Anti-Israel politicians and voices are giving the Jewish people an unintended gift. They keep insisting their problem is not with Jews, but only with Israel, as if that distinction offers some kind of justification for their beliefs and protection for the Jews. Again and again, the formula is presented with the same underlying structure: we do not hate Jews, we only oppose Israel.
Abdul El-Sayed, a Michigan Senate candidate who has called Israel’s government “evil” like Hamas, put it as clearly as anyone has: “AIPAC and Israel are not the same as Judaism and the Jewish people. I love Judaism and I love the Jewish people,” and that antisemitism should not be extended to include “a foreign government and its leaders.”
Zohran Mamdani made the same argument in a more careful political way, saying that antisemitism has to be distinguished from criticism of the Israeli government. But his broader anti-Israel history makes clear that this is not really just about the Israeli government.
Tucker Carlson offers the far-right conspiracy version of the same argument, when in an April interview, he insisted, “Of course I am not an antisemite,” and arguing that Israel “does not speak for all Jews.”
The language changes, but the underlying message is the same: Israel is over there, Jews are over here. You can oppose Israel, attack its supporters, and still insist that none of this has anything to do with Jews.
There is a true point inside their argument. Israel’s government is not the Jewish people. A Jew in America is not responsible for every decision made in Israel. But their defense depends on taking that point much further. They speak as if Israel can be cleanly separated from Jewish life altogether if you’re not physically located there, whenever it is convenient. As if Israel is only a foreign government, and Diaspora Jews’ connection to it is conditional on its policies.
And yet real life does not honor that clean separation, as we are unfortunately well aware. Many may insist that Israel has nothing to do with Jews abroad, but when Israel is at war, Jews abroad are forced to defend, answer, and worry as well. The hostility has followed Jews into schools, campuses, synagogues, neighborhoods, restaurants, and public streets, even in places we once thought were immune.
For many Diaspora Jews, that reality can create a logical temptation. If Israel is what brings the hostility closer to us, then distancing ourselves from Israel can feel like protection. If we can make clear enough that we are not Israeli, not responsible, and not connected to every decision made in Israel, perhaps the anger will pass over us. That instinct comes from real fear and from a long history of Jews trying to survive in societies where acceptance was never fully in their control.
But it also carries a serious cost. The more Jews try to prove that Israel has nothing to do with them, the more they risk teaching themselves, and their children, that the connection really is optional, or just when convenient and safe.
This is where the unintended “gift” begins. If these politicians openly said that Jews and Israel are one, and therefore Jews abroad deserve to be targeted, the Jewish response would naturally become defensive. We would rush to deny the connection, not because the denial is true, but because the ensuing danger would demand it. We would say Israel is not us, we are not them, and Jewish life here has nothing to do with Jewish life there. Over time, that kind of defense would not only be politically damaging. It would become spiritually damaging, training Jews to seek safety by tearing Israel out of Jewish identity.
But thank God, that is not what they say. They say they do not hate Jews, only Israel. They think they are offering us an escape route: separate yourselves from Israel, and perhaps you will be safe. But in doing so, they create the possibility of a much stronger Jewish response: that no matter what Israel is or is not doing at any given moment, it remains part of our identity, our responsibility, and our purpose as Jews. We do not stand with Israel because every government is perfect or every action looks clean from the outside. We stand with Israel because it is part of us, and because Jewish life without that connection is incomplete.
This is where their attack begins to backfire. The main audience for that answer is not really Abdul El-Sayed, Zohran Mamdani, Tucker Carlson, or any other political figure, who will never be persuaded. The most important audience is us. Every time Jews are forced to explain why Israel matters, we are also forced to explain it to ourselves, to our communities, and most importantly, to our children. We are forced to clarify what may otherwise remain assumed before October 7: that Israel is not an accessory to Jewish life, but a core pillar of who we are as Jews, that cannot be separated from who we are.
Like the well-known stories of early Jewish immigrants who lost jobs week after week because they refused to work on Shabbos, Jewish continuity has never been preserved by hiding what makes us holy. The same principle applies today. Jewish identity does not become stronger by treating Israel as something inconvenient, optional, or irrelevant whenever it creates tension. It becomes stronger when Jews are willing to carry the parts of Judaism that make us distinct, even when the outside world tells us those parts would be easier to leave behind.
We do not need Abdul El-Sayed, Zohran Mamdani, Tucker Carlson, or any other political figure to tell us which parts of Judaism are acceptable. We do not need permission to be a people who love and care for our homeland, celebrate it, and constantly keep our eyes towards it. They thought they were giving Jews an escape route: separate yourselves from Israel, and perhaps you will be safe.
But instead of giving Jews a way out, they have reminded us that Jewish survival was never supposed to mean running from who we are. It always meant coming back.
Brian Racer grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey and made Aliyah in 2020. After learning in Yeshivat Lev Hatorah for a year and a half he drafted to the IDF as a Lone Soldier, serving as a sharpshooter in the Nachal Brigade and subsequently returning to be a Madrich at his Yeshiva. He is currently pursuing a major in Communications and Political Science at Bar Ilan Univeristy while simultaneously learning in their Kollel. He is married to his amazing wife Meira and currently lives in Givat Shmuel.