The Washington Post has published some data on the attitudes of Jews in the USA to the conflict in Gaza, as well as more broadly on Israel, Netanyahu, Hamas and more besides.
The polling was undertaken last month. The sample consisted of around 800 people, which is usually sufficient to achieve statistical significance.
Three findings stand out. First, there is this:
I think we can fairly say that the idea that all Jews support the actions of Israel in Gaza is blown asunder as a consequence. They very clearly do not. It cannot, then, be antisemitic to criticise the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza.
This is reinforced by this finding:
Netanyahu is not only failing to take US Jews with him, but many of them are clearly blaming him for what is happening. Doing so, they are differentiating Israel and its politicians, as I have long argued we should.
Third, this is telling:
Support for the US (and so, UK) position in Israel is declining significantly. The assumption that there is anything like Jewish unanimity on these issues is false.
There is other data, but I think there is a limit on how much I can share. What is, however, clear is that this community is still very angry with Hamas and sees no role for it in the future of Palestine. It is important that I acknowledge this, but I have never supported Hamas; I support the rights of Palestinians, inclduing the right to decide.
The conclusions, however, are, I think, threefold.
First, the idea that all Jews support Israel in its current actions is just wrong.
Second, the claim that to criticise Israel is, therefore, antisemitic is also wrong.
Third, those who make these claims appear to be antisemites to me: they are associating the actions of Netanyahu with Jews as a whole, and that is entirely unjustified, meaning that they are the ones prejudicing Jewish people as a consequence by misrepresenting the position of many of them in a way wholly unjustified by the facts that the Washington Post discovered.
Nothing justifies antisemitism. Let me be clear about that. But nothing justifies false claims of antisemitism either. Jews are as capable of criticising Netanyahu and his government as anyone else. It really is time politicians in the US and UK stopped equating Jews as a whole with a government pursuing genocide. It is antisemitic to do so. Instead, let's accept that Jews are of diverse polotical opinion, just as everyone else. Doing so would help advance understanding considerably and reduce tension because then we could have a proper debate without the unnecessary nuance some are inappropriately bringing to it.
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The longer the genocide in Gaza goes on, the angrier people are going to be. The UK government is obviously rattled in trying to impose a ban on repeated protests.
Police will have “sweeping powers” to restrict Palestine protest. They don’t seem to have “sweeping powers” to deal with Neo-nazi terrorism in the UK. A mosque in Peacehaven (near where I live) was set on fire yesterday by 2 Neo-nazis . Two people were in the Mosque; their lives in danger. Organised Neo-nazis have a strong presence in the area (of Newhaven and Peacehaven) , so there seems a likelihood of coordinated, planned, terror attack . The police have chosen to describe this act of terror, however, merely as “an arson attack”. Contrast this with the way that the action of an individual in Manchester, probably with no organisational links (other than to the inner demons in his head – clearly he was someone with severe mental health problems) is described by police as being part of a terrorist attack force – instantly.
Much to agree with.
Everyone is divided about everything, that’s how these people get away with it. It’s by design. They use one half of the population to run interference, to cover their actions.
It seems the Minister of Diaspora Affairs has invited Tommy Robinson to Israel.
This from Michael Rosen- “Robinson has responded by just how much contempt he has for the body that represents the majority of British Jews. However, as Robinson has declared himself an enthusiastic supporter of Israel, we can in turn declare him totally clean of antisemitism. This is how it works: we are living in the midst of the rise and rise of the theory that if you attack Israel and support the Palestinians and/or declare yourself to be anti-Zionist, then you must be antisemitic. In Robinson’s case, this means that you can call the body that represents most Jews, a bunch of elitist, weak, woke liberals who have enabled the white raceto be replaced by brown and black people.”
“Joseph Goebbels has not responded to a request for comment.”
🙂
Astonishingly, even the Board of Deputies has condemned the invite!
Thanks for the data, FtF is such a good place for the less and unreported…interesting it seems people understand oppression is wrong, harmful, and they don’t like it.
What is happening in Gaza is wrong, and Hamas are no stranger to oppression either, including LGBTQ folk.
Is this an act of oppression? A simple universal test.
A sad and woeful position if people are to be conflated with their government, given the state of so many governments – including our own.
And isn’t it a racist/ antisemitic position to lump all Jews together as a mass aligned to the Israeli government’s view; a reductionist and essentialising attitude, rather than seeing Jewish people as people -varied just like everyone else?
I deplore the murder in Manchester. It was an attack on people who are not responsible for the killing in Gaza.
