🔗 Share this article

Over nine months since leading rights-focused organizations concluded that Israel had engaged in genocide in Gaza, the American political leadership continues in stubborn denial. Virtually all GOP lawmakers and the majority of Democratic representatives continue to endorse large-scale U.S. arms shipments to Israel, rendering it difficult to admit that these weapons are facilitating continuing atrocities.

Key among Justifications for Supporting Israel

A common assertion is that Israel represents the nation of “all Jews.” During U.S. officials address in forums, they often state that hatred of Israel is synonymous with hostility toward Jewish people globally. This kind of rhetoric conflates Israel with worldwide Jewry, thereby sanctifying the state from criticism by brandishing accusations of bigotry.

Fusing Israel with “The Jewish People”

This rhetorical device is both absurd and dangerous. In the words of an Enlightenment thinker once said, “As long as people accept falsehoods, they will continue to commit atrocities.” And atrocities continue in Gaza with no end in sight.

Israeli forces has continued with systematic – and deliberate – killing of Palestinian civilians, not only through bombs, shelling, and bullets, but also by using hunger as a tactic. Relief supplies has been restricted or severely constrained, disregarding international warnings that nutrition levels in Gaza had dropped below survival levels. The situation have been described as worse than “a living nightmare.”

Irony of Antisemitism

Paradoxically, the state frequently portrayed as the ultimate victim of antisemitism has emerged as one of the world’s most powerful sources of it. By claiming that it embodies Jews globally, the state of Israel seeks to associate Jewish people worldwide with its systematic war crimes, genocide, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the occupied territories.

False Equations

Israel’s government, supported by a decreasing number of Americans, conflates itself with Judaism and “world Jewry” in a common messaging pattern. The core narrative promotes false parallels: Israel = Jews, support for Israel = support for Jews, and criticism of Israel = antisemitism. A subtext of these claims is that the Israeli government = exemption from accountability.

In the 1980s, campaigners focused on apartheid South Africa with non-violent sanctions and were not accused of being anti-white. In this century, the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement focusing on Israel – criticized as an apartheid state by numerous human rights organizations – often faces accusations of antisemitism, including from progressive U.S. politicians and major Jewish groups.

Personal Reflection

As a child in Jewish education, I could not have imagined that the Jewish faith and reverence for Israel would become so exploited. I was unaware that planting trees in Israel would later be overshadowed by policies of violence and oppression carried out in the name of protecting Jewish people. The dignity of the Jewish tradition has been twisted and desecrated by destructive policies.

Legal and Political Framing

Among Israel’s fundamental statutes, enacted in 2018, states that the state is the “homeland” of the Jewish people and that the right to practice national self-determination is “exclusive” to Jews. This codifies the government’s effort to appropriate Judaism and claim to speak for every Jew, regardless of their views.

Increasingly, though, Jewish people are not support these policies. Surveys show significant opposition to core Israeli policies among Jewish communities in the U.S.

False Guarantees

American officials often reinforce the trope that Israel is the guarantor of safety for Jews around the world. Ex- president Joe Biden once stated that absent Israel, no Jew would be safe – a sentiment repeated by numerous leaders. This claim is not only untrue but also harmful, as it equates Jewish safety with the policies of a state engaged in violence.

Final Thoughts

The biggest Jewish organizations in the U.S. often automatically extol the Israeli government, regardless of its actions. As one writer noted, U.S. Jewish leaders insist on Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, even with the contradiction between legal supremacy and democratic equality.

More troubling is the unspoken assumption that Jewish lives are inherently more important 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.

This kind of worship to Israel feeds the harmful idea that “the Jewish people” are identical with Israel. Any such claim is destructive, especially as Israel continues in ethnic cleansing, killings, and destruction. Separating Judaism from the actions of the Israeli state is essential for ethical clarity and honest discourse.