” 

That’s what I want to talk about. Let’s unpack these statements one by one.

“Zionism is Racism.” 

I’ll start with a prominent, well-known, and well-understood part of this equation: racism. The definition below should be evident.

Racism is a belief that a person or a group can be mistreated, disadvantaged, harassed, or degraded because of ethnicity. Racism advocates that one race is superior and has the right to dominate another. In short, racism is repulsive—the worst of human behavior.  

I’ll explain the rest of the statement through my personal story.

I was born and raised in Soviet Ukraine, and you would think I’d be Ukrainian, Russian, or Soviet—an equal citizen of the country I called home. But I wasn’t. Like all Jews in the Soviet land, I had an identifier in my passport revealing I was a Jew—a yellow star of sorts. I was mistreated, harassed, and humiliated for my Jewish ethnicity. Sounds like racism, doesn’t it? But it was worse.

On many occasions, I was told by my countrymen, “If you don’t like it (whatever the ‘it’ might’ve been—a vegetable or a piece of meat at the market, a grade at school), go back to Israel—go where you came from.” I didn’t understand. Why Israel? The USSR was home. I was a post-WWII child and loved my motherland with all my naïve heart. It turned out I didn’t have a motherland. 

Neither did German Jews who lived in Germany for 300 years, only to be slaughtered by their fellow citizens during the Holocaust. 

Neither did Jews in most other European countries who were murdered in the communities they called home. 

We all know the number. Six million men, women, and children were massacred because they were Jews—not the privileged Arian race. 

Some tried to seek refuge, but no one would take them! In 1939, a ship, M.S. St. Louis, carried 937 refugees (mostly Jews) from Europe, hoping to find shelter from Hitler on the other side of the world. After a month at sea and a denial of entry, first by Cuba, then America, and Canada, the St. Louis was turned around, back to Europe, where Jews met their fate. 

Without a Jewish state, Jews had nowhere to go. 

Let’s talk about Zionism. What is Zionism?

Established in the late 1800s, during yet another wave of racist violence, Zionism is a Jewish liberation movement supporting the return of Jews to their historic homeland, Israel. 

“Zionism is Racism” implies that Jews came to the land they had a deep ancestral connection with to oppress Palestinians. This argument is illogical, at the least, and inflammatory at the worst. Weren’t Jews the ones who fled persecution? Where else were we supposed to go--where we came from? We tried. How did that work out for us? 

Hamas is responsible for the persecution and deaths of its people. There are no Jews in Gaza. They left, leaving a prosperous land behind, remember? Though 2 million Arabs peacefully live and work in Israel. So, who is the racist? Hamas.

Let me continue my story.

I was lucky. My grandparents survived a pogrom in Chornobyl in the early 20th century. At age 20, my mother escaped from Kyiv on a freight train, days before the Babi Yar massacre in September 1941. My being born was a miracle. But being born a Soviet Jew meant I would live the pattern of prior generations, subjected to racism and maybe worse. 

Our break came in the 70s when succumbing to international pressure, the economic sanctions imposed by the United States, and the attention to the Human Rights violations exposed by the Zionist movement, the Soviet government granted over two hundred thousand Jews permission to leave the country with Israeli visas. 

That’s when I escaped to America. Why not Israel? Raised an atheist with no exposure to Judaism or Jewish life, I was scared to live in a religious country, which is what I wrongly presumed of Israel. Read more about that decision and my immigrant story--that resembles many others--in my memoir, Last Train to Freedom: A Young Jewish Family’s Escapefrom Behind the Iron Curtain.

Imagine leaving your home with no right to return, saying “goodbye” to friends and family, and moving to a place you know nothing about with a suitcase and 90 dollars in your possession. Language. Culture. Movies. Music. Books. Nothing is familiar. All you have is a desperate quest to find a place to stay and survive. 

Is that something Jews do for fun? Would you? Generation after generation, Jews are forced to pick up their bags and move, hoping to find some place safe. 

No one wanted Jews in the past, and most don’t want us now! That’s our three-thousand-year history. And that’s how we ended up scattered all over the world. China. South Africa. Spain. Cuba. Canada. Argentina. Australia. United States. 

Zionism aims to break this pattern by bringing Jews to their homeland. 

Not all Jews live in Israel, you may argue. The seven million living in other countries may not feel the same deep connection to Israel. Wrong. Israeli Jews and Jews living elsewhere are the same Jews. All fifteen million, regardless of our address or religious standing, are children of Israel. The existence of Israel is our shield from age-long scapegoating. We are blessed we can flee there for safety and protection, should the time come.

Advocating that Jews shouldn’t have their own country and live in peace—that’s racism and anti-Semitism. If that’s your position, do some soul-searching, ignoring the noise and the rhetoric. You can’t detest Israel and love Jews at the same time. So, if you hate Israel, you are a racist and an anti-Semite. 

And now, let me come clean. 

What kind of Jew am I? I don’t live in Israel. My religious affiliations are marginal—the brainwashing of communism still runs deep, I suppose. Often, I realize Passover is days away and scramble to get ready. I might have the wrong food on a holiday table without realizing it. I’ve hosted Jewish Holiday celebrations on the “wrong” day, and I don’t know all proper Jewish rituals. But make no mistake, I am a Jew. I am the kind of Jew whose Passover Seder ends with a pledge repeated by Jews for hundreds of years, “Next year in Jerusalem.” 

You said, “Never again for anyone.” 

The phrase “Never again” came about after the Holocaust as a promise to the surviving Jews and the future generations of Jews that the world would not allow another massacre. But the world failed, and once again, we just witnessed the brutal slaughter of innocent Jews. 

In the October 7th terrorist attack by Hamas, 1,400 Israelis were brutally murdered. Four thousand were wounded, and 200+ taken hostages in Gaza, including babies and children. Several generations of families were wiped out. Babies slaughtered. Girls were raped next to the bodies of their dead friends. 

Help me understand who is the “everyone” you are referring to. Hamas butchers thousands of Jews, and you stand for “Never again for anyone?” What are you talking about? Who else got slaughtered on the 7th?

To reframe “never again” as Israel is justly defending against Hamas’s terrorist attack is to invert the slogan and erase the atrocity perpetrated against innocent Israelis. 

Then you said, “Our blood is the same color.” 

Tell that to Hamas and their supporters worldwide, including right here in America. Tell that to the Palestinians and others who chant, “Gas the Jews! Gas the Jews!” Do they believe our blood is the same color? 

Ask those who sing, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” if they think our blood, is the same color. In their scenario of freedom, where would Israel be? Where would Jews go? The answer is obvious: they want a world without Israel and Jews. All Jews. Including those who today support them.    

The protestors at U.S. Capitol rally demanded a cease-fire. Same request Israeli received every time they responded to an attack, since 1948. 

Once again, the demand is on Israel to stop retaliation and abandon her mission to destroy Hamas and recover the hostages. So far, I haven’t heard of any mandates on Hamas. If this speculative and unrealistic scenario were to happen, Israel would continue to be five seconds, five minutes, an hour, or a day away from the next terrorist attack. And Palestinians living under Hamas rule would continue to suffer from the terrorist regime. We’ve seen this scenario in the past. Many times.

Those demanding a cease-fire, stop! 

Israel will defend herself and rid the world of Hamas, with or without your help. Get on the right side of history while you still can.

Am Yisrael Chai.