Judaism is not Zionism: A warning against conflation

American economist Jeffrey Sachs has emerged as a prominent critic of Israeli policies, openly labeling the events in Gaza, the Palestinian territories, and Lebanon as genocide. Sachs condemns Israel's military operations, forced displacement, and practices of dispossession, highlighting not only the humanitarian catastrophe but also the fact that these actions occur "in plain sight."

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As an American of Jewish background, he rejects the tendency to equate the policies of the State of Israel with Judaism itself.

Crucially, Sachs, who identifies as being of Jewish background, rejects the notion that the policies of the State of Israel are representative of Judaism itself. He asserts that the actions in Gaza and Lebanon stem from a specific political ideology and state policy, not from Judaism. Equating the Israeli government's actions with Judaism as a whole, or with Jewish people collectively, is, in his view, both historically inaccurate and morally reprehensible.

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For this reason, identifying the actions of the Israeli government with Judaism as a whole – or with Jews collectively – is both historically inaccurate and morally wrong.

This distinction is vital, Sachs argues, for conscientious criticism. While criticizing Israel's policies is a right and responsibility, conflating Judaism with the specific political ideology of Zionism pursued by the Israeli state is a mistake. He advocates for evaluating political ideologies based on their consequences, rather than identifying them with entire religions.

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The proper way to criticize an ideology is not to identify it with an entire religion but to evaluate it according to its political and moral consequences.

Sachs emphasizes that Judaism and Zionism belong to different categories. Judaism is described as an ancient religious tradition focused on faith, worship, and morality, while Zionism is characterized as a modern political ideology with an extremist view of state sovereignty and far-right nationalism. He points to Jewish sacred literature, which includes principles emphasizing the sanctity of human life, such as the commandment "You shall not murder," and repeated commands to treat foreigners justly, rooted in the historical experience of being strangers in Egypt.

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Judaism and Zionism belong to entirely different categories.