Episode 80 - How Israel's Genocide Is Turning Jews Against Zionism | Simone Zimmerman | UNAPOLOGETIC

"Palestinians are just the canvas upon which the Jewish psychodrama takes place."

Simone Zimmerman, co-founder of IfNotNow and subject of the documentary Israelism, joins UNAPOLOGETIC to examine how Israel's genocide in Gaza has reshaped Jewish identity and politics.

Simone traces her own journey from committed Zionist to anti-Zionist activist, describing the personal and communal ruptures that followed. She argues that the decades-long fusion of Zionism with Judaism has been a catastrophe for Jewish life globally, and that Israel's genocide has made liberal Zionism untenable.

The conversation also tackles the growing anti-Israel voices within MAGA - and why, despite tactical overlaps on ending military aid, figures like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens represent a fundamentally different and dangerous political project that the pro-Palestinian movement should not mistake for solidarity.

Drawing on Palestinian writer Tariq Baconi, Zimmerman makes a stark argument: that for too much of the Jewish establishment, "Palestinians are just the canvas upon which the Jewish psychodrama takes place."

UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.