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Notes -
The criticisms of Israel are dual-pronged. The right-wing critique of Israel is more rooted in what could be regarded as anti-Semitism in the European tradition:
Accusations of dual loyalty among Jews.
Accusations of being stabbed in the back, like the USS Liberty attack, the theft of US nuclear secrets, and highly suspicious espionage.
Zionist influence in the neo-conservative movement and wars in the Middle East brought about by fabricated intelligence.
Duplicitousness. Jewish nationalism is pursued militaristically and violently while Jewish influence vehemently opposes European nationalistic tendencies, and uses considerable influence to promote diversity and immigration in other countries.
Jewish influence in media and culture has engineered a Holocaust Industry to defraud the West of billions of dollars and pacify would-be criticism.
As Zionists will point out, these criticisms of Israel do play the same beats as classical anti-Semitism, as it were. Those who would make this criticism would plausibly be called anti-Semitic, so the only people who are publicly willing to make these ciriticsms are those brave enough to face credible accusations of anti-Semitism (not many).
The left wing critique of Israel is not really rooted in this tradition, and it's more along the lines of:
Israel is a violent, ethnonationalist state.
As such, it is far closer to fascist that it is to the left-wing ideal of a state.
Israel is oppressing indigenous people, murdering them, and driving them out of their homes.
Illegal Israeli settlements are ethnic cleansing.
Billions of dollars for Military Industrial Complex and warmongering to steal Arab oil.
Jewish influence has had a harder time fighting the left-wing criticism because it really isn't anti-Semitic, as much as they are trying to redefine that word to incorporate those criticisms. These criticisms also follow from anti-racist ideology. Accusations of anti-Semitism are not really credible here and don't seem to be working very well in shaming them out of their positions.
The real concern is bridging the gap between these perspectives, as the left-wing criticisms of Israel could be a gateway to genuine anti-Semitism. Finkelstein for example is a leftist Jewish professor, so his critique in the Holocaust Industry is much more powerful than it would have been coming from a right-winger. Another example is Grayzone, a left-wing publication that danced into the Dancing Israeli Question, although it ultimately provided weak cover for it, talking about it is 95% of the way there.
I'm curious as to whence the American Left sided with Palestine. What is the history behind that?
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