Is Zionism a form of Fascism?

An introduction

Some half-hearted Zionists have popped into our comments and DMs recently to remind us of how vile and antisemetic our Palestinian advocacy has been. After our recent “Hate Watch” posts, some even marveled at how we could make posts shining light on Nazi activity in TN when we ourselves are so “deeply antisemitic.” So, we decided it might be time for a refresher on antisemitism, Zionism, Nazism, and the epistemology of fascism.

*note: In this article, I am using the word “religions” primarily as shorthand for the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. I think much of this discourse can be mapped onto non-Abrahamic religions as well, as we have seen in India over the last decade. But that is for another time.

My personal background prior to philosophy, ecology, and political theory was in Christian theology and religious fundamentalism broadly construed. If people are interested in more analysis of the function of religion in global society and contemporary politics, I’d be happy to do that. I may do it down the line anyway…

1 - What is Fascism?

In his seminal and eminently readable short essay, “Ur-Fascism,” Umberto Eco provides fourteen basic markers by which we can understand a political regime to be fascistic. The essay is about 10 pages, and I highly recommend you read it if you are interested in understanding the basics of fascism after WWII.

The fourteen principles Eco maps in the essay are derived not only from his rich intellectual life, but also from his personal experience growing up in the fascist grade schools in Italy. Before enumerating the fourteen markers, Eco importantly reminds us that ”Fascism became an all-purpose term because one can eliminate from a fascist regime one or more features, and it will still be recognizable as fascist.”

In summary, the fourteen markers are as follows:

1. Cult of tradition

2. Rejection of Modernism

3. Action for action’s sake

4. Disagreement is treason

5. Fear of difference

6. Appeal to a frustrated middle class

7. Obsession with a plot, followers must feel besieged

8. Followers must feel humiliated by their enemies wealth and strength

9. Life is permanent warfare, and pacifism is a tool of the enemy

10. Contempt for the weak, reinforcing a notion of popular-elitism or popular identification with elite symbology

11. Everyone is educated to become a hero under fascism.The greatest signal of a heroic life is a heroic death, thus heroic death or martyrdom is valorized.

12. Machismo, sexual insecurity, inceldom: “Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Ur-fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters.”

13. Selective populism, or qualitative populism. This populism is rooted in a singular narrative and rejects any multiculturalism that threatens the metanarrative.

14. Use of Newspeak, which is an Orwellian term used to describe state sponsered speech characterized by “impoverished vocabulary, elementary syntax” and a lack of tools for critical thought and analysis.

2 - Reflecting on Nazism

Nazism and Fascism are not synonymous, though it seems these days many people think that to be the case. Rather, Nazism is a subset (or kind) of fascism. Nazism is unique among other fascisms due to its central focus on the so-called “Jewish Question,” the antisemitic theory upon which their genocidal project and national aspirations were constructed. While most, if not all, fascistic ideologies are composed of incoherent and race-based conspiracies that often include antisemetism, the core of Nazi ire is directed towards Jewish people.

There are many reasons why Nazism became the archetype of fascism after WWII, not least of which the utter scale, pace, and efficacy of their onslaught against and industrial genocide of the Jewish people. We often forget, though, that modern fascism really finds its origins in Italy. Under the influence of Michel Foucault, we believe one can clearly trace the trajectory of the modern fascism as far back as Plato (a conversation for another time).

3 - Is Zionism equivalent to Judaism?

Judaism is an ethnic religion with deep and diverse cultural traditions, wisdom, and rabbinical teachings. With this in mind, it is not only important to understand that Zionism is a distinct political ideology inflected by both Jewish and evangelical Christian prophetic vocabularies, but we also propose that Zionism itself is built upon a form of prototypical antisemitism. This has been the case since Zionism’s inception, but the grotesque reality has been on full display since October 7. We have seen countless examples of Jewish people scrutinizing and questioning the Jewishness of antizionist Jews. Thus, in a breathtaking duplicity of genocidal rhetoric and reactionary political practice, Zionism must not only dehumanize the people of Gaza to justify their genocide; they must also delegitimize and erase the Jewish identity of antizionist Jews to justify their dehumanization. This act of delegitimization and erasure, we believe, is at the core of contemporary antisemitism.

In light of this, I recommend to you that Zionism is not Judaism. Rather Zionismn is a form of fascism. So to be anti-Zionist is not in fact to be antisemitic, but to be antifascist.

4 - Zionism

Zionism, like Nazism, is a subset (or kind) of fascism. Interestingly, but not uniquely, Zionism employs the scaffold of religious dictums and morality to articulate and enflesh its insidious political ideology. Sadly, in scenarios like this, devotees of the religion are coerced to protect the fascist regime by what amounts to a long process of grooming and manufactured consent. In the case of Zionism, this process of enmeshment is deepened doubly through the language of ethnicity, expanded globally throughout the diaspora, and further disfigured within the framework of fundamentalist evangelical Christianity. In the language of politics, this cynical and weaponized process can be understood as nothing other than fascism.

