It’s good that the Jewish community met w/ Madison Cawthorn. I hope something productive comes of it.

But I want to focus on this other thing that happened:
Cawthorn apparently tried to defend his antisemitism by showing how much he loves Israel. /1 https://twitter.com/benjaminsales/status/1358948282148470787

The rabbi he met with was not having it. Which, well done. /2

This is a thing that some politicians keep doing - they think (pretend?) American Jews vote on one issue. It is dangerous, disingenuous, and frankly, insulting. /3

For one thing, most of see through the true motivations behind right wing support of Israel.

Evangelicals love it, so it's a way to pander to the base of the party.

Hawks love it, because it results in arms sales to the Middle East. /4

And Islamophobes love it because of a sense that Israel will serve as a wedge against Islamic terrorist groups.

For those 3 reasons, support for Israel is a no-brainer move for conservatives. But because it serves the politician, not bc it is good for the Jews. /5

However. When a politician, like Cawthorn, mocks the Holocaust, supports sedition, cozies up to white supremacists,and supports antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories, he/she endangers Jews. No amount of support for Israel undoes that. /6

At its worst, conservative support for Israel also becomes one of those confused things where they think that is Israel is 'our country' - and the United States isn't.

It feeds a pernicious misconception that we have dual, and therefore questionable, loyalties. /7

I'll add that support for Israel is also popular with a select group of extreme far-right antisemites who want Israel to be a sort-of Liberia for the Jews - a place to send all of us - as part of a plan to make America an all-white ethnostate. /8

Listen, there are plenty of legitimate reasons to support Israel. And I am a Zionist.

That said, we need American politicians to stand up for Jews and renounce white supremacy in all its forms here in America. /9

We do NOT want American politicians to tell us, for the thousandth time, that it's 'all good' because they 'support Israel'.

We need them to condemn fascism and far right extremism;

and repudiate the lies that fuel them both. /E