One Sunday last year, as I stood at the weekly Israelis for Peace gathering in Union Square Park, a young couple stopped for a moment. The man caught my eye and pointed at his partner’s shirt, which read “Zionist” in the pink Barbie font. “See this? See this?” he called out. She flashed me a smile, and the two walked away before I could ask them why they thought the word “Zionist” somehow served as a rejoinder to a gathering of Israelis and American Jews mourning both Israeli and Palestinian dead, and calling for an end to the war for the good of everyone.

Of course it’s not just the Jewish right that can’t seem to reconcile caring about Israeli Jews with caring about Palestinians. Those on the left who justified Oct. 7, who tore down hostage posters and who dismiss all Israeli Jews as settler colonialists are similarly guilty of this zero sum thinking.

But most Jews have little trouble simultaneously affirming care and concern for Israel and Israelis and opposing Israeli policies, including the extended war in Gaza, the occupation of territories captured in 1967, and the expansion of settlements. Poll after poll, including the recent Washington Post study of American Jews, have demonstrated this to be true. Interestingly, in the Jewish Federations of North America survey released last week, respondents’ emotional attachment to the United States and willingness to criticize its government track closely with the responses regarding Israel. It turns out that most people understand that one can feel attached to a country and oppose its policies and government.

And yet, major Jewish legacy organizations continue to insist that support for Israel requires denying the realities of........

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