Following-up on the Judaism 3.0 symposium held right before the war about the imminent threat of anti-Zionsm, the Jerusalem Post dedicated its Dec-22 magazine to this burning issue
Reprints from The Jerusalem Post, December 22, 2023
This Jerusalem Post special-magazine picks the conversation from last year’s special-magazine, where thinker, including Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, shared their views about Gol Kalev’s Judaism 3.0 Thesis: Is Zionism becoming the anchor of Judaism?
Read articles by leading figures addressing the threat of anti-Zionism (To come – Dec 22):
Nikki Haley
Gol Kalev
Richard Kemp
Felix Klein
Aaron Polis
Gina Ross
Yael Rozenman-Ismael
Excerpt: Anti-Zionism is a threat to Global Stability
By Gol Kalev, Jerusalem Post, December 22, 2023
We are in the midst of a large-scale assault on the Jewish nation. Like previous large-scale assaults, the attack is being funneled through the most relevant aspect of Judaism at the time. In our era, it is Zionism that has become the anchor of Judaism.
Zionism is not the cause of the assault on the Jewish nation. It is the vehicle through which age-old opposition to Judaism is now carried.
More dangerously, the anti-Zionism ideology is expanding beyond Zionism and Israel. Anti-Zionists keep their expansion plans no secret: right next to the banners “From the River to the Sea” are the banners “Globalize the Intifada.”
In the last two months alone, the anti-Zionist movement has triggered a series of “global” conversations that have nothing to do with Zionism or Israel, ranging from Muslims’ rights in Europe to the possible end of the concept of universities. Anti-Zionists even reversed a century of progress for women’s rights, by placing some degree of “context” on the action of rape.
The Gaza war gave the anti-Zionism movement momentum, structure, funding, and legitimacy from credible media and politicians. That credibility has been deployed to the “globalization arm,” and from there, one can do the simple math of what could come next: “From the Atlantic to the Black Sea, Eurostan will be free.”.
Last summer’s riots in France, which resulted in over 5,000 cars burned and 1,000 buildings damaged, did not “happen in a vacuum,” to use UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s terminology about Hamas’s action. Indeed, the October 7 massacre raised fears of similar attacks in Europe.
As discussed in a previous Magazine article (“That night in Basel,” September 24, 2022), the lethal component of Western anti-Zionism does not come from the aggressive Israel-bashers in demonstrations but from the polite Israel-bashers-light in positions of power.
The contemporary assault on the Jewish nation is perpetrated with a sword and a shield. The sword is anti-Zionism and Israel-bashing, the shield is Judaism 2.0 – the notion that Judaism is merely a religion — and hence one can advocate zero tolerance to traditional antisemitism (the existential threat to Judaism in the 20th century) while actively engaging in anti-Zionism (the existential threat to Judaism in the 21st century).
Once there is a paradigm shift – a broad global recognition that Judaism has transformed and Zionism is now its anchor (Judaism 3.0) – that shield gets decimated, and the anti-Zionism threat gets reduced. (See more on that in the October 22, 2022 special Jerusalem Post Magazine: Is Zionism the anchor of Judaism?)
Twentieth-century antisemitism to Nazis is what 21st-century anti-Zionism is to Hamas: an independent, uncoordinated ideological assault on the Jews, which is an enabler for the physical assault on the Jews and a primary destabilizer of global security.
Anti-Zionism needs to be reclassified as a national security issue – a strategic threat to the US and to global stability. Therefore, President Biden should consider appointing an anti-Zionism director to the National Security Council.
“America is an idea.” That was what President Biden stated when he announced his run for president in 2019. This idea is now being attacked through the construct of anti-Zionism.
Anti-Zionism is a euphemism for anti-Americanism. America was founded as a rejection of the oppressive dogmas of the European past, the renewal of an ancient promise, a utopian return to freedom. From the onset, Americanism was a form of abstract Zionism.
Biden also stated that he was prompted to run for president by mobs in Charlottesville “chanting the same antisemitic vile” heard accross Europe in the 1930s: “‘Jews will not replace us.’”
Those chants have since traveled from Charlottesville to college campuses in America and to public squares across Europe.
The murder, rape, and beheading of Jews in their own homes, along with the backwind it gets from the anti-Zionism movement, is the ultimate expression of “Jews will not replace us,” in defiance of the essence of Americanism.
