Ep. 215: Don’t be deceived: Anti-Zionism is antisemitism

About this episode

Jonathan Tobin discusses the normalization of anti-Zionism and its roots in historical events with guest Naya Lekht.

The problem facing Jews today, says JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, is that blood libels about Israel aren’t just being mainstreamed as they are becoming unchallenged tropes of popular culture. He’s joined in the week’s episode of Think Twice by scholar and educator Naya Lekht who argues that it’s a mistake to think that the current surge of antisemitism dates back only to the aftermath of the Hamas-led Palestinian Arab terror attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Lekht argues that to understand what’s happened, we need to realize that current events were catalyzed by the UN’s 2001 Durban Conference, the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and the Second Intifada. These events helped introduce into the West an ideological assault on Zionism and Jewish rights for which the organized Jewish community was completely unprepared. What’s more, she says, there is no major Jewish legacy organization that's running a campaign devoted to opposing anti-Zionism. The anti-Zionist propaganda which is aimed at attacking an essential element of Jewish identity that has been normalized in academia and throughout Western society is not new. It is, she points out, a vestige of Soviet disinformation…

People in this episode

Host: Jonathan Tobin

Guest: Naya Lekht

Topics covered

• antisemitism
• anti-Zionism
• Jewish identity
• propaganda
• cultural tropes
• historical context

Keywords

• antisemitism
• anti-Zionism
• Jewish rights
• propaganda
• Soviet disinformation
• cultural narratives

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: JNS

Places: Soviet Union

More episodes of Think Twice with Jonathan Tobin

• Ep. 223: The biggest threat to Israel democracy is the Supreme Court · June 11, 2026 · 1h 2m
• Ep. 222: Antisemites aren’t paying a price for their hate · June 4, 2026 · 1h 2m
• Ep. 221: To resist antisemitism, today’s Jews must become refuseniks · May 28, 2026 · 57 min
• Ep. 220: American’s rageful Jacobins are the real threat to democracy · May 21, 2026 · 1h 1m
• Ep. 219: Can Israel Beat the World’s Biggest Smear Campaign? · May 15, 2026 · 1h 9m
• Ep. 218: Why won’t Jewish stars speak up against antisemitism? · May 7, 2026 · 1h 2m