The point of warning the Left to be wary of the antisemitic current within America First anti-Zionism, for me at least, isn’t to ask folks to care for Jewish sensitivities. In our current climate, unfortunately, that kind of appeal almost always comes overburdened with Zionist politics, or at least haunted by them. The point is that antisemitism is a bellwether and accelerant of fascism. These people are dropping Zionism to become better & more consistent fascists. Any sustained ‘bottom-up’ or ‘popular front’ coalition with them is incoherent and a political dead end for the Left.

Unfortunately most discourse about this, online at least, is so negatively polarized by years of weaponized Zionist arguments that most can’t think outside of a narrow identitarian frame. Many of the louder voices on the Left argue, in so many words, that we shouldn’t worry so much about the antisemitic kernel of America First anti-Zionism because we shouldn’t capitulate to ‘Jewish feelings’. There is a glee in breaking taboos long hemmed in by Zionism, and a tendency to confuse that transgression with actual political analysis or work. It’s all extremely cursed, and never mind the Jews for a moment- it doesn’t bode well for our ability to understand and combat the Right.