A friend accused me of being Anti-Semitic for my condemnation of Netanyahu and the rightwing parties in Israel

[Jilly_in_VA]

36. I used to be a Zionist

Not so much any more. I stopped in the 90s over Israel's Lebanese incursion and the Sabra and Shetilah camps when I saw how much of what they were doing then resembled what the creators of the original Israeli state had fled. At that point, my late ex expressed it perfectly when he said, one night after watching the news about that, "Israel has lost its soul." I had a very dear Israeli friend (now deceased, may his memory be eternal) who had made aliyah in 1964. He had served in the IDF and lived in a kibbutz in the northern Negev which was on very friendly terms with the local Bedouins. He hated Netanyahu and everything the right wingers stood for. I really believe that he is probably spinning in his grave these days!

ISTM, and I could be wrong about this, not really being up to date on Israeli politics as I used to be when my friend was alive, that a lot of the militancy and land-grabbing stance can be tied to two things. One is the unchecked reproduction of the Haredim (ultra-orthodox) who won't fight in the IDF for the most part but still have an awful lot of political power due to their numbers---my friend and the political party he belonged to wanted to make military service a condition for voting. The other is the influx of Russian Jews in the 90s, which happened as the result of the destruction of the Iron Curtain. They're pretty much right wingers politically, even though a lot of them are secular. And of course the third thing is Bibi's refusal to loosen his grip on political power because he knows he faces some rather large number of political and other criminal charges should he do so.

All of which does not mean I am anti-Israel. I am not, any more than I am anti-American. I am, however, 100% against what they are doing in Gaza and their expansionism.