The massive rise of antisemitism around the world was predictable given the attempts to claim that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism and, therefore, anti-Zionism is a legitimate, not bigoted viewpoint. The fact that anti-Zionists support the destruction of Israel and the murder of its 7 million Israeli Jewish citizens has led to Israelis, wherever they are in the world, being attacked.
Judaism and Zionism are inseparable, as shown through the holiday of Chanukah, which celebrates the restoration of Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem. Accordingly, anti-Zionists are attacking Jews and Jewish institutions as being Zionist because anti-Zionists are antisemites.
A further promulgation of antisemitism is a denial of Jewish history and the continuity of the Jewish connection to the land of Israel, as exhibited by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, who denies that Jews are the descendants of the Jewish residents of Israel from 2,000 years ago, and concocts the antisemitic view that the Jews today are descendants of the Khazars and not really Jews.
Just like there is a false attempt to distinguish antisemitism from anti-Zionism, there’s also a dangerous attempt by people to claim that they are not anti-Israel, just “anti-Netanyahu.” This is not to say that to be supportive of Israel means supporting all policies of the Israeli government led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. However, the main criticism by these folks is based upon his conduct in this war after Oct. 7, 2023. Yet within Israel, there is a consensus view across the political spectrum for support of virtually all the major decisions Netanyahu has made in this war.
For example, all the major political parties supported Netanyahu’s pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile facilities in the successful 12-day war. There was also a consensus that supported Netanyahu’s decision to launch the pager attack against Hezbollah’s leadership and then enter Lebanon to further attack Hezbollah, all of which led to a ceasefire and the end of the missile attacks from Lebanon on northern Israel. Netanyahu’s decision to take out Syria’s air force and navy was also supported across the Israeli political spectrum, as well as the need for Israel to repeatedly strike the Houthis to try and get them to stop attacking Israel.
Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history, and he has been elected and re-elected on numerous occasions. That accomplishment is even more amazing because, like in the United States with President Donald Trump, much of the media in Israel is predominantly anti-Netanyahu. Also, 10% of Israel’s voters are Arabs, who virtually all vote against Netanyahu. Accordingly, for Netanyahu to win, he and his allies must secure at least 54% of the Jewish vote, meaning that Netanyahu’s policies represent the views of a majority of Jews in Israel. The left in Israel has even moved closer to Netanyahu’s views, with the main opposition leader, according to polls, being former-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who ran in previous elections to the right of Netanyahu. Those who ran to the left of Netanyahu, like Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, have seen their support plummet in current polls as the Israeli electorate has moved to the right since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.
The only area of disagreement with Netanyahu’s policies has been regarding Hamas, and even there, a consensus supports Netanyahu’s position that Hamas cannot remain in power in Gaza. There is a disagreement over whether Israel should make more concessions to the ransom terms Hamas is demanding for the return of hostages from Gaza, but even the anti-Netanyahu Biden administration admitted that the only reason why Hamas agreed, on Jan. 19, 2025, to release more hostages was a result of Israel’s military success against Hamas and Hezbollah.
The first release of Hamas hostages in November 2023 was also the result of Israel’s military pressure on Hamas. Though opposition lawmakers claim they could have gotten a deal with Hamas, Trump and his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, have put all of the blame on Hamas for not releasing more hostages. They understand that Hamas is a terrorist entity that has been firing missiles into Israel for 18 months, and that it is outrageously still holding 20 hostages who are presumed to be alive and the remains of 30 Israelis.
One of Hamas’s terms for their release is that Israel agree to keep Hamas in power. That is a condition that a consensus in Israel opposes. Israel has been able to get more than 145 of the around 200 live hostages that Hamas took on Oct. 7 through ransom deals that were painful and resulted in allowing mass murderers to be released in return for these hostages. There has been no deal for Israel to consider that would maintain security for Israel and have Hamas release all of the hostages.
The main criticism from the West is that Netanyahu should be doing more about the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The fact that people believe that Israel has the previously unheard-of responsibility to feed the enemy during a time of war, a war that polls show a vast majority of Gazans supported, and while the Israeli hostages are being starved, indicates the world’s bias against Israel.
Former President Joe Biden had initially said that he would not demand Israel provide humanitarian aid to Gaza if Hamas was found stealing it, yet he later changed course. Hamas has used the funds it raised from stealing the aid and reselling it at exorbitant prices, estimated to be between $500 million and $1 billion, to finance the ongoing war with Israel and prolong the battle. Hamas has repeatedly attacked the United States and Israel-backed alternative food delivery program, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, because it jeopardizes the terror group’s war funding. Yet people outrageously believe that Israel is attacking Gazans trying to get food from the GHF, when the whole purpose of the aid program is to provide a non-Hamas food source for those in Gaza.
Israel has been fighting a just war, and Netanyahu’s policies and actions are supported by the majority of the citizens of Israel. To say you are pro the Israeli people, but anti-Netanyahu and opposed to the consensus policies of the Israeli government during the ongoing war, means that you are anti-Israel.