JL

From ecorevolt 

“Can the Jewish problem be resolved within the bounds of history? That is a tragic question. Whatever the answer may be, the solution does not seem to lie in assimilation, the nineteenth centurys hypothesis which did honour to its humanitarian feelings. Today, alas, we are not living in a century of mercy, and the events we are witnessing give us little hope of seeing the problem solved by the fusion of Jews with other peoples. Besides, we must observe that this solution would have meant their disappearance. There is likewise no room for optimism on the ground that this riddle will be answered by the establishment of an autonomous Jewish state, in other words by Zionism.” Nikolai Berdyaev, Christianity and Anti-Semitism

At this point it is true to say that I am grieving and revolted. I am revolted by worsening antisemitism around the world and close to home. I am revolted by the awful violences enacted by the state of Israel and others, which are so often used as rationalisation, reason, Cause and justification for antisemitism. I am grieving my loss of belief in the idea that there are spaces in the world where Jews might be less likely to experience extreme violence, simply for being Jews. I am also grieving my loss of belief in an anti-racist milieu and culture that would revolt against antisemitism, as I have witnessed it to revolt before other examples of ethnic-violence. 

In order to be upfront about my meanings in this piece, I will go a little further into the matter of my meaning regarding the terms “ethnicity” and “antisemitism”. With regards to “ethnicity”, I am by no means seeking to encourage the notion that the categories of racial-collectives are real or true, and that folk need be defined by them. It is true though that we live in a cultural reality that includes racialisation and ethnic groupings, and that reality exists in a way that is not real and still existent – this is another example of the Maya/illusions paradox, where something (race/ethnicity in this case) is a reality that is not real and still exists. With this, it is true to say that I am a Jew and that the ethno-religious group called “Jews” exists, as the reality of racial-collectivisation exists; whilst it is also true to say that race and ethnicity are not real. Moving to my meaning in using the term “antisemitism”, I am using it in the way intended by Wilhelm Marr, who coined the term, intended, as a rationalised hatred of Jews (and not other peoples who use languages under the Semitic group), as is the use of the term I have found most often and am most familiar with. The criticism that I am not including other groups here that could be called “Semitic” is one that I am entirely prepared to accept; with it noted that I have only ever found this appeal to occur alongside the allegation that Jews do not experience antisemitism and ought not be considered as a Semitic people – and that I am entirely opposed to any and all racist violence and logic. 

The seductive rationalisation that the ending of antisemitism lies within salvation provided by Jewish-statism, with Jewish politicians and army – generally called “Zionism” today – is clearly a falsehood; as described by anti-Zionist Jewish-autonomist Simon Dubnow, a “opiate for the spiritually feeble” (a harsh but seemingly fair description). It is a falsehood and a lie in the same way that it is a lie that any ethno-nationalism provides liberation for those it claims to liberate, as much as it is a lie that statism provides salvation for women, labourers, non-human living beings, anyone – any state merely substitutes one mode of violent repressive exploitation for another. It takes little empathy to appreciate how the notion of salvation through statism remains attractive. I can appreciate that many Jewish folk want to believe in this idea after the Shoah, just as I can understand Greens wanting to believe that government protections will end ecocide, or labourers wanting to believe that a state described as “socialist” will end the horrors of industrial capitalism, or women wanting to believe that female politicians and CEOs equates to the dismantling of patriarchy. 

No, it is apparent that a successful Zionism does not mean the ending of, or salvation from, antisemitism. Statism/Leviathan, that Nietzsche called cold monster and new idol, offers salvation to none. This is equally true for the opponents of Zionism, who I would encourage to look at all statist rationalisations and appeals to nationalism, with, at the very least, intense skepticism – I would not consider it liberation for Palestinian folks to find the violence of the Israeli state ending, only to be subjected to a violently repressive Islamist-state-machine through a party like Hamas, a nationalist state that brutalises and industrialises citizens into utter conformity or death, an exploitative western-corporatist so-called “democratic” puppet-state, or any other. To echo the words of Daniel Boyarin and Shuli Branson, “no state solution” seems the most desirable approach, though certainly not an easy or simple one, and I am skeptical of the idea of “solution”. I am attracted to the notion of the Diaspora Nation, as a nation that is not a nation, that is encouraged with the call for “no state solution” (It is also worth affirming that there have been examples of so-called opponents of statism embracing antisemitism, including Proudhon and Bakunin. Many so-called anarchists I know today have pushed for support of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iranian-state propaganda, seemingly under the stupefied logic of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”.)

