The Tightrope Walker at the Graveside
A condemnation of the abhorrent position taken by actor Hugh Laurie
There are moments when ideology should fall silent.
The suicide of a gifted woman is one of them.
Dana Eden created the Apple+ critically acclaimed series Tehran. She was not an abstraction.
She was an Israeli artist working inside Israeli sovereignty — a sovereignty born not of romance but of history. Exile. Pogrom. Expulsion. The murder of two-thirds of European Jewry within living memory.
She is dead.
A friend, at such a moment, has two honourable options: speak of her, or say nothing.
What he should not do is perform.
Yet Hugh Laurie cannot resist. Even here, he must clarify that he is not a Zionist. He must insert the disclaimer. He must reassure his audience that affection for an Israeli does not imply sympathy for Israel.
It is self-regard masquerading as conscience.
The impulse resembles the modern habit of declaring oneself “non-binary” at every public opportunity — not because this concerns gender, but because it concerns exhibition. It is the reflex to foreground oneself in every situation. Even grief must serve identity. Even death must confirm moral branding.
It costs nothing. It advertises everything.
Zionism is not a fashion. It is a conclusion.
Theodor Herzl wrote: “If you will it, it is no dream.”¹ The dream was not conquest. It was a refuge. It was the insistence that Jews might govern themselves after centuries of dependence and slaughter.
Golda Meir put it more starkly: Israel’s secret weapon was that it had “no alternative.”²
No alternative. Statelessness was tried. It ended in mass graves and twisted corpses, emaciated bodies, faces contorted in agony, small children clinging to their mother’s leg.
To call oneself anti-Zionist is not simply to criticise a government. Governments can and should be criticised. It is to oppose Jewish self-determination altogether.
It is to argue that Jews, alone among peoples, should surrender sovereignty and trust history to behave better next time.
Even Martin Luther King Jr., in language widely attributed to him, warned that hostility to Zionism often conceals older hostility.³ Natan Sharansky later gave the rule: when Israel is delegitimised, demonised, and judged by standards applied to no other state, antisemitism has changed vocabulary, not substance.⁴
And elsewhere, the language is blunt. Israel is called illegitimate. It is said it has no future. It is urged toward elimination.⁵
At least that is honest.
Laurie’s version is softer. He will mourn the Israeli while distancing himself from Israel. He will praise the friend while disclaiming the condition that made her life possible. He cannot let even suicide pass without clarifying his ideological purity.
A woman has died. And the performance continues.
There is something cold in that reflex. Something bloodless. It suggests that even tragedy must be filtered through personal positioning.
If you loved her, honour her. If you admired her, speak of her work. If you are grieving, say so plainly. Do not convert mourning into moral theatre. This was not the moment for disclaimers.
There is a time to debate policy. There is a time to criticise governments. There is a time to shut up. This was the last of those.
As for me: I am a Zionist. Not as fashion. Not as performance. But because history made it necessary.
See? Clarity is possible.
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Footnotes
Theodor Herzl, Der Judenstaat (1896): “If you will it, it is no dream.”
Golda Meir, speeches articulating Israel’s doctrine of necessity — “no alternative.”
Statement widely attributed to Martin Luther King Jr. linking anti-Zionism and antisemitism (historically debated wording).
Natan Sharansky, “3D Test of Antisemitism”: Delegitimisation, Demonisation, Double Standards.
Public statements by regional actors declaring Israel illegitimate and calling for its elimination.
Loved watching Hugh Laurie as House in the series of the same name. Unfortunately, it is time to shut and lock the door and move to a new home with light to shine on morql clarity and decency.