“Zion” and the Zionist Fallacy

Jonathan Greenblatt said at the IAC summit “Jews need to realize we have a commitment to Eretz Yisrael[…]You cannot take the Zionism out of Judaism.” pic.twitter.com/u8EAEF6otV

— Abier (@abierkhatib) January 21, 2026

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt is one of the most prominent, vocal, and odious representatives of US Israel Lobby organizations. He speaks in stentorian tones infused with self-righteousness. It’s perfect for this social media age of short attention spans, clipped sound bytes, and raging polemics. I’ve critiqued some of his more egregious episodes here.

This year’s Israel-America Coalition annual conference offered several astonishingly candid presentations, which exposed the underbelly of US Zionist political strategy. In Greenblatt’s case, he offered a tutorial exposing a debased interpretation of Jewish and Zionist history. I quote below an extended excerpt of his remarks because they highlight the bankruptcy of Zionism in general, and American Zionism in particular:

The Jewish State of Israel has the degree of responsibility for Jews around the world–and has to realize that the policy decisions in Israel have practical implications. And then we as Jews have to realize that we have a commitment to Eretz Yisrael. We have a commitment to medinat Yisrael. We, as Jews in Diaspora need to realize that the comfort we enjoy, and the privilege we enjoy, the acceptance and equality we enjoy, in part, is because of the State of Israel. I firmly believe that our success is related to our sovereignty.

Greenblatt correctly notes that American Zionism suggested a symbiotic relationship, a type of mutual aid society between Israel and Diaspora. Outside of Israel, Jews held up their end of the bargain. They raised billions, sent hundreds of thousands of new immigrants, lobbied their political leaders–all on behalf of Israel. While the latter never held up its end. It exploited the Diaspora and offered nothing in return. Everything was: what can you do for me? It ignored the advice of Diaspora leaders, even when they warned that Israeli policies were alienating Jews from Israel. Even as it took our money, it disparaged us behind our backs.

Zionism’s denigration of Diaspora

That’s the derivation of the derogatory term shlilat ha’galut (“negation of exile”). In fact, the very term galut in that phrase is based on a false premise. There was no act of mass physical expulsion of Jews from ancient Judea. In fact, they spread widely throughout the Mediterranean voluntarily and over an extended period, based on economic and commercial pursuits. One estimate places that population at 5-million. Though another source projects 450,000 Jews living in the Roman Empire outside Judea, before the period of what would be called exile, which coincided with the destruction of the Temple in 70CE. The entire Jewish population of that era was between 2-million to 4.5-million, depending on the source. Even taking the lower estimate of 450,000, between 10-25% of Jews lived in the Diaspora. They were never “expelled.” They chose to leave for the same reason populations have migrated over the entire existence of the human species. “Exile” is a misnomer. If there was no exile, then Zionism does not offer a magic pill of return or redemption.

Speaking of today, an average of 3-4,000 American Jews make aliyah yearly–half of 1% of the total US Jewish population. Over the years, approximately 60,000 have emigrated from Israel back to the US. There are 150,000 American Jews currently living in Israel: 1.5% of the overall Israeli population.

Conversely, there are nearly 1-million Israeli-Americans here. 11% of Israel’s overall population. While 150,000 Israelis emigrated from Israel in the past two years. Last year, only 20,000 returned.

If Greenblatt’s Zionist ideology was correct, far more US Jews would make aliyah and far fewer Israelis would have chosen to make this country their home. However for most, personal and economic factors trump ideology. Zionism takes a backseat to more pragmatic concerns.

Zionism’s negation of Diaspora derives from the conviction that the the latter is doomed; that the only truly viable form of Jewish life is in Eretz Yisrael. All Jews, in this conception, must make aliyah, return to the Jewish homeland. In other words, galut represented Jewish life outside of history. While Israel represented Jews re-entering history:

[Gershom] Scholem…shared the conviction of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, and a host of Israeli intellectuals and political leaders, that Jews had existed outside of history for two millennia and re-entered history only with the rise of Zionism.

As Israel, over the past 50 years, has slipped into Judeo-supremacism and fascism, the emptiness of this perspective has become crystal clear. Every day, every Israeli crime proves that we have no commitment to the State of Israel. In fact, if it continues on its current path, Israel itself may disappear from history, except as a minor footnote. If it is willing to sail its ship into an iceberg, we have no obligation to go down with it.

Finally, all the comforts, achievements and acceptance we enjoy in our homeland have nothing to do with the State of Israel. We have earned all of these benefits by dint of the sweat and toil of our working class immigrant ancestors, who made a place for us here. And we, the following generations made our own contributions as proud Americans to this country.

Israel gave us none of this. Even back in the day when many of us were proud of Israel, it did not give us anything aside from a Zionist identity. It did not strengthen our position, nor make us more successful or powerful in this society. We did all that ourselves.