It feels worth noting at this point that the Zionism I have been writing about is vastly different to spiritual-zionisms, such as those espoused by Moses Hess, Ahad Ha’am, Gershom Scholem, Martin Buber and Hillel Zeitlin, many of which are closer to metaphysical-anarchisms and utopian libertarian-socialisms, than nationalist and statist Zionism – I am perhaps most appreciative of Zeitlin’s utopian-socialist (I’d change the word “socialism” here for “tribalism”) spiritual-zionism, with its affirmation of Earth as the divine promised land. The Zionism of the nationstate, constructed for participation within the Empire of realpolitiks, was rejected by many of those who sought for a zionism of spiritual and ethical renewal for Jewish peoples – to draw from Hess’ differentiation of Rome (as Empire) and Jerusalem (as spiritual renewal), the Zionism of the nationstate is that of Rome. In feedback for a draft of this essay, from one of the two Jewish-anarchist friends I sent this to, it was put to me that, if I am going to reference this differentiation in meanings and vision here, then I should go into the history of spiritual-zionisms within the larger, explicitly pushing for the nationstate, political movement of Zionism, or not mention at all. While I do not feel it is needed for this piece to go into this history, as this is a piece on antisemitism rather than a detailed deconstruction of Zionism, that this history exists and is frequently confusing is worth affirming, and I would encourage anyone interested in the subject of Zionism to consider this history.

Returning to the subject of statism; faith in an all-powerful state, of which Israel is clearly the most powerful, is upheld perhaps most intensely by those who advance the logic of conspiracy. This has been pushed by those wanting to deny the existence of antisemitism, with claims that the Bondi Beach massacre was a false flag event orchestrated by the Israeli state rather than it being carried out by two individuals sympathetic to the Islamism of ISIS in revenge for Israel’s violence towards Palestinian folk, often falsely rationalised as done to end antisemitism. The online pushes for conspiracy theory remind me of Fredy Perlman’s words in his essay Anti-Semitism and the Beirut Pogrom: “I could start by noticing that the new anti-Semite is not really so different from any other TV-watcher, and that TV-watching is somewhere near the core of the choice (I include newspapers and movies under the abbreviation for tell-a-vision)”. In this case the internet is now the principal vehicle for the spectaclisation of “tell-a-vision”. What I notice most of all about the conspiracy theorist, who seeks to Enlighten through their telling-a-vision, is the little awareness of the darkness of not-knowing that they are ecologically situated within, and how their vision may be obscured by all manner of falsehoods and the technologies of misdirection – we might be in positions of not-knowing, partial-knowing, full knowing, and cannot authentically say which on this matter. My desire for sincerity compels me to affirm that I of course do not know whether this was a false-flag event or not, with conspiracy theorists also residing in the bewildering terrain of uncertainty. However, I do not have faith in the idea of all-powerful states that are capable of choreographing the construction on events in this way, and so can say, with authenticity, that I do not believe in the rationalisations of conspiracy theorists. Let’s also not forget that very often the push for conspiracy centres Jews as evil overlords and liars, like with Holocaust Denial, the International Jewish Conspiracy and The Great Replacement Theory. 

So now the question that comes to me is that of, where are the true opponents of antisemitism today? Knowing that Zionism and its political supporters across the world – be they states, media outlets or whatever else – are nothing of actual revolt against antisemitism, where are the rebels and folk who are prepared to resist this racism and stand alongside Jewish folk, as they have done for many others? I have seen no real resistance against antisemitism, with it frequently barely acknowledged, by anti-racist individuals, groups and international media outlets, who I consistently know to speak out against racism. I have looked to local groups to see if there is anything of opposition or recognition of what is happening to Jews across the world. There has been barely a reply. One of the Jewish-anarchist friends I sent a draft of this essay to responded with their thoughts being that there is a lack of pushback against antisemitism today (in the styles of Black Lives Matter and #MeToo) for reasons focused on Jews being such a small minority that they yield little electoral influence, the subtle mystique of Jews (that leads many to believe that Jews are fine without support from activists or institutionally overly protected), and that the association with Israel has tarnished in the image of Jews in popular culture. My instinct is that this friend is largely on-point, which I am unwilling to accept as rationalisations for the relinquishing of opposition to antisemitism by those who claim to rebel against racism. David Baddiel wrote in his book Jews Don’t Count that: “Jews are somehow both sub-human and humanitys secret masters … its this racist mythology thats in the air when the left pause before putting Jews into their sacred circle”. Perhaps they are scared of being accused of supporting Zionism? Perhaps they feel that they would betray the people of Palestine if they oppose violence towards Jews? What renders Jews to be not worthy of anti-racist solidarity, if not some form or another of racist mythology regarding Jews? I don’t know. My ability to empathise with folk who are scared by the notion of being accused of being supporters of Zionism exists in conflict with my revolt towards such a lack of integrity and decency – all manner of cynicisms also come to mind. In his book In Job’s Balances, Lev Shestov wrote that in “his life man [sic] often changes from audacity to subservience … in the end he  usually obeys” and it seems that many of those who have considered themselves to be voices and supporters of the audacious rebel opposing racism, now embrace the subservience of obeying a push for racism towards Jews, rationalised as anti-Zionist. 

