Clarification #2

 Nothing about criticizing Israel is antisemitic. It's fantastically naive to go around enraged about all the things Israel does wrong if you're not giving similar criticism to dozens of countries around the world, many of them outright authoritarian regimes, many of which are propped up by the US; not to mention that Jews find the frequency of criticism irritating to the point of enraging, and it steps on all our insecurities that our friends won't look out for us when times get difficult (like now) but no, of course it's not antisemitic to criticize Israel. Israel's a state like any other state, in a complicated situation about which the whole world has lots of feelings, and given the stakes, it's going to fuck up a lot. Criticism is natural.

But there is no planet where anti-Zionism is not anti-Judaism. We'll call that a separate phenomenon from antisemitism, but the border between anti-Judaism and antisemitism is incredibly porous. The reunification of Jews with Israel is chanted in prayers at least a dozen times every day over multiple services and has been for two-thousand years. The promise of an Israelite land where Israel is goes back at least three millennia, and getting back there is the only motivation Jews had for surviving since the time of Christ and Rome. No pale skin on some of us can disguise that we are native to this land, and we deserve to live on it without worrying that it will kill us.

So it is what it is and don't kid yourself. If you oppose the State of Israel, you oppose that Judaism exists at all, and some part of you holds Jewish people in contempt. This belief doesn't mean you're an antisemite, but it does mean that some part of you is antisemitic. If you can live with that, go ahead and live with it. Some Jews will be all too happy to exonerate you and say that Judaism exists apart from Zionism, but even if they are Jews, they are not Jewish. Because Judaism IS Israel. Judaism is other things too, but the land of Israel is one of the very most important. You may disapprove of that if you like, but never hold illusions about what that means.