Today, more than half a century after Israel's founding, it remains all too tempting for friend and foe alike to define Israel, and Zionism, solely by the Arab world's hostility. To do so is to miss the normal miracles that occur in Israel daily, the millions who are able to live and learn, laugh and play, in the Middle East’s only democracy. To do so is to underestimate the power of Zionism, a gutsy and visionary movement which has outlasted the twentieth century’s grander and seemingly more permanent revolutions: Bolshevism, Nazism, fascism and communism.

The sad truth is that little more than a century after its founding, Zionism seems to be losing its luster. Arabs have demonized Zionism as the modern bogeyman, and many have clumped Zionists, along with Americans and most Westerners, as the Great Satans. The Palestinian attacks that began with renewed intensity in September 2000 have revived the United Nations libel equating Zionism with racism. In Israel, a small but influential group of intellectuals fancies themselves to be post-Zionists, while a negligible but voluble minority of Jews in the Diaspora please editorial page editors enamored of novelties by proudly proclaiming themselves Jewish anti-Zionists.

During these challenging times, Jews should reaffirm their faith and pride in Zionism, while the world should marvel at its achievements. Zionists must not allow their enemies to define and slander the movement. No nationalism is pure, no movement is perfect, no state ideal, but today Zionism remains legitimate, inspiring, and relevant, to me and to most Jews. A century ago, Zionism revived pride in the label "Jew"; today, Jews must revive pride in the label "Zionist."

I am a Zionist because I am a Jew -- and without recognizing a national component in Judaism I cannot explain its unique character. Judaism is a world religion bound to one homeland, a people whose Holy Days are defined by the Israeli agricultural calendar, rooted in theological concepts, and linked with historic events.

I am a Zionist because I know my history -- and after being exiled from their homeland more than 1900 years ago, the defenseless, wandering Jews endured repeated persecutions at the hands of both Christians and Muslims -- centuries before this anti-Semitism culminated in the Holocaust.

I am a Zionist because Jews never forgot their ties to their homeland, their love for Jerusalem. Even when they established autonomous self-governing structures in Babylonia, in Europe, in North Africa, these were governments in exile yearning to return home.

I am a Zionist because those ideological ties nourished and were nurtured by the plucky minority of Jews who remained in the land of Israel, sustaining continued Jewish settlement throughout the exile.

I am a Zionist because in modern times the promise of Emancipation and Enlightenment was a double-edged sword, often only offering acceptance for Jews in Europe after they assimilated, yet never fully respecting them if they did assimilate.

I am a Zionist because in establishing the sovereign state of Israel in 1948, the Jews were reconstituting in modern Western terms a relationship with a land they had been attached to for 4,000 years, since the time of Abraham -- just as India did in establishing a modern state out of an ancient civilization.

I am a Zionist because in building that state, the Jews were returning to history and embracing normalcy, a condition which gave them power, with all its benefits, responsibilities, and dilemmas.

I am a Zionist because I celebrate the existence of Israel, and like any thoughtful patriot, though I might criticize particular governmental policies which I dislike -- I do not delegitimize the state itself.

I am a Zionist because I live in the real world of nation-states, and I see that Zionism is no more or less "racist" than any other nationalism, be it American, Armenian, Canadian, or Czech, all of which rely on some internal cohesion, some tribalism, some sense of solidarity among some historic grouping of individuals, and not others.

I am a Zionist because here in North America we have learned in this multicultural world that pride in one’s heritage as a Jew, an Italian, a Greek, can provide essential and time-tested anchors in a world overdosing on materialism, consumerism, and the sensationalism of the here and now.

I am a Zionist because in our world of post-modern identities, I know that we don’t have to be "either-ors", we can be "ands and buts" -- a Zionist AND an American patriot; a secular and somewhat assimilated Jew BUT also a Zionist.

I am a Zionist because I am a democrat, and for the last two centuries, the history of democracy has been intertwined with the history of nationalism. Similarly, for the last century democracy has been a central Zionist ideal, despite being tested under the most severe conditions.