My motivation in writing this is not to articulate resentment or embrace anything of victimhood, but to voice anger and encourage revolt. The history of violence towards, repression of and the forced displacement of Jews is a long one, but it is not something that I have any desire to sit in; the only guarantee of the future is eventual death/extinction (this mass extinction event might include the animals we call humans and all those called Jews – perhaps). The possibility of the presence of revolt is here: this I believe! I utterly believe in the possibility of resistance and rebellion against antisemitism today. Outside of the spectacles and political machines, I have no doubt that there are folk and individuals revolted by antisemitism and opposed to its spread and violence. And as much as all racisms were born at one point or another and will therefore die, I am sure that antisemitism will eventually die – my want is for that to be a soon as possible, or (as many Orthodox Jews like to say) “speedily and in our days”

My mind returns to the question Berdyaev asks: “(c)an the Jewish problem be resolved within the bounds of history?” The more I think about the idea of a Jewish problem, or even the milder framing of the Jewish question, the more I revolt against it. Are Jews a question or a problem to be answered or solved, presumably by non-Jews? I do not embrace the idea that a people whose legacy of ancient displacement, a diaspora arguably as old as history/History (I am reminded of Camatte’s description of history/History as the wandering of humanity), displaced by the violence of Empires, as being a problem or a question. Instead, I want to ask about the antisemitism problem and question antisemitism. To restate Berdyaev’s question: can the antisemitism problem be resolved within the bounds of history/History(/the wandering of humanity)? Like Berdyaev, I feel doubtful towards assimilation into the Totality and of statism answers – both of which are located within the bounds Beryaev questions. Outside of the bounds of history/History/statism/the wandering of humanity, perhaps we might find answers to antisemitism – maybe also autonomy for other diasporic folk seeking to survive amidst Empire? 

At the point of closing this piece, the grief is here with the question of what comes after the last full stop? Individuals who I have known are sure to be relishing this moment of unsafely for Jewish folk and the rising nationalist presence within the political arena with glee, and I am glad for the distance that exists between us today. I remember those pushing the image of the swastika within the star of David with the absurd rationalisation that such imagery challenges the state of Israel. I remember former friends whose solidarity with Palestine became morphed into sympathy for neo-Nazi conspiracy theories and hatred for Jews. I remember being told by my Opa of his family’s migration to Palestine from Poland, as refugees, then to South Africa and eventually London; I think about the worsening anti-migrant nationalism upon these isles and across the world, with intense revolt. I think about the poetry of the Jewish metaphysical anarchist Benjamin Fondane about the Jewish experience of violence and exile. I look over a message from one of the Jewish-anarchist friends, who provided feedback for this piece regarding the lack of pushback against antisemitism, where they affirm that they are experiencing similar struggles with this. The Yiddish expression of exasperation oy gevalt, meaning “oh violence”, comes to my mind, but this is by no means enough. As absurd and unreasonable as it is to say, the final words to this piece, to my mind and heart, in my wild-primal core, perhaps partly out of desperation but more so of love, must be, have to be, can only be, the Hebrew word meaning “to life” that is l’chaim, l’chaim, l’chaim, l’chaim! 

Comments

I am Makhno (not verified) Mon, 12/22/2025 - 18:09

My father's mother, an Ashkenazi Jew who emigrated from somewhere in what was at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, gave birth to him in Pittsburgh in 1916. For reasons which aren't entirely clear, he was taken from her and raised in an orphanage , although she may have been considered an unfit parent due to being poor, unmarried, and probably very foreign-looking and sounding. One of the first things my father did as a legal adult was to change his name, so that his Ashkenazi ancestry would not be immediately recognized. He went through life with no apparent interest in Judaism or Jewish tradition.

By that time, I guess, the modern Zionist movement was already active, inspired by men such as Theodor Herzl and Eliezer ben Yehuda (who single-handedly recreated Hebrew as a modern, conversational language, contributing greatly to the strong sense of Jewish nationalism). And then, of course, there was the Balfour Declaration of 1917, giving official British approval to the plan for a Jewish State in Palestine.