But that is also what Israel is doing. A collective punishment of the whole population, both in Gaza and the West Bank where over 1,000have been killed by the IDF and settlers in the lost two years. It has been going on for a long time.
I saw Chris hedges raise a question. If one is supporting a government enacting a genocide, or something very similar, should they be protected from being made to feel uncomfortable?
I have seen a lot of clips on Twitter which support your post.
What I do wonder about is what impact the current situation in Gaza will have on the long term future of Israel.
I can imagine that as with Apartheid Era South Africa a lot of people will leave to avoid service with the IDF.
It was pointed out that about 85% of those who fight for Hamas have lost relatives to the IDF or Settler violence so thats a lot of Hamas or whatever organisation takes its place recruits.
Then of course will other nations continue to support Israel or impose sanctions?
And of course could some if its neighbours intervene militarily? Especially if Israels allies turn against it.
And yet, the Board of Deputies of British Jews banned a number of its members for writing an open letter some months ago condemning the actions of Israel against the Palestinian people. The letter seemed to be a breakthrough at the time as many people, me included, assumed this was the official policy of the BoD. Not so however and they continue to give the appearance of unconditional support for Israel. I’m also not aware of Labour Friends of Israel condemning the actions of the Israeli Government in Gaza (and the West Bank). Add into the mix Benjamin Netanyahu, who seems to seek every opportunity to equate what he is doing with Global Judaism and it’s hardly surprising that many people equate being a Jew with being a supporter of Israel’s current atrocities. In order to counter this narrative it’s vital in my view that all groups claiming to represent Jewish interests make public declarations against what is happening in Gaza and the West bank.
Investigation suggests 36 out of the 300 members of the Board of Deputies signed the letter. 5 were expelled altogether.
So that’s 12% against, 88% supporting Israel’s genocide.
Meanwhile all Moslems are repeatedly held to blame for the appalling actions of a small minority and some Islamic states.
https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2025/10/netanyahus-government-poses-a-greater-danger-to-jews-than-any-external-enemy/
I have been saying for a long time that Netanyahu’s government is throwing away decades of global progress against anti-semitism for their own short-term political survival. Politics at its most cynical!
I recall the Board of Deputies suspending five of its members after 36 members published an open letter to the FT stating that ‘Israel’s soul is being ripped out’ by their continuing attack on Gaza. It appears that dissenting voices in the Jewish community are also being silenced.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/24/five-deputies-to-biggest-british-jewish-body-suspended-over-israel-criticisms
I stand proudly with the Jewish Left and its opinions about this notion of Judaism being attached to a certain plot of land, which it sees as a tragic notion.
Jews, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs etc., belong in our communities not ‘lands’ which is I am afraid only a materialistic notion not a spiritual one. Is geographic separation an answer to continuous persecution? Maybe, but not if it infers or results in a loss of land to those who are already there on a crowded planet. That is not NOT acceptable.
And then we can centre on the behaviour of Netanyahu himself, who is abusing his power to prop himself up, hide Israel’s expansionism under the guise of self defence, looks to have interfered with his Muslim opposition, and is happy to go with extremists who have no right to call themselves Jews or align themselves with God to keep himself in power.
There is a strong whiff of contrivance going on here too that apes the war with Iraq and its underlying materialistic objectives. These objectives play to private corporate objectives in my view. Creating and profiting from a market for land in Gaza is what all this is about.
But what of the legacy of all this? Do they think that those who come off worse will forget? When the profits have been made and off-shored, that will be left to the rest of us to live with including the Israelis and Jews everywhere who cannot afford expensive private security and private armies.
And those who remember? I can see them being persecuted into oblivion. We are witnessing another low point in human history, along with too many others.
This is a new era of post democracy; this is market politics. If they want it they will take it. God help you if you are in their way.
We have to be in their way.
Even the IHRA state that criticising the actions of the state of Israel is not, in itself, antisemitism.
https://holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antisemitism
The main problem with the IHRA definition was some of the examples attached to it which presume a vaguely reasonable Israeli government.
A common trolling point being used by “far right” extremists now is that higher standards are being required for Israel and therefore protests against Israeli actions are antisemitic, with the most common comparators being Sudan and Yemen and occasionally, bizarrely given the activity on it, Ukraine, sometimes these posts are aimed generally and sometimes specifically mentions “the left”.
