"As an anti-Zionist Jew, I have a few thoughts"

Editor’s note: Hey guys. I’ve been writing about Gaza a lot, but I’m not Jewish. My friend Lori Musicer, an immigration senior paralegal who helps refugees, had thoughts about this moment, growing up as a Zionist, her birthright trip, and her political evolution. She has a new Substack you should sign up for it. It will address: “chronic pain/illness, mental health, LGBTQ+ issues, relationships, addiction and recovery, immigration law (my job), music, TV, movies, pop culture, politics, tigers, or whatever else is on my mind.” @auroralorialice

by Lori Musicer

As an anti-Zionist Jew, I have a few thoughts (okay, more than a few!) on Zionism that I need to get out of my body right this damn minute. Apparently, that’s the only way I can write anything these days, when the swirling thoughts bubble to an excruciating boil and give me no choice but to let them out. Fair warning: my thoughts are not well-organized.

It’s very hard to separate Zionism from modern Jewish identity because, by design, they are inextricably linked in so many ways. It was so embedded in my upbringing that it seemed that anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism were one and the same. Any criticism of Israel is therefore interpreted as “Jews don’t deserve to exist.” There is intense internal policing to tow the party line within Jewish communities. Any suggestion that the Israeli government is doing anything other than justifiably defending itself are not welcome. (There are exceptions to this among progressive intellectuals, but that's not the environment I was raised in, so I'll just share my own experience.)

Judaism is pretty much entirely centered around learning all about the shenanigans the Hebrews were getting up to in ancient Israel, and Jerusalem in particular. As a kid, I never questioned why we had to face eastward toward Jerusalem during certain prayers, which were all about God something Israel something Jerusalem something God (in Hebrew, of course). As kids, the dreidels we played with during Hanukkah had letters on each side that stood for “a great miracle happened there” (“there” being Jerusalem; Israeli dreidels have a different letter representing “here”). We had the “plant a tree in Israel” holiday and the “the miracle oil in Israel” holiday and the “our sons didn’t get killed yay, let’s get the hell out of Egypt now and go to Israel” holiday, the fall harvest holiday to celebrate when the Hebrews were on their way to the “Promised Land,” and so many more.

Growing up as a Reform American Jew, I never really gave the concept of Zionism any thought. I never even knew what Zionism was until I was in college. If anything, my very basic understanding was: After WWII, the remaining European Jews desperately needed a safe place to go, and the world collectively said OK, go for it. Seemed perfectly logical to me at the time.

Of course, learning much later about the complexities of that moment in 1948 would forever change my view on it, especially learning about the decades of conflict prior that led to that moment (British imperialism etc.), and the decades of conflict after that moment (US imperialism, etc.), and it was clear that the creation of a Jewish State in that location was not a unanimous or well-advised decision after all, despite what Jews are taught.

I didn’t start to understand Zionism until I was 22 and went on a free “birthright” trip to Israel. As I was fully Jewish and had done the whole Bat Mitzvah ordeal/extravaganza, according to the birthright program I was a perfect candidate for the trip. I was Jewish, sure, but also I was a gay, semi-Marxist feminist atheist, and I was in a relationship with an Arabic woman at the time (her dad was from Iraq). I figured, sure, bring on the sales pitch. I’m immune. Did I mention it was FREE? (When El Al Airlines did the pre-boarding “how Jewish are you?” screening quiz at LAX, I conveniently failed to mention either my Arabic girlfriend or my coming out as an atheist debacle at age 13.)

During the birthright trip, the Zionist pitch basically went like this: After making sure we got our fill of wining and dining and sightseeing and partying (and camel riding!), they sat all 40 of us down in a meeting room and gave a presentation of the Scared Straight variety, including slides with graphs, statistics, photos etc. This is my recollection of the presentation, albeit 20 years on:

1. Nazis almost wiped us all out (see the chart, oh no, that’s very very bad – we’re just a tiny sliver on that pie chart!);

2. People everywhere still hate us, so Israel is really the only safe place for us to live (will circle back to this one in a sec)

3. 50% (?) of Jews are marrying non-Jews;

4. Only 25% (?) of Jews are raising their children within the faith.

5. The biggest threat to the survival of the Jewish population in the 21^st century is... assimilating Jews. In conclusion, you’re basically Hitler if you don’t knock it off.