Real, ugly, state- and church-sanctioned anti-semitism had been around for centuries before that, and pogroms were still a thing in the 19th century, leading to the ghastly denouement of the Holocaust. Whatever actual anti-semitism still exists in the West or the Slavic countries is hardly a shadow of what it used to be. Klan and Nazi sympathizers still exist in the USA, but they have nothing of the influence or public attention that they used to. At this historical moment, Islamophobia seems a much more potent threat, and a very useful organizing tool.

Events like the Bondi Beach massacre are horrific, but mass shootings generally are. The big problem with "anti-semitism" these days is how that accusation is used relentlessly as a weapon against critics of the State of Israel. There needn't be any conspiracy theory about Israeli influence in American politics, as it has been openly acknowledged since the Nixon administration, and thoroughly analyzed in John Mearsheimer's book, The Israeli Lobby. Hamas is certainly an authoritarian group, but their counter-attack on October 7, 2023 was exactly the kick in the ass that Israel needed; they always knew the Israeli response would be overwhelming, but they were willing to take that risk in order to keep Palestine at the center of the world's attention.

anonymous (not verified) Mon, 12/22/2025 - 19:17

In reply to by I am Makhno (not verified)

Hamas won a Western(-rigged), democratic election, has overwhelming support from all Palestinians across the diaspora (65%+), and have already stated they are relinquishing governing power as they want to redouble their efforts as a resistance movement, as opposed to a governing force.

So what's authoritarian about Hamas, exactly? Lemme guess: because they're not white, democratist, or Christian?

anonymous (not verified) Mon, 12/22/2025 - 21:03

In reply to by I am Makhno (not verified)

"Klan and Nazi sympathizers still exist in the USA, but they have nothing of the influence or public attention that they used to. At this historical moment, Islamophobia seems a much more potent threat, and a very useful organizing tool."

That's pure, senseless fucking BS. There are still antisemitic attacks happening in the US and beyond these days. Actually more than there are against Muslims.

"Hamas is certainly an authoritarian group, but their counter-attack on October 7, 2023 was exactly the kick in the ass that Israel needed"

Feck off! Hamas are outright fascists who've been training child soldiers and more generally exploiting Palestinians for their own capitalist profits, from ivory towers in Dubai and Qatar. They are the fucking enemy just like the Zionist Far Right.

JLanger (not verified) Tue, 12/23/2025 - 03:38

In reply to by I am Makhno (not verified)

This is not a weapon against criticism of Israel and Zionism, as I would have thought obvious given how I have critiqued nationstate-Zionism across three paragraphs and voiced revolt against the violences of the Israeli-state. That Hamas has been willing to sacrifice Gazans for its Cause and spectacle is by no means something that I believe worthy of celebration; and, regardless of their being enemies of the Israeli-state, they are clearly not friends for those of us oriented towards the deconstruction of the state. The violence of the Israeli-state does not make “just” or grant reason for antisemitism and your historical-rationalisations for caring less about antisemitism today strike me as crass and lacking in integrity - by the same logic we might say that we ought not care about sexism, homophobia and queerphobia, or religious repression, with apparent “improvements”. I share in your want to oppose Islamophobia and don’t see how that need negate anti-racist praxes that revolt against antisemitism - my opposition to antisemitism has never diminished my revolt against the anti-migrant nationalism that is becoming increasingly popular here in the UK, or any other variation of racism.

anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/23/2025 - 10:09

In reply to by I am Makhno (not verified)

"My father's mother, an Ashkenazi Jew who emigrated from somewhere in what was at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, gave birth to him in Pittsburgh in 1916."

Cool story bro. I'd also like to inform u that I'm a neuroatypical Black Muslim Trans-man in a wheelchair with a Harvard PhD.

"And then, of course, there was the Balfour Declaration of 1917, giving official British approval to the plan for a Jewish State in Palestine."

There was no fucking Palestine back in 1917, you ideological bigot. It had been part of a differently-named province under the Ottoman empire, and the British officially renamed it "Palestine". It's analog to the claim that Ukraine got invaded by Soviet Russia around the same period. That's plain fucking revisionist and dumb-founded, and is a typical example of how nationalist bullshit is always rooted in a level of brutal historical retcon.

anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/23/2025 - 15:30

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

you can actually read a copy of the original Balfour Declaration and it explicitly states Palestine as a plan for a Jewish state. Palestine has indeed been refereed to by many names over the centuries but Palestine has been one of those names since at least 5 BCE

anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/23/2025 - 22:34

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

And I already did. Tho perhaps you did a mistake in your syntax but in your former post you wrote "the plan for a Jewish State in Palestine", as if implying that there was already a Palestine in 1917... which is preposterous. The Jewish State that was promised was indeed called Palestine, or the Mandate of Palestine later on.

