Right now, there are probably no two bigger global pariah nations than the United States and Israel. Maybe Russia if you want three.

Israel has become a nightmare of a country under Bond Villain-like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. There is probably no coincidence that Donald Trump and Netanyahu are both men who are deeply corrupt and should be in jail, and apparently are pretty good buds.

They are also arguably psychopaths, with seemingly little regard for human life. Israel has carried out horrifying atrocities, and tiresome semantic arguments about whether they are committing genocide aside (yeah, talking to you, Tom Nichols), their actions have included plenty of war crimes.

The leveling of Gaza is but one example, where the death toll has exceeded 75,000, and life is an exercise in non-stop despair. “Settlers” on the West Bank continue to carry out a pogrom against Palestinians, killing and raping people who have lived there for hundreds of years. It’s hard to deny that Israel has become an expansionist nation with its moves into Lebanon.

Israel under Bibi is, simply put, a far-right, racist authoritarian nation. Given the history of the Jewish people, this is deeply disturbing.

So, as a country and government, Israel is like us: led by a monster who surrounds himself with other monsters, who love carrying out atrocities and hate the rule of law. Israel should rightfully be a pariah nation, as should we.

All that said, there is a huge difference between Israel and Bibi and the Jewish diaspora. And that should never be forgotten, and we as non-Jewish people should be very careful to be clear that we are against Israel, not Jewish people. Because that’s anti-semitism.

It’s an easy trap to fall into if you are not careful. Yes, children being blown to bits is horrifying. But there are many Jewish Americans who are just as horrified. The vast majority of Jewish people in the U.S. are, or at least lean, Democratic. Three times the number of Jews consider themselves liberal than there are those who consider themselves conservative.

These are people who are horrified by Gaza as well. Nearly 70 percent of Jews disapprove of Netanyahu’s actions in Gaza.

As far as the concept of Zionism, that term has been more or less destroyed since the October 7 attack on Israel. It’s now a minefield of a word. To some, it means support for the existence of Israel (where I fall), and to others, it means being a radical Jew who wants to kill Arabs. It can also be a gateway into anti-semitism.

And yes, AIPAC has too much influence over our politics. But that’s not a reason to be anti-semitic either. There are plenty of Democrats, like Jewish Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff, who are openly critical of the organization’s right-wing leanings. Speaking of that…

Israel’s attacks on Gaza, Iran, and Lebanon are being sold as a way to keep Jews safe. In fact, the opposite is true. One might think this means they are in danger from radical Islamists, but they are also going to be in danger from the traditional source of anti-semitic violence, the far right. Given that the far right is now more or less the base, this could mean a lot of people who are prone to anti-Jewish violence. For example, Joe Kent didn’t resign from his top counterterrorism post out of desire for peace; his decision was driven by anti-semitic anger over a perception of Israel forcing Trump into a war, which is a shaky position at best. Unfortunately, our media has been so focused on questionable claims of anti-semitism from college students protesting Gaza that they seem to have a blind spot about this.

In any event, the horrors in the Middle East have nothing to do with the average American Jewish person. They don’t deserve the hate.

The last word goes to Vampire Weekend.