The Mainstream media rarely reports these other wars, most people are fairly or totally unaware of them as a result, and they can’t protest what they are not told about, but “the left” actually has protested about them with little or no mainstream coverage of the protests.
https://socialistworker.co.uk/news/hundreds-join-sudan-solidarity-protest-in-london/
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/thankyouforacting-UKstoparmingsaudi
Hamas as a by word for violence is not a fair reflection. Hamas were elected, by democratic means, by the Palestinians in 2007. Since that time they have overseen a responsible administration in the Gaza strip maintaining schools, hospitals and all the public services that constitute a ‘normal’ life, but all the while intensely harm-strung by the Zionists minimal supply of water, food, energy, freedom-of-movement, etc.
As the Israelis have the IDF, Hamas has a military wing which, by comparison, is a rag-tag (albeit very competent) collection of guerrillas, manufacturing home made rockets, contesting with one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world with none of the extensive armaments available seen in latter-day conflicts.
Many times Hamas have attempted to agree with Israel to limit conflict to military targets, to no avail. As is fully evident in the West Bank, where there is no armed resistance, the Israeli intent is blatant, murder, brutal beatings and displacement.
When we sit in our armchairs at a safe distance decrying perpetrators of violence on both sides, allowing the normalisation of Hamas as ‘terrorists’, I sometimes wonder how, if my family and I were evicted and permanently displaced from our home at gunpoint, I would react? Particularly when the legal framework that should immediately come to my aid is completely lacking and the self-righteous world order that boasts of its peace initiatives is enabling and supporting my oppressor.
Compound this profound injustice over successive generations and we arrive at where we are – Hamas, a creature of Zionist aggression.
I am always struck by the parallels between Israel and apartheid South Africa. No coincidence that Israel was a close friend to white SA.
The apartheid regime brutalised the black population, herding them into bantustans and severely limiting their rights. State violence was the norm and whites could act with near impunity. Just as has been happening in the West Bank and Gaza for decades.
As any student of conflict can explain, that will eventually produce a violent response which will be called terrorism by the oppressor. Not ‘justified’ but explainable. In SA that was the ANC. Led by Mandela. Who a noted Tory said should be executed as a terrorist.
For decades Israel has been a brutal apartheid state. It was founded by terrorist actions. Hamas is a symptom, a response to endless, violent oppression. (Done the case studies, written the essays…) See also Sri Lanka or Ireland. Until Israel changes, the resistance will continue, sometimes in violent form. Yet the pressure is only on the Palestinians to ‘change’. Which means surrender to oppression, die or leave. In the words of Israeli ministers.
Germans, guilty or innocent have had to live with the guilt of the Holocaust for generations. I could mention British colonialism…. So it will be for Israel especially given the genocide. As the declared Jewish state, by extension to the wider Jewish community. In the UK, the Jewish Chronicle with its promotion of fabricated stories, and the Board of Deputies have not helped. Robbie Gibb at the BBC. Denying what the world can see all too clearly.
At the same time recall that the SA Jewish community played a key role in bringing white rule to an end. Today it is +972, Btselem and Haaretz in Israel. We need to support and hear more of those sorts of voices. And call out patronising and insulting accusations of anti-semitism. The far right with whom Netanyahu’s Israel allies itself are the real threat.
Much to agree with
If only those people who deem themselves spokespeople for the jews in this country eg the Chief Rabbi, the Board of Deputies etc spoke out to say they deplore what Israel is doing and that Israel does not equal all jewish people. Instead they forever conflate the demonstrations in support of Palestine as being antisemitic. And with the announcement today by Mahmood that demonstrations are to be further restricted as they had caused
had caused “considerable fear” for the Jewish community. On what possible grounds can entirely peaceful protests cause fear, and most especially demonstrations to support Palestine Action protests that are silent people sitting down. How about my fear of having my basic human rights restricted due to excessive sensitivities of a defined religious group?
Mahmood is talking total nonsense.
First there was the PLO, then there was and still is Hezbollah, now there is Hamas.
Unless peace comes there will be a successor to Hamas
I think we can be sure of that. Those pretending otherwise are deluding themselves.
[…] Second, the demonstrations taking place are not in any reasonable way a basis for people to suffer fear. This makes no sense at all. That is the last thing they are promoting. And nor are they promoting Hamas, as I have heard some journalists claim. They are demanding an end to illegal Israeli government actions, as many Jews do, as I showed recently. […]
By far and away the biggest growth in antisemitism worldwide and the extremism which led to the attack at the Manchester synagogue has been caused by the massacre of innocent women and children in Palestine by Benjamin Netanyahu and his extreme right wing. But can you find any significant support for, or even mention of, that view in the mainstream media?