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Antisemitic Protesters Make the Case for Zionism
(Wall Street Journal) Gerard Leval - The antisemitic demonstrators roiling our campuses and cities certainly don't mean to, but they're making a powerful case for Zionism. In 1896, Theodor Herzl, a Viennese journalist and very assimilated Jew, published The Jewish State, a manifesto calling for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the biblical land of Israel. That set into motion the modern Zionist movement. Herzl had awakened to his Jewish origins when he covered the trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer falsely accused of betraying France. Dreyfus was an assimilated Jew and a proud Frenchman. Yet he was being treated as a traitor because he was a Jew, with cries of "Death to the Jews" reverberating on the streets of Paris. Confronted with this, Herzl came to the reluctant conclusion that Jews, observant or assimilated, needed their own nation to be safe from persecution. In the wake of Oct. 7, we can't deny being witness to a worldwide paroxysm of hate against Israel, which has steadily morphed into classic antisemitism. Since its founding, the U.S. has been a most extraordinary haven for Jews. Yet today, even in the halls of Congress, antisemitism has dramatically surfaced, and Jews are being intimidated. It turns out that Herzl was right about the need to re-establish the Jewish homeland. Those in the forefront of the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish demonstrations are giving full credence and impetus to the Zionist dream. Even in the most welcoming nation on earth, Jews feel at risk. Only in a secure Israel can Jews be certain that they won't be persecuted by reason of who they are. The purveyors of anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda are the best recruiters any Zionist could ever want.