Political Zionism Deserves Criticism
As you would imagine, most despotic states war against their own citizens when leveling criticism towards their own government, that is a given with oppressive, wicked regimes. But what kind of twilight-zone world do we live in when a government disallows criticism of a foreign government? Well just this week at the AIPAC summit in D.C., Secretary of State Mike Pompeo like many other world leaders have stated they will police their citizens for anti-Zionist sentiments, equating it to racism saying,
“US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo embraced Israel in a speech at the AIPAC policy conference in Washington on Monday.
“Israel should be admired, not attacked, embraced, not vilified," Pompeo stated at the annual gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. "I’m proud to lead American diplomacy to support Israel’s right to defend itself, stand with the Jewish people, and champion the perennial cause of religious liberty."
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Pompeo was one of the many elected officials from both Israel and America to speak at the event hosted by the pro-Israeli lobby. The State Department has historically been viewed by many pro-Israel activists as leaning toward pressuring Israel into compromise vis-a-vis the Palestinians. However the Trump Administration seems to have shifted the narrative, recognizing Israel's right to the Golan Heights on Monday. The strategic highlands was controlled by Syria from 1948 to 1967.
Last year, US President Donald Trump defended Israel's right to both eastern and western Jerusalem, moving the US embassy to the capital. "The rise of antisemitism and anti-Zionism strikes at the very foundation of freedom," Pompeo added. "The Trump Administration opposes it unequivocally and will fight it relentlessly, from the fever swamp of the UN Human Rights Council to the world’s number one proponent of antisemitism: Iran." (Jerusalem Post)
Why would any independent nation, of any stripe care to enforce anti-hate laws, or anti-free speech laws on behalf of another nation? Yet, this is exactly what has happened with Israel relative to the rest of the world. Nations all over the earth are prosecuting their own citizens based on nothing more than their criticism of Zionism and Israel, equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. How has Israel obtained this favored status when no other nation, including the Unites States has forced other nations to do so?
In February, U.S. President Donald Trump sent a delegation to Israel who equated criticism of the 100-year-old political movement called Zionism with anti-Semitism and racism. Elan Carr, head of the anti-Semitism envoy stated this,
“Elan Carr, the United States’ new envoy to combat anti-Semitism, told American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem that he will work to end the “attempted distinction” between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, while praising U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to combat the “scourge.”
“I will work to eradicate the attempted distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. There is no distinction,” he told U.S. Jewish leaders gathered at Jerusalem’s Inbal Hotel as part of the annual Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations summit.
“There is a greater rise in new anti-Semitism that clothes itself as anti-Zionism. The anti-Semitism of the European street, of the college campus and of those that have embraced the notion that the Jewish people don’t have a right to their homeland,” said Carr.
“Zionism wasn’t born in 1948 or with [Theodor] Herzl or with the First Zionist Congress. Zionism started with Parshat Lech-Lecha, with Moses and on the banks of the river of Babylon,” he said. “Anyone who attempts to deny the Jewish religion its basic faith tenets, its rights to a homeland is wading into anti-Semitism. And I will fight it,” he declared.” (The Sun Sentinel)
https://wakethechurch.org/articles/political-zionism-deserves-criticism