The Blogs: The Netanyahu Coalition - the Gift to Anti-Zionism | Richard Diamond

Why young New York Jews are turning against Zionism—and why they’re not wrong about this government

New York Jewish leaders are asking themselves why 35% of New York City Jews, primarily young people, voted to elect an outspoken anti-Zionist for mayor—and what that says about antisemitism, Jewish identity, and Israel itself.

The Zionism they voted against was not some abstract idea of Jewish self-determination. It was the Israel of Benjamin Netanyahu: anti-democracy, judicial overhaul, Haredi exemption from service, Kahanist ministers, and settler extremism.

In other words, they weren’t voting against a Jewish state. They were voting against this one, as it is currently governed.

And here is the hard truth: it is not reasonable to expect diaspora Jews—especially younger ones—to keep all the fine-grained nuances in mind. They have already had to perform one moral acrobatic act: reconciling horrifying Hamas atrocities with devastating Gazan civilian suffering in what Israelis experience as an existential war. Now we effectively tell them, “On top of that, accept an indefensible government, or you’re a bad Jew.”

That is not going to happen.

Two impossible reconciliations at once

Since October 7, young Jews abroad have been asked to hold two weighty truths in their heads at once:

Israel faces an enemy in Hamas that openly seeks Jewish death and the destruction of the state.
The Israeli government prosecuting that war includes extremists, messianists, and racists in key positions of power.

Expecting a 22-year-old on a campus, or a 28-year-old in Brooklyn, to continually separate the “existential war” from the “unacceptable coalition” is an ask far beyond what most people can emotionally manage, especially under constant social and political pressure.

To them, the equation is simple:

The bombs falling on Gaza are ordered by this government.
This government is the face of Zionism.
Therefore, opposing the government feels like opposing Zionism itself.

You can say that’s intellectually sloppy. You cannot say it’s psychologically surprising.

Israel’s message to the diaspora: “It’s our business, not yours”

For years, Israel has sent a clear message to diaspora Jewry:

When it comes to security? Stand with us unconditionally.
When it comes to internal politics—religion and state, Haredi service exemptions, human rights, treatment of non-Orthodox streams, the occupation—stop complaining; you don’t live here.

That firewall has collapsed.

It is now obvious that Israel’s internal political choices do not stay “inside the family.” They spill out into the lives of Jews everywhere, in at least three ways:

Physical safety: Antisemitic incidents rise when Israel is in the headlines, and even more when its government looks extreme and unapologetic.
Social standing: Young Jews pay a reputational and social price in universities, workplaces, and activist spaces for being associated with a state governed by people they’d never vote for in their own country.
Spiritual coherence: Jews raised on a language of tikkun olam, justice, and human dignity struggle to reconcile that moral language with images of a government that seems to trample those same values.

Israel can’t say, “Our politics are none of your business,” and then be shocked when diaspora Jews either detach emotionally from Israel—or actively oppose it.

It’s not just that they “don’t understand”

A comforting story in some Israeli circles is that diaspora Jews, especially young ones, “don’t understand the reality”:

They don’t understand the security situation.
They don’t understand what Hamas is.
They don’t understand what it means to live with rockets and tunnels.

There is some truth in that. But there is another, less comfortable truth:

They do understand something Israelis sometimes prefer to minimize—that this coalition is morally and politically indefensible by the standards they live with in their own democracies.

They understand that:

Ministers with openly racist and Kahanist pasts now control police and settlement policy.
A large segment of the governing coalition explicitly rejects liberal democracy as a value.
The state continues to exempt large portions of its own population from equal civic responsibility, while expecting the diaspora to back it up unquestioningly.

So no, it’s not just that they “don’t get it.” They get plenty. They just refuse to pretend that the coalition is some regrettable footnote to an otherwise inspiring story.

Why nuance is a luxury, not a baseline

Those of us who live and breathe this complexity can say:

“Support Israel’s right to exist and defend itself.”
“Oppose this coalition and its extremist partners.”
“Uphold Palestinian rights and human dignity.”
“Reject antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism.”

We can, at least in theory, keep all four ideas in our heads at once.

