“Judaism is not zionism” is a categorical statement on which avowed anti-zionist progressive Jews, many of them self-declared atheists, agree completely with avowed anti-zionist religious Jews — mostly the “Torah Jews.”
The more outrage is generated worldwide by Israel’s actions in Palestine, the more Jews crop up to confirm that they, too, believe that not only Judaism, but Jews in general, should not be identified with zionism and cannot be held responsible in any way for any of Israel’s actions. In fact they hasten to point out that a very large number of zionists are not even Jews (e.g., Christian zionists). Blame it all on Herzl! It is even better when this is delivered by an Arab:
“Israel does not represent the Jewish people. Israel represents people who believe that Jewish people should have a state in Palestine/Israel to the exclusion of the Palestinians. Those people are Zionists. Many Zionists are Jewish, but not all of them.”
And since long-ingrained habits die hard, they also threaten those who would dare to think otherwise with the “anti-semitism” cudgel:
“Holding ordinary Jewish people morally responsible for the actions of the Israeli Zionist state is not only wrong, it is racist.”
The more visible Israel’s criminal acts of ethnic cleansing become to the world, the more Jews wish to become known as “ordinary.” The prize to be gained is denial of moral responsibility. Ordinariness is to be gained by criticizing “zionism.”
On closer semantic examination the statement is certainly true: Judaism a religion while zionism is a political, secular ideology. Similar statements based on the same semantic formalism can be made: ‘The root of a plant is not its fruit,” The spring of a river is not any of its branches.” It is just that the same sap runs through them and it comes from the same source.
Some also make the argument that it is not the religious Jews who have committed massacres but the zionists. It is true that the studious religious Jews in the yeshiva settlements refuse to enroll in the army and prefer to “pray for victory.” The acts of violence committed every single day by the settlers against the defenseless Palestinian population under zionist occupation are of a smaller magnitude than, say, dropping phosphorus bombs on Gaza. This is what an ordinary day in the lives of Palestinians living in the shadow of a settlement looks like (H/T Richard Edmondson):
The rabbis who make the most outrageous statements of hate and incitement to violence against the native population are “religious” and even learned. They ooze Maimonides quotes. Ah, but they do not represent “true Judaism,” we are told now.
It seems that the slippery slope of disavowal has gone down from “it’s not Judaism, it’s zionism,” to “it’s not ‘true’ Judaism, it’s zionism,” thus leaving the “bad” rabbis openly supporting zionism without cover. So which Judaism is innocent of blame? Are the Torah Jews the “true” representatives of noble Judaism? They speak out against zionism and its crimes against the Palestinian people, and most vociferously against Netanyahu’s declaration that, as the leader of Israel, he represents them. One cannot help but feel that this disavowal is rooted in the fear that wide publicity of Israel’s crimes and Netanyahu’s insolent strutting is “bad for the Jews.”
In the interview shown here, Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro, alarmed by the aftermath of Netanyahu’s recent uninvited appearance before the US Congress, repeats several times that this is “dangerous for the Jews.” He states that Netanyahu has made the American Jews “human shields for the bullets of anti-semitism.” He insists that the American Jews are American citizens first and last, as Jews anywhere in the world are loyal citizens of their own countries, yet further on he forgets himself and speaks of the “Jewish nation” worldwide. At no point in his diatribe against Netanyahu and his hold over the US Congress, does the rabbi, as a purported patriotic American citizen, mention anything about this being bad for America. His worry is only that it is “dangerous for the Jews.”
The Torah Jews are fervent believers in Jewish supremacism. They believe Jews are “Light Unto Nations” and their mission is to “repair the world.” They believe “g-d” gave them Palestine but dispute the kick-off date of the takeover with their brethren in Judaism. According to their interpretation only the Messiah should perform the ribbon cutting at the inauguration of “Israel” and that joyous event must first be announced by the birth of a perfect red heifer (parah adumah) with nary a white hair anywhere on its body. Severalfalse alarms were sounded in 1997, 2002, 2006 and 2010. (One wonders how long will Ron Lauder stand this suspense before he sends one of his Estee Lauder experts to fix the next near-perfect-but-not-quite-perfect heiffer to the Temple can be rebuilt.)
The Torah Jews are supremacists not despite their most noble pronoucements but because of them. They quibble over what Tikkun olam (literally, “repair the world”) means exactly and disagree with other rabbis over what specific social “repairs” are called for but they, no more than their Judaic brethren, ever question whether the world wishes to delegate to Jews the responsibility to fix the world.
Just think of it: the world is just one red heifer away from Light Unto Nations bursting all over he world, and this time with no Judaic dissent…
Jewish supremacism is the running thread in Judaism as it is in zionism.
What about Jews being held responsible for zionism? Some who argue that “religious Jews” are not responsible for zionism’s crimes also argue that Jews, collectively and as individuals, are also “innocent.” It is their Jew-ISHNESS that creates problems. Jews who do not indulge in Jew-ISH behaviors are innocent. But what exactly is Jew-ISHNESS to Jews? Is it like white on rice or is it just a collection of annoying tics, like speaking with your mouth full or clearing your throat? It cannot be the belief in Jewish supremacism, in the Jews’ innate intellectual superiority (possibly through clever inbreeding eugenics), in Jewish entitlement, because a Jew who is neither religious, nor a believer in Jewish supremacism, one who does not self-identify primarily as a Jew, and does not succumb to tribal agglutination in his professional and social life is not longer a Jew. He is just a Goy who happens to have fond childhood memories of playing with a dreidl.
Judaism is the recipe for Jewish supremacism. Zionism is one way of preparing it.
Uprooted Palestinian 
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