Today I am reminded of Bob Dylan's The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll and its refrain:
But you who philosophize, disgrace and criticize all fears
Take the rag away from your face, now ain't the time for your tears
The time for tears to begin was 140 years ago when European Jews first imported the extant European ideology of ethnonationalism and its practice of Settler Colonialism, grafted it on to thousands of years of Jewish history, most of it in Diaspora, invented their own indigeneity in Palestine via a highly selective reading of that history, and turned its full force on hundreds of thousands of legitimately indigenous Palestinians.
I believe we need to see the question of "Antizionism = Antisemitism" in the broader context of the hostile takeover by Zionism of Jewish religion, culture, and history to serve not Jewish but its own ends. The crimes against humanity - colonialism, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and now arguably genocide - are all steps along the way.
Lisa quite rightly states that personal experience is essential to the narrative we are to present, and most of you know that my personal narrative spans many decades of Zionist history. But the historical context is essential for the public to know as well. "Antizionism = Antisemitism" is a rhetorical ploy used by Zionism to deflect criticism and blame as it closes in for the kill. It weaponizes Jewish victimhood, especially the Holocaust, when in fact the essential elements of the Zionist project were already in place prior to the Holocaust.
The rage, horror, and grief that I feel for my Palestinian brothers and sisters stems from the rage, horror, and grief that I felt at the unoccupied grave of my Great Grandfather, Ferdinand Ullman, murdered in Theresienstadt, when I asked myself when will there be a time when Palestinian children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren will be invited by the perpetrators to stand at the graves of their forebears, as my father and I were by the city of Frankfurt in 1992? At that moment Palestine merged with the Jewish soul that I had so recently rescued from Zionism.
With boundless love and affection for all of you, and in solidarity always,
Mark