Being a Jewish Anti-Zionist feels exhausting.

[u/ray-the-they]

First off, I’m an American and I am aware of exactly how much privilege that affords me.

But at the same time I feel like I’m fighting on all fronts - I’m fighting my own people, sometimes my own family, who cannot even bring themselves to acknowledge the crimes against humanity being committed. Heck even if I censor myself and my true feelings about Israel (that it was made as a monument to antisemitism, not a place to fight it) I’m a “traitor”

And then when there is actual antisemitism if I call it out, I get attacked for it and called a zionazi.

I am just so tired and worn out emotionally from all this. It feels like the group of people I can rely on or trust is very small.

[u/zzpop10]

Here here comrade! The good fight is often a lonely fight.

While it’s pointless to argue with people online, when I have asked non-Jewish friends of mine who are very pro-Palestine to workshop how they phrase certain things I have felt that they listened to me and appreciated my input.

[u/Launch_Zealot → u/zzpop10]

Can you share more about what you alluded to regarding how to phrase certain things? I’m not promising to adopt a particular phrasing but I’d at least like to know.

[u/zzpop10 → u/Launch_Zealot]

I don’t remember all the exact details but basically I’ve helped give some of my non-Jewish friends better insight into what it’s like to go through Zionist indoctrination and how the mythology of Israel is so tied into to Jewish generational trauma and deep fear that we are always one inch from annihilation etc… One of my non-Jewish friends had said some really basic stuff about resistance to occupation and it had set off one of their other friends who is Jewish (and I assume Zionist) who then was accusing them of “supporting Hamas and the beheading of Jewish babies.” So this non-Jewish friend of mine didn’t want to loose their friendship with this other Jewish friend of theirs so I was helping them learn how to phrase anti-Zionism 101 in the softest and least scary terms so they could hopefully make some progress with this friend of theirs. As we all know so many Jews are trauma bonded to Zionism and they literally think anti-Zionism = “I wish none of you survived the Holocaust” so it just takes allot of emotional insight into that to begin to de-program people.

[u/Launch_Zealot → u/zzpop10]

Thank you for sharing that. I don’t frequently speak about politics with Jewish Zionists, but it’s good to know that I may need to tread carefully around sincere hypersensitivity.

[u/zzpop10 → u/Launch_Zealot]

Another one I just remembered was a non-Jewish friend of mine who was sharing side by side pictures of IDF soldiers and Nazis. If you are trying to get through to a Jewish Zionist, I wouldn’t use that example, it’s just going to be triggering for them and will cause them to harden in their position. I think when de-programming someone it’s good to not focus on Israel at all. It’s not about Israel, it’s about the Palestinians. Zionist Jews want to have a conversation about Israel where you say “Israel is bad” and they say “Israel is good” and they come away feeling like they stood up for and defended this thing that is so central to their identity that it’s an extension of themselves. You want to push Israel out of the conversation and center things on the Palestinian story. Sure, they will try to victim blame the Palestinians. But if it is possible to de-program them then eventually their defenses will crack and they will have a moment of empathizing with the Palestinian story. With that said, allot of liberal Zionist Jews think they are empathetic to the Palestinians in the “oh it’s such a sad complicated situation was so many difficult part to it” type of way but what they have done is completely shut out all the details of the intentional cruelty Israel has committed. They see Israel as a victim of circumstance even in its own oppression of the Palestinians. “Israel doesn’t want to occupy, it doesn’t want to be at war, but it has to consider its own safety.” So it’s really important to just be armed with the facts that really showcase the specific intentional cruelty of Israeli policies on the lives of Palestinians.

[u/Launch_Zealot → u/zzpop10]

Thank you very much. I’ll keep that in mind.

There is a Zionist family within our outer circle of friends. They have a son who leans right and apparently spoke about joining the IDF. There’s a very small but nonzero chance that the topic may come up. What’s the best way to reach someone like that?

My gut feeling is to focus on how dehumanizing Palestinians is so normalized in the IDF that it would be very morally unhealthy to immerse yourself in that environment, particularly where you’re dealing with orders and peer pressure.