has been arguably a comparison to the attacks on Gaza although Ukraine did not attack Russia first via a terrorist attack that killed over 1000 people. Yet although there are Russian orthodox churches and Russian restaurants, the only thing that happened in the US is several restaurants in NYC known as Russian worked to make their Ukrainian roots known as their number of diners declined. Yet there have been attacks on synagogues and Jews in general in response to anger against Israel.
My thought is that the attacks on the American Jewish community which, at least in the non orthodox synagogues, has never supported Netanyahu or the settlements and might have included a large segment of supporters of a two state solution, comes from a well of not always latent antisemitism.
Another factor is the conflation of anti Israel, anti Zionism and being Jewish. Unlike any religion I can think of, there is a link between a religion and a current modern country. The idea that American Jews are responsible for Israeli actions or automatically support them is hard to deal with. It ignores that many of us voted against and protested American administration that we did not support.
In addition to increased fear that has necessitated increased security several times in the last decade, there have been many many efforts to find non divisive ways to talk about Israel at the synagogue I go to in one of the most liberal communities in the country. It also means that for many long term interfaith efforts with the Islamic community even when successful on some level, Israel was always the elephant in the room.
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