There is a peculiar experience that comes with being a left-wing Israeli today: discovering that, in certain circles, your politics are considered contradictory before you have even opened your mouth.

If you oppose the occupation, support Palestinian statehood, protest the government, defend liberal democracy, believe in equal rights and civil liberties — you may still find yourself asked a kind of ideological litmus test.

Yes, but are you a Zionist?

Increasingly, the question is not descriptive but disqualifying.

For some parts of the global left, “Zionist” has ceased to mean belief in Jewish self-determination in some form and instead has become shorthand for militarism, ethnonationalism, settler expansion, occupation, or support for the current Israeli government. The word has become more of an accusation than anything.

But for many Israelis — including deeply left-wing ones like myself — Zionism means something much smaller and much less sinister.

It means believing that Jews, like other peoples, have a right to collective self-determination and safety in their ancestral........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)