Why the taboo on the word "Zionist"?

[Georgy Zhukov]

Why is there so much taboo on the word Zionist? I dont get it, when people talk about Palestinian independence you dont think "oh no evil plot" same with tibetan. Yet, people who want Jewish people to have a homeland some people think of a conspiracy to take over the world, or Jews or whatever. I don't particularly understand where this whole taboo came from. Some people say, "Oh I like Jews but I hate Zionists." While now because of many people hating "Zionists" its become a sort of Substitution for hating Jews.

[Broken Lance]

Because a lot of people in this world hate Jews and have for a long time.

[Icefrisco]

Theres are few reasons why people hate Zionists:

1) They hate Jews and are afraid to be open anti-Semites
2) They are subject to propoganda
3) They actively hate any nationalistic movement
4) They hate Israel and anything assosciated with it
5) They hate Jews and anything assosciated with them
6) They are Arab nationalist and fear Israel is a threat to the Arab World
7) They are Islamists and fear Israel is a threat to the Islamic World

Considering that most true Zionists (ones who follow Herzl) are very moderate and support land for peace I don't see why so many people hate them.

[Panzerbear]

oh please. there is a taboo even on the word "Jew".

everytime one has to say "Jew", one has to look around like you just stole something. and god forbid someone will suspect of anti-semitism in the mean time!
its an equivalent of being in the KKK and eating babies for all purposes.

[Icefrisco]

I don't understand what you are saying.

[Joker85]

Because pretty much the only people you hear using the word are wingnut conspiracy theorists or masked terrorists standing over someone they are about to behead.

[Tajir]

^ because people like this get on your case and people like Icefrisco create long lists on why you're a nazi for saying "zionist."

[roy34543]

Theres quite a few internet forums and MMORPGs where the word jew is censored. Like being one is a crime or unwanted.
There is just a negative symbolisim on it because its a way of circumventing other words that will attribute a negative symbolisim to you. Frankly if you want to say your against a jewish homeland thats one thing. Saying all zionists are scum because you dont agree with their opinion is not the same thing. For in the end it is grand and large opinion, All based around the idea of a jewish homeland, Politics are irrelevent in this idea, Geoegraphy a matter of concern for some and less for others. But overall is just this idea that there should always be a place for jews.
There are followings of jews who are zionist and do not support Israel. In fact a very large number of people on this forum are zionist and do not even realize it. The people who say that Israel should have been made in ugunda or in germany or in america, They are zionist in equal measure.

[Panzerbear]

Theres quite a few internet forums and MMORPGs where the word jew is censored.

my point exactly.

[Sphere]

"Zionist" is associated with the forceful creation of a religous jewish state at the expense of others. It has the same conotations as the german "lebensraum," one group of people taking land away from others, justified by a belief of superiority.

That is how it is used as a insult.

[Blau&Gruen]

It has the same conotations as the german "lebensraum,"

It has not really the same connotation. Zionism is like feminism or the labor movement an emancipatorial concept of the 19th century. All three concepts have become obsolet somehow nowadays at most places because women have the same rights nowadays, labor rights are out of debate and the Jews have an own state. "Lebensraum" has never been an emancipatorial concept, but the idea to enslave the neighbors of one nations invented by a guy who painted postcards and it is not 19th century but first half 20th century.

[Sphere]

Your right, "Zionism" has many meanings, but the one that is insulting is the Zionism that had a particular track of land in mind. And there happened to be other people already living there.

This is the connotation of Zionism that is simular to Lebensraum. "Living Space" for the German People, and "Living Space" for the Jewish People. And that taking it away from inferiors is completely justified.

I was trying to explain to the poster how Zionism can be used as an insult, not explain its complexities, nuiances etc.

[Dr. Croccer]

Because zionist = Israel = Jew in many minds, which isn't true. Zionism is a political affliation that is based on Judaism and the Jewish people. Hating Zionism is like hating Communism, thus hating the USSR but not the Russian people or proletariat on which it is based.

[Blau&Gruen]

An Israeli has once told me Zionism does not exist any longer.

[Shaun]

Hating Zionism and being anti-Semitic are totally different things. Many people on here confuse to two, and we have a poster who actively calls all critics of Israel anti-Semites. Nowadays, anti-Semitic is mainly a label which people who are critical of Israel get applied to them. The OP's assertion that hating Zionists is now a substitution for hating Jews is in no way correct, and has just proven that he has fallen victim to the same sort of rhetoric that confuses anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism.

[Blau&Gruen]

But why should someone hate a 19th century idea? It is history like Pan-arabism is history. It is not sad that ideas are replaced by other, sometimes better ideas or in this case by a pragmatic relation of several states with a common border who try to get out the best for their citizens in a not so simple enviroment. Think about the water supply there, growing cities, change of rural live-styles, industrialization. Have you known that Jordan 30 years ago produced gym shoes but hardly every other product had to be imported? These are the hard facts. Development! Islamism, Retrozionists, Egonationalism are the crap that slows down the development of the region. The young people there wait to get a job and the grandpas and the traditionalists take them the future by spreading the fear. I could cry when I think about. It is a sin. To be a religious extremist is a sin against God and Man.

[Da Skinna]

Zionism led to the Nakba. There's one reason.

[Blau&Gruen]

That is why a practicable peacesolution has to be found that a new chapter of history can be opened.

[Green]

Zionism led to the Nakba. There's one reason.

The original zionists were the ones who wanted to establish a Jewish homeland. The Israelis living in Israel now are not those kinds of zionists, but the sort who want to defend their homeland. The former kind of zionism lead to the nakba, the latter kind of zionist are trying to defend the result of that former period of zionism. You can't blame Israelis now for the actions of their predecessors. Perhaps you could blame them for the Palestinian occupation instead.

[Da Skinna]

Gotta wait til those who've lived the last chapter have all died though.

That does seem to be the recurring theme with all nations reconciling their bloody pasts, right?