Key Takeaways:
- In an opinion piece in Mondoweiss, Philip Weiss argued that Israel’s existence as a Jewish state is inherently problematic, no matter who is prime minister.
- The argument extends to American Jews, who are put to a litmus test as they are told their support for Israel is “very bad.”
- The pattern of demonizing Israel in the media has been consistent throughout history.
American Jewish support for Israel has been an aspect of U.S. Diaspora identity since the founding of the state in 1948. Despite having differing perspectives on what a Jewish state should look like, the vast majority of American Jews still believe that Israel should exist as a Jewish and democratic state.
The support for Israel extends from centuries of Jewish yearning to return to the land of Israel and re-establish a state in their historic homeland. For American Jews, this inherent connection to the land is a label that they wear with pride.
But as the campaign to delegitimize the entirety of the state of Israel continues on, there are those who seek not only to suggest that Jewish support for Israel is immoral, but that the state that exists today should not exist at all.
This is exactly what founder and senior editor of Mondoweiss, Philip Weiss, claims in “American Jews’ continued support for Israel is very bad for Jews. We must wake up.”
Weiss, a self-described anti-Zionist Jew, has consistently made his position on Israel known. But as Israeli elections approach, Weiss writes that the political news is “tragic,” no matter “whether [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu stays or goes.” Describing Israel as a “militarist ethno-state, not a democracy,” Weiss makes it clear that his objection is fundamentally tied to the existence of the Jewish state itself.
Effectively, Weiss has written what many others have been hinting at: it does not matter to them who wins the election, if it means that the Jewish state will continue to exist as is.
Yet he even extends this argument about Israel itself to the American Jews who continue to support it. Weiss warned that Jewish support for Israel will “make pariahs of Jews,” and portrayed American Jews who support Israel as potential “backers of bigotry against non-Jews.” In Weiss’ framing, the problem is not only that Israel exists, but also that American Jews continue identifying with and supporting the Jewish state.
Certain journalists and activists have been making similar claims online. Peter Beinart has claimed that synagogues should not declare that they “stand with Israel,” for it conflates the two, while Mehdi Hasan has referred to the Jewish community supporting Israel as a “problem.”
Such litmus tests for the Jewish people’s support for Israel will likely not change their connection, but it will make attacks against Jewish institutions more commonplace by providing a framework in which a synagogue’s connection to Israel is itself treated as grounds for targeting – a trend that is already evident.
In addition to the explicit delegitimation framing of the state, Weiss’s piece undermined the claim that if Israel elected a new prime minister, global opinion would be shift to become more supportive of Israel. As the elections in Israel have neared, the international media has largely singled out Netanyahu as the reason for Israel’s deteriorating international standing or has portrayed him as the source of evil in the Middle East, even in comparison with brutal dictators.
There is nothing illegitimate about criticizing an Israeli government or arguing that a different prime minister would make different policy choices. But when coverage repeatedly presents Netanyahu as the central obstacle to Israel’s acceptance, it follows the same pattern that it has historically, by demonizing Israel and its prime ministers, no matter where they were on the political spectrum.
Only time will tell whether the international media will follow Mondoweiss’ lead and present the entire country as the issue, rather than solely blaming the prime minister, whomever that may be.
What begins in the fringes on Mondoweiss will likely not stay in the periphery. The trend of delegitimizing the entire state of Israel and treating any support for it by Jews worldwide as suspect may very likely make its way to the front page of historically respected global newspapers. And it will be Jewish Americans who will bear the consequences of a narrative that treats their connection to Israel as malicious.
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© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025