Back then the people it angered weren't "Palestinians", but a specific Arab principality (now known as the Kingdom of Jordan) that had plans for expanding its territory all across the Levantine and Arab coast, after helping the British overthrow the Ottoman. Plans that got thwarted later on by the Saud monarchy. Funnily... these guys had the exact same flag than the current flag of Palestine.

That aside, they maybe had a good reason to feel cheated by the British Empire... but that had nothing to do with Palestinian liberation.

anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/25/2025 - 13:07

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

Ah yes, the old anarchist trick of only respecting people when they have legible governing states. Anarchists famously widely endorse colonialism and respect legitimated authority.

anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/25/2025 - 16:58

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

Oh I respect people as much as I can... especially the poor Palestinians who lost their lives due to the national bullshit from both sides. But the revisionist bullshit of some people doesn't deserve any.

As for Hamas, they had an authoritarian regime preying over Gaza for a long time. Last March's protests were repressed by the Palestinian police as well as Hamas thugs, but that's just a recent development next to the violence on LGBTQ people for years. They are fascist Islamist gangsters.

anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/25/2025 - 09:59

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

lmao now we see the real (zionist) face under the mask of "i feel UNSAFE due to antisemitism!"

of course anyone who doesn't set aside disapproval of genocide to listen raptly to the millionth lecture that begins with a recitation of some white first-world person's grandparents' hardships is a "fascist."

in reality, that ship has sailed. it won't be back in our lifetimes. nobody cares about this kind of bullshit anymore, and name-calling the (overwhelming majority) of people who don't care will not change that

anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/25/2025 - 10:48

In reply to by I am Makhno (not verified)

Hamas sure did a great job forcing thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians under the bombs of the IDF -and their own as well- just for this "world's attention".

So much for profit to keep paying themselves posh hotels in some big ultramodern slave city by the Persian Gulf, or in Iran! "Capitalism" look it up.

SirEinzige Sat, 12/27/2025 - 00:05

In reply to by I am Makhno (not verified)

He made the comparison to Nat Turner and the slave rebellions against Whites. He and his men had a kill all white people mentality which they did in gruesome fashion(women children babies and all) The point was that you neither condone nor condemn. As an amoralist this is easy for me regardless of my negative feelings towards hammas.

I really don't condemn anything, even something I am personally disgusted by.

flim (not verified) Tue, 12/23/2025 - 02:35

As Israel is conducting a genocide, this person is making up the both-sides argument (no, Julian, the Islamist rule Hamas isn't equally evil as the genocide currently conducted by the Zionist entity), refuses to condemn Zionism, and is making up excuses for its sustaining in "alternative" forms. In another text, he straight up whitewashes Israeli nationalism as "not particularly evil" while calling Palestinian liberation "colonial" and "nationalistic" (See: Julian Langer, Racism, Nationalism and Revolt, 30/3/24). I can't fathom the immense amount of ignorance and colonial bias those statements require, and it's especially infuriating when done in the name of anarchism and combatting racism.

JLanger (not verified) Tue, 12/23/2025 - 04:35

In reply to by flim (not verified)

Please reread the parts of this piece where I voice opposition to Israel’s violence and criticism of Zionism. Also, you have made up non-existent quotes from in my previous piece, in which I clearly also articulated opposition to the violences of the Israeli state.

Suggesting that I am pro-Israel or pro-Zionism or denying anything of what that state has done or does to Palestinian people is utterly dishonest.

flim (not verified) Wed, 12/24/2025 - 02:50

In reply to by JLanger (not verified)

"Lets not pretend that the Zionist nationalism of the Israeli state and those who worship before it is the same as the Zionism of a diasporic population, scattered from the land where they first came together as tribe, desiring a return and the end of empires who are nought but revolting machines, without life of their own. And if Zion is the collapse and ending of empire, rather than a particular geographic space that one population may form a settlement on with the permission of God, then a return to Zion is certainly something that I desire, whilst I am revolted by the political machine of Zionism. To my eyes, the nationalism of the Israeli state is not above or below any other in some grotesque hierarchy of more or less desirable abuses, in much the same way that, while there are cancers that are more harmful and pose greater existential risk, I do not desire the presence of any cancer within any of those who I love and care for. Rather, much like the disease of civilisation that cancer is, I desire the end of nationalism and the harms it is responsible for.

