I know this will hurt to hear for some people, but it's always been the case. The rhetoric and tactics used by zionists since the very start of their project has been heavily borrowed from western colonial movements, which themselves happen to be the origins of fascism, and are really quite interchangeable. Zionism has always relied on a "us vs them" worldview that treats israeli jews as destined to hold the land of Israel while palestinian arabs are treated as subhuman (they don't really matter / just a few lil shepherds / evil terrorists). When I was a child, before the intifadas and oct 7 and everything else, the propaganda I heard from zionists was pretty much the same as today. They tried to coax my non-zionist family into following them or else they were self-hating fake jews who supported antisemitism. Nothing's changed, it's just that we're getting a better look at it now thanks to the Internet, and the colonial project keeps accelerating in ways that makes it harder and harder to twist your mind to find excuses for them. This goes back to the origins of zionism, but I'd rather let Herzl talk for himself than try to explain it, he's got too many quotes that make him sound like a proto-fascist and this one is the most telling in my opinion : For a flag men will live and die; it is indeed the only thing for which they are ready to die in masses, if one trains them for it More on reddit.com

Hating all Jews and considering all Jews to be Zionists is a result of generations of brainwashing, many late 20th century MENA leaders wanted to build Israel as an enemy to unite their people against, so they can consolidate power, and distract their people from internal problems. We had anti-Jewish/anti-Zionist propaganda for years, blaming all of our problems on "Globalist Jews" and Israel, because it's easy to turn people into sheep if you convince them that they're victims, victims of an enemy they know nothing about. It's hard to shake off without personally interacting with Jewish people, and let's be honest, it's near impossible to do that in our countries. There's equal brainwashing on the Zionist side by the way, once you convince someone they're the victim, you can make them do horrible things. Check out this short video if you have the time. https://youtu.be/-fo7lRB-eTI?si=2SMqEnMIoQyF3HlS More on reddit.com

Two points. First, many antisemites use the word "Zionist" as a direct substitute for "Jew". Anyone with half a brain sees through this, but they think it buys them cover for their bigotry. Second, the premise of anti-Zionism is that an existing state, Israel, should not exist. No academic calls for Jordan not to exist, or Greece, or Mexico, or any other peaceful democracy. So why do these people single out Israel? Again, we all know why. Holding Jews to a different standard than anyone else is textbook antisemitism, as per the widely adopted IHRA definition of antisemitism. Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor. Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation. More on reddit.com

Ignore all the polemicists like Hitchens and just go to wikipedia : Zionism (/ˈzaɪənɪzəm/; Hebrew: צִיּוֹנוּת Ṣīyyonūt, Hebrew pronunciation: [t͡sijo̞ˈnut]; derived from Zion) is a nationalist[fn 1] movement that emerged in the 19th century to enable the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine,[3][4][5][6] a region roughly corresponding to the Land of Israel in Jewish tradition.[7][8][9][10] Following the establishment of Israel, Zionism became an ideology that supports "the development and protection of the State of Israel".[11] Tanakh is essentially the same, with a few liberties taken in the OT to make it sound like it was prophesying Jesus (e.g., translating עַלְמָה/almah as virgin.) More on reddit.com