Greenblatt continues:

…Why do they hate us? Those countries whose names I mentioned a few minutes ago, it’s because of our sovereignty. They cannot tolerate the idea of Jews as equals. We are fine as long as we know our place. But those days are over. We do not need to be second class citizens ever again. If you will, never again.

“Sovereignty” is a strange term in this context. It normally refers to states, not individuals. Not even religions. It connotes power, territorial control. Jews in America are not sovereign. They don’t rule anything or anyone. In fact, the notion that they do is precisely what incites anti-Semitism. Jews are only as strong as they are integrated within American society. A country in which ethnic groups measure their power by how much leverage they have; or how much they can impose their interests on others–Greenblatt’s conception– is one that is fractured, rather than an organic whole.

As for “second-class citizens,” Jews have not been for nearly a century. Today, Jews “know their place” not as victims, but at the highest rungs of society. They enjoy social mobility and access to all the privileges a country can offer. Greenblatt’s notion of fear and grievance has had its day, long ago. It’s no longer relevant, if it ever was.

His linking of American anti-Semitism to the Holocaust (via the slogan “Never Again”) is obscene. It’s yet another example of exploiting Jewish suffering on behalf of the ADL and its own interests.

Here he suggests that Zionism and Judaism are inseparable:

…We need to reaffirm our relationship with the State of Israel. And the only way we win, the only way we defeat this scourge [ie. anti-Semitism], I think there are just three things. Number one again, identity. Going on offense means preserving and reaffirming our Jewish identity.

And you cannot take the Zion out of Jewish identity. This is one of the things that our enemies tell us. You know there’s this new idea, this ridiculous idea [raising his fingers in scare quotes] “Diasporic Judaism.” Diaspora is a condition. It’s not an aspiration, right? There’s a reason why every siddur in every shul on the planet earth, on every page talk about Yerushalayim [Jerusalem], Yisrael or Zion. Because you cannot take the Zionism out of Judaism. Zionism didn’t start with Theodor Herzl. Zionism started not with Bibi. It started with Moshe Rabbeinu [Moses]. It didn’t start in 1948. It started thousands of years ago.

Here’s the heart of his argument, and where it goes off the rails. Diasporic Judaism, which he rails against, is neither “ridiculous” nor peripheral to Jewish identity. In fact, there could be no Jewish people without the Diaspora. How does he think Judaism survived during the millennia when there was no physical Israel (there was a small community which lived under various colonial rulers)? In fact, there has been a Diaspora longer than there was Israelite sovereignty in its own land.

Contrary to his claim, Diaspora is not a condition. It is not an illness or a disjuncture. It is a state of mind, a state of being, a set of values and beliefs. It is just as central to Jewish existence as Israel is. Today, even moreso I would argue. In fact, the worse conditions are in Israel, the more vital Diaspora is.

Zion as spiritual aspiration, rather than physical site

Greenblatt seeks to appropriate the term “Zion” on behalf of Zionism. In fact, the term refers to an actual physical place, Mt. Zion. It was the point, according to the Bible, where God chose to build the Temple. However, through the centuries and in sacred texts, Zion became much more than a sacred space. It took on spiritual meaning–the striving of the Jewish people for a return to an idyllic past and a blessed messianic future. A time when God, the people and the land were one.

In short, Zion and Zionism are not only not equivalents, they have become (and largely have always been) diametrical opposites.

However, despite the aspiration to return–to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple as expressed in prayer–Jews never took this literally, as Zionism does. It is the messianist settler movement which plans to build a Third Temple, destroy Al Aqsa, and restore the priesthood and animal sacrifice. All in a crazed belief it will bring the Messiah. They have transformed what Jews for millennia viewed as a spiritual quest, into a literal divine command. In the process, they have hijacked normative Judaism, fractured relations between global Jewry and Israel, and brought the Middle East to the brink of holy war.

Richness of Diasporic Judaism

By contrast, outside Israel Jews developed a decentralized Jewish life centered around houses of worship, synagogues. Instead of a literal, physical return, they prayed facing the east. Not because they intended to return bodily, but because they acknowledged the centrality of the spiritual quest.

In addition, they developed languages which combined Hebrew with their own native tongues, creating Yiddish, Ladino, Judezmo, and a myriad of others. This accompanied musical and artistic traditions, often borrowed from, and inspired by those of their homelands. In short, they developed a thriving civilization outside Israel.

As for that literal, physical place, Zion: from the period after the destruction of the Second Temple until the 20th century, there were rarely more than 10,000 Jews living in the land of Israel at any one time. Compared to 1-million or more (according to demographers) outside it.

Contrary to Greenblatt, Zionism did not exist before Herzl. Instead of the claim that it hearkened back to an ancient Israelite past, it began in the heart of Europe, inspired by nationalist movements throughout that continent. Zionism transformed a term rooted in the ancient Jewish past–and freighted with spiritual meaning–into a call for political power and statehood.

