Terminal Stage Iranian Anti-Zionism

3:56 PM Wednesday.

I was only able to watch the first 26 minutes of Terminal Stage Zionism by Pascal at Neutrality Studies. Then I started to think about Ayatollah Khamenei's comparison of Israel to a cancer that must be removed from the region. Perhaps Pascal, Yakov, Manuel and Jeffrey support a one-state Palestinian solution with equal voting rights for Jews and Arabs and a complete right of return for UNRWA refugees, including US citizen Mohamed Hadid? Maybe this is the position that NYC Mayor-elect Mamdani subscribes to, as well.

I myself do not subscribe to this position, but I am not yet prepared to rule it always antisemitic. Anti-Zionist, yes, clearly, but perhaps not always antisemitic. Maybe in some situations - and I suppose I need to be willing to give Mayor-elect Mamdani and the good people of NYC the benefit of the doubt here - maybe it's possible to have a deep respect and love for the Jewish people without supporting their right to a reconstitute a democratic Jewish nation-state in Israel. There are certainly eminent Jewish anti-Zionist scholars to take into account. So far, Daniel Boyarin has given me the most to consider with The No-State Solution: A Jewish Manifesto. But I am only just beginning to wrestle with Boyarin's radical left-wing argument. As fascinating as it is spiritually and intellectually, it strikes me as unlikely to succeed on the ground. At least in anything like the near-term. 

Conversely, I do not see how David Friedman's far-right One Jewish State proposal is any more likely to succeed under international law. No matter how convinced I may be on a theological level about the importance of sustainable Jewish development in Judea and Samaria, I don't believe this conviction justifies apartheid by full or creeping annexation. 

As imperfect as it is in theory, and as difficult as it will be to implement in practice, I am presently inclined to support an Israeli center-left two-state Zionist solution. This said, I don't think Yair Golan has the depth of experience that Tzipi Livni brings to table, so I have to ask myself if there is any realistic hope of bringing Tzipi back into political life to save Israel after Netanyahu steps down or is voted out with all due gratitude for his controversially heroic service at the wartime helm.

Which brings me back to Iran. Why on earth aren't Pascal, Yakov, Manuel and Jeffrey promoting a two-state Zionist solution, on the one hand, and condemning Iran's failed Islamist anti-Zionism on the other? Why aren't they shaming the Iranian regime over Ayatollah Khamenei's insanely ironic countdown clock in Tehran? The city is running out of water in what could soon prove the most severe crisis of environmental and economic mismanagement in the UN era. Shouldn't we be talking about the terminal stages of Iranian anti-Zionism and the Islamic Revolution?

I cannot help but recall Prime Minister Netanyahu's many direct speeches to the Iranian people, pleading with Tehran to put responsible water management ahead of proxy, conventional, and nuclear war against Israel:

Why aren't Pascal, Yakov, Manuel and Jeffrey thinking along the same lines as Netanyahu with respect to the urgent and overwhelming need for regime change in Iran?

Just as importantly, why aren't they talking about the terminal stage of Hamas, and the urgency of getting humanitarian relief to a post-Hamas Gaza as quickly and completely as possible?

Of course, in addition to retiring Hamas, the Board of Peace will need to freeze settlement expansion in the West Bank pending a resolution of borders. 

But this is a far, far cry from the end of Zionism.

End 5:13 PM.