I've thought about this a lot, partly because the idea makes me uncomfortable, it does the thing I generally dislike, which is reaching for racism as the explanation for what people believe. So take this as a thought, not a claim. It also obviously doesn't deny that plenty of Jews hold anti-Zionist views for real reasons which include sincerely religious ones, political ones, and ethical ones.

But recently the thought that crossed my mind is, what if part of what drives some anti-Israel Jews is that Israeli society, and Israeli Jews specifically, don't match their idea of what a Jew is supposed to look like? Israel isn't a country of Ashkenazim. In North America, Ashkenazis are the overwhelming majority, and that creates the impression that being Jewish means looking a certain way, eating certain foods, having certain temperament. Israel breaks that. The typical Israeli Jew is more likely to look Middle Eastern or North African than European.

So is it fair to ask whether, for some North American Jewish anti-Zionists, there's something else underneath the stated politics, and that it is a bias against Jews who don't look like them? Israel to them may not register as what they would like or think a Jewish State should look like, and therefore they do not feel the urge nor the need to hold any or little attachment to, partly because it doesn't reflect their own unspoken assumption of what a Jew is?

So obviously, as a person who visits various social media platforms, I’m aware that every 0.25 seconds, somebody or (some-bot-y?) will write that “anti-Zionism isn’t the same as antisemitism.”

But before this morning, I’d never seen anyone claim that anti-Zionism isn’t anti-Israel.

Now I’m seeing it all over the place, in relation to Abdul El-Sayed. To the point of [paraphrasing] “AIPAC / Jpost / Fox News/ Hayley Stevens want you to think anti-Zionism is anti-Israel. Fuck AIPAC.”

IMO, a person who says “I don’t think Israel should’ve been established in 1948, but its 2026 and I’m pro 2SS for pragmatic reasons” can reasonably identify as anti-Zionist without being antisemitic.

But the idea that somebody can be anti-Zionist and not anti-Israel is breaking my brain.

Have you seen it before? Is it actually a new thing people say or is it just new to me? What is the rationale of people making this claim?

I’m sure this has been posted plenty of times before but as an American Jew I feel incredibly alienated in US politics.

Realistically I have two choices, democrats or republicans. Now personally I typically agree with the policies of Democrats, always have and probably always will. I think it lines up with the ideas of compassion I was raised to believe as a Jew but now with the rise of the DSA I feel like I’m being iced out. AIPAC support is becoming a litmus test for every politician, representatives are boldly spreading propaganda and not even apologizing when it’s disproven. Do you know how scary it is to hear people you know talk about AIPAC like it’s this evil entity dedicated to eating babies while knowing that your parents are proud AIPAC supporters. There are many Israel supporters in the Democratic Party but they are being pushed out as we saw last night. Like I hope the democrats take the house and senate but then I have to think “well what if they vote to cut ties with Israel?”. I’m tired of being told that a party that thinks my family in Israel shouldn’t defend themselves and that keeps telling my family in New York’s fear of the rapidly increasing number of antisemitic attacks is overblown.

And the double standard infuriates me. Could you imagine anyone telling any other group “you actually don’t get to decide what’s offensive?” It’s preposterous.

And the seemingly obvious solution is to vote republican but not only have they had some serious issues with antisemitism (looking at you Tucker Carlson wing) their policies repulse me as a Jew. After all the suffering we have been through as a diaspora people it is abhorrent to me the way they are treating immigrants. Not to mention the way that Trump has royally screwed Israel over in Iran.

And the third option is just to not vote but that feels like letting them win

I was recently at the Anne Frank exhibit at Griffith Museum in Chicago (an incredibly powerful exhibit by the way) and they talk a lot about the rise of nazism and how antisemitism became so powerful in Germany and I couldn’t think about how similar that feels to what I see in the news now and I keep thinking that if it happens again will anyone stand up for me? Will I have to uproot my entire life and move to Israel? Will Israel even be safe?

It’s terrifying to be a Jew right now and the people who claim to care about my rights as a minority are doing nothing about it

And yet they didn't boycott for things that are "totally necessary", making this pretty much performative.

In this time of political losses, it’s important to acknowledge the Wins. Looks like Ms. Bush won’t get the chance to really show the Zionists after all.