How ironic it is that one is much freer to criticize Israel in the state of Israel than it is to criticize Israel here in the United States.

(And, in the same vein, Donald Trump would be facing indictment for criminal behavior if he happened to be prime minister of Israel, just as Benjamin Netanyahu is right now).

It is a no-win situation to criticize Israel in America, or to challenge its major cheerleaders such as the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, as you are immediately demonized as being anti-Jewish.

Of course, it isn’t just them. It is also the whole grab-bag of Christian Zionists who are rooting for the end of the world (and the sooner the better), with the “Holy Land” as ground zero.

One would have to be totally ill-informed or disingenuous to deny that these groups have a huge influence on Congress and the presidency as to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and support for Israel. It would take a 10,000-word essay to do justice to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but let it be said that criticism of Israel need not at all be anti-Jewish.

Any sane person would wish for both to live peaceably together.

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