A recurring issue in debates around Jews and Israel is whether some statement would reflect sentiments about Jews or sentiments about Israel (or something else yet), whether some person or party would hold certain sentiments about Jews or Israel, etc.
In a next step, the question arises how these sentiments might go together, e.g. whether someone pro-Jew is automatically pro-Israel, whether someone anti-Jew is also automatically anti-Israel, and, above all:
Is someone anti-Israel also anti-Jew?
The labels often used can do more to confound than to clarify the issue. Consider “anti-Zionist”: Is an anti-Zionist opposed to Zionists, to Israel, to a Jewish state (potentially other than Israel) in the “Biblical” area or parts thereof, or to a Jewish state anywhere? (Or, possibly, something else yet.)
The main labels that I use for this text, “anti-Jew” and “anti-Israel”, potentially share this weakness, and I might go for some more specific ad-hoc labels or classifications at a later time. For now, they have the advantage of being a bit narrower and, likely, less burdened by preconceptions. (The main reason for the use, however, is that these are the labels that I tend to use in my own thinking.)
I do not differ between Jews in general and specifically Israeli Jews in this text. This, in part, for convenience; in part, because the distinction might be relevant in one context but not another; in part, because the Left loves to blur such distinctions, e.g. in order to extend “collective guilt” to a larger group (also note a brief discussion of “oppressors” below). The distinction is likely entirely beside the point when we look at those who are anti-Israel because they are anti-Jew. (But it could have some value when we look at those who begin as anti-Israel and do or do not develop anti-Jewish sentiments as a consequence.) Moreover, I note that e.g. the many Jews speaking of fear or mistreatment on U.S. college campuses are not limited to Israeli exchange students.
The answer is potentially complex.
On the one hand: There is by no means a logical necessity that someone anti-Israel also be anti-Jew, and chances are that many who oppose Israel either are not anti-Jew or originally did not set out to be anti-Jew. It is even conceivable, if likely very rare, to be anti-Jew and pro-Israel.
On the other:
There is, unsurprisingly, a strong correlation between the two.
Claims of “just” being anti-Israel can be a convenient excuse for someone anti-Jew, and/or give an opportunity to “hide in plain sight”.
Such claims, then, must be taken with a grain of salt and we must have an awareness of the risk that someone anti-Jewish might, even adamantly, deny the fact. This, especially, when it comes to politicians, political activists, and similar.
But we must stop at the grain of salt and, absent further proof, must not jump to the opposite conclusion, that someone who denies being anti-Jew is lying. Doing so would not only be highly unfair, it would also repeat one the many fallacies that makes the Left so dangerous, that “either you admit that we are right or your refusal is proof that we are right”. (Damned, if you do; damned, if you don’t. For instance, if someone denies the fiction of White or male privilege, this would, in it self, be an exercise of that privilege.)
Many seem unable to keep different concepts apart, which risks a gradual shift towards more deplorable positions, e.g. in that someone might begin as nothing more than pro-Palestinian (to which I raise no objections whatever) and rapidly move through pro-Palestine to anti-Israel, pro-Hamas, and/or anti-Jew.
Here we have the additional complication that much of Leftist, Marxist, and/or quasi-Marxist propaganda base on the idea of evil oppressors and their poor oppressed victims. For the better part, the idea of “evil oppressors” (or a more general “evil”) does not stop at e.g. a group (say, that the Bourgeoisie, Capitalists as a group or phenomenon, Whites as race, or similar, would be oppressors; the target varies with the branch of Leftism) but extends this to the individual members of the group.
Jews and Palestinians are exactly one such Leftist “oppressor”–“oppressed” pairing, and those who fall victim to this type of propaganda could then be moved to anti-Jewish positions through the deliberate failure to differ between an allegedly evil Israel and allegedly evil Jews.
Very many present themselves as very strongly anti-Israel, denying Israel a right to existence (as e.g. manifested in the “from the river to the sea” slogan), rather than “just” opposing e.g. Israel’s interventions in Gaza or current Israeli leadership, or e.g. “just” hoping to see Hamas come out ahead in the Gaza warfare.
With such positions, it might be justified to assume anti-Jewish sentiments per default, because someone with a more neutral or positive position on Jews would be expected to be open to a reform of Israel (to suit whatever his personal taste is) and to not insist on the destruction of Israel. (And I see the “burden of explanation” as reversed, in that those so strongly anti-Israel are the ones who must explain that and why they are not anti-Jew, despite their position on Israel. When and whether the “burden of proof” would reverse is another matter.)
A complication is that many anti-Israel pushers are idiots and might not understand that there is an alternative of reform, just like many fail to see the difference between e.g. being pro-Palestinian, pro-Palestine, pro-Hamas, etc.
In particular, I have heard claimed that many (e.g. somewhat typical Western, White, female college students), who use the “from the river to the sea” anti-Israel slogan are not aware of its implications—up to and including not being able to name the river (Jordan) and the sea (the Mediterranean).
Within the Islamic and/or Arab communities in Western countries, let alone within Islamic/Arab countries, the likelihood of anti-Jewish sentiments can skyrocket, implying that even if a connection were found to be weak among a White majority in some Western country, it could not be ruled out that the connection was strong elsewhere.
Anecdotally, I can recall a particularly unpleasant event with a colleague from the extended region (I do not remember the exact country, unfortunately), who had always given the impression of being a perfectly regular young man: He and two or three other colleagues were discussing Israel (I wisely kept myself out), and he was frothing at the mouth within minutes, spewing Israel-this and Jews-that, looking ready to punch one of the others.
This is the more disturbing as the attitude towards Jews and Israel in these groups is not necessarily based on e.g. what they they claim that Israel does wrong. Instead, some type of Islamic/Arab solidarity or (quasi-)nationalism appears to be a driving force, similar to the “us vs. them” thinking demonstrated by the Nazis. (And the Left, more generally, but the Marxist Left, at a minimum, has that strong tie to “us vs. them” in alignment with allegations of oppressors and the oppressed, which applies at best weakly with the Nazis vs. Jews and, when there is a geographical distance to Israel, Muslims/Arabs vs. Jews.)
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