How the Cult of Messianic Zionism Conquered the West | Thomas Suárez

[David McCarthy]

Absolutely no doubt in my mind that Zionism at its roots is a death Cult.

May 4, 2024
Acclaimed author and researcher Thomas Suárez, a former West-Bank resident and faculty member of Palestine’s National Conservatory of Music, appeared at UMass-Amherst on April 16 to talk about the historical roots of Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the complicity of Western governments in manufacturing consent to the continuing horrors unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank, and what it will take to fundamentally transform Israel’s current apartheid policies and liberate the Palestinian people.

Suárez, who is also a professional concert violinist and world-renowned cartographer, is the author of four books based on exhaustive archival research into the history of Zionism, Zionist terror, and Israel’s formation.

Thomas Suárez's most recent book is Palestine Hijacked: How Zionism Forged an Apartheid State from River to Sea, which Noam Chomsky called "a damning story, heavily documented ... far too revealing to be tolerated." His previous book, State of Terror: How Terrorism Created Modern Israel, was praised by the eminent Israeli historian Ilan Pappe as “a tour de force that looks boldly at the impact of Zionism on Palestine and its people in the first part of the 20th century,” and “the first comprehensive and structured analysis of the violence and terror employed by the Zionist movement, and later the state of Israel, against the people of Palestine.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RksThaJJ3eg

[David McCarthy]

Sacred Slaughter? How Zionism Turned Survival into a Death Cult of Human Sacrifice
"Chosen People" or Death Cult? How Divine Destiny Justifies Israel's Violence & Marginalizes Dissent.

The notion of Zionism as a death cult, while marginalised in mainstream academia, has surged within critical discourse following Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Unlike traditional death cults centred on self-annihilation, Zionism externalises its violence onto Palestinians, maintaining the ritualistic determinism, apocalyptic fervour, and bloodlust characteristic of such movements while outsourcing the bloodshed.

This analogy is not merely rhetorical; it is etched in the ideology’s foundations and perpetuated through its institutions, leadership, and theological narratives. Theodor Herzl, the secular Austro-Hungarian journalist who birthed modern political Zionism, functioned as its proto-charismatic leader. His vision, articulated in Der Judenstaat, was unabashedly colonial, contemplating the "gentle expropriation" of Arab lands and positioning Jewish settlement as "a rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilisation as opposed to barbarism."

Herzl cultivated a siege mentality, framing antisemitism as an "indelible" force demanding radical action. His dehumanisation of dissent extended beyond Palestinians: in his 1897 essay, Mauschel, he branded anti-Zionist Jews as "repulsive," "degenerate," and "Jewish vermin," employing exclusionary tactics mirroring cult leaders who equate dissent with treason. His leadership was intensely performative—staging the First Zionist Congress with quasi-religious pomp, co-opting Jewish blessings, and negotiating with world leaders as a "modern Moses." This theatricality embedded a messianic aura into secular Zionism, legitimising sacrifice for the state.

This ethos was operationalised by figures like Ze’ev Jabotinsky, whose "Iron Wall" doctrine dismissed Arab consent as irrelevant, framing violent conquest as inevitable. Yosef Weitz, an early director of the Jewish National Fund, explicitly linked Palestinian expulsion to land acquisition, stating it served "a second, no less important aim... to release it for the Jewish inhabitants."

The 1948 Nakba—the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians—was framed by former Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion as a "miraculous simplification," a euphemism for ethnic cleansing that established displacement as redemptive necessity. The theological narrative of Jews as God’s "chosen people," though secularised by Herzl, was co-opted by religious Zionists, infusing territorial expansion with messianic fervour.

Movements like Gush Emunim viewed West Bank settlement as a sacred mission, accelerating divine redemption, justifying violence against Palestinians as biblically ordained. This mirrors death cults in their conviction shared with Zionism, namely the messianic conviction that their actions trigger cosmic transformation.

Yet this narrative harbours a profound duality: while it sacralizes violence, it also anchors a survivalist identity that avoids literal self-annihilation. Instead, it externalises destruction, transforming Palestinian suffering into a sacrificial offering for Zionist continuity. The Holocaust’s instrumentalisation as a "divine mandate" for statehood further ritualises trauma, framing Israel’s aggression as a sacred imperative.

Under Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s leadership has entrenched a state-centric death cult. His invocation of Holocaust analogies and framing of Hamas as "Amalek" (a biblical nation requiring annihilation) sacralizes collective punishment. Policies like the 2018 Nation-State Law enshrine Jewish supremacy, creating an ethno-nationalist hierarchy that marginalises non-Jews and dissenters.

The ritualisation of sacrifice is systemic: mandatory conscription and the national veneration of fallen soldiers during Yom Hazikaron elevate military death to a civic sacrament. Gaza’s destruction—with catastrophic civilian casualties—is framed as an "existential necessity." Israeli commanders term it "cleansing," while polls show 57.5% of Israeli Jews believed the IDF used "too little firepower."

Settler violence in the West Bank, protected by the IDF, reflects a normalised dehumanisation where Palestinian lives are expendable. Netanyahu’s alliance with ultranationalists like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir—who openly advocate Palestinian expulsion and Jewish settlements in Gaza—demonstrates a collective leadership model sustaining Zionism’s death logic. Ben-Gvir’s “jokes” about starving Palestinian prisoners and Smotrich’s threats to collapse the coalition over ceasefires exemplify a cult-like insularity rationalising atrocities.

Zionism’s death cult thrives on international complicity and coerced allegiance. Organisations like AIPAC exemplify cult-like demands for unwavering loyalty, suppressing dissent through lobbying, propaganda, and financial pressure. Campus critics of Israel face defamation and donor blacklists, echoing cult tactics that isolate members from external critique. Financial pipelines sustain the machinery: tax-deductible donations to groups like the Jewish National Fund (implicated in land theft) and billions in U.S. military aid, enabling displacement and mass killing.

Sanctioned figures like Daniella Weiss—the "godmother" of settler movements—retain global networks despite international sanctions. Institutional bodies like the World Zionist Organisation ostracise Jewish critics, branding them "self-hating Jews."

Mandatory conscription in Israel embeds Zionist ideology into daily life, while societal glorification of militarism conditions citizens to view violence as an existential virtue. Historically, Zionist institutions prioritised state-building over Jewish welfare, such as demanding a segregated Jewish army during WWII, delaying Allied cooperation.

As Palestinian poet Mohammed El-Kurd asserts, Zionism inverts traditional death cults: it kills others to preserve itself, transforming Palestinian blood into a sacrificial offering for its survival mythos. This externalisation avoids literal suicide while perpetuating a cycle where "ancient graves produce fresh graves."

The foundational myth of redemption through Others’ blood—from Herzl’s colonial vision to Netanyahu’s Gaza genocide—demands dismantling. The path forward requires rejecting Zionism’s apocalyptic determinism, ending international enabling, and centring the humanity of Palestinians. This is not merely political; it is a moral imperative to break a death cult’s grip on history, land, and conscience.

https://psychonautelite.substack.com/p/ ... QmHi3PJlrA