I am a Zionist because I am an idealist, and just as a century ago, the notion of a strong, independent, viable, sovereign Jewish state was an impossible dream - yet absolutely worth fighting for -- so, too, today, the notion of a strong, independent, viable, sovereign Jewish state living in true peace and harmony with its neighbors appears to be an impossible dream -- yet absolutely worth striving for. I am a Zionist because I am a romantic, and the vision of the Jews rebuilding their homeland, reclaiming the desert, renewing themselves, was one of the greatest stories of the twentieth century, just as the vision of the Jews maintaining their homeland, reconciling with the Arab world, renewing themselves, and serving as a light to others, a model nation state, could be one of the greatest stories of the twenty-first century. Yes, it sounds far-fetched today. But, as Theodore Herzl, the father of modern Zionism said in an idle boast that has become a cliche: "If you will it, it is no dream."

I Am An Anti-Anti Zionist

In honor of Israel’s 53rd anniversary, on Yom Ha’atzmaut 2001, I wrote the above essay for the Montreal Gazette titled "Why I am a Zionist." The article sought to return to basics during this difficult passage in Israel’s existence. To our non-Jewish friends, I tried to explain why Zionism, which is Jewish nationalism, is no more racist than any other form of nationalism. And to my fellow Jews, I tried to emphasize the big picture beyond the messy and depressing complexities of 2001.

In this essay, I was very careful to avoid addressing the Palestinian question at all, beyond ending with a hope that just as in the twentieth century Israel made the Jewish dream of restoring a homeland a reality, that in the twenty-first century Israel would figure out how to reconcile with the Arab world and make the dream of living in peace with her neighbors a reality.

Nevertheless, some respondents caricatured my essay in subsequent opinion essays and in letters to the editor as an attack on Palestinians and as a racist piece. These reactions made it very clear. Far too many of Israel’s enemies see any affirmation of any kind of Zionism as an act of aggression against them.

Even more disturbing were some of the responses the Gazette chose not to publish. One pro-Palestinian organization defines itself as "Anti-Zionist, Anti-Capitalist, Anti-racism, Anti-US global hegemony, Anti-globalization!!" and "Pro-Hamas, Pro-Taliban, Pro-all Islamic resistance movements fighting occupation and oppression. AND MOST OF ALL PRO-ISLAM." The organization’s Web site posted a letter sent to the Gazette saying "‘Why I’m a Zionist’ reminds me of other possible scenarios. Why I’m a KKK member. To be proud repressing others, feeling superior and a chosen people who deserve to kill, maim and torture - God help us when we can allow people to stand up and say ‘Why I’m [a] Terrorist,’ "Why I kill children,’ ‘Why I’m a Nazi,’ ‘Why I agree with state-sponsored Terrorism,’ ‘Why I bulldoze families’ home[s].’"

Perhaps most depressing was the letter that began with the by now knee-jerk (if conceptually paradoxical) free association of Zionism "with Bolshevism, Nazism and racism of the worst order." The man equated "the language the Nazis used to describe the Jews in Germany in the 1930s and 40s and the language now being used by the AshkeNAZI Jews to describe the natives of Palestine: snakes, sub-human, foreigners living on the land God gave us, etc."

As so many anti-Zionists do, the man then naturally segued into the ugliest forms of anti-Semitism, saying "I understand why Herr Hitler rose to power and why the Jewish holocaust -- a harsh reaction to the Jewish misdeeds -- took place." Calling the "last Jewish holocaust" an "act of ‘divine justice,’" he concluded, "You have, without realising [sic] it, given in your article 14 reasons why the next holocaust is bound to occur.... Your article tends to support the view that I have heard about as a child that a Jew is born without a soul; he has no sympathy for anyone unless his own interest is involved in it."