5 - The epistemology of fascism

Before it materializes as a political regime, fascism is first and foremost an epistemology, or a way of knowing. Some will (correctly) want to clarify that it is an epistemology that emerges from a certain type of personality or temperament, but that is beyond the scope of this short essay. What we are more interested to communicate are three key epistemological components that seem inextricably linked to fascist ideologies: a rigid metanarrative or metaphysic, an understanding of morality as rigid and permanent, and an eschatological vision.

The metanarrative galvanizes the in-group, and is often marked by the fleshy language of blood and soil to root the visceral senses of each political subject within the national metanarrative. The moral construct is what enables the fascist to dehumanize, otherize, and castigate marginal groups as degenerate, thereby stoking the xenophobic fervor of the in-group. Finally, the eschatological vision sustains devotion amongst the rank and file to the degree that they become willing to sacrifice their lives to actualize the unachievable eschaton, kingdom, or utopia. Sound familiar?

6 - Religious fundamentalism and theocratic fascism after the Cold War

Why has religious fundamentalism become the most active carrier of fascism within the postwar era—notably from Reagan, through 9/11, to the present? We recommend that the structure of religious thought is epistemology is a better suited for fascist politics than secular nationalism, explaining the rise of religious fundamentalism and theocratic nationalism since WWII. This is not to suggest that theocratic forms of governance did not exist prior to modernism, but rather that religiously inflected fascism, as-such, was only possible in the wake of secular fascism’s breathtaking failure. Even the Nazis of post Wiemar Germany incorporated an element of neopaganism and mysticism to contextualize their eschatological narrative, though other authoritarian leaders like Mousolini and Stalin were devoted atheists and variously critical of the use of religion in politics or society.

It may be possible to identify two primary expressions of religious fundamentalism in the wake of the enlightenment and WWII. For the sake of this brief essay, we refer to them as “fundamentalism of the oppressor,” and “fundamentalism of the oppressed.” Broadly speaking, the fundamentalism of the oppressor is used to justify their right to the land by divine decree, while the fundamentalism of the oppressed is used to invoke the inevitable warfare necessary to resist the onslaught against their physical home. We see this dynamic playing out in various ways across the globe now.

One of the many reasons early European fascism was unable to sustain itself was the mounting fatigue of the German body politic during a war that was proving to be unwinnable. Religious zealotry, though, may not capitulate so soon with the same fatigue. This may have to do with the distinctly different structures of religious and nationalist eschatologies. Whereas nationalist eschatologies are rooted in the metanarrative of the nation-state itself, religious eschatologies tend to come with the authority of divine-mandate and a prophetic guarantee of both final victory and requisite immortality.

(The topic of fundamentalism deserves WAY more attention and nuance than I can give it here, and others have done this elsewhere to a degree far superior than I could ever achieve. This will have to do for here and now…)

7 - Disrupting fascism

So that this article isn’t purely theoretical, I’d like to make two practical observations. I believe it is incumbent upon us to hold space for two primary political practices to maintain resistance against the reactionary forces of fascism.

First, direct antifascism should be a core aspect of our political practice as leftists. Fascism, whether in the marketplace of ideas or in the streets, should never go unopposed. When fascist tendencies manifest in our local communities or governing bodies, leftists must take principled and strategic action to oppose it. This will look different in a variety of contexts, but, during this period of right wing ascendancy, we must be prepared to engage in the way each context demands — whether with our pens, with our voices, or with our bodies.

Second, if we truly want to see epistemological revolution—and thus ethical, political, and economic revolution-our communities must develop and iterate stronger internal accountability structures whereby the fascistic/reactive/ totalitarian/authoritarian tendencies within ourselves and our communities can be safely short-circuited. Cancel culture, in my opinion, has been a massive failed attempt at this process of accountability. We must recommit ourselves to building new models of safe internal confrontation and healing.

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Some recommended (short) reading:

Ur-fascism, by Umberto Eco

Reflections on the Philosophy of Hitlerism, Emmanuel Levinas — In this short essay by Levinas, you will not only find insightful analysis of the nazism of intrawar Germany, but also into what had become a cataclysmic and fraught division between Levinas and Martin Heidegger (whose politics and thought were deeply entangled with the Nazi party).

When Protesting Israel becomes Hating Jews, by Jason Stanley - This 2014 essay represents what I would essentially call the steelman humanitarian case for Zionism. My fundamental problem with this position, though, is its enmeshment with the (incorrect) logic of nationhood, which suggests that the national formation is the most secure social formation—thereby extending maximal stability to the most people. I disagree with this position for a variety of reasons, but it would likely take a series of posts to actually elucidate my critique with any nuance.

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