Biden is now president and the leader of the free world. His courageous support for Israel, defending itself and the world from the physical threat of Hamas, is admirable. Now, it is time to defend America and the free world from this mushrooming ideological threat of anti-Zionism. FULL ARTICLE
The writer is author of Judaism 3.0: Judaism’s Transformation to Zionism (Judaism-Zionism.com) and chairman of the Judaism 3.0 think tank. For his geopolitical articles, visit EuropeAndJerusalem.com
Summary of the Judaism 3.0 event: Anti-Zionism as the new anti-Semitism
Watch the full Judaism 3.0 event (Youtube)
Watch Gol Kalev strategic analysis of the war: American Sunrise
#1 Amazon Best-Seller in its category for New Releases, the book was chosen by the Jerusalem Report as the cover of its 2022 New Year Magazine even before published. In October 2022 the Jerusalem Post issued a Special Magazine about the book’s message
“Gol Kalev picks up where Herzl left off”
Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem
Talking about Judaism 3.0:
Watch Gol Kalev discuss how Judaism 3.0 counters the threat of anti-Zionism (2022 Jerusalem Leaders Summit):
JUDAISM 3.0 ADDRESSES EXISTENTIAL THREATS TO JUDAISM:
Read summaries of the Jerusalem Post series showing how a broad recognition that we are in Judaism 3.0 could help counter the existential threat of Israel-bashing and anti-Zionsim:
Watch media coverage of the fifth Judaism 3.0 Begin Center event:
Press-release of previous Judaism 3.0 events:
Countering the existential threat of anti-Zionism
Applying Herzl’s frameworks to today’s strategic issues
Zionism and the Nationalism-Universalism debate
From Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – Zionism’s religious revival
Prof. Gil Troy and Gol Kalev debate Judaism 3.0
Amb Michael Oren and Gol Kalev discuss impact of Judaism 3.0
Watch Gol Kalev discuss Judaism 3.0 in an i24 interview with Emily Frances:
A revolutionary approach to countering Israel-bashing and anti-Zionism unveiled at the Judaism 3.0 book launch:
Watch video-clips, read a recap of the book launch party
Judaism 3.0 by Gol Kalev
Mazo Publishers
In this landmark book, Gol Kalev demonstrates how Zionism has turned into the organizing principle of Judaism. It has become the primary conduit through which both Jews and non-Jews relate to Judaism – in both the positive and negative.
Through an in-depth analysis of long-term shifts in Israel and in North American Jewry, as well as assessment of global trends that impact Judaism, Kalev shows that the anchor of the Jewish nation-religion has shifted from its religious aspect (Judaism 2.0) to its national aspect (Judaism 3.0).
Tying Theodor Herzl’s original vision of Zionism to today’s realities, Kalev shows that Judaism 3.0 is not only the most accurate reflection of the contemporary state of Judaism, but also the relevant framework to address emerging threats to Judaism. First and foremost, the existential threat of Israel-bashing, which has replaced anti-Semitism as the primary currency of age-old opposition to Judaism.
“Gol Kalev does not just know Theodor Herzl – he lives and breathes Theodor Herzl…This book should trigger the conversation the Jewish community needs about Israel, Zionism, Judaism and Identity. Bravo!”
Professor Gil Troy, author – The Zionist Ideas
ייA remarkable ideas book that is about much more than the state of Judaism…One of the most important books about Judaism, Zionism and global trends of our times.”
Catherine Carlton, former Mayor of Menlo Park, Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur
“This book should play an important role in the discussions about the future of world Jewry and its relations with Israel.”
Natan Sharansky, former Chairman of The Jewish Agency, former Deputy Prime Minister of Israel
“Gol Kalev’s book has the merit to transform the very essence of the State of Israel to becoming an objective expression of Jewish identity“
Dr. Georges Yitzhak Weisz, author – Theodor Herzl: A New Reading
“This book has sparked as much conversation as it has because the premise is so interesting, so counter-intuitive and demand of us that we think many thing anew. That is perhaps the greatest gift a book can give.”
Dr. Daniel Gordis, author – We Stand Divided
“Fresh new thinking about the relationship between Judaism and Israel. Kalev picks up where Herzl left off…A must read for people of all religious and political backgrounds who want to get a deeper understanding of the state of Zionism and Judaism today.”
Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem
“A courageous thesis that must be part of any serious discussion of the future of Israel and the Jewish people.”
Michael Oren, historian, former ambassador of Israel to the United States
About the Author: Gol Kalev is a former Wall Street investment banker who has been researching Herzl and Zionism. Growing up in Tel Aviv and serving in the Israeli army, he then lived in New York and now resides in Jerusalem. He also spent time in various European cities and has traveled through both the American and European countryside, learning about contrasting world-views.
He is chairman of The AIFL Think Tank, which explores Zionism and Judaism, and has been writing analysis articles about Zionism, Europe, and global affairs for the Jerusalem Post, Jerusalem Report, Israel Hayom, The Daily Wire, The Media Line, Newsweek and Foreign Policy.
He has been praised for his unique understanding of Judaism by people throughout the political and religious spectrum. In this book, he delivers the state of Judaism as he sees it: Zionism as the anchor of Judaism.
For information about bulk purchases with a dedication page: Judaism 3.0 Holiday Gift
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For comments and inquiries: info@Judaism-Zionism.com
JUDAISM 3.0 