Not every Jewish critic of Israel is a self-hating ‘diaspora Jew’ – sometimes they’re just right

An Israeli flag flutters at a new Israeli settlement near Ramallah on 11 April 2026

Gideon Levy writes in Haaretz on 12 April 2026:

It’s doubtful that most Israelis realize the extent of the campaign of ostracization and defamation now being waged against their country across the world. If two strangers show up anywhere in the world now, an Iranian and an Israeli, the latter will be much more reviled than the former. Many people currently believe that Iran is less of a danger to world peace than Israel is. It’s not (just) antisemitism, stupid. Israel, of its own doing, is making itself reviled.

Millions of dispossessed people are now wandering across the Middle East because of Israel; it cannot avoid being blamed for this. Most Iranians are not being blamed for their regime’s crimes – they oppose the regime. In contrast, every Jewish Israeli is justifiably perceived as an accomplice of the regime. The absolute majority of Israelis supports every war and barbaric attack, with no opposition. The result: hatred.

One day, when the people responsible for Israel’s rock-bottom status are held to account, the opposition will play a major role. Yair Lapid, by erecting a “hasbara” war room, is telling the world that the war is waged in the name of all of us. We all support it. We are all for a war against Iran, for bombing Lebanon and for the war of annihilation in Gaza. Opposition can only be found in Iran. This is how Lapid and his ilk are stoking the hatred. Because of them, the whole world knows that all of Israel is to blame. If the world knew that there was a large peace camp supporting human rights here, it would find it harder to blame us.

Joining the current campaign of hate are many Jews, mainly young ones. The Israeli defense mechanism which brands every criticism as antisemitism is at a loss. Jews can’t be tagged with that label. At most, they are “self-haters.” Jewish students at Harvard know what genocide and warmongering are, and with their own eyes they saw how the country that wishes to adopt them as its subjects has committed such acts. They want to sever the link between them and the country they are identified with. There needs to be another way to defend ourselves against Jews of conscience who have had it with the mother state.

My friend and colleague Moran Sharir has found a way. Jews who hate Israel are doing so in order to be liked by the goyim. It’s been a long time since Haaretz published an article that so evoked a Diaspora mentality. It was written in the wake of an interview with Arielle Angel, the editor of “Jewish Currents,” who is a declared anti-Zionist.

Sharir admits that he agrees with most of Angel’s arguments against Israel, which is a “sick place,” by his own definition, which leaves him no choice but to cast aspersions on her motives. Angel thinks only of herself, he wrote. In doing so, he has adopted the strategy of Israeli propagandists who accuse every critic of antisemitism.  The blame lies with those who voice criticism, not with the target of their criticism. Angel and her ilk express their positions only in order to save their skins. They will never succeed, promises Sharir. Look, even Walther Rathenau was murdered.

For Sharir, the year is 1922, the location is Germany, and the Nazis are on their way to attaining power. We’ve changed since then, Moran. Have you heard of the State of Israel? One can accept some of your arguments regarding the exaggerated extent of hatred and the ignoring of October 7. But this is an expression of the swing of the pendulum after generations of Jews, mainly in the U.S., were trained to express sweeping and vociferous support for every insane step taken by Israel. This is a response to the ban on criticizing Israel lest you find yourself in the group of Jews accused of being self-haters.

One can even oppose Zionism after seeing where it has led Israel, the Middle East and the Jews. One may even approach this argument, Moran, without depicting its proponents as people suspected of trying to curry favor. What a Diaspora mentality must one have in order to embrace such thinking? Is it once again the story of the Jew and the gentile landowner in the Diaspora? But the landowner is now Israel, a regional superpower and a bullying state, which sometimes makes one explode.

One is even allowed to feel ashamed of Israel. Israeli jazz musicians are allowed to cut their ties with the country without being scolded.

One is permitted to think that the Zionist enterprise has failed. Permitted? Sometimes, one has no choice but to think that.

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