LONDON (VINnews) – British author and journalist Brendan O’Neill declared that anti-Zionism has become “an ideology of hatred,” equating it with antisemitism in a fiery appearance on GB News.
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“Anti-Zionism is an ideology of hatred. There is no question of that now,” O’Neill said on the network Sunday. He argued that people who identify as anti-Zionists are in fact antisemites.
O’Neill, chief political writer for the online magazine Spiked and author of several books including one on the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, made the comments during a discussion on rising antisemitism and what he described as a “cesspit of Jew hatred” in parts of British society.
In recent writings for Spiked, O’Neill has contended that modern anti-Zionism goes beyond criticism of Israeli policies and serves as a vehicle for hostility toward Jews and the Jewish state. He has pointed to incidents involving Britain’s Green Party and pro-Palestinian protests as evidence that the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism has collapsed.
The remarks come amid ongoing debates in the U.K. and elsewhere over the Israel-Hamas war, campus protests and a reported surge in antisemitic incidents since Oct. 7. Jewish organizations have documented increased attacks and harassment, while some activists maintain that strong opposition to Israeli policies and Zionism — the movement supporting a Jewish homeland in Israel — constitutes legitimate political criticism rather than prejudice.
O’Neill, who has said he once held more sympathetic views toward anti-Zionist arguments, now rejects that position outright, calling anti-Zionism a threat to Jews worldwide.
I personally am pro Zionism and think according to many it’s al pi Torah. That being said, there is also place in our Torah to be anti Zionism as something someone believes is against our Torah. Even I won’t deny that the state as a whole does things often that are not in line with our Torah values. To be against all of that doesn’t mean you hate Jews. Now here is the thing, from a non Jews perspective this gets murky. To them it’s often used as an excuse to be anti semiotic . Even then it’s not everyone that does that. But enough people do that , that it’s a dangerous game to play in the broader world, not amongst us. Then you have actors like Iran who use it to moralize itself to send missiles and kill anyone in Israel even non Zionist civilians which are ehrlich Jew.
Anti-Zionism isn’t an ideology. It’s like “race realist.” The technical meaning has nothing to do with what the people who claim the label actually believe.