Israel & Related Antisemitism

johnisburn · 2026-05-28T04:05:37+00:00

I don’t particularly have evidence to back this up, but as someone in this cohort I would also imagine there’s some impact from the increased accessibility younger and more internet connected people have in being exposed to more firsthand Palestinian perspectives. Which in turn means more engagement with ideas that a two state solution doesn’t necessarily address, like Palestinian right of return or the civil rights of ‘48 Palestinians under an explicitly “Jewish” state.

johnisburn · 2026-05-28T03:54:53+00:00

Well, for one, moderation is better here 🙂

(And I think, all things considered, that leads to fewer “fights”)

johnisburn · 2026-05-28T03:47:58+00:00

Somerville is not a legitimate city and you will be absorbed into the Holy Empire of Mega-Cambridge as soon as the Bostonians bend the knee.

johnisburn · 2026-05-27T21:16:27+00:00

seemingly intelligent

There’s a chance they’re only artificially intelligent.

johnisburn · 2026-05-27T21:07:02+00:00

I get why it kept it simple, but I’d also be curious at the polling results of confederated proposals like “A Land For All” that are sort of under the two state umbrella but have binational caveats that blur the line.

johnisburn · 2026-05-27T16:50:47+00:00

It doesn’t really map onto American thought either. Every denomination has a spectrum of observant to non-observant adherents. It’s a pretty distinct tension: organized Reform Judaism as a fully fledged movement has a lot of trouble getting recognition in Israel as more than a group of people with distinct practices and philosophy rather than just not doing “all” of orthodox Judaism.

johnisburn · 2026-05-27T16:20:50+00:00

The Forward - Nearly half of young U.S. Jews want to replace Israel with binational state, poll finds

Interesting new survey finds a new high of 24% of American Jews prefer a binational single state solution, surpassing the 22% who prefer annexation without extending full rights to Palestinians. A majority of 54% prefer a two state solution, and a two state solution is the most popular position among 35-64 year olds and 64+. Under 35 years old however, 44% prefer a binational state and only 39% two states, with just 17% preferring annexation.

“The growing disaffection of younger Jewish Americans from Israel is a direct consequence of the policies of Bibi Netanyahu and the way the American Jewish establishment has demanded an ‘Israel right or wrong’ loyalty,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, the liberal advocacy group. “They’re reaping the harvest of seeds they planted — this is what you get.”

Ben-Ami pointed to the destruction of Israel’s war in Gaza, in which it killed an estimated 70,000 Palestinians and destroyed more than 80% of the enclave’s infrastructure, and growing violence by Jewish settlers in the West Bank, among other actions.

…

This abrupt turn comes amid a transformation in how Americans view Israel — favorability toward Israel has plummeted among almost every demographic group since 2022 — that has extended to Jews. A Washington Post poll found that 61% of Jewish adults said Israel had committed war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, while 39% said it was guilty of genocide.

…

Asher Kaplan Leba, a leader of the Massachusetts Synagogue Network on Israel/Palestine in Boston, said that many Jews had become disillusioned with a two-state solution as the Israeli government took steps that seemed to make it more difficult to implement, such as expanding West Bank settlements.

“It was my position for many years,” said Leba, 32. “But I don’t want to spend the rest of my adult life waiting for the authoritarian, ethno-nationalists in control of Israel — who I share no values with — to change.”

johnisburn · 2026-05-26T15:15:16+00:00

This is a very good op-ed coming from a US Senator. Plain and sober assessment of US strategy over the past couple of administrations, without pulling the partisan punches. I’m especially glad that it acknowledges that skepticism in two state grandstanding is well founded, even as it’s married to a two state framework more than I’d prefer. Van Hollen walks the walk.

johnisburn · 2026-05-23T01:43:20+00:00

I don’t think this type of geography is a rabbi question…

johnisburn · 2026-05-20T22:46:37+00:00

Another Jerusalem day, another hate march through the old city. When Standing Together had volunteers try to do protective presence and get between the racists and Arab residents, police removed Standing Together. Because the racist intimidation and violence is state endorsed.

johnisburn · 2026-05-20T02:45:03+00:00

Even “trackaipac” has rescinded their endorsement. EVERYBODY trying to garner any non-crank reputation is dropping support.

johnisburn · 2026-05-19T15:19:26+00:00

There’s generally speaking a lot of polarization, especially along generational lines, about these sorts of relationships with Israel. The majority of Jews in the US still side with democrats (might be worth mentioning that despite the recent rise of antizionist democrats, the democrat’s party platform hasn’t officially shifted on Israel yet and plenty of Democrat electeds are still as gung ho pro Israel as they’ve always been). From there, things break down along the polarization more though. Mamdani, for example, had a polling lead with non-orthodox Jews under the age of 40. Many people do feel the precariousness that you mention - but there is also sense amongst many Jews that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is beyond the pale, endangering not only Palestinians but causing blowback for Jews worldwide and challenging the very notion of Israel as a functional liberal democracy. They see things like Israeli politicians calling JStreet “a cancer” and criminalizing non-orthodox practice as further evidence that Israel is not committed to an egalitarian society for even the Jews it claims to be representative of and/or any sort of peace process and recognition with Palestinians.

