[Saying that Israel must be democratic and Jewish is like saying
the United States must be democratic and white or democratic and
Christian. ]
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POLL: AMERICANS HAVE NO IDEA WHAT BIDEN MEANS WHEN HE SAYS HE IS A
ZIONIST, OR WHAT ISRAEL’S IDEOLOGY IS  
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Juan Cole
January 8, 2024
Informed Comment
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_ Saying that Israel must be democratic and Jewish is like saying the
United States must be democratic and white or democratic and
Christian. _

, Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum

 

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Shibley Telhami and Michael Hammer
have a new commentary
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out based on their polling at the University of Maryland’s Critical
Issues Poll during the past year. One of the three issues they address
is Israel/ Palestine.

They found that 62% of Americans have no idea what Zionism is. Zionism
is, of course, a form of Jewish nationalism born in Central Europe in
the late 19th century, which seeks to turn the Jewish religion into a
platform for a state, and which excludes non-Jews from sovereignty
over territory claimed by this Jewish state.

In the case of Palestine, this ideology has produced the statelessness
of Palestinians under Israeli occupation and has made citizens of
Israel of Palestinian heritage into second-class citizens. That is,
Zionism is akin to other ethnic supremacist ideologies such as white
nationalism or the Baathist form of Arab nationalism (which made Kurds
second-class citizens in Iraq and perpetuated their non-citizen status
in Syria).

The mantra often found among US politicians, that Israel must be
democratic and Jewish, reflects the ethnic supremacism implicit in
Zionist thinking. What would happen, for instance, if the proportion
of Israelis of non-Jewish heritage rose to become a majority? If the
state must be “Jewish,” this development would presumably require
the expulsion or disenfranchisement of non-Jews.

Such demographic developments are not theoretical but are apparent in
the contemporary world. Lebanese Christians were 51% of Lebanon’s
population in 1930 but probably only 22% or so today.

Saying that Israel must be democratic and Jewish is like saying the
United States must be democratic and white or democratic and
Christian. The second, ethnic supremacist, demand is profoundly
undemocratic and so the second part of the phrase stealthily negates
the first.

Joe Biden says he is a Zionist, and given his behavior during the past
three months, I think we have to conclude that he is an extreme sort
of Zionist. It is baffling that the overwhelming majority of Americans
doesn’t even know what he means when he says this, or what the
ideology is of the country that receives more US aid than any other in
the world.

Interestingly, 12% of Americans have a negative perception of Zionism,
and 8% have a positive one. Some 19% don’t care one way or another.
Presumably this 39% comprises the bulk of those who say they know what
Zionism is.

Americans who view Zionism negatively are more likely to be Democrats
or Independents than Republicans, though the spread is not that great
(8% are Republicans, 13% Democrats, 14% independents).

Some 15% of Americans believe that criticizing Israeli policies is a
form of antisemitism (bigotry toward Jews). Only 37% say that such
criticism does not constitute anti-Jewish prejudice. 48% don’t know.

If we zero in on the 52% who had an opinion on the matter, 70% said
that criticizing Israel does not amount to being prejudiced toward
Jews. It is worrying, however, that 28% of those who said they knew
the answer to the question believe that the only way to avoid
anti-Jewish bigotry is to be silent about Israeli policies and
actions.

This issue is of the utmost importance, since 38 states have passed
laws forbidding the boycott of Israel and punishing it by denial of
state government contracts (including speaking fees to professors and
journalists and writers). That is, the belief that you can’t
criticize Israel is undermining basic first amendment freedoms of
Americans, among them the freedom to boycott enterprises with which
they disagree. The Civil Rights movement probably could not have
succeeded if it had been illegal to boycott white-owned businesses
practicing segregation.

The United States and France are characterized by civic nationalism,
or at least that is their constitutional tradition. As long as people
are loyal to the Constitution in each country, their ethnicity ideally
shouldn’t matter in the law. Obviously, it does matter, de facto,
but even so the terms can change. See, e.g., Barack Obama, who
probably could not have been president of the USA until the 21st
century. At that point, we were truer to our constitutional tradition
of civic nationalism than we had earlier been. Progress is possible in
civic nationalism in a way that ethnonationalism forestalls.

The big takeaway from the University of Maryland poll for me is that
the corporate news media have again failed to do their job. Americans
are not being educated about the world in which they live, which is
consequential for our own democracy. If we are simply ignorant, it is
more likely that we will get policy wrong and that we will give away
our birthright as a free people with a Bill of Rights.

* Israel/Palestine; US Politics;
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