Zionomics

Theodor Herzl, journalist, lawyer, writer, political activist, and the father of modern political Zionism. 

I am fascinated by Judaism. Born Jewish, I have spent a lifetime trying to figure out what that means and have concluded that Jews are the canaries in the mine; what happens to them today may be a harbinger of what’s ahead for humanity tomorrow. As such, there’s gold in figuring out what the Jews will do to survive and thrive.

A hundred years ago, Berlin, Germany, was the safest place for Jews to live, work, teach, compose music, advance science, and make money. Within twenty years, they were dying in gas chambers and burning in industrial ovens, followed by WWII and the consequent death of nearly a hundred million innocent souls. But, after eighty years of global peace and prosperity, we now find that “Never Again” has become just a slogan, that the world is divided again, and the Jews are somehow to blame.

As the state of Israel fights for its survival on seven fronts, the International Criminal Court has accused it of genocide and issued an arrest warrant for its Prime Minister. In Amsterdam, Paris, and London, Jews are advised not to be seen in public for their safety. In America, the Ivy League campuses are set aflame in the name of anti-Zionism. Even so, fewer than eighty years into this experiment called Israel, this one-time desert has morphed into the fruit basket of the Middle East and a start-up nation commanding the world’s eighth most powerful military force. Nevertheless, storm clouds remain. 

The WWIII that I have been predicting in these columns since 2021 is now upon us, with Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea fighting against America, Israel, and Europe. As the actual kinetic wars are being fought in Ukraine, Israel, and now Syria, the trade, currency, space, and technology wars continue to escalate globally. 

Ronald Reagan won the Cold War against the Soviet Union by essentially bankrupting Russia. Perhaps the key to Israel’s survival and prosperity today is rooted in this scrappy, upstart nation's potential economic dominance. To borrow a term from the next chapter of Theodore Herzl’s Political Zionism, we may simply refer to this next phase as Zionomics.

— Sina.