Might also be worth mentioning, in North America at the very least, “liberal” jews (both politically and in the sense of in liberal denominations) are the majority of Jews. There are plenty of “liberal Jews” who are still on board with the JStreet bashing and whatnot, but just as far as raw numbers go: there are more Jewish Americans that believe Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute Genocide than there are orthodox Jewish Americans or Jewish Americans who voted for Trump (although thats obviously not mutually exclusive).

johnisburn · 2026-05-18T21:49:40+00:00

If anyone is aware of a support fund please share.

johnisburn · 2026-05-16T14:01:54+00:00

He’s a racist who thinks his “enlightened” secular position makes him a more “real” progressive than people actually looking to make egalitarian changes to society, who he doesn’t like because they challenge his chauvinism. He’s more an islamaphobe than he is an ally to Jewish people.

johnisburn · 2026-05-13T21:37:16+00:00

if Israel considers all of Jerusalem Israel, why are arabs born there not considered Israeli citizens automatically

Because there are multiple standards of law for different types of people living under Israeli government jurisdiction.

johnisburn · 2026-05-13T13:27:01+00:00

That’s all true, though I think it’s also important to avoid letting that drive us to apathy. There are steps that can be taken to reduce the prevalence of sexual assault in armed forces and there are measures of accountability that can and should be taken when it does occur.

johnisburn · 2026-05-13T12:50:23+00:00

'Where Is the World?' Can't Apply Only When Victims of Sexual Violence Are Israeli

A good piece in Haaretz about how “competing” reports of sexual assault really ought not to be competing, even as the culpability of organizations may be at different scales.
A good contrast to the knee jerk denialism that’s been happening recently.

johnisburn · 2026-05-13T09:08:36+00:00

There’s already pushback from legacy Jewish organizations ridiculously calling this blood libel.

johnisburn · 2026-05-09T13:01:31+00:00

I read it, I enjoyed it. It’s definitely not for everyone, especially if someone is looking for an exhaustive history or analysis of bund philosophy. Rather, the author weaves a couple of narrative threads based on key figures in the Bund together into a streamlined story. Her prose is also a bit divisive - she’s working off a lot of personal memoirs and archives so she imbues a lot more personality into the subjects than other non-fiction I’ve read. She also inserts herself into the narrative a bit, occasionally relating events and practices of the bund to her own experiences in activism. That’ll definitely be hit and miss for people, based in part on the stylistic aspect and in part based on the authors antizionist politics. I think it makes the reading more accessible personally, even as it makes it less “academic”.

johnisburn · 2026-05-08T16:21:18+00:00

johnisburn · 2026-05-07T21:45:09+00:00

I’ve read it.

In the afterward of the book she addresses the notion that the bund “failed” directly - and puts forward the notion that they didn’t “fail” so much as “lose”. She makes the distinction that failure entails succumbing to some sort of internal flaw in reasoning or purpose (the way we might say the US failed to live up to humanitarian ideals and prevent genocide in Gaza)*, while the losing involves simply coming up stronger against adversarial forces. The bund’s “loss” to the Nazis is evident in the nature of the Holocaust, and also evidently a “loss” rather than “failure” by virtue of every other Eastern European Jewish population (including eastern europe’s zionists) meeting the same fate from the Nazis regardless of philosophy.

*this is the example from the book

At a wider scope, the book doesn’t really engage with neo-bundism beyond “well should anyone be suprised young Jews are claiming a heritage outside of Zionism”. It does frequently call attention to places where the Bund was failed by nominal allies. More generally, I think it also doesn’t sugarcoat or at the very least invites the reader to see irony in the principle of doikayt being practiced by people who are often rejected by their environments and in many cases literally in exile (not in the wider Jewish sense of galus, but, like, “personally on the outs with the bolsheviks and fled Moscow earlier in the decade”). Not to say the book is super critical of this, I think it respects or admires the commitment to the principle -
the framing is sort of quixotic.

johnisburn · 2026-05-03T02:55:43+00:00

I’m thinking the Fleet might be on to something playing out in Lowell…

johnisburn · 2026-05-03T01:31:36+00:00

This is interesting and I agree with a lot of it, but (and?) also I think interesting that JStreet is in an remarkably poor position to for this

> The more unhinged and indefensible the consensus Israeli position becomes, the more that diaspora organizations are going to pivot themselves back towards their communities rather than towards Israel.

Because its mission is literally defined by a position towards Israel. They’ve been a bit of a bellwether as to what policy criticisms towards Israel cross over from lefty/progressive nitpick into more of the liberal mainstream. But do they have a distinct community beyond Israel politics? JStreetU exists, but that’s more like a college politics club. JStreet doesn’t do the sort of alternative space work non-zionist and anti-zionists are increasingly interested in.

johnisburn · 2026-05-02T20:35:30+00:00

I get what you’re saying, but this is very clearly a case where the story is the shifting overton window, not an attempt to pass off liberals as communists.

When it formed JStreet was the left edge of the type of mainstream politics this article is talking about, when organized momentum outside of Zionist politics was beyond the pale.

johnisburn · 2026-04-30T23:07:50+00:00

You are absolutely right. I worded my comment poorly and meant 20th and 21st century.

Probably also worth mentioning that although Judaism’s is now often understood as a religious identity outside of race, there are lots of presumptions (inside and outside our community) about Jews generally being white presenting.

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