My mind now turns to the nationalism that seeks to construct a Palestinian state to re-colonise the area. All too often amidst activist conversations and within the propaganda of those who wish to voice opposition to the nationalist activities of Israel, Palestinian nationalism is fetishised and romanticised as an anti-colonialist effort. This propaganda fails to affirm that the organisation Hamas, which champions Palestinian nationalism and is frequently upheld as freedom fighters, is an extension of the Islamist political machine The Muslim Brotherhood, whose aim is to re-establish the theocracy of caliphates, under the dogmatic rule of sharia law. This entirely strikes me as desires for the ending of the violences of the Zionist political machine being hoodwinked and assimilated into the ideology of Islamist theocracy, without awareness of what is happening, due to being blinded by spectacle. There may well be individuals who read this and retort that Palestinian’s have every right to form a state as they wish, perhaps even suggesting that Israeli’s will deserve the experience of living under such a colonial machine, with some Marxian logic of the dictatorship of the oppressed being teleologically justifiable. To this, I question in what ways is a state desirable and am inclined to thinking that this is merely another road to cruelty, abuse, slaughter and nothing of liberation. Rather than an expanding Islamist empire that seeks to wage war with the empire of Euro-Americanism, like heads on the hydra that is totalitarianism snapping at each other; I desire the ending of empire and the ending of nationalist violence. My pessimism affirms that this is something that I will not live to see, a desire in me that will not be satisfied. Regardless though, I am still choosing to live revolted by and in-revolt before all nationalisms, including both those of Zionist and Palestinian nationalisms."

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/julian-langer-racism-nationalis…

JLanger (not verified) Wed, 12/24/2025 - 05:24

In reply to by flim (not verified)

You left out from earlier in that paragraph (I imagine in a deliberate attempt to misrepresent) -

“The hideousness of Zionist nationalism, which seemingly functions to support the machinery of Euro-American industrial-militarist agendas, is apparent. To consider this as more or less hideous because the Human population of Israel is largely that of Jews, who either have a right to behave in such a violent manner or ought to know better due to having experienced historic abuses, strikes me as simply racist expectations that are better served being thrown to the ground to rot and decay – any individual who has experienced abuse may well develop a desire to not abuse others or develop the cruelest of fetishes(, or any other response that I have neglected to mention), and while I certainly would rather they overcame abuse with an aesthetic preference for kindness, it strikes me as utter bad faith to assume that any individual would be determined by such experiences one way or any other. The question arises within me of “what is a nation?” The word “nation” could be easily replaced for that of “state”, “Leviathan” and many others, though I will mostly stick with “nation” here. To my eyes a nation is not a land or the living beings captured and caged within its totality. Rather it is comprised of architectural constructions, industrial apparatus and roads linking settlements, Earth torn, ripped, scarred and mutilated to utter ruin; which Human individuals living within are largely indoctrinated into believing that their lives are dependent on and determined by, through psycho-engineering efforts that begin in early childhood.”

And you excluded the opening words from the essay-

“Zionist nationalism and the current efforts in techno-necro-capitalism are undeniably revolting. Feelings of disgust for the news of bombs being used to annihilate the living and the grotesque productivity of war machinery, which profiteers from slaughter, are present and real experiences that are no doubt felt by many. These sensations, like pain from a cut that needs to be cleaned and dressed to avoid infection and preserve the wounded’s life, communicate that this is at odds with our wellbeing and that response is needed. The question that I wonder is that of; how can this be responded to, really?”

I have never voiced support for the Israeli state or political Zionism, and have only affirmed spiritual-zionism for its radical differences to and frequent opposition to Zionism as we usually talk about it - much like how we might differentiate the Christianity of Tolstoy, Berdyaev and Thoreau from that of the KKK and the Islam of Muslim-anarchists from that of ISIS - as a spiritual tradition that is opposed to Empire.

anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/25/2025 - 13:17

In reply to by JLanger (not verified)

The person you're replying to is full of shit, but your representation of Hamas is a little skewed. They specifically split with the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood because they really do only care about the national struggle. "Underdog nationalism" can still be harmful, but they're really just trying to get their country and freedom back; they're a big-tent party. Even October 7 was done by a broad coalition including secularists like the PFLP. And, for what it's worth, while Israel ought to be dismantled and replaced with a free society, they don't even demand that, they just want Israel to respect the UN rulings.

anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/25/2025 - 13:30

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

A lot of people flatten Hamas into a cartoon and miss the nationalist dimension, but you’re smoothing it too far in the other direction. Yes, Hamas has reframed itself away from explicit Muslim Brotherhood language and leaned harder on national struggle, and yes, Oct 7 involved multiple factions, not just Hamas alone. But their own, newly-released 2025 “Our Narrative” makes clear this isn’t just nationalism and respecting UN rulings. They explicitly frame the war as a civilizational and religious struggle, talk about reviving the Islamic Ummah, celebrate martyrdom, and justify Oct 7 as necessary and successful. That’s core to how they understand things.

