{"id":485945,"date":"2026-06-10T15:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/485945\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T15:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:50:10","slug":"the-real-anti-zionists-are-in-the-israeli-government-the-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/485945\/","title":{"rendered":"The real anti-Zionists are in the Israeli government\u00a0 \u2013 The Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Israeli<\/p>\n

Israeli soldiers move toward a crowd of Palestinian men in a field near the village of Idhna, west of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, on June 5. Photo by Mosab Shawer \/ Middle East Images via AFP<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Rob<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSenior Columnist
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRob Eshman<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJune 10, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The fact that about half of young American Jews favor replacing Israel<\/a> with a binational Israeli-Palestinian state is indeed a result of anti-Zionism \u2014 but not necessarily their own.<\/p>\n

Instead, it\u2019s a consequence of the Israeli government\u2019s drive to radically increase Israeli control over the West Bank and Gaza. By ensuring that some 5.5 million Arabs increasingly live under Israel authority, Israel\u2019s leaders have created the demographic reality of a binational state.<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t blame young American Jews for just acknowledging reality. Instead, it\u2019s time to acknowledge that a movement to undermine Zionism has taken hold within the Israeli government.<\/p>\n

If Zionism is the movement for a secure homeland for the Jews, then any forces that reject or undermine that homeland\u2019s legitimacy or security are anti-Zionist. That includes the people whose positions and policies actively undermine the existence of a Jewish homeland.<\/p>\n

The democratic Jewish state enshrined in the country\u2019s Declaration of Independence has given way to something that looks a lot more like a herrenvolk democracy, in which democratic rights apply only to the dominant ethnic group. History has many examples of such arrangements, and \u2014 spoiler alert \u2014 they don\u2019t end well for the majority. French Algeria until 1962, Rhodesia until 1980, South Africa until 1994 \u2014 all eventually faced one of three fates: negotiated transition to full democracy, violent collapse or ongoing instability and international isolation. To date, none have stabilized permanently.<\/p>\n

Just recently Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted<\/a> that Israel will soon control 70% of Gaza, well beyond the 53% allotted to the country in the Gaza ceasefire framework to which Israel is still supposed to adhere.<\/p>\n

When an audience member at his talk shouted out that Israel should take 100% of Gaza, Netanyahu responded, \u201cFirst 70%. We\u2019ll start with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the West Bank, where settlers tried to expel<\/a> 2,000 Palestinians from a village south of Nablus earlier this month, and where settlers and an IDF soldier wounded nine Palestinians on a June 5 rampage<\/a> through Hawara.<\/p>\n

Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has established at least 59 new illegal outposts <\/a>in the West Bank \u2014 compared to an annual average of seven in the preceding three decades. It has appropriated a record amount of land, and displaced<\/a> more than 8,700 Palestinians through demolitions and settler violence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also East Jerusalem, where some Israeli Jews are actively trying to remove 20,000<\/a> Palestinians from the Silwan neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Each act of seizure, harassment and expulsion is anti-Zionist. These Palestinians will not fade into Egypt or Amman or Los Angeles. Mass expulsion isn\u2019t happening, and neither is mass immigration. A Jewish state is giving way to a state that is effectively equal parts Arab and Jewish \u2014\u00a0except the Jews have all the rights. As the anti-Zionists in the Israeli government seize control of more Palestinian land, they undo all of Zionism\u2019s hard-fought gains. A nondemocratic Jewish state will be neither safe nor secure.<\/p>\n

If this sounds like diasporic Jewish garment-rending over morality and Jewish values, it\u2019s not. The people who live in a fantasy world are not those who point out the necessity of finding a way toward coexistence, but those who think Israel can survive and flourish if it trashes its founding principles and its democracy.<\/p>\n

Logic and history are not on Israel\u2019s side. No minority- or bare-majority-rule system over a large disenfranchised population has proved durable. I know from my many conversations with my fellow Jews who support a \u201cGreater Israel\u201d incorporating Gaza and the West Bank \u2014 or just want to ignore or get rid of Palestinians \u2014 that they think time, power or God will bend the iron laws of demography in Israel\u2019s favor. History would beg to differ.<\/p>\n

But what about the Palestinians, you might ask: don\u2019t they bear responsibility? For decades of rejectionism and terror? For elevating kleptocratic and ineffective leaders? For glorifying violence and cheering on Hamas in its slaughter, kidnapping and rape of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023? For wanting, as many of them do, an end to Jewish sovereignty<\/a> in the land?<\/p>\n

Yes. Palestinian rejectionism and embrace of violence has been a disaster for Jews, as well as for generations of Palestinians. But those facts don\u2019t change the demographic reality.<\/p>\n

Of Americans Jews under 35, 51% support a binational state, according to a recent Jewish Voters Research Center poll<\/a>. What they see is that there are 15 million people between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. About half of them are not Jews, much less Zionists, and one government is not just intent on holding and controlling all that territory, but well on its way to doing so. If a binational state already exists in practice, the best hope for the region, these young people are saying, is to accept that fact, and direct all our efforts toward making that state just.<\/p>\n

They may be completely mistaken about the chances of that happening peacefully or even in their lifetimes, but they\u2019re not the ones who got us to this point. The ongoing settlement of territories with a vast non-Jewish majority was the most anti-Zionist thing Israel could have done, and continues to do, and yet here we are.<\/p>\n

The Jewish communal obsession with policing who is and isn\u2019t a Zionist misses the larger point. The State of Israel exists<\/a>. What\u2019s in question is its character \u2014 whether it will be democratic and secure, or calcify into something modern history has repeatedly shown the world rejects.<\/p>\n

Land comes with people, and demographics is destiny. A government intent on holding and controlling all the territory between the river and the sea is undermining Zionism from within.<\/p>\n

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion<\/a>. To contact Opinion authors, email [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hello, fellow Forward reader! I\u2019m Joel Brown, a Forward reader and supporter for more than 15 years, and currently the chair of the board of directors.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m an avid Forward reader because it ticks so many of my essential boxes: excellent journalism, Jewish focus and diverse viewpoints. In today\u2019s political climate, what I most appreciate is the Forward\u2019s independence \u2014 made possible by the generosity of its membership.<\/p>\n

The Forward is committed to bringing you unbiased, nuanced Jewish news. From my position as board chair, I see an exciting future as we expand our position as the definitive independent voice of contemporary American Judaism.<\/p>\n

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.<\/p>\n

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