JUST JOSH: Is Josh a Zionist?
Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps
Josh Szeps
4.5 • 905 Ratings
🗓️ 7 March 2024
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Yesterday we released a preview of this paid episode. Due to the reaction to the full episode on the paid feed, we are re-releasing it here for free as a public service.
Amid the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, "anti-Zionism" has become shorthand for "anti-bombing-Palestinians". But what do we mean when we ask if someone opposes Zionism? Does being a “Zionist” mean you support Israel's brutality? Josh is being asked this question more and more. He tries to untangle an answer.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Goody, humans. Welcome to the safe space for dangerous ideas. Here's a dangerous idea for you. Zionism. What does it mean? Am I a Zionist? Are you a Zionist? Who's a Zionist? Who's not a Zionist? Are Zionists or bloodthirsty pigs? Or are they innocent freedom lovers and freedom fighters on behalf of the Jewish people. |
| 0:01.6 | I'm Josh Sepp's... bloodthirsty pigs, or are they innocent freedom lovers and freedom fighters on behalf of the |
| 0:22.2 | Jewish people? |
| 0:23.2 | I'm Josh Sepp's. |
| 0:24.8 | I'm getting asked a lot more than I ever was, whether I'm a Zionist. |
| 0:30.4 | And it's a question that I would have had more trouble answering in some moral respects prior to |
| 0:37.4 | the attack by Hamas on |
| 0:40.4 | Israel on October 7th. And yet it's more complicated to answer now that it ever has been, |
| 0:47.0 | just in terms of understanding what people mean by the word. So can we just unpack it a little? |
| 0:50.7 | And hopefully this will be a place to which I can point you and to which |
| 0:54.6 | you might be able to point your friends and family members if you concur with what I'm saying |
| 0:58.9 | for an explanation with a little bit of nuance about what we're talking about when we talk |
| 1:03.0 | about Zionism. When I say that I'm being asked whether I'm a Zionist, I'm not being |
| 1:09.4 | entirely truthful when I say that. It's rare that |
| 1:13.1 | someone comes up to me in the streets and goes, good day, sir, you're a Zionist. It's more that people |
| 1:20.5 | in a sort of state of perhaps shock or surprise will say to friends of mine, and I'll hear it second or third hand, wait a second, |
| 1:30.3 | is Josh a Zionist? As if to say, is Josh on the wrong side of a fairly easy moral question? |
| 1:38.4 | Does Josh like babies being bombed and so on? I mean, even my spouse will, you know, have to field questions from |
| 1:46.3 | people online. He has hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and people will say, |
| 1:51.2 | hang on a second, is what, is Sean, is it true that Sean is married to a Zionist? So let's clarify |
| 1:57.9 | what we mean when we say Zionism. I think what most people are alluding to, which is what I am not, is a sort of checklist |
| 2:07.5 | of opinions about the current conflict between Israel and Gaza. |
... |
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