What shattered the fallacy that Israel is a safe homeland?

On October 7, 2023, the Palestinians plunged Israel into a major security crisis. On that day, one of the most fundamental promises of Zionism was called into question, and the thesis that Israel is a safe homeland for Jews began to be scrutinized.

One of Zionism's most important theses was that Israel, built as a settler colonial structure, was a safe homeland for all Jews. Zionist leaders like Theodor Herzl attached great importance to the safe homeland thesis. In this way, it would be easier to convince Jews. Even while still in its ideological phase, Zionism was associated with Judaism despite its colonial character. Intellectuals representing the new historian school, such as Ilan Pappe, have expressed that Zionism did not find a general resonance among Jews. Avi Shlaim's book "Three Worlds" also contains information in the same vein.

The project of colonizing Palestine belonged to Britain. Christian Zionism is very important for analyzing Zionism and Israel. The Balfour Declaration was a turning point, but more significant was Britain's implementation of the settler colonial project under the Palestine Mandate. Unfortunately, the British Mandate has often been left in the background. The widely accepted slander in our country that Palestinians sold their lands has also rendered the British Mandate invisible. This new system was a form of neocolonial domination. Under the Mandate, the British opened Palestine's doors to settlers. Nevertheless, it took time for Jews living in different parts of the world to trust Zionism, and Britain played a major role in building that trust. Under the auspices of Britain and the US, the Zionists established colonization associations in line with the goal of colonizing Palestine.

Definitive judgments about some events can, of course, be misleading, but it appears that the tendency among Jews to leave Israel has become more widespread after October 7, 2023. There is open talk of a serious increase in the number of those leaving Israel for good. This process will also directly affect Zionism. In this framework, the increasing criticism among Jews toward Zionism and Zionists, and even the reading of anti-Israel declarations by anti-Zionist Jewish communities before US President Trump last week, is quite a new development. It is not yet possible to say anything definitive about the dimensions of the tension or divergence between Jews and Zionists, but we can say that the belief in Israel as a safe homeland has been shaken.

After October 7, 2023, Israel and Zionism have come to the agenda in a very different context in almost the entire world. For example, the meaninglessness of discussing Israel's existence with concepts derived from Jewish theology and history is being emphasized much more strongly. Ideas that the world is subservient to Jewish power are also losing ground. Instead, views that Israel must be evaluated within the settler colonialism paradigm are also finding serious resonance in Türkiye.

We cannot deny that there is a great distance to be covered in Türkiye regarding the settler colonialism paradigm. Nevertheless, the social media content of a person named Ruhi Çenet, about whom there is suspicious information circulating, regarding Jewish groups, was widely discussed in the US and in our country. This time, in Türkiye, those who evaluated Israel and Zionism in a religious context, as in the past, debated with those who did not give credence to the religious context. The evaluation of Zionism and Israel outside the religious context was theoretically quite significant. Although the settler colonialism paradigm was not widely adopted, discussing Israel and Zionism outside the religious context is very important for reaching the source of geopolitical interventions. Within the framework of such a discussion, international relations networks must also be taken into account.

The insistence of the Zionists on evaluating Israel in a religious context was a requirement of the strategy they followed. The inclusion of criticism of Israel in England, Germany, and the US under the category of antisemitism was also a result of the same strategy. In this way, they suppress criticism directed at Zionism and Israel within the context of anti-Jewish sentiment. They both prevent Jews from distancing themselves from Zionism and Israel, and ensure participation in new projects like the colonization of the West Bank. But all of this produces an unexpected result:

The policies of the Israeli state and the historical consequences of the Zionist project are deeply shaking belief in Israel.