NEW CIVILITY WATCH: Dame Helen Mirren, 80, called ‘evil Zionist bitch’ by anti-Israel nut in sick attack on the street.

The 80-year-old was accosted while she was walking in the East London neighborhood of Tower Hill with her husband, Taylor Hackford, 81, on Wednesday night, according to the clip shared by London & UK Street News.

“There is Helen Mirren, the avowed Zionist. You said Israel should last forever because of the Holocaust,” the yob shouted, referring to the actress’s 2023 remarks about the Jewish state.

“F–k off,” Hackford, an acclaimed, Oscar-winning film director, shouted back.

“You’re an evil Zionist b—h,” the agitator yelled.

In yesterday’s Commentary newsletter, Abe Greenwald explored: “Zionism, After the Fact.”

A number of Israel-supporters have noted that the terms “Zionism” and “Zionist” are, from a present-day perspective, confusing or even insulting. As Zionism refers to a belief and a movement that sought to establish a modern Jewish homeland, does it make sense still to speak of Zionists when that homeland has existed for more than 75 years?

Coleman Hughes remarked in a recent episode of his podcast that it makes as much sense to declare oneself a Zionist today as it would to self-describe as an abolitionist. The State of Israel is a long-established fact, and American slavery has long been abolished. In this reading, perhaps the term Zionism is an anachronism that’s intended to cast a shadow of impermanence or erasure over the Jewish state.

I think Hughes makes a powerful point in comparing the relevance of Zionism and abolitionism. But it’s equally illuminating to contrast the two.

Read the whole thing, which is online here.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): I think Taylor Hackford sums up things beautifully.