Famous Jews Against Zionism

Table of Contents

“Zionism is a nationalist movement that emerged in the 19th century to enable the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine.” Source – Wikipedia

Some Orthodox Jews are against Zionism:

The anti-Zionist world-view of the ultra-Orthodox groups Neturei Karta and Satmar Hasidism perceives Zionism and the establishment of the State of Israel as an anti-messianic act, conceived and born from sin. These groups vigorously deny the very legitimacy of the collective political return to the Holy Land and to Jewish sovereignty. For them, this is the handiwork of humans, violating the Jewish people’s oath of political quietism.” Source – https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/ultra-orthodox-anti-zionist/

Not only Orthodox Jews but also many secular Jews are also against Zionism! And it turns out there’s a movement called International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN). The “Who We Are” page on its website says,

IJAN is an international network of Jews who are uncompromisingly committed to struggles for human survival and emancipation, of which the liberation of the Palestinian people and land is an indispensable part. We are committed to the right of return for Palestinian refugees and to ending Israeli colonization of historic Palestine, which is reinforced by US economic and military power. We support full Palestinian self-determination and the right to resist occupation. We look to the Palestinian grassroots and Palestinian-led organizations as our primary points of reference in this struggle.

Anti-zionism is not the same thing as antisemitism. Antisemitism is hostility and prejudice directed against Jewish people. I do not have any such hostility toward the Jewish people. When I was a teenager in Chicago, I had a Jewish friend, Rodney Martell. It’s wrong to have prejudice against any people.

I’m against racism. I believe racism is connected to Darwinian evolution, the notion that certain ethnic groups are lower in the evolutionary scale than others, especially lower than white people. That’s what Hitler believed. It justified his genocide against Jews, Gypsies, and even non-German white people he didn’t like such as Slavic nations, Poles, Serbs and Russians. I’ve been a minority white guy most of my life having lived 40 years in Japan, 5 years in Guam, and am now living in the Philippines. I’m thankful to never have felt any racial discrimination toward me ever in spite of the fact of being part of an ethnic minority living outside mainland USA.

In the early 1990s, many young Israelis visited Japan. I used to love talking with them about their lives in Israel and their views on the Palestinian people. And of course I tried to share with them the Gospel. Saved born again true Christians do not hate Jews as a people! The Bible says,

1 Peter 2:17 Honour all men…

To be an anti-zionist is to be against a political movement, not a people. Here’s a compilation of quotes from Jewish people who spoke out against Zionism, some of whom I didn’t know to be Jews.

Sigmund Freud:

“I concede with sorrow that the baseless fanaticism of our people is in part to be blamed for the awakening of Arab distrust. I can raise no sympathy at all for the misdirected piety which transforms a piece of a Herodian wall into a national relic, thereby offending the feelings of the natives.”

Albert Einstein:

“The (Israeli) state idea is not according to my heart. I cannot understand why it is needed. It is connected with many difficulties and a narrow-mindedness. I believe it is bad.”

Erich Fromm, social psychologist:

“The claim of the Jews to the Land of Israel cannot be a realistic political claim. If all nations would suddenly claim territories in which their forefathers lived two thousand years ago, this world would be a madhouse.”

Isaac Asimov, novelist:

“I find myself in the odd position of not being a Zionist … I think it is wrong for anyone to feel that there is anything special about any one heritage of whatever kind. It is delightful to have the human heritage exist in a thousand varieties, for it makes for greater interest, but as soon as one variety is thought to be more important than another, the groundwork is laid for destroying them all.”

Hannah Arendt, political scientist:

“The trouble is that Zionism has often thought and said that the evil of antisemitism was necessary for the good of the Jewish people. In the words of a well-known Zionist in a letter to me discussing the original Zionist argumentation: ‘The antisemites want to get rid of the Jews, the Jewish State wants to receive them, a perfect match.’ “

Note: History and observation tells me the main source of antisemitism is the Roman Catholic Church. I heard lots of antisemitic rhetoric from Catholic nuns when I was a kid going to parochial school. By the way, Hannah Arendt was no relation to me. I was raised a Catholic.

Henry Ford was was deeply antisemitic, making him a hero of Hitler and the Nazis. I believe one reason for Ford’s antisemitism was because he read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. But according to former Roman Catholic priest Leo H, Lehmann, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was written by Jesuits to shift the blame on what they are doing to the Jews!

Richard Cohen, US columnist:

“The greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that Israel itself is a mistake … the idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now. Israel fights Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south, but its most formidable enemy is history itself.”

Noam Chomsky:

“In the Occupied Territories, what Israel is doing is much worse than apartheid. To call it apartheid is a gift to Israel, at least if by “apartheid” you mean South African-style apartheid. What’s happening in the Occupied Territories is much worse.”