I am proud to be a Zionist and you should be one too

Zionist bitch. This was what my friend discovered a colleague had called her.
Not just a bitch. But a Zionist one.
Over the past year it has become increasingly normal for people in this country to use Zionist as a slur. To say that simply believing in the State of Israel's right to exist is fundamentally reprehensible.
I can think of no other religion or nation state that has to put up with this. It is only the Jewish state that has the right to its very existence challenged in this way. Only Jewish people who should be denied a homeland. A homeland in the place Jews have lived, loved, worked and prayed for thousands of years.
It should be clearly understood that believing in Israel's right to a place amongst nations is not the same as saying you are in agreement with everything the government of the country does.
Yet when it comes to Israel, growing numbers of people are unwilling to separate the decisions of politicians from the right to a national homeland. Personally I abhor the statements made by Right-wing extremists Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in the Israeli government. Does that make me believe that an entire nation should be cancelled? A nation that also happens to be the only democratic state in the Middle East?
Take Iran as a comparison. Israel and Iran could not be more different. In Tehran, free speech and political opposition are violently suppressed in a country run autocratically and often brutally by ayatollahs. Women are not equal citizens and the gay community have to live in fear.
Yet do you hear anyone calling for an end to the existence of Iran? Are there placards at mass marches on Britain's streets calling for the extinction of that nation? Is believing in the right of Iran to exist an increasingly common insult in public, on social media or the workplace?
The obvious question is why this is happening with Israel but not other countries. For me and many other people who share my faith the reason is horribly clear. It is because Israel is the homeland of Jews.
The fightback against this denial of a Jewish state in the Middle East must be clear, determined and high profile. It must be led by those in our country who have the most influence.
Let's start with the leader of our nation.
Sir Keir, a simple question: do you believe in the State of Israel's right to exist? If the answer is yes, then please state publicly that you are a Zionist.
Please say this loudly and clearly so that this growing tide of anti-Zionist hate, which is ultimately a mask for anti-Jewish hate, can be arrested before conditions worsen further for Jewish people in this country and become truly dangerous.
I call on the Government's front bench MPs to be equally clear that they believe in Israel's right to exist, that they too are Zionists. In the current climate it will take some courage, but isn't that what leadership is all about?

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