Twenty years ago, as Yasser Arafat turned many of his people from negotiations back toward terror, I wrote an 800-word essay in the Montreal Gazette “I am a Zionist” that changed my life. It was my Herzl moment: I went from being a proud but quiet Jew and full-time American historian, to a proud but loud Jew balancing my American history career with my Zionist activism. Here is the essay, updated:Tragically, today, too many Jews avoid the “Z-word,” because so many Jew-haters demonize and delegitimize Jews, Israel and Zionism.