These days, you do not need a Ph.D. to recognize that the Middle East is a very confusing place. And I would never do what my critics have done and tar all critics with the same brush. There is a lot of room for honest and critical debate about Israeli policy toward the Palestinians yesterday and today, and not everyone who questions any Israeli action in any realm is necessarily an Israel-hater or an anti-Zionist.

Nevertheless, I wish to thank my critics for imposing a certain conceptual clarity on the conflict. All Jews, all Americans, all Canadians, all people of good conscience throughout the world, should rise up and strike down this anti-Zionist venom that has seeped into daily political discourse. As the above examples indicate, such new-fangled anti-Zionism is often hard to distinguish from old-fashioned Jew hatred - no matter how many contrarian op-ed essays the few but loud anti-Zionist Jews may publish. We have seen anti-Semitism blur with anti-Zionism in the Syrian president’s ugly anti-Jewish remarks when greeting the Pope; we have seen anti-Zionism blur into anti-Semitism with the surge in attacks on Jews throughout the world since the troubles began in Israel in September, 2000; we have seen anti-Zionism blur into anti-Semitism with the booklet of caricatures showing Jews with hook noses and fangs dripping blood some delegates distributed at an anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa. Decades ago, the great American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., said: "When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews - And what is anti-Zionist? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa and freely accord all other nations of the globe."

Anti-Zionism:
Ugly Rhetoric with Lethal Consequences

For too long too many of us ignored the vitriol. We forgot that peace has to be made between peoples not leaders, and that making nice to one another is an essential precondition for making peace. While Israelis were arguing about how to acknowledge Palestinian nationalism in their curricula, Palestinian curricula were fomenting anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Palestinian maps did not even acknowledge Israel’s existence. There was also, we must admit, some liberal racism, some Western condescension, at work. Too many observers explained away Yasir Arafat’s calls in Arabic for jihad (Holy War) against the Jews, as being necessary for domestic consumption, as simply the way "they" speak to each other over there. This year, the intensity of the hatred, the ubiquity of the calls, had deadly consequences -- and can no longer be ignored. What are we to make, for example, of this snippet from a sermon broadcast on official Palestinian Authority television in the summer of 2001, which cried: "All weapons must be aimed at the Jews, at the enemies of Allah, the cursed nation in the Koran, whom the Koran describes as monkeys and pigs, worshippers of the calf and idol worshippers. Allah shall make the Moslem rule over the Jew, we will blow them up in Hadera, we will blow them up in Tel-Aviv and in Netanya in the righteousness of Allah against this rif-raff…We will enter Jerusalem as conquerors, and Jaffa as conquerors, and Haifa as conquerors and Ashkelon as conquerors ... we bless all those who educate their children to Jihad and to Martyrdom, blessings to he who shot a bullet into the head of a Jew..."

What are we to make of the final interview Faisal Husseini reportedly gave before he died of a heart attack this spring? Husseini, whom the Western world eulogized as a moderate, as a Palestinian dove, characterized Oslo as a Trojan Horse. "[T]he Intifada itself is the coming down out of the [wooden] horse," he said. "[T]he Oslo agreement, or any other agreement, is just a temporary procedure, or just a step toward something bigger... [which] is the liberation of all historical Palestine from the river to the sea."

What are we to make of the fact that mainstream Palestinian press organs and leaders of the Palestinian authority have accused Israel of spreading AIDS to Arab children, of disseminating Mad Cow disease in the West Bank, of "distributing food containing material that causes cancer and hormones that harm male virility and other spoiled food products in the Palestinian Authority's territories in order to poison and harm the Palestinian population"?

It is tragic and ironic that this resurgence of anti-Zionism comes almost a decade after the Oslo peace treaties, when, polls show, a majority of Israelis and a majority of Jews throughout the world began to acknowledge Palestinian nationalism. It is tragic and pathetic that these blood libels, new and old, come after Ehud Barak offered a sweeping set of concessions at Camp David in July of 2000. It is tragic and diabolic that these attacks on the right of Israel to exist are echoing throughout the world and affirming the choice many Palestinians made to resort to violence instead of peaceful negotiations.

