So @EmmaGoldman@hexbear.net had a nice comment here in a previous thread explaining the dynamic of Jewish people's attitude toward Israel.
I think everyone here understands that it is in Israel's benefit to (1) conflate antisemitism and antizionism to both silence dissent and (2) foster the perception that antisemitism is increasing, and even (3) encourage actual antisemitism/ally with antisemites so that Jews living in countries around the world feel under threat. Israel can then position itself as the final lifeboat for Jewish people to survive capitalism as it degrades into fascism that will almost certainly target them. Of course fleeing to Israel means becoming a settler-fascist yourself, but this is quite a tough choice to put in front of somebody and there are quite a few mental escape hatches one can use about working to change the system from within once you're there or whatever.
So the problem we face is this: Under the assumption that the support (enthusiastic or mere tolerance) of Jewish people in the US for Israel is important to maintaining US support for Israel, or at least for maintaining the veneer of legitimacy for this support, how can we convince people to give up their lifeboat? I think this is quite a large ask. Many of us here believe the imperial core is inevitably degrading into fascism under the repetitive two-step of overt slides to the right & neoliberalism slightly arresting this process but making people widely despise electoral politics. This fascism will target Jewish people, and the fascists are perfectly happy to have somewhere to ship Jewish people off to instead of killing them as they build their white ethnostate. Many other minorities will also be targeted but do not have the luxury of a similar lifeboat. How can we square this circle?
IMO you're thinking about this the wrong way. Some time I'm going to write a very long post about my experiences being raised in an orthodox zionist family, and my rejection of this. But for now:
It isn't a life boat, it's a middle class economic ladder for middle class goals that are now much harder to achieve inside the imperial core. I know a lot of people who have gone off to isntreal. Many of them went to either work directly in the military industrial complex, or on the religiotech bubble on top of the MIC. We didn't face real antisemitism in the place we grew up, just anti-zionism that was spun as antisemitism. There were entire jewish focused schools in the area that had educated multiple genrations of jewish students. There were streets named after the lubavitcher rebbe and his movement. I walked by 4 other shuls every saturday to get to my shul.
For most of the people who go to iSSrael, it's pure economic opportunity. Cushier job and better pay than they would get from the MIC here. They have to create this collective phantasm to justify their hatred, so they can go off and murder children to steal land.
For me, I stopped believing in this shit and managed to grow a soul. I couldn't tell you how to force that on others, but I can say that switching from private to public schooling and being exposed to more people really broadened my horizons enough to shatter the zionist programming. You can't do that for someone who doesn't want to know better.
I truly hate isntreal, free palestine.
This is a great comment, thank you. I suppose my acceptance of the framing of israel as a lifeboat is actually adopting the framing that Israel wants people to believe. That framing can be rejected.