MeanwhileOnGrad

From Wikipedia:

While Zionist values serve as the ideological foundation of Israel, the importance of Zionism as an organized movement has declined since Israeli independence.[2]

The Zionist movement continues to exist in the form of various organizations working to support Israel, combat antisemitism, assist persecuted Jews, and encourage diaspora Jews to move to Israel. Most Israeli political parties continue to define themselves as Zionist.

Zionism was about the creation of Israel, a democracy. Democracy is supposed to be for everyone who lives there, including Palestinians, who were living under authoritarian governance before that point. It is imperative that you understand power and control to understand the importance of democracy <- leftists are fucking failing right here.

Israel has not been a good steward of the endeavor, but it was nevertheless the goal. It was messy. People had to get along to make it work. The Palestinians of that time refused to coexist peacefully with the Jews because of antisemitism, and they left. The surrounding countries like Jordan refused to let them in, even when that was their previous country. They decided to attack Israel and lost multiple wars. They refused to share land that was not theirs before, even if it was their ancestral homeland, because there was no democracy. The land belonged to its rulers.

I personally think Israel was doing better than say, the USA with our indigenous peoples, until recent years when the rise of far right authoritarianism threw the democracy out of whack and the worst people there are now in control.

The genocide in Gaza is an unprecedented travesty and Israel must be held to account. But who has the right to redefine the word 'Zionism' when it's the word used by this group of people to define their effort to save themselves? The notion that it was a racist or colonial movement is propaganda. The Jews have faced legitimate oppression everywhere they have tried to exist and arrived in the region after fleeing persecution in Europe and elsewhere. As the word has lessened in usage, antisemitic forces have coopted it and turned it into a slur.

Anti-Zionists are at best ignorant of the importance of democracy and at worst, antisemitic. Pick a new word.

The West's biggest mistake was extending free speech to the non-free world via the internet, allowing us to propagandize ourselves by listening to people across the world who don't understand what democracy is. Or in the case of China, a regime that has been able to provide a high enough standard of living that it provides the illusion that they have it better. But trust me, they want democracy.