printIs Zionism not, to some extent, an excrescence of Judaism? Why the near-religious divide between Zionism and Judaism? And, am I permitted at all even to ask? ~ilana
NEW ESSAY IS “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation: Chosenness (Part 1).” It is a feature essay on The Unz Review (where readers can comment and debate) and has appeared on LewRockwell.com, anti-state, anti-war, pro-market.
https://www.unz.com/imercer/the-judaism-zionism-bifurcation-chosenness-part-1/
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2026/05/ilana-mercer/the-judaism-zionism-bifurcation-chosenness/
Excerpt:
Pro-Palestine commentators and activists, Jews and non-Jews, are religious about maintaining a bifurcation—a divide—between Judaism and Zionism. Advocates of this duality portray Judaism as humanistic, universal and pastoral, and Zionism as its opposite. In the commingled rumble of commentary over Zionism; Arab commentators have been conditioned, by necessity, to internalize the split and the exact fissure-lines, as though mouthing these were a protective amulet, a matter of survival; theirs, ours. It is, in a sense.
Why this near-religious bifurcation between Zionism and Judaism? Is Zionism, to some extent, not an excrescence of Judaism?
Biblical Chosenness is certainly a facet of Judaism. Does it relate not at all to the Jewish supremacy that animates Jewish-Israeli expression and express action? Are these not connected? If so, should the question posed, then, really be a Jewish-Israeli question? Or, perhaps a Judaism Question is more apropos?
And, am I permitted at all to even ask?
Composer of some of the best, most exquisite English prose, with insight to match, was novelist Anita Brookner. Through her Jewish protagonist in the novel Making Things Better (2002, p 22), Ms. Brookner writes that the gentleman’s Jewish “ancestral religion,” which he did not practice, “seemed to him an affair of prohibitions, of righteous exclusiveness for which he could see no justification.”
Miss Brookner, a rare gem and a genius, was a secular, unaffiliated Jew like myself. “Although resolutely secular in outlook,” Ms. Brookner also conveyed what I have long-since felt. It is that “the mystery of the Holy Spirit,” expressed in good will, gratitude and graciousness, seems absent from the encounters we Jewish outsiders, lonely people, have had within our “ancestral religion.” (Loneliness is the theme that threads Brookner’s novels.)
Like Brookner, I do not speak ex cathedra of the vexation that is Jewishness. It is indubitably a delicate matter. And, although knowledgeable, I am not an “expert.” However, to deny that eddying around the Jewish child is a sense of, or talk of, Jewish specialness—this would be dishonest. Whether you choose to imbibe “Chosenness” or not—I chose not to—as a Jew, you are likely to have been raised hearing about “Chosenness.”
The supremacy fallacy, it would thus seem, issues surely not strictly from “Zionism,” but from “Chosenness.”
The Chosen-People belief is as old as the Hebrew Bible itself. It is thus in the “Chosen People’s” philosophical marrow. For what—pray tell?—are foundational, early teachings like Deuteronomy 14:2, if not a declaration of Jewish superiority for posterity?
For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.
Alongside all the commentators and broadcasters who insist on upholding the division between Judaism and Zionism; I, too, very much hope that Zionism is not an instantiation or an extension, on some elemental level, of Judaism. I really do.
There are certainly universal elements in the Hebrew Testament. Deuteronomy, an early book, showcases an advanced concept of Jewish Social Justice, and is replete with instructions to …
… READ THE REST. “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation: Chosenness (Part 1)” is on The Unz Review (where readers can comment and debate) and LewRockwell.com .
Forthcoming: “The Judaism-Zionism Bifurcation (Part 2): Tikkun Olam: Fixing The World, But For What, For Whom?
X: Follow to help defeat Elon’s algorithm: https://x.com/IlanaMercer
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilana-mercer-378a671b0/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ILANAMERCERAuthor/
Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/ILANAMERCER
Subscribe: https://www.ilanamercer.com/mailing-list/
“Is Zionism not, to some extent, an excrescence of Judaism?”
The answer to these kinds of questions can only be in the Bible. Why? Because it claims to be His words, and He created Israel and Judaism. If we put the Bible aside, then the conversation is useless.
Zionism is not a Biblical teaching. Zion is taught in the Bible. Land was promised to Abraham and his seed, Isaac and on. Israel was to move in on what God gave them and take it. That’s not “Zionism.” There’s no “Zionism” in Genesis through Joshua. He gave them the land. That’s it. And it was to that nation only. And really, there should be no more questions.
And the big, big question is: WHY? Because everybody else chose to go their own way. Men did not want God, so He let them go, and they chose to follow the Adversary:
Romans 1:28 “…they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind…”
No one had any excuse. EVERYONE had known God:
Romans 1:21 “…when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful…”
That pertained to the world before Genesis 12.
