# Is Zionism Racist? A Debate on Jewish Statehood and Assimilation - Original post: https://www.twitter.com/i/status/2108528789370323382 - Source account: [@colwight](https://x.com/colwight) - Source language: English - Duration: 4:17 - Published: 2026-10-09 - Canonical URL: https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation ## Transcript [0:00](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation) I was borrowing this book- Okay. So, so the, the- From Ben, from Ben Felon ... do you agree, do you agree with the Green Party stance that Zionism is racism? [0:09](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=9) Well, I, I... Brianna, we're gonna have a serious discussion now. [0:15](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=15) You're trained as a lawyer, and I'm gonna speak to you and hope that we, hopefully we can, uh, be precise. [0:24](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=24) What the, what the, uh, Green Party did was it contr- it created a definition which was racist the way they described Zionism. They created a definition which was racist, and then they condemned it as racism. So if you, if you yourself make the definition- Well, how would you define Zionism as something other than an ethnonational [0:49](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=49) project? You might... Okay. Fine. Good question. [0:53](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=53) Permit me, allow me a credential. I wrote my doctorate dissertation on Zionism, on the theory of Zionism. [0:59](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=59) That was my, it was called From the Jewish Question to the Jewish State: An Essay on the Theory of Zionism. So I know it pretty well. Okay? [1:07](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=67) I know the subject even though it's a half century ago. [1:10](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=70) I still know the subject pretty well. How would I define Zionism? [1:14](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=74) I would say Zionism is the following. Zionism came to the conclu- the Zionists. [1:19](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=79) What distinguished the Zionists from all the other branches, the Bund, Jewish communists, Jewish socialists, what distin- what distinguished Zionism was the following. [1:30](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=90) They said there's no future for Jews in what was called the diaspora or Galut. Galut is the term for exile. [1:38](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=98) There was no J- uh, future for Jews there. [1:40](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=100) One of two things was gonna happen. Either they would be persecuted, continue to be persecuted, namely antisemitism would persist in the non-Jewish, uh, in the n- in the, uh, diaspora, or, um, antisemitism would disappear and then Jews would disappear. [2:03](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=123) They would just assimilate. So either the two possible outcomes for Jews in the non-Jewish world was either continued persecution or assimilation. [2:16](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=136) So their view was we had to create a Jewish state, a state which was predominantly Jewish, in order to prevent or overcome persecution and assimilation. [2:30](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=150) Now, the, the truth of the matter is, in my opinion, their diag- their, uh, their analysis is probably fundamentally correct. The reason we don't have huge levels of antisemitism in Europe now, it's because Hitler solved the Jewish question. [2:49](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=169) There is no- What do you mean? What do you mean by that? [2:52](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=172) There are no... The, the six million Jews were exterminated. [2:57](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=177) That solved the Jewish question. If they had still stayed in Europe, had there not been the Nazi extermination, I suspect that the levels of antisemitism would still be quite high in Europe. So- I, I don't- But, but assuming- Okay. But ju- just to reorient us- Whatever. Yeah, yeah ... just to re- [3:20](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=200) Allow me, and then you go. And then the second aspect is the assimilation. [3:25](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=205) You see that in the United States. Jews are disappearing in numbers. [3:29](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=209) Assimilation is happening at a very high rate. [3:32](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=212) Uh, 60% of Jews, you know, are intermarrying, and intermarriage is essentially the death knell of an ethnical group. Now, you may say of c- you know, love should triumph over ethnicity, and I totally, I can get that. [3:47](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=227) But I'm just saying as an analysis, the Zionists were fundamentally correct, that in a non-Jewish state, the prospect was either persecution or assimilation. [4:02](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=242) So their solution, quote, unquote, was to create a Jewish state. [4:08](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=248) Now, that in itself, in my view, that in itself is not racist. [4:15](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/0C4csPbdrlMp/en/is-zionism-racist-a-debate-on-jewish-statehood-and-assimilation?t=255) Uh, re-