We in the Jewish community need to focus on these fundamental issues, on the right of Israel to exist, and on the violent repudiation by so many Palestinians of Israelis’ attempts at peace, even as we struggle with the political, strategic, moral, and existential challenges of today.

We must not get so bogged down in apologias and defensiveness that we ignore the bigger picture. A quarter of a century ago, America’s ambassador to the United Nations, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, rejected the infamous UN "Zionism is racism" resolution as "an obscene act." Moynihan later explained that he recognized more than "uninformed bigotry" at play, "it is conscious politics - It is not merely that our adversaries have commenced an effort to destroy the legitimacy of a kindred democracy through the incessant repetition of the Zionist-racist lie. It is that others can come to believe it also."

The poisonous seeds Moynihan saw sown in the mid-1970s are bearing deadly fruit today. We cannot sit by idly and let these libels fester. We must as Jews and as proud citizens of great democracies like the United States and Canada stand up and fight. Just as the women’s movement marched to "take back the night" from assailants, we Jews need to "take back" Zionism from its critics. Not only must we not let them define us, we also cannot let our reaction to them define us. Too much modern Judaism is defined by our enemies -- of yesterday and today. In taking back Zionism, we need to articulate a positive vision that speaks to us -- and inspires us.

Alas, the sad truth is that this renewed assault on Israel and on Zionism comes at an awkward time in Jewish history. As the next chapter will argue, despite all the speeches and rallies and essays generated after September 2000, despite all the "We are one" solidarity missions and statements, many North American Jews today remain ambivalent about Zionism and the state of Israel itself. Many say that the term "Zionism" makes them "uncomfortable," while others buy into the conventional wisdom that sets the Israelis as the colonialist "Goliaths" oppressing the Palestinian "Davids," or simply dismisses both sides as equally violent and barbaric. And even those who call themselves Zionist, who defend the state of Israel, often find themselves unable to articulate why -- or to navigate around the complexities of Middle East politics.

The Aims Of The Book:
Zionist And Jewish Renewal

The book is an attempt to "take back" Zionism from its critics. This task is easier said than done. In today’s politically correct world, it is far easier to damn a term than to redeem it. Many words have been banished from polite conversation, few have made the long journey back to respectability.

The book is also an attempt to "take back" Zionism from some of its fans. Zionist ideologues need to stop generating distractions with quixotic crusades trying to negate the Diaspora or limiting Zionism, meaning Jewish nationalism, to those who make aliyah, move to Israel. Zionist activists need to stop creating the misimpression that Zionism is a monolithic movement marching in lockstep with the Israeli policy of the moment. And Zionist leaders need to stop perpetuating an organizational culture that has many people marrying the word "Zionist" to sinecure or bureaucrat.

Friends and foes have done damage. Even Jews who accept the Zionist trinity, if you will, of peoplehood, history, and homeland, recoil at the use of the word -- and shun the label. I am, however, an optimist. If Times Square can be reclaimed, Zionism can be, too. In fact, Zionists have to follow their own playbook. Much of the Zionist revolution of the late nineteenth century entailed resurrecting symbols, changing images, transforming negatives into positives. From the new cult of the Maccabees to the rediscovery of Masada, Zionists scoured Jewish history for new, physically assertive, powerful role models -- and found them. Today, we need a similar reclamation project with the term Zionism itself.

In that spirit, the book is addressed to the many who may have forgotten -- or never learned -- just why Zionism began, and just why Israel needs to exist. It is addressed to the campus activist who told a reporter "Some people here can pull out all the Oslo details and pull all this knowledge out," while she was "trying to figure out just the basics." It is addressed to the college student who asked me how Israeli policy differed from apartheid. It is addressed to the counselor in a Zionist summer camp who asked me how I could support the Israeli "oppressors" -- and her colleague who said, "I grew up in a Jewish day school, but I can’t call myself ‘Zionist’ because I’ve only heard the biases of that side."

