Some of the earliest people to reject Zionism weren’t Palestinian; they were Jewish. That history, which rarely comes up in modern discussion around Israel’s occupation of Palestine, is the central topic of the latest book from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Benjamin Moser.

‘ANTI-ZIONISM: A Jewish History’ spotlights some of history’s most renowned Jewish thinkers, authors, poets, and many more who rejected Zionism. “The whole point of this book is to say that Jews and Zionists are not the same thing; they’ve never been the same thing,” Moser tells Mehdi.

Mehdi took the role of devil’s advocate to push Moser on some of the criticism his book has received. This important and sensitive conversation also covered why even Jewish rabbis believed that “Zionists are the enemies of the Jews”, how Moser justifies his denial of Israel’s right to exist, why he views cultural and liberal Zionism as a “fantasy of Zionism” as well as historical Jews who were attacked, and even killed, for their opposition to Zionism and MORE.

Buy a copy of Benjamin Moser’s book, ANTI-ZIONISM: A Jewish History’ here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/anti-zionism-a-jewish-history-benjamin-moser/263b19b2bbb95d5a

Looking for more book recommendations? Visit the Zeteo book club here for inspiration: https://zeteo.com/t/book-club

*This interview was published on zeteo.com on Oct 20, 2026. If you would like EARLY access to more exclusive interviews like this, then head over to Zeteo’s Substack and become a paid subscriber today. Your support matters!

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

02:01 Theodore Herzl

07:14 Zionist Fantasy

12:40 Settler Colonialism

20:43 Writing ‘Anti-Zionism’

26:44 Racism

30:00 Green Party

36:00 Criticism

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