The word "Zionist" is being used by different people to mean completely different things. To one person, "Zionist" just means "someone who supports the existence of a Jewish state." To another person — including, sometimes, other Jews — "Zionist" has become a coded way of saying something much uglier. Same word. Opposite charge. And in between those two poles is a genuine, decades-old argument inside the Jewish people about what Israel is, what it's for, and whether it's living up to what it claims to be.

What does "Zionist" actually mean, and how did it get weaponized?