It is addressed to the student leader who felt that the Israel advocacy day at a Hillel Student Leaders Assembly, while "rejuvenating," was "also kind of hard to swallow because it’s so pro-Israel." It is addressed to the student leader who evenhandedly condemned "the uncompromising attitude both sides are taking." It is addressed to the many friends of mine who have continued pursuing business as usual during this great crisis, and do not seem that disturbed.

However, this is not intended to be a defensive work - nor is it simply tied to the political needs of the moment. Rather, the book is an attempt to articulate a vision of Zionism that is rooted in the past, relevant to the present, and inspiring for the future. I believe that Zionism is more than simply pro-Israelism. I also believe that you don’t have to sign off on every Israeli government policy and action to be a good Zionist. Finally, I believe that Zionism in the twenty-first century can be what it intended to be in the nineteenth century, and what it was for so many in the twentieth-century -- a solution to the Jewish problem, a way of solving some of our most pressing communal and individual needs.

Of course, the "problem" has changed - this generation needs Zionism to help revitalize Judaism, and not to protect us against anti-Semitism. This book, at the end of the day, is not simply about Gevalt or crisis Zionism, about rallying around the blue-and-white flag during times of trouble. Rather, it is about what we might call identity Zionism, about using this marvelous, mystical, and complex idea of Jewish nationalism to help make us better Jews, and better people. "Aseh lechah rav," make for yourself a teacher; "kneh lecha chaver," acquire for yourself a friend," Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of the Fathers, teaches. The distinction here suggests that while we seek out worthy teachers to absorb from them, we need to have a "kinyan," an exchange, with a friend. If it is not mutual, it is not a friendship. So, too, our relationship with Israel is no friendship if it is only a one-way street. And the truth is, that both of us, Israel and the Diaspora, need the friendship.

The Plan of the Book

This book is divided into 4 parts, with one appendix on how to talk about and defend Israel in the real world, especially on campus. Part 1, "Why I am a Zionist -- and Proud of it," articulates an up-to-date affirmative ideology. It begins by diagnosing the current ills of North American Zionism. It then offers a different, more positive, vision of Zionism than what we usually get, arguing that Zionism, meaning Jewish nationalism, is essential to Judaism, whether you are secular or religious. It ends by focusing on three experiences that have shaped my personal Zionism but also illustrate how to revitalize Zionism and Judaism -- attending Zionist summer camps, participating in group Israel experiences such as the birthright israel trips, and soaking in the magic of Jerusalem.

Part II, "History," then provides some historical background. Without understanding our past, neither the Jewish tie to Israel nor the Jewish return to Israel make much sense. In the face of a vicious assault on Israel’s legitimacy, it is crucial these days to understand the depth of the Jewish attachment to Israel. The historical part stretches back to Abraham and culminates with an assessment of Israel today.

After this thumbnail historical sketch, Part III, "Crisis Zionism," looks at some of the basic questions revolving around the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the renewed assault on the legitimacy of Zionism and Israel. Part IV, "Identity Zionism" seeks to go beyond the depressing complexities of the Middle East and the propaganda war to explore this new positive Zionist vision for North America. Finally, the appendix offers specific pointers about tactics and substance for engaging -- and sometimes avoiding - the fights that sprout like weeds around those of us who do call ourselves Zionist, who do care about the state of Israel.

This book is an introduction and a meditation it is not an authoritative reference book; it is more survey course than seminar, trying to uncover ideas without covering everything. This book hopes to point you in the right direction, but all readers must remember the dictum from the Passover Haggadah -- tseh ulmad, go out and learn!

Second, this book is a work in progress. It is the beginning of what I hope will be a vigorous dialogue in the Jewish world; it is certainly not the end point. I expect to revise this work and release future editions and welcome reader feedback.