I agree with the post, but having a negative opinion of Israel's government is not antisemitic. Criticizing them for the suppression of journalists or the aparteid-esque oppression of an ethnic group is nothing more than adhering to one's own principles. Trust me when I say that there are absolutely people who hate Israel because of a hate for Judaism and those who identify with the faith. But it is dishonest of us to throw away any call for accountability simply because the government is a theocratic regime of a historically oppressed and unjustly blamed minority faith.

In my opinion, it is rather distasteful to treat an opinion of Israel as an opinion on its people or the faith generally. To do so is to reject and ignore the individuality of those who identify with Judaism by implicating an entire religious minority from a criticism of only a small percentile of the faith. It is no different than calling someone who criticizes the Syrian government islamophobic for a criticism of a small non-representitive minority of a larger identity group.

However, it is nonetheless critical that one must be tactful and careful in their criticisms of Israel, as the historic oppression of the Jewish people was and still is a real and prevalent issue. It is important to be mindful of that history of accusation and abuse when voicing criticism as to not create any ammunition for those with hate in their hearts.

It's incredibly counterproductive for discourse if every criticism of a member of a group is taken as a criticism of said group. It is prejudicial and damages the discourse; it's a tankie take to defend the militarized oppression of Israel's people for such a reason. It goes against the principles of leftism to ignore the plight of our fellows simply because the issue is a complicated and nuanced one. Anyone saying otherwise either has an agenda or is underinformed.