(Seamlessly transitioning from the Scared Straight panel right into the Timeshare portion of the presentation): Isn’t this place amazing? Wouldn’t you love to live here and work on a kibbutz and be with your people and build a safe community, and our universities are amazing and the nightlife is so fun, and (…mumbles something about military service…), and that waterfall hike was just breathtaking, right? And the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee, so much sea!

(At the next presentation a few days later, they brought in a Jewish American speaker who had moved to Israel for her Aliyah, and you can imagine the rest.)

Throughout the trip, I felt a deep connection with my ancestors (who were from Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, but not Israel), and an extreme, heavy sadness at Yad Vashem (holocaust memorial). The historical sites were fascinating. Landmine fields, bunkers, and waterfalls in the Golan Heights, climbing Masada before sunrise, camel riding and hookah smoking, swimming in the Mediterranean, floating in the Dead Sea, being hosted and fed by the Druze, sleeping in a rent-a-Bedoin tent in the Negev, bat cave in Jerusalem, something about Napoleon, something about the Ottomans, something about King David, MTV Spring Break down south in Eilat, ultra-orthodox nonsense up north in Tzfat, shots of absinthe in Tel Aviv, monument at the site of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, and of course the best falafel off a food truck I’ve ever had. Honestly, I had an amazing time. Of course I did; these Zionists are not playing around!

I'm able to identify as a Jewish person by ancestry and culture even if I don’t identify with the faith component and choose to forgo the dogma. People don’t have that option in most other religions, as far as I can tell. Reform Jews are allowed to be as much or as little Jewish as we want, because they’ll take what they can get. Ethnoreligious groups don’t have an outside recruitment program, so all the efforts to shore up their numbers have to happen from within, by building up the sense of group identity and community, as well as a strong sense of obligation to the group (Olympic level guilt-tripping!). The lack of outside recruitment options has resulted in this bizarre Zionist “birthright” program that combines identity building, military recruitment, lifelong financial support to Israel, and intense pressure to breed with other Jews.

There’s an offshoot for secular Jews called “humanistic Judaism” that welcomes atheists/agnostics. I’m not sure what the official stance about Zionism is, but I’m guessing there’s an ongoing internal debate. In my personal version, I’m saying no to the religion but yes to some parts of the culture (mainly the food, tzedakah (charity), and tikkun olam/social justice work). I’ve been working with immigrants and refugees for almost 20 years, and that feels to me like a very Jewish career path. From my perspective, what Netanyahu and his military have been doing for years is contrary to the core values of Judaism. A lot of secular Jews feel the same way but I think there's a reluctance to admit it because, as a reminder, the mainstream Jewish view is that any critique of Israel = anti-semitism.

On my birthright trip, the (carefully curated) people who lived on a kibbutz in the Golan Heights who talked to us said they would hand their land back to Syria in a heartbeat if they thought it would actually solve anything, but they didn’t think it would help. These people had been born and raised in the Golan Heights and felt a deep connection to the land. I could see in real time why the trip organizers brought us there and had these specific hippies talk to us, and it felt pretty gross. It was a beautiful area at high elevation, and it was immediately apparent why this was an important piece of territory for agricultural/economic and military tactical reasons.

Very unofficial poll here, but the consensus among Israelis seemed to be an extreme defensive posture and reluctance to make any type of deals, whether it be with Syria, Lebanon, PA, etc., because the “other side” doesn’t want to negotiate, they just want to eradicate us off the planet. The Israeli government was pushing the whole “if you give an inch, they’ll take a mile” type of argument on the news 24/7, which of course was being parroted by much of the population, which spread to American Jews who ate it up. (“But what about all the miles WE took, in 1949, in 1967 etc.?” does not appear to be part of the conversation, or when it is, it’s dismissed as “that was a long time ago and we have to look forward now.” I don’t know the answer, but somehow I instinctively know that telling Palestinians to “get over it” and “don’t be a sore loser” is not it.) And this was 20 years ago… and around and around we go.

