One key debate on this subreddit, and between Zionists and anti-Zionists in general, is whether anti-Zionism is antisemitism. Anti-Zionists point to specific cases where anti-Zionism isn't antisemitism. Zionists can point to how the general idea of anti-Zionism is antisemitic. And while I'm clearly on the Zionist side of the debate, I don't think the anti-Zionists are just completely wrong here. I just feel it's kinda missing the point.

To explain my personal view, I'm going to use an analogy, that I occasionally like to repeat in comments. Is opposing gay marriage the same as homophobia?

I can certainly think of cases, where it wouldn't be homophobic - or at least, not obviously so.

• People who oppose all marriages, gay or straight.

• Gay people who believe that marriage is a remnant of a heteronormative, religious world order, that oppressed gay people for millennia. And that demanding to play a part in the same game that oppressed them, is revolting, and not the right way forward.

• A more controversial point: gay people who are religious conservatives themselves. Who believe that homosexuality itself, within certain parameters (for example, one that doesn't include male-on-male anal intercourse), is religiously permitted. But marriage is not.

But does that mean that opposition to gay marriage has nothing to do with homophobia whatsoever?

What about people who claim to oppose all marriages, but suspiciously only speak up when same-sex marriage is mentioned?

Should we use the gay people who oppose marriage, both the progressive radicals and the religious conservatives, as tokens for opposing gay marriage? Say that their existence proves that opposition to gay marriage can't possibly be linked to homophobia? Maybe even go one step further, and say something like "real gay people don't want gay marriage"? And "gay marriage goes against LGBT values"?

And a final, important point. In 2022, there there's over half a million same-sex married couples, in the US alone. Can we really discuss opposition to gay marriage in the same terms we discussed it in the 1970's? When it isn't opposing a theoretical future shift in society, but looking to legally break up, and remove the rights of half a million existing families?

With that said, like all analogies, it's not even remotely perfect. One obvious problem: pro-marriage-equality people can comfortably say that anyone who was hurt by opposing gay marriage, is either a homophobe who deserved it, or acceptable collateral damage. A small child, whose parents lost their jobs because they were vicious anti-marriage-equality activists, isn't really to blame for their plight. But ultimately, most people would agree that "that's just how it is", and the actual villains here are their parents, not the pro-LGBT-rights people who fired and shunned them. But when it comes to entire villages, losing their homes, because the antisemitic leaders they never voted for started a war on Zionism? Even if they wouldn't support Zionism personally either? That's something quite different, that Zionists are divided on.

So on that part, I would say that Palestinians who were hurt by Zionism personally, aren't antisemitic merely for being anti-Zionist. That doesn't mean I agree with them - but merely being anti-Zionist doesn't make them antisemites.

But as for non-Palestinians who merely claim they oppose Zionism because of deep concern for the Palestinians? We're back to the "oppose all marriage" part. In theory, it's a legitimate position. But do you care just as much about the plight other nations, who were in the same exact position - from Germans to South Asians, to the Jews in the Middle East? Do you care about the plight of Palestinians specifically, when Jews aren't involved? Did you speak up just as much when Arabs are the one massacring or oppressing the Palestinians, or did you try to justify it? If not, it's about as suspect as someone claiming to oppose all nation-states, but miraculously only speaking out, obsessively and viciously, against the existence of the Jewish one.