"F**k Zionism"

On Zionism as an element in political debate

Today I came across a post on X critical of Jeremy Corbyn for never having referred to Zionism on his account, a post which drew the dogwhistle response “F**k Zionism”, in turn earning the approval of the original poster. I don’t suppose the dogwhistle was intended but that is what its effect was because the very nature of the word Zionism - and probably the reason Corbyn avoids it - can result in precisely that effect.

The genocide currently being perpetrated by Zionism through its manifestation as an Israeli state, not to mention the nearly eight-decade-long violent colonisation, apartheid regime, mass displacement, imprisonment, rape and torture since the Naqba is indeed the most vile and repugnant product of Zionist nationalism and supremacism.

However, the real world consequences of Zionist fanaticism do not represent the essence of the Jewish aspiration for a home that would constitute a refuge from the various currents that now go under the name of antisemitism present principally in Europe in the 19th century that came to a head with the Nazi holocaust in WW2. There was an alternative Cultural Zionism that did not seek to impose itself on Palestine’s principally semitic population indigenous to their desired homeland, but rather to be accommodated within it. However, the vehicular opportunity of the British mandate and the Balfour Declaration afforded the oppressive colonialist - and indeed terrorist - faction of Zionism its chance to impose its project by force.

Even then, there were significant advocates of Cultural Zionism, the most notable being Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt, who were appalled by the Naqba and condemned it as mirroring the Nazi genocide. Were they alive today, there is little doubt that they would have been as vocal - albeit not as expletive - as those who adopt “F**k Zionism” as their slogan of preference to speak out against the actions of the terrorist psychopaths currently seeking to exterminate the population of Gaza and seize what remains of Palestine and surrounding Arab lands.

So, while blanket condemnation of Zionism might be a populist option for a politician to take advantage of popular repugnance at the ideology’s manifestation at the hands of the genociders and their supporters and to serve as a credential of purity in the defence of the Palestinian cause, it does not serve the purpose of a movement that seeks to resolve the conflict and achieve the aim of peace as has always been Corbyn’s objective where oppression has provoked violent resistance. The resolution can, of course, only be a just one if it represents the true will of the Palestinian people and encompasses all of their objectives, including those of Hamas if it continues to harness the support of the population and is not an obstacle to the implementation of the majority consensus.

It is chiefly the practice of populists to resort to conflation of a political construct with its ideological undercurrent or pillar, something we see in practice daily when in comes to Islam which is nominally the foundation for states such as Iran’s or Afghanistan’s forms of government. But Cultural Zionism is as far removed from the supremacist nationalism (the mirror image of Nazism) that feeds the genocidal psychopathy of the Israeli state as Muslim Sufism is from the oppressive Taliban government or the ISIS actors currently terrorising Syria in the name of Islam.

One of the factors that can aid in defeating the Zionazis will be the capability to recognise the Cultural Zionist aspiration as the only respectable position for Jews to hold if they continue to cling to their identity comfort blanket or cultural traditions which die hard, particularly in a minority convinced of its divine election. Despite the attempts by Zionists to big it up, the so-called antisemitism threat is belied by its formerly minor presence in our society, where the relatively harmless embers have of late been fanned by the unspeakable atrocities of the Jewish state.

In the meantime, it is wise for serious politicians not to succumb to the use of the Zionism slogan as a credential for their principled stand of condemnation for its effects.