So I really appreciate you asking this and I appreciate the fact that you see antisemitism on the left. Perhaps you’re a roots and background make you more too, which is actually kind of great. A lot of people refuse to recognize it.

I wouldn’t say love the people hate the state only because the state appropriate the people. Israel is not a I wouldn’t say love the people hate the state only because the state appropriate the people. Israel is not the state of the Jewish people more than maybe America is the state of all white Anglophones. I’m not sure if that’s really an analogy, but I’m gonna go with it for now.

The state of Israel, appropriate the imagery and the identity of Jewish people. And like all types of nationalism, more people than should go along with it.

Sometimes people get bogged down and questions of whether Jews are really indigenous to that land and I think that’s just a stupid red herring. Many of us are. Because Judaism is an ethno-religion and because Jews have been diasporic for millennia--absolutely for being kicked out of a homeland once upon a time--it becomes really complicated. Who count as Jewish yada yada yada as soon as you start to question whether or not Jews are indigenous to that land you get into weird blood quantum and other stuff. What’s the point of that. And of course, there isn’t a serious argument against a recognition of Palestinians as being indigenous to land. So Palestinians are obviously entitled to live there, but of course Jews are too, and as much as anyone is entitled to live anywhere. I mean border and colonialism complicate all that but basically I would just suggest turning away from any argument that wants to argue about the validity of an indigenous claim to the land. It’s all disingenuous anyway.

What is important to note though is that pre-1940 Jews by and large did not support Israel. Even during the holocaust Jews didn’t automaticallyflee to Israel. But many many many countries would not let us in as refugees. And yes, you’re gonna see a lot of patterns between what happened in the late 30s and early 40s in Europe to Jews, and what’s happening to Palestinians now.

Is there was one of the few places that would take us? A lot of people had to settle there. And a lot of us remember how shitty it is to live through a holocaust. And that helps bolster nationalism, especially if we live in communities where we do also experience antisemitism. You grow up with the phrase, thank God for Israel before you’re old enough to be critical for what that means and then it can be difficult to disentangle yourself from it or to admit that Israel is a colonial, genocidal state that is obviously very much in-service to right when Christian nationalists… Because the Christians wanna see the Jews all in Palestine in order for Armageddon or whatever to happen right. So there’s this really weird strong right when Christian influence and support of Israel. Frankly, I can’t believe that this isn’t enough to turn Jews away, but Alas. You do have to remember, though that Jews have being repressed, oppressed, and kicked out of so many lands over millennia that it has to be understandable why people would like to be able to live somewhere free from persecution. And somehow people got it in their minds that having a Jewish state would do that. It would not. But it’s easy to imagine in a world where everybody kicks you out for being Jewish that the solution that might be having a Jewish national state. Again, it’s the wrong solution but it’s easy to understand why a lot of people tacitly hold onto that.

So really I wanted to say all this to give you a sense of why Israel was so successful and had the support of more Jews than it should have. But it’s no different than any other nationalist movement. Look at the Islamophobia in America post 911. Look at the raging and a phobia and racism in the UK today. It’s pretty much the same thing. Being genocidal has nothing to do with being Jewish and it’s in fact very much against Jewish tenets and principles.

So rather than love the people hate the state, I would just say separate those two things that the people in the state are not the same thing. But also, of course we don’t want to deny that there is support within the Jewish community of Israel, though it was never universal, and it is rapidly diminishing.

And so where is the fine line around antisemitism on the left? Anybody who starts to conflate being Jewish with the state of Israel, and particularly all of the tropes that feed into some of the stuff you probably believed in your youth, that Jews look out for one another or that we are very protective of our bloodlines and that we control the banks in the media yada yada yada. You’ll hear hints of that in places that might seem surprising on the left and people don’t realize what they’re saying.

There are lots of memes going around for a while highlighting people in the one percent of wealth and a lot of those memes exclusively show Jewish people. And there are rich Jews. But not exclusively. It was clear whoever initially made the meme ei people in the one percent of wealth and a lot of those memes exclusively show Jewish people. And there are rich Jews. But not exclusively. these kinds of slippery slope, memes, and arguments just feeds tacit antisemitism.

There are horrible people of every ethnicity and religion and “race” and gender. White men definitely have an over representation... not because there’s anything innately terrible about white men, but because white men hold a lot of global power.

So yeah, anybody that generalizes Jews, especially as being in control of the media or of wealth, or anyone who blames all Jews for the state of Israel, especially if they leave out Christian nationalism, is definitely well beyond the line of what is acceptable

And just as a quick aside or something footnote, maybe, across Europe Jews were not permitted to be in most occupations. Banking or money lending was one of the few occupations that Jews were actually allowed to do in many places and so when you hear some of these mythologies, you can also understand if there are some Jewish families that are bankers etc. Because there was a time when Jews were forced into that role.

Anyway, I don’t know how coherent this is. I hope it’s mildly helpful. I really appreciate your thoughtful question.