To the New World editorial team
I have been subscribing to The New World for a few weeks now – and have been largely enjoying its slightly different slant on the news from the mainstream media. However, I feel the journal needs to lay out a few clear definitions regarding Palestine, Israel, anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. This is needed to rescue we readers from obfuscation evident in recent pieces of at least two of your editors (Matthew Ancona and Tanit Koch).
Perhaps I could start the ball rolling with my take on the following terms:
Palestine – I believe this should be seen as “Mandatory Palestine” – these are largely the lands which Zionism claims to be Israel, but which were inhabited by Arabs (or Palestinians) before the state of Israel was planted in 1948. The Palestinian State encompasses a much smaller (a much too small!) area, comprising Gaza and the West Bank.
Zionism and the Zionist project – a colonial political movement based on (racist) ethno-cultural nationalism, claiming the right to plant an ethno-cultural “Jewish” state in the territory of Palestine. This project has within it the imperative to exclude as many “Arabs” (the majority inhabitants of Palestine at the time of the establishment of the state of Israel) as possible in order to maintain the “purity” of the Zionist state.
Israeli government – currently a Zionist colonial apartheid racist government, seemingly intent on completing the Zionist Project “from the river to the sea”.
Anti-Zionism – political (not racist, but political) opposition to Zionism and/or the Israeli government’s apartheid policies, and now its genocide, in Gaza and the West Bank. Whilst anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism, the Zionist movement has sought to conflate the two, by claiming all Jews as Zionists. [“Zionism saw itself as bringing Jews into the modern world by redefining what it means to be Jewish in terms of identification with a sovereign state, rather than Judaic faith and tradition.” Wikipedia – Zionism]
Anti-Semitism – racism against Jews.
Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism are NOT the same thing.
[Oh, incidentally, ref Hamas, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (independent polling organisation, est. 1991) reported 27% support for Hamas in a poll in Gaza and the West Bank before 7th Oct 23, but recently in Autumn 2025, support for Hamas was at 41%. Didn’t see that in The New World … or any mainstream media – actually came from Foreign Affairs, but with a different slant than mine!]