They gesture toward “big-tent” Palestinian governance and don’t always say “destroy Israel” in slogan form, but it’s misleading to say they merely want Israel to respect UN rulings. The document treats the UN system as a dead letter whose failure necessitates armed resistance, and their stated end goals of Jerusalem as capital, full refugee return, no trusteeship, resistance as the engine go well beyond Israel compliance. You can criticize Israel without pretending Hamas is basically a pluralist national liberation committee that just wants resolutions enforced. Their own recent words don’t support that reading.

anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/26/2025 - 19:50

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

Fair enough, I hadn't seen that document before. Thanks for the tip. I definitely didn't mean to suggest they're cuddly pluralists, but they do seem to have a fairly broad base of support and are not complete fanatics like ISIL or something.

anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/26/2025 - 20:32

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

They fully collaborated with the Islamic Jihad during the October 17th assault, and these are religious fanatics. No these are not ISIL, as their aims aren't to create an Islamic caliphate and they aren't connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, yet they are still hardcore Islamic fascists who seek to establish another theocracy in Palestine. Please quit treating the enemy like your revolutionary comrades.

anonymous (not verified) Sun, 12/28/2025 - 14:21

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

October 17th assault? which one was that?

seems like you don't know what you're talking about. "ISIL" are a cia/mossad op anyway... when's the last time "ISIS" has attacked israel or israeli interests? at any point? at any time in the long leadup to them being installed as a new israel-friendly government of syria?

anonymous (not verified) Sun, 12/28/2025 - 21:05

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

That was a typo I think. It meant the October 7th attacks. And yes, this was an attack.

"ISIL" are a cia/mossad op anyway..."

Was it? Or was it Turkey's black ops? Or the Saudi regime's gimmicks up against Turkey? Who really knows for sure... you I guess!

The new Islamist regime in Syria is rooted in Al Qaeda, not ISIL/Daesh. Different gangsters. Is their alignment toward Israel the only thing that matters? How about the repression of women and gay people under the new supermacho Islamists? You guise could get real and face the fact that we're dealing globally with a retrograde movement towards authoritarian politics and even theocracies. That is the case for Israel but so it is for many Muslim-dominated countries, and the USofAye.

Here is a growing trend of brutal state power that anarchists would (logically) be expected to oppose and fight, not tribal wars meant to justify one nationalism over another...

anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/23/2025 - 16:23

The Humungus Irony of the 21st Century is that Palestine has a greater proportion of dna-ed Semitic folk than Israel does, and Netanyahu is therefore an anti-Semitic Zionist war criminal. People must understand the semantic nuances between, nationalist ideology, religion, and genetic inheritance.

anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/23/2025 - 22:20

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

Except that's a lie purported by antisemites, and also perpetuated by a part the Western Left since the '60s. Palestinians and the current Israelis are sharing at least 50% of a common genetic heritage...

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/05/000509003653.htm

https://www.induslens.com/category/IndusLens-OSINT/dna-reveals-shared-r…

https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-860458

Many Jewish lineages were somehow preserved from the diasporas that left Palestine since the 6th century BC, in waves, and a lot of these families have come back to Israel. The "Evil Kazar Jews" descended from of the tribes that left to the Caucasus.

And who are the Palestinians? Palestinian culture -formerly Canaanites- were assimilated in Arab culture during the Medieval times. Their former language -known as "Phillistine"- has long disappeared from usage, and your Palestinians now speak a regional dialect of Arabic. Not saying that genetically they don't exist, but them suspicious national identities deserve some better examination than "trust me bro"... as you are saying.

anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/25/2025 - 13:21

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

So the people who were dispossessed of their homes, freedom, and lives by Zionist colonialism within the last century have an equally valid claim as some people who can... trace some DNA back there 2000 years ago? DNA is completely irrelevant here, just flatly racist hogwash.

anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/25/2025 - 17:08

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

Tell that to anon 16:23 then. He's the one who started talking about Semitic dna and the current Israelis having no relationship to it... which is an antisemitic lie. I heard it from the old New Left... even from Fredy Perlman. But the Jews ARE Semitic, and not only in their dna. It's a cultural, linguistic and religious thing.

