The Zionist effort to conflate Jews with Israel is to blame for extremist attacks on Jewish institutions. 2 articles
By Caitlin Johnstone, Reposted from Caitlin Johnstone’s Substack, March 13, 2026
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt gave a bizarre appearance on CNN in response to an attempted car bombing of a Michigan synagogue by a man whose Lebanese family members were killed by Israeli forces.
“We are seeing Jewish people, the Jewish state, blamed for the war in the Middle East,” Greenblatt said. “That is wrong. It is wrong to scapegoat, it is wrong to hold Jewish people accountable for something you don’t like on the other side of the planet. And we really need leaders on all sides in politics, running for office, podcasters, to stop with the conspiracies, to stop with the accusations, and then tell us ‘but we oppose antisemitism’. You don’t get to say you’re opposed to hate if you’re trafficking in hateful conspiracy theories.”
Now, at first glance it this might read like Greenblatt is taking the entirely reasonable position that it is wrong to blame Jewish Americans for the actions of the Israeli government.
But take a closer look at his use of the phrase “the Jewish state”.
What Greenblatt is actually doing here is claiming it’s an antisemitic conspiracy theory to blame the state of Israel for its war crimes, while simultaneously lumping all Jewish people in with the actions of that state. That’s what he’s doing when he says “Jewish people, the Jewish state” in the same breath while talking about Israeli acts of mass military violence.
Greenblatt: “We are seeing Jewish people, the Jewish state, blamed for the war in the Middle East. That is wrong. It is wrong to scapegoat, it is wrong to hold Jewish people accountable for something you don’t like on the other side of the planet. We really need leaders on all… pic.twitter.com/fq8DyPz7Oq
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 13, 2026
It’s so obnoxious how genocide apologists like Greenblatt make a living actively telling everyone that Jews and Judaism are inseparable from the acts of the Israeli government, but whenever there’s an extremist attack by someone who doesn’t distinguish between western Jews and the state of Israel it gets blamed on the pro-Palestine left.
Pro-Palestine leftists perform endless verbal gymnastics to avoid conflating Jewish people with the state of Israel, while Israel and its supporters conflate them constantly. Yet we’re always the ones who get blamed whenever there’s a terror attack on a Jewish institution by someone enraged by Israel’s actions.
Zionists are the ones doing everything they can to make sure people see the state of Israel as synonymous with Jews and Judaism. That is what they are doing every time they claim a criticism of Israel’s actions is hate speech against Jews. They are claiming that the nation and its government are one and the same as the entirety of the Jewish faith and its adherents.
Pro-Palestine leftists have been doing the exact opposite. We go to great pains to make sure all our arguments are carefully worded to avoid being interpreted as an attack on the Jewish faith, making it clear that our grievance is with the state of Israel and the political ideology of Zionism which supports that state’s abusive nature. And then Israel apologists come in and smear those meticulously crafted arguments as a hateful attack on all Jews everywhere.
Zionists are therefore responsible for the growing perception that our Jewish neighbors and countrymen are culpable for the abuses of the Israeli government. When more attacks on Jewish institutions occur (and they will), it is Israel and its supporters who will hold the blame for this, not the pro-Palestine left.
I am not saying attacks on Jewish institutions should happen. I am not saying it will be good when they do happen. I’m saying it will happen, and when it happens it will be a terrible thing. And it will be the fault of Israel and its supporters.
We’ve been running around like crazy trying to stop this, falling all over ourselves to thwart the Zionist efforts to conflate Jews with Israel, but our voices aren’t strong enough. We’re not the ones getting loudly amplified by every mass media outlet, they are. It’s not people like me getting invited to appear on CNN to talk to Wolf Blitzer, it’s people like Jonathan Greenblatt.
So when we lose the narrative war on this front and the next extremist attack occurs, it won’t be our fault. It will be theirs. It will be the fault of Israel and its apologists. We fought them as hard as we could to prevent this, but they won. And the consequences of this will therefore rest squarely on their shoulders.
By Brett Wilkins, Reposted from Common Dreams, March 13, 2026
The Michigan man who rammed his vehicle into a suburban Detroit synagogue Thursday lost four relatives to an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon last week, according to an official in the Lebanese town where the massacre occurred.
Ayman Mohamad Ghazali—a 41-year-old naturalized US citizen born in Lebanon—was killed during a shootout with security guards at the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield Township after crashing his truck into the building. Authorities said the vehicle contained mortar-type explosives and ignited upon impact. One security guard was struck by the vehicle.
No one else inside the synagogue was injured. Cassi Cohen, Temple Israel’s director of strategic development, told The Associated Press that “thankfully, we have had many active shooter drills and our staff is prepared for these situations.”
Jennifer Runyan, the FBI special agent in charge of the bureau’s Detroit field office, described the attack as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.”
However, a local official in Mashgharah, a town in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, told the AP on condition of anonymity that Ghazali’s two brothers, niece, and nephew were among five people killed by a March 5 Israeli airstrike on their home while they were eating their fast-breaking dinner during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
US investigative journalist Ryan Grim published photos reportedly posted by Ghazali showing his four slain relatives.
The problem with blowback is, it almost never hits the right people.
This is a horribly sad story:
for these lovely murdered children, for Ayman Ghazaleh evidently mad with grief, and for the victims in the synagogue.
All of which is on Netanyahu and Trump. https://t.co/lQO5DNj4eg— Craig Murray (@CraigMurrayOrg) March 12, 2026
Numerous observers called the attack on Temple Israel—which flies an Israeli flag outside the building—“blowback” from Israel’s renewed war on Hezbollah in Lebanon, which was launched despite a November 2024 ceasefire agreement alongside the US-Israeli war on Iran.
“The guy’s family was killed last week by Israel and he was taking revenge. That’s wrong. Murder is wrong,” US political commentator and author Matt Stoller, who is Jewish American, said on X. “But this isn’t some uptick of antisemitism, it’s blowback. A lot of us have been saying that Israel is bad for the Jews. It is. We have to reject that country.”
Others cautioned against conflating Israel with Judaism, with Grim asserting that “it is extremely important we separate the actions of a foreign government from an American synagogue, or any synagogue.”
Rights groups have noted a dramatic rise in both Islamophobia and antisemitism following the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023 and Israel’s genocidal retaliation.
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)—which has led numerous protests against Israel’s war on Gaza—said Friday that “Jewish communities, like all people, deserve to be safe in our houses of worship and schools.”
“The person who reportedly carried out this attack was a man whose siblings, niece, and nephew were just murdered in Lebanon by Israeli bombs,” JVP continued. “This is grief upon grief. War always begets trauma and further violence.”
“It is clear that the Israeli government’s atrocities make all of us—including Jews—less safe,” JVP added. “Israel carries out brutal wars and genocide against families and children, then falsely claims these war crimes are done in the name of Jews. This leads to more antisemitism.”
“War always begets trauma and further violence.”
More than 4,700 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli forces since October 2023, including over 1,100 women and children, according to Lebanese officials.
Israeli forces have also killed or wounded over 250,000 Palestinians in Gaza and the illegally occupied West Bank since the October 2023 attack. US and Israeli attacks on Iran have slain or injured thousands more people.
Originally coined by the CIA in the wake of its 1953 coup in Iran to describe the unintended and often deadly consequences of covert or military action, the concept of blowback gained widespread popularity after the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States, which is often regarded as a classic example of the term in action.
Caitlin Johnstone is a journalist, essayist, and poet from Melbourne, Australia, known for her writings on politics, media, and social issues. She has published various works, including the illustrated poetry book “Woke: A Field Guide For Utopia Preppers.”
Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
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