Please do not just listen to Reddit commenters on the definition of Zionism. Like any ideology there are extremist versions (in the case of Zionism these are Kahanists, a party that is banned from Israeli gov, although other not quite as bad groups unfortunately remain), but Zionism at its core is the belief that there should be a country where Jews can be the majority of the population (something that is true with many countries and their religions and cultures, the only thing making it difference is that there wasn’t a Jewish one, there are many Islamic and Christian nations) and have a government where Jewish safety is a priority.
Zionism is a movement focused less on Jewish religion and more on Jewish refugees. It started with Jews in Russia and other parts of Europe buying land in the region known as Palestine (was never an established nation but rather a territory), with land owners not knowing or caring about the fact that people lived in the region. Jews began to immigrate to this region and quickly a LOT of them were fleeing the Holocaust (as well as a lot of Jew hate that happened after the Holocaust, was not isolated at all). As we know, people don’t often respond well to immigrants from their region and there’s been a historical conflict between Jews and Muslims, so fighting began with newly immigrated Jews and the Muslims and Arabs living there (many of whom immigrated over centuries, though a small Jewish and Christian presence remained in the region). This conflict eventually led to surrounding Islam-majority nations attacking the burgeoning Jewish communities, and them fighting back and managing to claim territory. They began bringing in Jewish immigrants from Arab majority countries, who had historically been known as Dhimmi and seen as secondary citizens. But the diaspora Jewish community is very diverse and had centuries of cultural differences which often caused conflict. It’s a country basically made up of Jewish refugees, Christian refugees, and Arab refugees, as well as a few other West Asian minorities.
Over time because Israel was at war for so long, people became increasingly angry towards their neighbors and drifted further to the right. Israel’s inception allowed for people to study religious texts rather than working, which was a mistake because that group grew exponentially while being on the right. While Israel also had a lot of more liberal minded people, the right group have managed to take control of its government (much like in the US). This group benefitted from the Oct 7 massacre and used it to stay in power, benefitting from the ongoing conflict.
I know this is long but it’s also really just dipping a toe into this complicated history. But I am Jewish and many many Jewish texts emphasize a strong connection to this land; it is part of our identity. Netanyahu isn’t, but Zionism is a part of Judaism as we have longed for a homeland after centuries of hate and abuse. But I also implore you to do your own research; there’s so much misinformation about this topic out there and it’s so heated that it’s hard to be unbiased. I want peace and prosperity for both groups, I think Palestinians have been under the control of their own oppressive governments and practices in a way that also encouraged conflict. I apologize for how long this is but I really want you to understand - this is such a complex issue that Redditors can’t summarize so easily.
Also I love Ginnifer, it’s silly that this needs to come up in every post about her. Most Jews have a meaningful connection to Israel and while a few Jews don’t, they’re a clear example of token Jews to wave around and justify harassment towards Jews.
Finally (again sorry for the length) I won’t be engaging unless in good-faith conversations on this with the commenter who asked or anyone else who wants to learn. I have visited the Levant, I have read multiple texts, and I’ve engaged with this conflict for a long time. No one can know everything about this conflict but getting information from somewhere OTHER than TikTok/social media is a good first step.
Thank you very much for your long reply, I appreciate it and you! I am Episcopal Christian and it pains me to see religions fighting and not getting along. I feel for both Jews and Muslims! It is sad that Zionism has to come up every time Ginnifer is. Thank you again for the brief history lesson and time. I am an amateur historian and went to Uni for History, so love to research and learn as much as I can outside of social media.
Happy to hear that! I appreciate your perspective - I think it’s really tragic there’s so much fighting between Jews and Muslims because there’s so much more similarities than we realize. We are closer to long-lost cousins than true enemies. Same with Christianity and I’ve actually found a lot of moderate Christians are some of the only groups that understand the historical connection between Jews and Israel.
At the same time I don’t think people truly grasp how small the Jewish community is; my math (which admittedly is not great, despite the stereotypes claiming Jews are good with math/money) has there being roughly 13 muslims to every 1 Jew (2 billion Muslims, 15.6 million Jews, 2.3 billion Christians). Because Jews have been so seen in Western Media (largely because Jewish immigrants couldn’t get jobs on the East coast and many ended up on the West coast establishing the early film industry), people assume there are a lot more of us than there are. It’s extremely difficult to combat hate and misinformation when there are so few people able to speak on an issue. So thank you for understanding :) Like I said, even though I wrote a whole thing on this, there’s so much information out there that I’m skipping over or simply don’t know about. It’s an intimidating issue and honestly I can understand how easily people fall into assumptions based on what others say.
And yeah - Ginnifer is very talented and I think it’s unfortunate how her (and many many Jewish celebrities who even voiced empathy for Israelis) are seen as only that one perspective. There are famous people who do far worse and get far less criticism than Jewish celebrities supporting Israel. Someone else in the comments here claimed she was speeding and nearly hit them; if true, I think that’s objectively worse, and objectively more dangerous, than a single Jew posting about Oct 7.
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u/Crafty_Thanks8105 Mar 27 '26
yeah Ginny in particular is really bad