The Second Surprise Attack of October 2023: Antizionism as Strategic Antisemitism

October 2023 triggered two surprise attacks for the world’s Jewish communities. The first was the October 7th (10/7) terrorist attacks by Hamas, whereas the second was the meteoric rise in antizionism in the West. We argue that, contrary to the antizionist claim that “antizionism is not antisemitism,” antizionism represents the principal, contemporary mode of strategic antisemitism, which serves the strategic goals of multiple instigators of antizionism. We trace the roots of antizionism, highlighting that contemporary antizionism has become increasingly normalized across Western societies. Drawing on earlier work on collective violence, we invoke the distinction between instigators and perpetrators to help explain the drivers and consequences of the recent spike in antisemitism. We critique early Jewish counter-messaging, which focused on asserting that “antizionism = antisemitism,” and we conclude by highlighting the need for empirical research on how to effectively counter contemporary antizionist narratives.