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Comment by rowathay | Hacker News Reader

US citizen here, and you are correct. The farther left you go, the more anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic sentiment you’ll find.

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Maybe in the people, but AIPAC is the most feared lobby group across both sides of the isle for politicians. Russiagate is a joke compared to how much influence they have on our foreign policy, and its a travesty that their activities and heavy-handed influence is spoken of so quietly if at all.

Signed, Iraq war vet (it was more for Israels interests than ours!)

>Signed, Iraq war vet (it was more for Israels interests than ours!)

That would be odd way of serving the Israeli interest, as the actual Israeli government opposed the Iraq war and thought it would be bad for Israel:

https://forward.com/opinion/9839/sharon-warned-bush/

That article only says Sharon (who was only a part of the government) opposed occupation, and even then was quiet about it. Also the article is completely unsourced.

Sharon was the Prime Minister in 2003 which is some 'part of the government'. Author is well-connected judging by his resume. Also see this where the reporter says he talked with "three sources with direct knowledge":

https://forward.com/opinion/217842/how-bibi-and-bush-made-a-...

Please do not conflate opposition to the Israeli state with anti-Jewishness. There are millions of diaspora Jews living in the US who do not accept that conflation and are not fans of Israel.

This is factually incorrect. Every poll of the US Jewish community has shown that between 80% to 90% are supporters of Israel. At most a few thousand US Jews are not fans of Israel, and they are very vocal about it.

Polls of the “US Jewish community” tend to really be polls of people who read Israeli newspapers that do US polling. There’s a manifest bias in that.

Here’s the source I usually use[1]: 45% of American Jews consider Israel essential to them. Another disjoint minority consider it “important but not essential.” Neither of these imply support for the Israeli state, and neither separates the importance of Israel qua state or political institution from Israel qua the family our loved ones of the people being polled.

[1]: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/21/u-s-jews-ha...

Most of the polls in the US tend to be done by American Jewish organizations such as the AJC. The AJC polls actually specifically ask about support for Israel.

Regardless all of the major Jewish denominations in the US (reform movement, conservative movement, modern orthodox and even most of the heredi movements these days) officially support Zionism. Now you have individuals in each group who may describe themselves as anti-Zionist, but it is a very small minority (although growing in the reform movement).

Among non affiliated Jews the percentage of anti Israel/anti Zionist Jews may be a bit higher but it is still pretty low. It’s no where near millions (you only have 6.5 Million Jews in the US).

Now none of the above means that there is not a large segment of pro Israel, American Zionist Jews who are against a lot of the current and previous governments policies when it comes to the West Bank and Gaza (or in general).

Heck I am a Canadian born Israeli, who is personally against a lot of the policies of the Israeli government. I quite often cringe at some of the comments and actions of some of our politicians. On the bright side it helps me chose who not to vote for

No, that's not what I meant at all. Being opposed to Israel and the impact they have on their neighbours !== being antisemitic.

It's my understanding that pro-Israeli sentiment on the right is somewhat rooted in antisemitism in the first place. They love the idea of Jews having their own country away from everyone else.

Besides, the whole Q conspiracy wing currently taking over the American right is blatantly antisemitic.

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