POLITICAL ZIONISM IS ANTI-JEWISH:

When faced with the coexistence of Zionism and antisemitism, liberals and centrists tend to describe the two beliefs as either unrelated or in tension. In October, an MSNBC commentator tried to reconcile Trump's antisemitism and his Zionism by suggesting that he "didn't necessarily understand his own policies" toward the Jewish state. A Politico essay in December described the Christian right's support for Israel and distrust of American Jews as ideological "contradictions."

But these positions are not contradictions at all. Trump's fondness for Israel and antagonism toward American Jews stem from the same impulse: He admires countries that ensure ethnic, racial, or religious dominance. He likes Israel because its political system upholds Jewish supremacy; he resents American Jews because most of them oppose the white Christian supremacy he's trying to fortify here. This synthesis isn't unique to Trump. Since Zionism's birth in Europe more than a century ago, it has attracted support from Christians who supported a Jewish state at least in part because they feared Jews would undermine the ethnic and religious purity of their own countries. That tradition remains alive in both Europe and the United States today, where research suggests that antagonism towards the Jews in one's own nation correlates with support for Israel, which offers Jews a nation of their own.

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