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Over nine months since leading human rights groups concluded that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, the U.S. political leadership continues in rigid denial. Nearly all Republicans and the majority of Democratic representatives continue to endorse massive U.S. arms shipments to Israel, rendering it difficult to admit that these weapons are enabling ongoing atrocities.

Central to Justifications for Supporting Israel

One frequent assertion is that Israel represents the nation of “the Jewish people.” During U.S. officials speak in forums, they often declare that hatred of Israel is synonymous with hostility toward Jewish people worldwide. Such rhetoric conflates Israel with worldwide Jewry, effectively sanctifying the state from criticism by wielding accusations of bigotry.

Merging Israel with “Jews Everywhere”

This propaganda technique is both absurd and dangerous. As an Enlightenment thinker reportedly said, “As long as people believe in falsehoods, they will continue to commit atrocities.” Yet atrocities continue in Gaza with no end in sight.

Israel has persisted with systematic – and intentional – killing of Palestinian civilians, both through bombs, missiles, and gunfire, but also by using hunger as a weapon of war. Humanitarian aid has been blocked or severely constrained, ignoring United Nations warnings that nutrition levels in Gaza had dropped below sustenance levels. Conditions have been characterized as more severe than “a living nightmare.”

Irony of Antisemitism

Ironically, the country frequently described as the primary target of hostility toward Jews has become one of the world’s most powerful causes of it. By insisting that it embodies Jews globally, the state of Israel attempts to associate Jewish people worldwide with its systematic atrocities, genocide, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the occupied territories.

Misleading Comparisons

Israel’s government, supported by a decreasing number of Americans, blurs itself with Judaism and “the Jewish people” in a common messaging strategy. The core narrative promotes misleading parallels: Israel = Jews, support for Israel = support for Jews, and denunciation of Israel = antisemitism. A underlying implication of these claims is that the Israeli government = exemption from accountability.

In the 1980s, activists focused on apartheid South Africa with non-violent boycotts and did not charged of being racist against whites. In recent years, the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel – condemned as an apartheid state by numerous human rights organizations – often faces accusations of antisemitism, even from liberal Democrats and major Jewish groups.

Personal Reflection

As a young student in Jewish education, I could not have imagined that the Jewish faith and support for Israel would become so exploited. Little did I know that planting trees in Israel would later be overshadowed by actions of violence and oppression perpetrated in the name of protecting Jewish people. Spirituality of the Jewish tradition has been twisted and desecrated by genocidal policies.

Official Narratives

One of Israel’s fundamental statutes, enacted in 2018, declares that the state is the “national home” of the Jewish people and that the privilege to exercise national self-determination is “unique” to Jews. This codifies the government’s attempt to hijack Judaism and claim to speak for every Jew, regardless of their opinions.

Increasingly, however, Jewish people do not support these approaches. Surveys indicate 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 protector of safety for Jews worldwide. Ex- president Joe Biden once stated that absent Israel, no Jew would be safe – a sentiment repeated by numerous leaders. This assertion is not only inaccurate but also harmful, as it links Jewish safety with the actions of a government engaged in violence.

Final Thoughts

Major Jewish organizations in the U.S. often uncritically extol the Israeli government, no matter its actions. In the words of one writer noted, U.S. Jewish leaders insist on Israel’s right to exist as a ethno-religious nation, even with the contradiction between privilege for one group and equal rights for all.

More troubling is the implicit assumption that Jewish lives are inherently more valuable than Palestinian lives, and that Israel’s existence is above reproach. This mindset substitutes Judaism’s inclusive values with a tribal ideology that prioritizes one group over another.

This kind of devotion to Israel fuels the pernicious idea that “Jews” are synonymous with Israel. Every such claim is damaging, especially as Israel persists in ethnic cleansing, mass murder, and genocide. Distinguishing Jewish identity from the policies of the Israeli state is essential for justice and honest discourse.