So, the purpose of God in making Israel was to show the world and the Adversary what a nation under the Creator looks like.
“Biblical Chosenness is certainly a facet of Judaism.”
No, it’s not. Not in the Bible. God chose Abram, then made Israel, but it’s not because of Judaism.
Judaism came from being chosen.
Deuteronomy 7:7-8 “The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers…”
Again, their being chosen is the reason stated above, “to show the world.” Judaism came about for at least these two reasons:
For God to make them stand out to the world, different and peculiar:
Deuteronomy 14:2 “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.”
And, because Israel opted for the Law (EX. 19).
“…Chosenness…Does it relate not at all to the Jewish supremacy that animates Jewish-Israeli expression and express action?”
Perhaps so.
It’s not about their supremacy; they’re not superior. They’re not special, but God made them special, and that’s the key difference. He is going to make them the head and not the tail, and the Gentiles are going to be subject to the Jew. It was His call.
WHY? Because men chose to go their own way (Rom. 1). So God will show the world what a nation is like whose God is God, and also, and this is very important, God will use Israel to repossess the earth from the Adversary. No one wanted to be a part of that, so God made Himself a nation who will carry out that needful function.
“For what—pray tell?—are foundational, early teachings like Deuteronomy 14:2, if not a declaration of Jewish superiority for posterity?”
“For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.”
Posterity may have made it that way, but that is not what is going on there in Deuteronomy 14. Israel then was not holy in and of themselves. God was/is going to make them holy. He is going to accomplish that for them. That was one of the mandates of their Redeemer.
I mean, take Balaam for example. Consider again what Balaam told Balak. It’s astounding:
Numbers 23:21 “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.”
Yet there was iniquity in Jacob! There was perverseness in Israel! But “I Am” Himself was going to make Israel right. The Redeemer. Perhaps no one, including Moses, understood how God could say such a thing, but He knew.
“Alongside all the commentators and broadcasters who insist on upholding the division between Judaism and Zionism…”
Bible wise, there is no such thing as Zionism. Judaism, yes, but again, that came a whole lot later, for the purposes of making them a peculiar people to stand out to the Adversary following world, and because Israel opted for the Law contract (EX 19).
“In speaking truth to power, Jesus followed in the footsteps of the classical prophets.”
No. This is why He came:
Romans 15:8 “Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:”
“…a faith is more than a doctrine;”
A faith? Bible faith is not more than a doctrine. Faith is based on doctrine:
“Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”
“I want to believe in the strict bifurcation of Judaism and Zionism…”
Such a statement may have application in the secular among the political, but it’s nonsense as far as what’s going on in the Bible (God’s word).
God made a nation. He gave them land. They’re going to get it. Those are the facts. It’s not Zionism. Judaism doesn’t have anything to do with the land God gave to Israel. God instituted Judaism primarily because Israel opted for the Law contract.
“All the same, from Jews, liberals for the most, I’ve always heard the Chosen People storyline.”
I almost can’t believe the words I’ve been reading. Israel was chosen, but no, not because they were superior.
Joyce Carol Oats quip was good, but it’s the same with philosophers and the majority of Christendom. The president and whoever else was there crying out 2 Chronicles 7:14, don’t know what’s going on. The majority of Christendom doesn’t have a clue.
But, let me tell you, Ilana, who did know what’s going on in the Bible, and it was a New Testament Jesus rejecting Jewish rabbi of all people:
“We regard Jesus as one of the greatest of our Rabbis,…And he added, ‘It was not he that founded Christianity, but your PAUL.'” From, “Forgotten Truths,” by Sir Robert Anderson.
That man was pretty much spot on. I might tweak what the Rabbi said, and say it this way: the Lord Jesus Christ, Israel’s Messiah, began something new with Paul (Christianity).
Before that, Christ’s earthly ministry AND early Acts, was God’s program with Israel. The “middle wall of partition” was still up separating the Jews from the “dogs” (Gentiles).
So, the big question is why didn’t Israel, way back, get their land and the kingdom? Even the 11 apostles were expecting it. Read Acts 1:6. The problem, Ilana, as far as why Israel did not see all her promises get fulfilled, such as getting their land, is because the God of Israel unexpectedly interrupted His program with them. It was a temporary interruption. But He is going to resume His program with them, and they are going to get that land and then some. And they will be the head and not the tail, and the Gentiles are going to be compelled to get in line with that.
Since converting Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9, God has been doing something different. He’s accomplishing a different purpose. That simply has to be understood. And the answer is not Replacement Theology. As far as the current nation of Israel since 1948, that’s another matter. God is going to, after this dispensation of grace concludes, gather all the Jews Himself and put them Himself into the land He gave them. Whether He “uses” the current configuration, time will tell.
Sincerely.
Scary worldview, and not a word about genocide by the His alleged “chosen”, which makes this “worldview” positively amoral, monstrous.