cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/54992042
Nov. 5, 2026
The poll says 66 percent of Jewish voters in the US believe that Aipac’s campaign spending against candidates who criticise Israel actually increases antisemitism in the country.
In addition, 60 percent believe that Jewish organisations that label harsh criticism of Israel as antisemitic are exploiting concerns about antisemitism to defend unpopular Israeli government policies.
Notably, 80 percent of Jewish voters believe that Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank and Gaza are increasing antisemitism in the US.
You gotta look at it from the perspective of the original Zionists in the 1890’s. A big part of why we view the Middle East as a religiously/ideologically fraught region is because of the effects of Zionist settlers moving in and starting conflicts. When the Zionists first moved in, Palestine was a pretty peaceful and relatively backwater territory of the Ottoman Empire (side note, most of the land the Zionists “legally” purchased was from Ottoman absentee landlords, not actual Palestinian folks; if Palestine hadn’t already veen part of an Empire, and had already had self-determination, the whole thing probably never would have happened). And European colonialism was still socially acceptable as a “civilizing force” to many people (at least in Europe) at the time.