Useful (Non)Idiots

The Responsibility of Anti-Zionists (Especially Jewish Ones!) to Condemn Antisemitism

With the post October 7th anti-Israel protests, we've all become familiar with the term “useful idiots." It's an old description, and it fits much of the anti-Israel movement to a tee. The protesters are “useful" - their voices and numbers help their cause. And they are “idiots" - they basically have no idea what they're talking about. Videos of these people litter our social media feeds. They chant "From the river to the sea,” but couldn't tell you which river or which sea. They chant “Globalize the Intifada," but don't know that an act of intifada would indiscriminately and without apology blow up them and their friends were they unlucky enough to be sitting at the wrong cafe at the wrong time. They chant “Free Palestine" but couldn't tell you exactly what that entity is, who its leaders are, or whose freedom is being denied. Feminists and LGBTQ+ community members advocate in full voice for people who would deny their rights on a good day and kill them for openly being who they are most other days. Useful idiots don't know any of this. And they don't want to know. When told, they will most often deny reality, firmly in the thrall of the anti white colonialist settler ideology that pervades the left - regardless of how poorly it fits the situation at hand.

These are the useful idiots. There are, however, useful non-idiots as well. This group knows the facts and the history and for whatever combination of reasons, comes to different conclusions. These are, in fact, the leaders of the movement to delegitimize and ultimately end Israel’s existence as the world's one Jewish state - activists, academics, and intellectuals who have insisted that their critique of Israel is grounded solely in political opposition to Zionism, not in hatred of Jews. Their views predate October 7th by a long time, and they have taken pains to distinguish anti-Zionism from antisemitism, arguing that one can oppose the existence of the Israeli state without harboring animosity toward Jews as a people.

But recent violent incidents — including the firebombing of the governor's mansion in Pennsylvania, the murder of two Israeli Embassy workers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., and the burning of citizens in Boulder, Colorado who were peacefully marching on behalf of the remaining hostages held by Hamas — underscore an urgent moral imperative: those who claim to be merely anti-Zionist must draw clear lines and speak out unequivocally against antisemitism when it manifests in the movements or language they associate with and often lead.

What is even more troubling is how these murderous actions are rooted in a