Let me preface this by saying this post is primarily for fellow Jewish people on here. While I'd appreciate it if others share it around, I'd ask that you mostly leave the discussion to us.

Israeli society is much more racist than US society in my personal experience. Speaking as a Jew from the US.

When people start saying that making such a simple statement as that is definitionally antisemitic, I feel like my peers, my fellow Jews, are abandoning any pretense towards improving ourselves and our communities. Abandoning Tikkun Olam, by denial: "the world is already fixed!" amidst barriers, guard posts, and piles of rubble.

We are just as much a part of what is broken in the world as anything else, we are not exempt from Isaac Luria's challenge or in any way special. Our settlements aren't uniquely non-colonial, our "Jewish Power" knesset party is not uniquely non-fascist, are armies aren't uniquely free of pillagers and rapists, and our people are not uniquely relegated to the role of historical victims. These are real problems, really broken aspects of ourselves, not against the core of our being unless you can only definitionally tie modern Jewish identity to the terrors instead of the joys. I think it might be convenient to some especially prejudiced people to forget the joys altogether for this reason.

When I hear my fellow community members rationalizing a perfect and infallible global Jewry I can only mourn in advance of what is to come from that naïve exceptionalism. US Jews included, many of our number voted for Trump. Ideas once solely relegated to white supremacists which excluded us from every aspect of modern life are now increasingly common with younger kids. These are not antisemitic observations, and should not encourage indiscriminate targeting of our communities, but should encourage deep reflection and appropriate action to repair the world on our own part.

I know of Jews fleeing Israel, Jews fleeing Germany and the EU, Jews who are already members of intersecting vulnerable communities worldwide. We are being substantially damaged as a global people by the rise of fascism and militarism. We are by extension harming others by the refusal to repair the faults in ourselves. We need to admit that racism, militarism, and colonialism are not definitionally core to Jewish identity. Jewish identity is a fraught topic (as it is often forced into christian words) but I hope we can agree on none of that being crucial. Just one thing: no more denial! We are a part of the broken world.