Jews hadn’t been a nation since the destruction of the Second Temple (70CE). The term “Zion” never had a political meaning. It never signified statehood or monarchal power. These concepts were invented as part of the rise of Zionism at the end of the 19th century.

The notion that Zionism is an ancient tradition; or that Jews today have a direct physical or DNA linkage to the land going back to ancient times is a modern convention, not a historical truism. At its birth, it grafted nationalism and a myth of statehood upon an entire people. The result has, in the past few years, become disastrous.

It is a bitter irony for Diaspora Jews that the very community which enabled Zionism and the building of a State, was degraded by it. At its inception and for decades thereafter, it viewed Judaism as a fossilized relic. An emblem of the shame of living based on submission to, and the anti-Semitism of the goyim. Whereas it was building the New Jew, who proudly took his/her place in the modern world, rather than within a set of ancient superstitions.

The only vestige of the Jewish past Zionism valued was the Biblical history of Israelite kingdoms, because they echoed its call for nationhood. The ancient era was the last time Jews governed themselves in their own land. To them, modern Israel was the latter-day manifestation of ancient Israelite sovereignty.

Zionism and the sabotage of democracy

Zionism has become an insidious ideology infiltrating foreign countries, subverting their political processes, manipulating public opinion. All in the service of the State’s interests of genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing.

What does this have to do with Judaism? It is hijacking religion to promote nationalist interest. Israel’s interests have nothing to do with Judaism. This distinction is all the more critical, because the Zionist Lobby’s interference in US domestic affairs generates precisely the sort of resentment which fuels anti-Semitism.

In comments by Zionist billionaire, Miriam Adelson, at the same IAC event where the ADL CEO spoke, she exposed a naked truth about Zionism’s perversion of American politics. An interviewer noted “relationships” she and her husband built with politicians via “writing checks.” After adding “there is more to it” than that, he asked her: “how do you do it?” She took a deep breath, not wishing to reveal the secrets of Zionist political manipulation, and replied: “Can you allow me not to do it, to answer? I want to be truthful, and there are so many things I don’t want to talk about.” She gave $100-million to the 2024 Trump campaign.  That’s how she does it.

This is the cold, hard, cynical essence of Zionism: buying political power, buying politicians then compelling them (most often quite willingly) to promote Israel’s interests, rather than those of America. Tarring all Jews here with the noxious notion of dual loyalty. It is Zionists who owe their loyalty to Israel. Not the rest of us who want nothing to do with it.

To show how sensitive the Israel Lobby is to such claims, several years ago the IAC itself prepared a poll to measure the level of loyalty by Israeli-Americans to Israel. The questions were so sensitive that the Israeli government, which was promoting it, censored the survey. They did not want results which affirmed any notion of dual loyalty.

The 95% falsehood

Finally, I want to rebut the false claim disseminated widely in the media–most notably by Bari Weiss writing in the right-wing Tablet Magazine–that “95%” of American Jews are Zionist. This is based on 2019 findings of a Gallup pollster, who wrote that 95% of Jews “have a favorable view of Israel.” You’ll notice that having a favorable impression of Israel became equivalent with being Zionist. Obviously, they are not synonymous and the equivalence was manufactured via linguistic sleight of hand.

If you extend this “statistic” to its logical conclusions then most Americans (at least until 10/7) were Zionists. Because most had a favorable view of Israel. But having an impression is not the same as adhering to an ideology. In fact, most Americans (and even some Jews) have little or no idea what Zionism is. If you asked them to define it, some might say “liking Israel.” Others would shrug, being unable to do so.

Further, the poll based its findings on a cohort of 128 Jews within a larger sample of all Americans over a five year period. The margin of error for his calculation was 7-10%, an astronomically high figure for a credible poll. Also, a seven year-old poll cannot reflect conditions today, in which Israel is mired in genocide denounced by many, if not most Jews.

Most of us are neither Zionist–in the strict sense of the term–nor anti-Zionist. But the latter’s ranks are rapidly expanding with each Israel crime, with each ruling by the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice.

While we argue about how Zionist our community is–Israel has seen the handwriting on the wall and largely given up on American Jews as hopelessly embedded in the liberal politics of the Democratic Party. Instead, it has turned to a far larger, and more likely pool of support: Christian evangelicals. There are 40-million in the US, compared to 7.5-million Jews. Most evangelicals are ardent Zionists, because they see it as the path to messianic redemption–the return of Jesus as savior. Their conservative politics also comport with the far-right theocratic politics of Israel itself.

Communal leaders like Greenblatt haven’t read the memo, and linger under the mistaken impression that they matter in the grand Zionist scheme of things. When will they and the rest of American Jewry wake up and acknowledge the damage Zionism has done?