The Intersectional Power of Zionism by Einat Wilf
Zionism has a story to tell that is not only about Jews or for Jews.
Zionism has a story to tell that, when properly understood, has the
power to inspire people and peoples to great acts of daring and
sacrifice. Zionism tells a simple story: Victimhood is not destiny. A
history of marginalization, humiliation, discrimination, persecution,
massacres, and even genocide can be transcended. A people, no matter
how downtrodden, can find within themselves the power to change their
future.
When the story of Zionism is told, continuity is often highlighted:
the continuous presence of Jews in the Land of Israel, the ongoing
yearning of a people in exile to return to their homeland, the
unrelenting hope for the ingathering of a people from all corners of
the earth to find redemption in an ancient land.
But Zionism is as much a revolution in Jewish life as a continuation
of it. In the immediate aftermath of the Roman exile, the Judeans
might have conceived of their return to Judea as a forthcoming
possibility. But by the 19th century, the idea of return was
sublimated into a Messianic wish, expressed in ritual and prayer. One
day, a descendant of King David would arise and lead the Jewish people
out of a fragile existence into a life of dignified sovereignty in a
land of their own. It was a passive hope that mandated no action.
Zionism was a rebellion against this Jewish passivity. To the Jewish
people, Zionism carried the message that they need not wait for the
Messiah. Rather, they should be their own Messiahs. Zionism, born of
the enlightenment, embodied the idea of human agency. Rather than wait
for God or Messiah to bring about their salvation, Zionism called upon
the Jewish people to be the vehicles of their own redemption. Zionism
demonstrated that, even when dealt some of the worst cards in history,
humans were active agents, capable of changing the course of their
private and collective futures.
And change their destinies they did. In a few short years, the Zionist
movement put in place the foundations for the future state of Israel,
from a fledgling parliament to a banking system. On the eve of World
War II, the modern state of Israel existed in all but name and
independence. Throughout this time, Jews from around the world
immigrated—ascended—to the Land of Israel, launching a process that
would ultimately lead the state to be home to nearly half of the
Jewish people.
The inspirational power of Zionism lay not only in its call to action,
but in its vocabulary of human equality, liberty, and dignity. Zionism
called upon the Jewish people to take action to achieve their rightful
place among the nations as equals—nothing more, nothing less. This was
a simple, but compelling, argument: In a world where nations and
peoples were increasingly considered to possess a universal right to
sovereignty in states of their own, where they could enjoy liberty and
dignity, free from the oppressions of empire, the Jewish nation
possessed that right as well.
Precisely because of its potential intersectional power to inspire
downtrodden people to take action for their own equality and liberty,
Zionism has been subject to decades of persistent attacks. It is in
the nature of power that no one ever gives it up willingly. When those
who were previously deemed inferior challenge existing power
relations, especially long-established ones, they will always face
backlash, typically ferocious and violent. This is intended to
dissuade them from internalizing the dangerous idea of equality,
sending them back to their “rightful” place.
Because Zionism meant that the Jews had the gall to challenge
civilizational structures that assigned them an inferior status, it
too faced backlash, and had to deal with both physically violent and
intellectually sinister manifestations. The backlash was designed not
only to put the Jews back where they belong, but also to prevent the
spread of its contagious ideas. If Zionism stands as proof of the
human will to dignity, then its name must be besmirched and the
reality to which it gave birth erased, lest others follow suit.
It is no accident that so many Jews, inspired by the revolutionary
idea of Zionism, seek to share it with others, and bring forth its
message that victimhood is not destiny. But when they find that they
are refused entry to the room where those supporting causes of human
equality and liberty gather, on account of their Zionism or support of
Israel, their exclusion sadly bears witness to the success of the
backlash. Those who exclude pro-Israel or Zionist Jews from supporting
intersectional causes of downtrodden people are depriving themselves
of the most powerful sources of inspiration to human action.
But Zionism is about rejecting a destiny of victimhood. The backlash
against it, in all it ugly forms, should not deter those who
understand its story from sharing its powerful message with all.
Einat Wilf was chair of the Education Committee and member of the
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the 18th Knesset, has a BA in
government and fine arts from Harvard University, an MBA from INSEAD
in France and a PhD in political science from the University of
Cambridge. Previously, she served as a senior fellow with the Jewish
People Policy Planning Institute, a foreign policy advisor to
then-vice prime minister Shimon Peres and a strategic consultant with
McKinsey & Company. Wilf is the author of three books that explore key
issues in Israeli society, including My Israel, Our Generation
(BookSurge, 2007).
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