By skyforbes I've never been to Israel, I'm a Brooklyn Jew but i've always identified pretty much exclusively American. I'm a "bad jew" by most standards. Not religious, dated mostly non-jewish women, and I confess until the last two years I wasn't even really much of a Zionist. I felt safe in America, when mom would drag me to synagogue and i'd have to listen to the old people yapping about antisemitism and how important Israel was I'd just roll my eyes and I even found a lot of the arguments against Zionism my friends in college and etc were making compelling on ideological grounds.
I cannot believe what has happened these last two years. Nearly every one of my close friends — of all races, has become just absolutely mask off with the jew hatred. We control the Federal Reserve. We control the Media. We're occupying America through AIPAC, somehow all of american foreign policy is our fault because no way the U.S could have its OWN imperial interests in the middle east, no we jews must've bought the whole government to make them put 200 military bases all over the region to control the oil. 9/11, USS Liberty, the sheer number of things I have heard parroted by people I loved these last few years has broken my heart and radicalized me. I don't understand how they could say and think such horrible things about us, they know me, they've eaten at my family's home, we've joked with each other about everything, I thought we were brothers and sisters.
Anyway, i've been wrestling with this or a long time but I've decided to move to Israel. It seems that every day in the U.S, the scapegoating is getting louder and louder on both the left and the right. I've now become the one who is more scared than my family. My mom still thinks that Jewish people have enough power in America now to protect ourselves but I think she's wrong. I think she's disconnected from the youth culture I see and how fast and ardent the resentment/hatred of jews is becoming. I'm not sure if in 20 years, the country I grew up in will still be a physically safe place for me to live.
So, I'm leaving. I'm just visiting for a month at first. I work in tech on chip design & have an electrical engineering degree so I'm sure I can transfer to an Israeli office. I don't speak Hebrew or anything but I just don't want to be betrayed by anyone else I thought was a friend.
Am Yisrael Chai, see you all soon my brothers.