Do Donald Trump and Kamala Harris identify as 'Zionist'?

(JTA) - WASHINGTON - For decades, President Joe Biden has called himself a "Zionist." But in the waning days of his reelection campaign, he wondered aloud if anyone knew what the term means anymore.

Speedy Morman, a podcaster, had asked Biden in a July 12 whether he was a Zionist. Biden answered that yes, he was.

"Now, you'll be able to make a lot out of that because people don't know what a Zionist is," Biden said. 

Nine days later, Biden dropped out of the presidential race - and he may have been onto something in the interview with Morman, one of the last of his campaign. Neither of the people running to replace him - both avowed supporters of Israel - will say they are a Zionist.

Asked by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency if Vice President Kamala Harris considers herself a Zionist, a campaign aide replied:

"The Vice President and Governor [Tim] Walz have been strong and longstanding supporters of Israel as a secure, democratic homeland for the Jewish people. They will always ensure Israel can defend itself from threats, including from Iran and Iran-backed terrorists such as Hamas and Hezbollah."

Told that the first sentence of that response would meet perhaps the most common definition of "Zionist," the aide replied that beyond the statement she relayed, she had "nothing for you."

Karoline Leavitt, Trump's spokeswoman, also returned a lengthy reply without the Z-word:

"President Trump did more for Israel than any American President in history," she said, and proceeded to enumerate Trump's record on Israel as president, from brokering normalization deals between Israel and several of its neighbors to moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal.

"All of the progress made by President Trump in the region has been unraveled by Kamala Harris's weakness and America Last policies," Leavitt continued. "When President Trump is back in the Oval Office, Israel will once again be protected, Iran will go back to being broke, terrorists will be hunted down, and the bloodshed will end."

She did not respond to a follow-up question noting that those actions comport with what a Zionist president might do and asking whether Trump would describe himself using the term. 

Zionism, born as a modern ideology in the 19th century, sought to establish a Jewish polity in the Land of Israel. Since that was achieved with Israel's establishment in 1948, its meaning has been contested, but is generally taken to signify support for Israel as a Jewish state, and for its citizens. Many Jews self-identify as Zionist, and antisemitism watchdogs caution that bigots will often use the word "Zionist" in their attacks on Jews. 

In his interview with Morman, Biden offered his own definition of the term, in response to Morman asking why he supports Israel. (Morman, whose podcasts focus on the intersection of sports, entertainment and politics, spent four minutes of the 20-minute interview on Israel.)

"If there weren't an Israel, every Jew in the world would be at risk," Biden said. "There's a need for it to be strong, and a need for Israel to be able to have, after World War II, the ability for Jews to have a place that was their own. You don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist. And a Zionist is about whether or not Israel is a safe haven for Jews because of their history of how they've been persecuted."

After Biden said he was a Zionist, he turned it to Morman: "Do you know what a Zionist is?" he asked.

Morman punted. "I just ask questions, I don't answer," he said. However awkward the moment was, it was electric enough that Morman used the excerpt on social media to tout the interview.

Jonathan Sarna, a professor of Jewish history at Brandeis University, isn't surprised that neither presidential candidate would identify as a Zionist. He said Biden was the last of his kind.

"Biden is the last president, the last one we'll ever have, who really knows the Holocaust story, it affected him deeply," Sarna said. "The word 'Zionism' has been redefined by Israel's enemies in the years between when Joe Biden was growing up and when Kamala Harris was growing up, and that's what's really significant about it."

Sarna pointed to the way anti-Israel protesters have used the word "Zionist" as a pejorative. Chants at pro-Palestinian demonstrations have railed against Zionists. Blacklists of alleged "Zionists" - sometimes just Jews who have never commented on Israel - have circulated in the literary world and elsewhere. A Utah cidery declared, "No Zionists allowed." 

Jewish college students have reported being excluded from groups or spaces because they were branded "Zionist." In one extreme example, a student at Columbia University was filmed saying Zionists "don't deserve to live."

"A younger generation, you know, has been taught that Zionism is a form of colonialism," Sarna said. Referring to Harris and Trump, he said, "I think precisely because they understand or heard such a different story about Zionism, they don't want to engage in it, and it's easier for them to say, 'We support Israel,' rather than getting involved in an 'ism.'"

Adopting the term could carry political costs for both candidates. Harris has sought to stem the drift away from Democrats among pro-Palestinian constituencies, such as Arab American and younger communities. She has done that by being more outspoken in her criticism of the situation in Gaza than Biden was - and by calling for Palestinian statehood alongside Israel. 

Trump has emphasized his record on Israel when he was president but has also launched an outreach campaign in Michigan's Arab American community. Those postures played out in this week's debate when Harris called for an "immediate" ceasefire and Trump said Harris would cause harm to both Arabs and Jews.

Emily Tamkin, an author who writes about Jews and how they are perceived in U.S. politics, also said the term "Zionist" had acquired different meanings since Biden was growing up.

"Biden came up in American politics at a time when few in mainstream American politics were questioning either the term or how it might be received by different audiences, which is not the case anymore," she told JTA. 

Now, she said, the term's meaning is ambiguous. 

"Some hear the word 'Zionist' and think 'decades of Palestinian displacement and dispossession,'" she said. "For others - and I think especially for Jews - its meaning can range from 'Jewish and also Palestinian self-determination' to 'I support the vision of the current Netanyahu government.'"