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Chomsky's "Anti-Zionism," Then and Now Despite his loose, often indirect, connections to such Jewish organizations as Avukah and Hashomer Hatzair, Chomsky has, for many years, been branded an anti-Zionist by a large segment of American Jews. This has happened because he evaluates Israeli government actions according to the same criteria he uses to judge the actions of any government, and, moreover, because he does not support the idea that Israel should be a Jewish state. Reactionary Zionists confuse apology for Israeli state-sponsored terror and aggression against Palestinians or Arabs (or other out-groups) with Zionism, and, further, misconstrue Chomsky's position as anti-Zionist. When Chomsky talks about a binational state, he is talking about the former Palestine, and thus refers back to pre-1948 plans to establish a socialist state in Palestine that would include equal participation of Arabs and Jews. If these plans, which were furthered by a number of then-Zionist groups, had been realized, much of the violence that has occurred in the Middle East, and in Israel itself, might have been prevented. Just as a close look at the Spanish Civil War shows the power and the libertarian nature of anarchosyndicalism, an examination of Jewish labor movements in Israel shows the viability of efforts to establish a workers' socialist republic. Many so-called Zionists don't recognize this, and accordingly condemn Chomsky's work in this area.

Partners in Hate by Werner Cohn

In June of 1995, a press named after Avukah launched its first publication: Partners in Hate: Noam Chomsky and the Holocaust Deniers, by Werner Cohn, professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia. Norman Epstein explains how something such as this could occur: "In the later years of Avukah, the organization split into a Centre Right (e.g., Nat Glazer, Seymour Lipset) and a Left (e.g., Melman, Harris); apparently the [Centre] Right has now captured the name" (6 July 1995). The suggestion that there is any relationship between the now-defunct organization named Avukah and Avukah Press, is, according to Chomsky, "sheer fraud." He correctly notes that Glazer-Lipset have not had the remotest connection with anything associated with Avukah or its ideals for half a century (in Lipset's case, ever, to my knowledge). The name "Avukah" was dredged up in recognition of the fact that it would be more effective to pretend that the criticism is coming from the left than from where it really is, the ultra-right and extreme jingoist sector of pro-Israel fanaticism, with neo-Nazi connections via its support for Kahane. I presume that it was Glazer's idea to resurrect the name "Avukah." No one else in those circles would have heard of it. What they are hoping, of course, is that someone will catch the association (or if not, they'll bring it up themselves) [.] [They want] to insinuate that even the good leftie libertarian anti-Jewish state people are appalled by my awful doings ­ far more effective than to say that Kahanist ultrarightists are. (14 Aug. 1995)