16:23 (not verified) Thu, 12/25/2025 - 22:25

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

I didn't say all Israeli's , your anti-semitic lies, * was talking about %s as regards hypocrisy of Netanyahu's whine about "anti-semiticism" ^ou missed the whole context of my nuanced argument about "hypocrisy". Read some books about logical debate for chrisakes, and don't let you ideological bias create ad hominem accusations.

anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/26/2025 - 05:06

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

It's like Semitic nationalists (Zionists) killing their Semitic neighbours whose faith evolved from Judaen to Islam (they have the same god and Jesus was anan IslamicIslamic prophet), for land. It's no different to a tribal territorial war, called it anti-Semitic or anti-Islamic or whatever, but it's related neighbors killing eachother in a primitive argument over land and sacred myths they dispute. Just like any other religious/teritorial war. That's why anarchs are NO GODS, NO PROPERTY, NO BOSSES, NO BORDERS,

anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/26/2025 - 13:32

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

Yes, all people are my friends along the way, I'm like the good Sumaritan, like Jesus, but hey, there have been millions of Jesus-esque folk who have walked this Earth, the Semitic people DON'T HAVE A MONOPOLY ON GODS OR PROPHETS OR REALITY! *takes deep breath*

JLanger (not verified) Wed, 12/24/2025 - 00:34

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

Please take a look at the second paragraph of this piece, where I wrote about my use of the term “antisemitism” and it’s history as a term created for and used to refer to racism towards Jewish people. Please also don’t misunderstand me here as denying that there are other peoples who are called Semitic and that they experience racisms and violences that any anti-racist praxis with integrity would do well to revolt against; my intention is just to affirm that the category of racism that is antisemitism is one that was created to reference Jews and is centred around all manner of myths and conspiracies about Jews.

flim (not verified) Thu, 12/25/2025 - 11:50

In reply to by JLanger (not verified)

You equate Israeli settler colonialism with Hamas' authoritarian government and fail to admit that the thing that Palestinians are faced with is a genocide. And, no, Hamas authoritarianism can't be compared to the Israeli Genocides. Just like the violenceof the Palestinian resistance against the Zionist occupation is legitimate and justified, it's not just "Palestinian nationalism" and "re-colonization" as you present it here. Also, bringing ISIS into the conversation is dishonest. Hamas' politics aren't anywhere close to ISIS' fascism. Your whole essay looks like a liberal Zionist bargain against Palestinian liberation.

anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/25/2025 - 01:08

Sorry but I'm not going to be lectured about anti-semitism, the Palestine issue or anything to do with conflicts in the region by some absurdly pretentious white, privileged twat living in rural UK who thinks that because they have some Jewish heritage they are some kind of oppressed minority and entitled to bore us to death with yet another pompous, pseudo-intellectual, rambling screed full of typos and ludicrous pearl-clutching. Sorry, not sorry.

anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/25/2025 - 06:26

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

Agreed. Real tired of what seems to be this thread of "I'm going to write 30 paragraphs of my personal history analysis and if you don't read and understand it you aren't allowed to have an opinion."

It's multiple people doing it at this point and it's just a tiresome obfuscation.

Israel/Palestine isn't even at the top of my list of things I focus on but this stuff is just getting annoying.

Tldr: this war is not hard to understand. The Israeli state is not hard to understand. It's pretty cut and dry.

anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/25/2025 - 08:21

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

"not going to be lectured" by someone you chose to read on a website. because of location and presumed identity. deep.

i agree that i don't read julian langer either; i agree that his writing is pretentious, pseudo-intellectual, and rambling.

but anti-semitism and palestine can both be bad, can in fact feed off each other. this doesn't have to be the reading that encourages you to go beyond the binary, but certainly something should. 

anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/25/2025 - 10:42

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

Langer might not be suited for your anti-intellectualism but he's at least being generous in politely and elaborately arguing with ideological brutes, sus posters and potential trolls. This deserves some recognition, tho IMO some dumb commenters here don't deserve such brain aid from him...

16:23 (not verified) Sat, 12/27/2025 - 20:00

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

Yes, he's elucidating on the common 'layman's view' of what anti-semitism is. Prof. Norman Cohn wrote a very accurate history of the more recent form that anti-semiticism bwgan to take in the 20th century called " Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion " which was popular reading amongst the KKK and compulsory school reading in Nazi Germany in 1930s.

16:23 (not verified) Sat, 12/27/2025 - 20:06

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

Oops, meant " The Protocols of Zion " was the anti-semitic book and Professor Cohn wrote a critique of it called " Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and (racist book)The Protocols of the Elders of Zion"

Le Way, (not verified) Mon, 12/29/2025 - 02:57

In reply to by 16:23 (not verified)

Prof Cohn is sooOoo cool, but for anarchs his masterpiece is In the Pursuit of the Millenium, a history of underground uprisings during the Middle Ages in Europe. Spontaneous crusades by enslaved serfs, autonomous rebels, outlaw intellectuals living in the gutters, starving perverts into self-flagellation, all these exuberant popular hordes against church and the monarchy.

Le Way, (not verified) Tue, 12/30/2025 - 00:20

In reply to by Le Way, (not verified)

One of the medieval revolutionary groups were an elite of amoral supermen who preached the heresy of the free spirit, very Netzschean, and the Ranters, who I relate to very much,,,ooOoo the good ol' days,,,

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