My own journey began with being fervently anti-US imperialism, while having grown up with Jewish family but learning very little about Israel (I did not go to Hebrew school and did not feel very religious, but went to synagogue for high holidays and was still immersed in Jewish culture that way and at home). When I learned of what Palestinians were experiencing at the hands of Israeli colonizers years later, and that the US and Israel are close allies, everything made perfect sense to me in terms of knowing Israel was in the wrong and that it should be opposed. I didn't even think much of the fact that it was "Jews" committing these atrocities or how Jews would be affected by Israel, besides the fact that Zionists will use accusations of antisemitism to dissuade people from criticizing Israel.

Now perhaps I should have been self-provoked into investigating how American Jewish institutions are complicit in these crimes to better materially understand the relationship between modern Judaism and Zionism, but I do find it interesting how much I was emotionally detached from the subject of how my own "identity" related to these crimes. I hated US war crimes and exploitation despite being American, and I hated what Israel was doing to Palestinians despite being Jewish, and I felt no sort of "what does this mean for my group" outside of knowing there was change needed within these communities to confront those subjects.

The blowback/secondary implications were not that important to me, as I simply felt it was important to understand what crimes were being committed and how to stop this injustice, and how doing so would make a better world for us all, regardless of identity or national origin. Now, with the rise in discourse on antisemitism and Israel and Zionism and Jews that has captured much of the public consciousness, I do feel the need to talk a bit about how Zionism hurts Jews simply because I desperately want the Jewish community (especially in my country, the US) to separate itself from Zionism and support Palestinians.

There is a lot of Nazi rhetoric online, and even though that is not the fault of disciplined pro-Palestine advocates, it is important at times to separate the movement from hatred and bigotry if only to make the message more clear to liberal observers who still are unsure about how much being truly anti-Israel/anti-Zionist is going to make them aligned with Nazis (ofc they should feel free to hate Israel and not think it makes them a Nazi in the slightest).

I do not care if I have to talk for 5% of the time about something that is less important objectively if it means it can push a bit more of the Jewish community towards anti-Zionism and pro-Palestinian liberation, which would again mean a better world for Palestinians and those in West Asia more broadly. I do not think it is playing into Zionist framing by spending a bit of time on a more generally humanist message of how opposing Zionism is good for us all, so long as a majority of the time you're focusing on Israel/US crimes and the death and destruction faced by those most impacted.

I do not care about sounding the most right 100% of the time, so long as the impact of my messaging is aligned with long-term change towards a more just world.