But politically and psychologically, nuance is a luxury. On the street, in a protest chant, on a campus, in a 10-second TikTok clip, there is no room for footnotes. Simple slogans win. “From the river to the sea” wins. “End the occupation” wins. “Ceasefire now” wins. “Netanyahu = Israel = Zionism = Apartheid” wins.

If you don’t like those slogans—and I don’t—then the burden is not only on young Jews to become more sophisticated. The burden is also on Israel to change the government whose behavior makes those slogans so sticky.

Why diaspora Jews must stop seeing themselves as bystanders

This brings us to the most controversial part: diaspora Jews can no longer afford to treat Israel’s political path as something they can merely observe, complain about, or apologize for.

Because Israel’s internal choices have become existential not only for Israel, but for diaspora Jewish life:

A Jewish state sliding toward illiberalism undermines the moral and emotional case for Jewish particularism everywhere.
A government whose face to the world is religious coercion, permanent occupation, and contempt for liberal norms makes it harder to argue that Jewish collective power is compatible with universal values.
As Israel loses moral capital, so do Jews who are seen as its representatives or fellow travelers, whether they want to be or not.

For those reasons, diaspora Jews are not only morally entitled—but existentially obligated—to use every lever of influence they have to push for a different political trajectory in Israel.

This influence can take many forms:

Philanthropy conditioned on democratic and pluralistic values.
Public advocacy that distinguishes loudly between Israel and its current coalition.
Support for Israeli civil society, protest movements, watchdog organizations, and political alternatives.
Honest conversations within Jewish institutions that refuse to pretend “nothing has changed.”

This is not “interference in internal affairs.” It is a recognition that the fate of Israel and the fate of Jewish communities worldwide are bound together—for good or for ill.

A new kind of Israel–diaspora covenant

For decades, the unwritten deal was:

Israel handles security and sovereignty.
The diaspora sends money, political support, and solidarity, and asks few questions.

That deal is broken.

A new covenant is needed, one that says:

Yes, Israel remains the sovereign center of Jewish life and bears the ultimate burden of war and peace.
But Israel’s political choices are no longer purely internal when they shape the safety, standing, and identity of Jews everywhere.
Diaspora Jews are not ATMs and applause machines; they are stakeholders whose voice is legitimate and necessary.

Young New York Jews voting for an anti-Zionist mayor are not simply ungrateful or naive. They are sending a message: If Zionism is defined by this coalition, we cannot defend it in good conscience.

Instead of dismissing them, we should hear the signal beneath the noise.

Blame where it belongs

Let’s be clear: antisemitism is older than the State of Israel, older than Zionism, older than any coalition in the Knesset. Jew-haters will always find a reason.

But it is equally clear that:

When Israel is led by a coalition that elevates extremists, scorches democratic norms, and projects maximum arrogance with minimum empathy, it hands ready-made ammunition to those who hate Israel and those who are on the fence.
When Israeli leaders shrug off diaspora concerns, they weaken the very communities they rely on in times of crisis.
When Zionism is left to be defined by its worst stewards, good people—Jews and non-Jews alike—will drift away from it.

The Netanyahu coalition did not invent anti-Zionism. But it has given it a powerful, ugly face that is far too easy to reject.

The uncomfortable conclusion

We like to say that Israel and diaspora Jewry are “one people with a shared destiny.” If we mean that, then we must accept the implications.

For diaspora Jews, especially the young, it is not enough to say, “We support Israel but dislike its government.” They must understand—and many already do—that their future in the diaspora is tied to the kind of Israel that exists in the world. That means using all their influence, moral and material, to push for a different coalition, a different path.

For Israelis, it is not enough to say, “You don’t live here, so you don’t get a vote.” If you want diaspora solidarity, you must acknowledge diaspora vulnerability—and the price young Jews pay when Israel is represented by leaders who make Zionism look like a moral contradiction.

The question New York Jews are asking today—what does it mean that 35% of us voted for an anti-Zionist mayor?—is really a question for all of us:

What kind of Israel can we, in good faith, ask the next generation to defend?

If the answer is “this coalition,” don’t be surprised when they quietly, or loudly, say no.