"Zionism" means the protection of a Jewish state in Israel. Anyone with even a cursory familiarity with geopolitics since the 1880s will recognize the utility to the United States of a Jewish state in Israel. Conversely, anyone arguing otherwise is revealing either deeply anti-American politics or deep naiivete.
"Protection" being the operative word of evergreen disagreement. I still think the odds are that Israeli intel knew about Oct. 7 and buried it, because "protection", to some, might mean sacrificing a thousand people if it justifies a violent response that will, yes, undoubtedly do a lot of protecting. For one beautiful moment of my life, I almost half-believed that U.S. support of Ukraine portended a principled U.S. geopolitik that aligned with my values, and wasn't one opportunistic fuck-up after the other. Nah I'm just kidding.
That presupposes that October 7 was somehow good for Likud. The fact of the matter is, Netanyahu's entire political career has been aligned along "I will keep you safe from Hamas" and he didn't.
We'll see. They just admitted publicly the goal is indefinite military control with "buffer zones" of stolen Palestinian land. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/02/23/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news More so than staying safe from Hamas, this seems like Netanyahu's real goal and that of a lot of people that voted for him. Certainly this war hasn't made people more leftist over there.
Dude they've been admitting publicly that Palestinians gotta go for seventy fucking years. They've been doing that one murder, one humiliation, one annexation at a time the whole time until they were given an excuse to glass Gaza and here we are. But they WERE given an excuse and it just gets uglier from there. 'cuz yeah. I watched Bush's approval rating go from 50% to 90% in One Fucking Day. Here's a candlelight vigil for victims of September 11 in Tehran.
That sucked ! And like, is my point. We should not have bombed so many people after 9/11. Yet we did. And now we're letting Israel do the same thing for a lot of the same reasons and it's like we've learned nothing.
It's too late for it now, Israel's existed for a while, so a two state answer is still best. But I don't see why it's self evident that the only option at the time was a colonial project, or why an ethostate is inherently a good idea. So much of our culture now in the USA is embracing diversity and inclusion. Anyone arguing the USA should be an ethostate of White Christians is a deplorable, but the same arguments are made for why Israel should be allowed to do what they do.
It wasn't evident at the time. What was evident at the time was that Europe had torn itself apart over ethnic lines and here's America, trying to keep the Soviets from overrunning the ruins. The most expedient solution for American interests was a place the Jews could go that wouldn't prompt the Soviets to call for their genocide (again). So do me a solid - stop changing the subject. I didn't mention "diversity and inclusion" I didn't mention "ethnostates" I didn't talk about "two state answers" NONE OF THAT SHIT is under debate here. Your argument is "Joe Biden is a Zionist" and fucking hell of course he is. The alternative to Zionism has been fucking genocide going back to 1492.
i think that's maybe just your definition? I don't want the Jews to be genocided again lol. To me Zionism is unquestioning support for Israel as it is, an ethostate where Arabs are a second class citizen and Palestine is occupied and blockaded. It's support for Israel as a colonial project. And if finding an expedient place to live requires doing a genocide of your own, maybe it wasn't a good place to pick idk.
If you want a "Jewish" state, I don't see how you can possibly say that talking about ethostates is off topic. It's not a space where Jewish people can be safe it's a Jewish state. In Israel, a place were people already lived. It's saying they have more of a right there than the Arabs. It is absolutely picking a side.