By Steven Plaut
Steven Plaut’s article delves into the paradox of Jewish self-hatred within Israel, a nation founded to counter assimilation and anti-Semitism. This piece complements my earlier work, Deconstructing the West: Multiculturalism’s Hidden Origins, which traced multiculturalism’s philosophical roots, and Robert Tracinski’s Multiculturalism: Self-Liquidation of Europe by Muslims, which examined Europe’s cultural self-destruction. Plaut focuses on Israel, showing how the same self-hating and culturally destructive tendencies infect even Jews against Jews, particularly through the secular Left’s influence and the Oslo debacle.
One of the greatest ironies of Jewish history is that secular Zionism, formulated in the nineteenth century to counter Diaspora assimilationism and Jewish "self-hatred," has seen the rise of malignant self-hatred and anti-Semitism within Israel itself. Designed as an alternative to assimilation and anti-Semitism, Zionism’s fulfillment birthed "Post-Jewish Israelism" and "Post-Zionist" Jewish anti-Semitism—bizarre forms of assimilation within the Jewish state.
Until recently, it was presumed that secular Zionism and Israel’s establishment had decisively overcome assimilationism and self-hatred, especially among Israeli Jews and, to a degree, Diaspora Jews. Secular Zionism merged modernity with Jewishness, avoiding both the radical anti-Orthodox assimilation of Diaspora reformers and the Orthodox rejection of modernity. This was achieved through "Israeliness"—a modern identity with high-tech industries, European lifestyles, top-tier universities, and a legendary military, all within a state defined by its Jewishness.
Yet "Israeliness" had flaws. Its elites—intellectuals, journalists, academics, and artists—harbored deep animosity toward Jewish tradition and religious people, a sentiment echoed by parts of the secular populace. Fueled by resentment of the religious Establishment’s political power, this hostility surged after Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination by a religious law student and peaked with the anti-Orthodox Shinui Party’s success under Joseph "Tommy" Lapid.
Another root was the "Canaanite" trend among elites, viewing Israelis as a new, "post-Jewish" nationality—essentially a non-Jewish ethnic group. Active since the 1950s, this movement sought to sever Israeliness from Jewishness, claiming greater kinship with Druse and Bedouins than with Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jews. This backlash included fierce hostility to Yiddish and the stripping of Jewish content from secular school curricula, where history often ended at Masada or Bar-Kochba, resuming with Zionism. Today, many Israeli teens cannot complete "Shma Yisrael" or explain the Amida.
Some saw "Israeliness" as a path to resolve Arab-Jewish tensions by transcending religion and ethnicity, hoping Arabs would embrace it. This delusion masked deeper issues.
Despite national challenges and "Canaanite" delusions, secular Zionism was long seen as a Jewish national success. Ordinary Israelis weren’t assimilating into alien identities, remaining Jews—albeit often ignorant of Judaism—within a state where Hebrew was the daily language, Jewish holidays were official, and Jewish symbols defined the nation. This fusion of Judaism and modernity seemed stable.
These assumptions collapsed in the 1990s with the rise of mass Jewish anti-Semitism within Israel, dominating the radical Left, academia, journalism, and eventually the nation via the "Leftist Ascendancy." Even when Likud held power, the Left shaped policy. The Oslo era saw Israeli leaders assault national pride, with intellectuals preaching "original sin," "New Historians" rewriting texts to favor Arab narratives, and politicians stripping Jewish emblems from the state while implementing reverse discrimination favoring Arabs.
Israeli leaders echoed anti-Semitic rhetoric, calling Israel a colonial oppressor and blaming Jewish actions for Palestinian violence. This fueled global anti-Semitism by legitimizing its propaganda. Unlike Diaspora assimilationists, who were often indifferent to Jewishness, Oslo-era Israeli elites displayed active anti-Jewish bigotry, with academics collaborating with Israel’s enemies, advocating its elimination, and touring the world to denounce it as a fascist, apartheid state.
Israeli universities became hotbeds of anti-Zionist extremists, promoting propaganda as "research" and securing tenure through leftist solidarity. Some called for boycotts of their own institutions. Schools adopted anti-Israel ideologies, with proposals for a "Naqba Day" to mourn Israel’s existence—unique globally. The media, dominated by the Far Left, parroted academic Newspeak, with Haaretz as a leftist indoctrination tool, Yediot Ahronot nearly as biased, and Maariv offering limited pluralism. TV stations competed in leftist commentary, while Arutz 7’s closure ended radio diversity.
The Supreme Court, intelligence services, military officers, and other institutions fell under this sway, bolstered by foreign funding from anti-Israel sources. This Jewish anti-Semitism drove the Left’s theology, responding to every Arab atrocity with calls for more concessions, some even justifying terror as necessary to "force peace."
For thirty years, "Israeliness" fostered a proud, confident Jewish identity. Yet by the 1990s, this morphed into defeatism, with leaders begging Arafat for peace talks amid terror, offering reparations to attackers, and abandoning military resolve. Post-Holocaust Israel negotiated with Holocaust deniers, unwilling to protect its citizens or assert victory.
The Oslo "peace process" epitomized this self-hatred. Its failure is obvious, but its initial acceptance defies logic unless viewed through Jewish anti-Semitism. Leaders insisted peace required self-deprecation, concessions to terrorists, and abandoning Jewish roots—believing goodwill would triumph over force in a barbarous region. Importing the PLO from Tunisia, arming it, and ceding land defied sanity, snatching defeat from victory.
Seven years later, Ehud Barak offered the Old City and Negev amid daily murders, prompting the Al-Aqsa Intifada. The PLO amassed weapons, killed 1,400 Israelis, and turned Gaza into a terror base—all predicted by Oslo’s critics, dismissed as fanatics. The Left’s response? More appeasement, even as Likud adopted its axioms.
Oslo’s architects believed consumerism trumped defense—an absurdity no "normal" nation would entertain. This suggests Israelis lacked a true national consciousness, their "Israeliness" a shallow facade. Secular Zionism, aiming to replace Jewish identity with civic patriotism, birthed a confused entity dominated by defeatists, blaming itself for Arab aggression and sacrificing its interests to political correctness.
Religious critics once called secular Zionism disguised assimilationism. Oslo and its aftermath may prove them right. An Israeliness rooted in Jewishness wouldn’t blame Jews for anti-Semitism or seek peace through economic bribes. The Leftist Ascendancy and secular "Israeliness" have undermined Israel’s will to survive, birthing the pathology of Oslo.
Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor at Haifa University, and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments—seriously and satirically—on Israeli politics and the left-wing academic community. His website is stevenplaut.blogspot.com.
Acknowledgment: I’d like to thank Grok, an AI by xAI, for helping me format and refine this presentation of Steven Plaut’s article. The selection and framing are my own, Lewis Loflin.
