More than nine months since leading rights-focused groups determined that the Israeli military was committing systematic destruction in Gaza, the U.S. political leadership remains in rigid denial. Virtually all GOP lawmakers and most Democrats still support massive U.S. arms transfers to Israel, rendering it difficult to admit that these weapons are facilitating ongoing atrocities.
Central to Justifications for Supporting Israel
A common claim is that Israel is the nation of “the Jewish people.” During U.S. officials speak publicly, they often state that hatred of Israel is synonymous with hostility toward Jewish people globally. Such rhetoric conflates Israel with worldwide Jewry, effectively shielding the state from scrutiny by brandishing accusations of antisemitism.
Merging Israel with “The Jewish People”
This rhetorical device is both absurd and harmful. In the words of Voltaire once said, “If people believe in absurdities, they will continue to commit atrocities.” Yet atrocities continue in Gaza with no end in sight.
Israel has persisted with methodical – and intentional – killing of Palestinian civilians, both through airstrikes, missiles, and bullets, but also by using hunger as a weapon of war. Relief supplies has been blocked or limited, ignoring international alerts that nutrition levels in Gaza had fallen below survival levels. The situation have been characterized as more severe than “hell on earth.”
Paradox of Antisemitism
Paradoxically, the country frequently described as the primary victim of hostility toward Jews has become one of the world’s most powerful sources of it. By claiming that it represents Jews globally, the state of Israel seeks to link Jewish people everywhere with its systematic atrocities, destruction, and forced displacement of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
False Equations
Israel’s government, supported by a dwindling number of Americans, blurs itself with Judaism and “the Jewish people” in a common messaging pattern. The core narrative promotes false equations: Israel = Jews, support for Israel = support for Jews, and denunciation of Israel = antisemitism. A underlying implication of these claims is that the Israeli government = impunity.
In the 1980s, activists targeted apartheid South Africa with non-violent boycotts and did not accused of being racist against whites. In recent years, the peaceful Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel – condemned as an apartheid state by multiple human rights organizations – routinely encounters accusations of antisemitism, even from liberal Democrats and prominent Jewish groups.
Personal Reflection
As a child in Jewish education, I never would have imagined that the Jewish faith and reverence for Israel would become so manipulated. I was unaware that charitable efforts in Israel would eventually be eclipsed by policies of killing and terror perpetrated in the name of defending Jewish people. Spirituality of the Jewish tradition has been distorted and desecrated by destructive policies.
Legal and Political Framing
Among Israel’s fundamental statutes, passed in 2018, states that the state is the “national home” of the Jewish people and that the right to practice sovereignty is “exclusive” to Jews. This codifies the official effort to appropriate Judaism and assert to speak for all Jew, irrespective of their views.
More and more, however, Jewish people do not support these policies. Surveys indicate significant dissent to core Israeli policies among Jewish communities in the U.S.
False Guarantees
U.S. officials often reinforce the notion that Israel is the guarantor of safety for Jews worldwide. Former president Joe Biden once stated that without Israel, no Jew would be safe – a sentiment echoed by numerous politicians. This claim is not only inaccurate but also dangerous, as it equates Jewish safety with the policies of a government engaged in violence.
Conclusion
Major Jewish organizations in the U.S. often uncritically extol the Israeli government, regardless of its actions. In the words of one commentator noted, U.S. Jewish leaders insist on Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, despite the contradiction between legal supremacy and equal rights for all.
More insidious is the unspoken assumption that Jewish lives are intrinsically more valuable than Palestinian lives, and that Israel’s destiny is transcendent. This mindset substitutes Judaism’s universal values with a tribal deity that elevates one group over another.
Such worship to Israel feeds the pernicious idea that “Jews” are identical with Israel. Every such claim is destructive, especially as Israel continues in forced removal, mass murder, and genocide. Separating Jewish identity from the policies of the Israeli state is essential for justice and truth.