Even if I’m anti-Zionist and see exactly what the propaganda is about, the fact remains that, at this point, there are millions of Jews who have been living in Israel their whole lives, and it’s the only home they’ve ever known. There’s no going back. The UN is not suddenly going to pick up the entire population and move them over to Idaho. Not to get into the whole imperialism situation here, but the U.S. has WAY too much at stake militarily to lose the regional ally/pawn that it has taken several decades to prop up (and prop up again, and again, and again, and forevermore). So, pragmatically, if we’re clear that Jews living in Israel are not going to leave, the quandary of the century is “now what?”

I implore you to please try not to demonize or shame Jews who are holding onto the Zionist belief system. It doesn't mean they are necessarily bad, uncaring people who have zero capacity for empathy and don't care about human rights. But there are a lot of forces that have encouraged them to believe that Israel is necessary for the survival of the Jewish people, and that it must be protected at all costs. This "at all costs" issue is a big one that needs to be discussed in every synagogue and youth group and community center, and it does feel like there's an internal shift happening, though it's meeting a lot of resistance. Anyway, just wanted to take a second to give a reminder that not every Jew is Israeli, not every Israeli is Jewish, not every Israeli Jew supports Netanyahu, and not every American Jew supports Netanyahu. Even most Zionists want a cease fire, but they're also really concerned about the hostages.

Hamas is not the “good guy” in this story. Don't tell me they're a bunch of freedom fighters. That's propaganda too. Nobody in charge on either side is the “good guy” and it’s frying our little binary brains. When people talk about/post about Hamas in a positive light, it makes most Jews feel unsafe. Even if what you’re trying to say is “I support human rights for Palestinians,” what we hear is “Jews should be wiped off the planet.” So, instead of getting a lot of solidarity from Jews, even though many of us are also horrified by the atrocities in Gaza, you get defensiveness or silence.

Please remember that Jews make up 0.2% of the world’s population. Not 2%, zero point two. This is something we have deeply ingrained in us from a very young age, and this level of otherness can lead many Jews to close ranks within the “tribe,” while some will expand with love and empathy toward other marginalized groups (there's a long a beautiful history of the latter!). I would appreciate it if you could be loving and empathetic toward your Jewish friends too, as we could really use it right now during this latest high tide of anti-Semitism. Also, people don't change their minds when they're afraid. If you start the conversation with love, maybe that will help open up the dialogue and lead more Jews to break the tether. But, mostly the shift will have to happen from within the ranks. That's not going to happen if Jews feel that everyone thinks we're the villains of the story. Remember when W was president and we had to apologize on behalf of our country to our foreign friends, and convince them that not all Americans supported his war in Iraq, and we felt so embarrassed for being associated with such a shit show? That's how a lot of progressive Jews are feeling right now.

One not-that-fun fact: Netanyahu’s older brother, leading an elite commando unit, was killed in 1976 during a hostage rescue operation in Uganda, after Palestinian and German terrorists hijacked a plane. He was hailed as a national hero. 

It’s hard to imagine that the younger brother (who previously served in the same elite military unit as big bro), in his attempts to rescue hostages now, with his own God complex on overdrive, isn’t reliving this trauma and acting irrationally amidst his campaign of vengeance. Somebody needs to get him a therapist STAT. And then vote him the F*CK out as soon as possible.

Through social media, the Zionist machine now has my 15-year-old niece in a vice grip, using the same old tactics of fear mongering and fostering a sense of victimhood, persecution, otherness etc. I don’t know what to do! Her Jewish identity (and, by extension, pro-Israel sentiment) is being strengthened through her involvement with the BBYO Jewish youth organization, the same group that I was very active in during high school, as was my brother. In fact, my brother and his wife were co-regional presidents in that youth group and started dating during their senior year of high school. My parents met at UCLA at a Hillel dance (the Jewish group on college campuses). This is seen as the "right" way to be an American Jew. Assimilation = traitor, support for Palestinians = traitor, critique of IDF = traitor… FFS. 

I’m deeply inspired by groups like Jewish Voices for Peace who are willing to tell the truth. Follow them on IG.

Anyway, there’s a lot more I could say on this and the other parts of my experience as an LGBTQ atheist raised in a very traditional Jewish family, but I’ll save that for another day.

I encourage dialogue and want to be challenged. Not to fight, just to exist!