I am a liberal Californian, and I am still Israeli first

So like, I’m a California girl who like grew up beside the Pacific Ocean and like somehow ended up making Jerusalem my home…

I am also a liberal American Jew. A Zionist. A mother. A woman who believes in democracy, civil rights, Jewish self-determination, Palestinian dignity, and the radical notion that two seemingly contradictory truths can exist at once.

Apparently, this is a complicated position these days.

And so, when I watched the blue wave sweep across America this week, I felt many things.

Relief and joy, yes.

And fear.

Because while many of the causes and concerns of the Democrats are mine, too, I am a Jew before I am anything else.

And despite being born in America, I am Israeli first.

Which means that watching American politics these days feels a little like standing in the middle of a very busy intersection with a broken traffic light while cars and trucks come speeding toward me from both directions.

On one side, there are Democrats who have made bashing and delegitimizing the people of Israel — not just its government, not just some of its policies, but the entire damn country — their whole entire personality.

As though every Israeli is Netanyahu or Ben Gvir. As though Jewish history began in 1948. As though Jewish self-determination is somehow less legitimate than everyone else’s.

And on the other side, there are Republicans who have spent years declaring themselves Israel’s greatest friends, only to discover that when things go badly at the ballot box, Israel makes a rather convenient explanation.

Enter JD Vance.

Following the Republican losses, the vice president pointed to voter dissatisfaction with America’s relationship with Israel among the reasons for his party’s defeat.

Now, Americans have every right to question their government’s foreign policy, its wars, and where their tax dollars go.

But there is something deeply unsettling about watching Israel become part of the blame game when a political party loses.

Especially when you know your history.

Because we’ve seen this before.

In Germany in 1933, the Nazis exploited economic misery, political instability, and national humiliation by offering people someone to blame.

The Jews.

Responsible for capitalism and communism, for Germany’s failures, and apparently for everything else under the sun.

Quite an impressive trick, really.

No, America in 2026 is not Germany in 1933. And Vance’s comments are not the same as Nazi propaganda.

But history isn’t something we study simply to congratulate ourselves on being born later.

It is supposed to teach us to recognize dangerous patterns before they become catastrophes.

And scapegoating Jews, or allowing Israel to become a stand-in for sinister Jewish influence, is a pattern worth watching very carefully.

I live in Jerusalem.

I have lived in all four quarters of the Old City. I have broken bread with Palestinians and Israelis, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Armenians, believers, atheists, and people who are absolutely convinced that God agrees with them.

I know this country.

Its beauty. Its cruelty. It’s impossible contradictions and its miracles.

I have criticized Israeli governments, and I will continue to do so. I believe Palestinians deserve freedom and dignity and security and peace. I believe Israelis deserve freedom and dignity and security and peace.

And I refuse to accept that these beliefs cancel each other out.

I also refuse to accept that being a good liberal means distancing myself from my own people, or that being a good Jew means embracing politicians whose values I don’t share.

I will not make either bargain.

Because the Israel I know is not a political slogan or a rabid villain in someone else’s morality play.

It is home.

And the people who live here are not abstractions.

They are the Palestinian shopkeeper opening his shutters in the morning, the Armenian ceramicist painting street signs, the Jewish mother rushing to collect her child from kindergarten, and the secular Israeli who would very much appreciate it if everyone would stop arguing long enough for him to drink his coffee.

We are real people, living complicated lives in a complicated place.

And I wish American politics would remember that.

So yes, I felt relief watching the blue wave for many reasons.

And concern — for many others.

Because antisemitism has never been particularly loyal to one political ideology. It can come from the right or the left, dressed in different language and carrying different flags.

And I am not interested in excusing it simply because I agree with someone on everything else.

I grew up believing in the promise of American democracy. I still do.

But I live in Jerusalem, where history is never very far away.

And if history has taught us anything, it’s that when political movements begin looking for scapegoats, Jews have very good reasons to pay attention.

No matter which side of the political aisle they’re coming from.

Sarah Tuttle-Singer is the author of Fairy Lights in God’s Backyard: A Jerusalem Love Story