Why I'm Still a Zionist
Why We Need Isaac Saul and Moderate Zionists to Help Us Save Zionism
Isaac Saul's recent podcast "I think I'm leaving Zionism, or Zionism is leaving me" on Tangle News struck a deep chord with me. As a Zionist Jewish father, I find myself grappling with two painful realities: watching what I believe is ethnic cleansing unfold in Gaza, and seeing the Zionist movement increasingly hijacked by religious fundamentalists. This is a pattern that eerily mirrors how extremist Muslims have co-opted Arab nationalist movements.
I regret that I failed to write Isaac earlier to voice my support for his Zionist case for a ceasefire. Many moderate secular Zionists I know view Isaac as Zionism's ideal representative, despite religious zealots claiming there's no room in our movement for moderates like him.
The comparison to American conservatism offers hope. Just as MAGA has taken over much of the Republican party, Netanyahu and his Knesset coalition represent what I believe is the most destructive incarnation of Zionism we've witnessed. Yet core Republican judges have stood firm against Trump's overreach, refusing to abandon their principles of limited government and constitutional values. They haven't abandoned conservative Republicanism, they're fighting to preserve its true meaning.
Similarly, I believe Jews who still believe in the Zionist project must refuse to abandon our core principles in the face of extremism. We cannot let Netanyahu's government define what Zionism means, just as principled conservatives won't let Trump define conservatism.
My vision of Zionism rests on three fundamental goals:
The establishment of a safe and secure homeland for the Jewish people
Israeli self-determination, not domination over others
Peaceful coexistence with Arab and Palestinian neighbors and citizens
This dream feels farther away than I can ever remember, but distance doesn't diminish its worth. The current crisis makes these principles more vital, not less.
I cannot imagine a better spokesperson for authentic Zionism than Isaac Saul, who has taken the time to understand and experience all sides of Israel's current reality. So I come, hat in hand, asking him to continue identifying as a Zionist. A Zionist, who like me, rejects settlement expansion, who opposes the bloodthirsty rhetoric from Netanyahu's government, who stands for Judaism's principle of "Tikkun Olam", literally repairing the world.
These are Zionism's and Judaism's fundamental principles. Those who call for mass murder of civilians and children have abandoned both traditions. We who remain must reclaim what they've distorted, not surrender the field to them. The stakes couldn't be higher. Without voices like Isaac's, Zionism risks becoming everything its founders never intended and everything its critics claim it always was.
Moderate Zionism needs you more than ever Isaac, please don’t leave us.
Sincerely,
Adam Sherman