Zionism and Judaism: An Inseparable Bond Rooted in Faith and Tradition

Those who claim to oppose Zionists, not Jews, ignore centuries of scripture, prayer, and tradition that make the Land of Israel central to Jewish identity. To reject Zionism is to reject Judaism itself.

There is a growing chorus of voices attempting to draw a line between “Zionists” and “Jews,” as if these are entirely separate identities. The intention behind this claim is often to avoid being labeled antisemitic while continuing to demonise the world’s only Jewish state. “We don’t hate Jews,” they say. “Only Zionists.” It is also fair to acknowledge that many Jews living in multicultural societies across the West may feel compelled to oppose Zionism out of concern for their personal safety. 

But this distinction between Jews and Zionists is intellectually dishonest and, more importantly, spiritually and historically false. Zionism is not some modern political deviation from Judaism. It is the modern expression of an ancient, core part of Judaism itself. To strip Zionism from Judaism is to hollow out a central part of Jewish identity and tradition.

From the Torah to the Talmud, from ancient prayers to rabbinic rulings, the longing for the Land of Israel and the belief in the Jewish people’s return to it are foundational elements of Judaism. 

In Genesis 15:18, God promises the land to Abraham’s descendants: “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates.” 

In Deuteronomy 30:4–5, the promise becomes one of return: “Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back… to the land that belonged to your ancestors.” 

These are not marginal teachings. They form the backbone of the Jewish understanding of peoplehood, exile, and redemption.

This longing is echoed in Jewish prayer multiple times a day. The central prayer of the Jewish liturgy, the Amidah, includes the plea: “Gather us from the four corners of the earth. Return in mercy to Jerusalem Your city.” 

This is not nationalist politics. It is religious devotion. Jews have recited these prayers for over 2,000 years, long before the State of Israel existed. To argue that Zionism is foreign to Judaism is to ignore thousands of years of Jewish theology, yearning, and lived experience.

The Talmud is also clear about the spiritual priority of living in the Land of Israel. In Ketubot 110b, it states: “A person should always live in the Land of Israel, even in a city where most inhabitants are idolaters, and not live outside the Land, even in a city where most inhabitants are Jews.” 

That teaching is unequivocal. The connection to the land is not conditional. It is not framed in terms of safety, politics, or culture, but as a sacred obligation. The Jewish people’s bond with the Land of Israel is both covenantal and eternal.

Opposing that bond, or treating it as illegitimate, is not “anti-Zionism” in a vacuum. It is opposition to a core tenet of Judaism. Yes, Jews can be critical of Israeli policy. They can debate borders, governments, or strategies. But to oppose the very existence of a Jewish state in the Jewish homeland is to oppose something deeply Jewish.

This is why the attempt to differentiate between Zionists and Jews often becomes a smokescreen for antisemitism. You are singling out the Jewish people’s right to statehood. That is not criticism of policy. That is prejudice.

Further exposing this bias is the contradiction in how Islamic voices, especially hardline or militant ones, address Jews. The Hamas Charter, for example, does not distinguish between Israeli soldiers and Jews as a people. Article 7 quotes a hadith that predicts a future war in which Muslims will kill Jews: “The Day of Judgment will not come until Muslims fight the Jews and kill them.” 

This is not about opposing “Zionists.” This is genocidal language targeting all Jews, wherever they are. Yet Hamas and its ideological allies attempt to repackage their hatred as political resistance. It fools many in the West, but it contradicts their own religious framing, which openly casts Jews, not merely Israelis, as enemies.

There is also a deeper contradiction within Islamic tradition itself. If Muslims believe in the prophethood of Jesus (Isa), as Islam mandates, then they must also accept that he was a Jew. Jesus was born, lived, and died as a Jew under Roman occupation. 

The same applies to the Hebrew prophets Muslims are taught to revere. Moses, Abraham, Jacob, and David were all Jews, many of whom lived in or longed for the Land of Israel. To hate Zionism, which is the modern movement affirming Jewish return to that same land, while claiming spiritual respect for those very same prophets, is incoherent. How can someone honor the Jewish prophets and then deny their descendants a right to exist in the land they were promised?

Modern Muslim voices that condemn Zionism often do so while ignoring the theological and historical facts embedded in their own tradition. Islam’s Qur’an itself recognises the connection between Jews and the Land of Israel. In Surah Al-Isra, 17:104, it says: “And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel, ‘Dwell securely in the land.’” 

In Surah Al-Ma’idah, 5:20–21, it states: “We made the Children of Israel inheritors of the Book and the land.” These verses align more with Zionism than with Hamas-style denialism. To reject the Jewish connection to the land is to oppose not only Judaism, but clear Islamic scripture.

In the end, denying Zionism is not a neutral or innocent stance. It erases the religious, historical, and cultural continuity of the Jewish people. It ignores the central role that the Land of Israel plays in Jewish prayer, scripture, and identity. And it creates a double standard where every other nation can have sovereignty except the Jews.

It is not “Jewish” to oppose Zionism. It is a denial of what Judaism has always believed, prayed for, and lived toward. One can debate the details of modern Israeli policy, but rejecting Zionism outright is a rejection of Jewish continuity itself. That is something no one, Jewish or non-Jewish, should confuse with justice.