Israel/U.S call this defending its self, free thinking people will simply call it terrorism.
It seems that for every jew that gets murdered, THE IDF kills an additional 3-4 palestinians. The current Israeli government is still bitter about WW2 and taking out their anger and might on a minority.
If such a people were truely treated badly by the Nazi's, do they not see their behaviour is like that of nazis who terrorised and killed. Where is the compassion of this jewish nation and its people, after being treated so bad why are they bestowing the same type of suffering onto another minority.
First of all you need to separate jews from zionists because zionism is not a integral part of the jewish religion, the idealogy of the self proclaimed jewish leaders of settlements in israel is basically tht of the "Jewish Christian Identity", the settler idea of land being "redeemed" when it belongs to a jew as oppose to a gentile or the idea of jewish lives being of more value than that of a gentile has no basis in scripture and never did, but unfortunately unlike Christian Identity which is marginalised even in the US this version of Judaism has gained a lot of acceptance, whereas before it was regarded as wrong, people are more willing to excuse it if not actually believe in it.
but i'd say the reason most people in the jewish community support zionism and some are doing so increasingly stridently is the fact that in the last few years following 9/11 (and probably way, way before then) there has been an increase in anti-israeli sentiment and unfortunately that translates into anti-semitism for a small minority of people. people dont get the full picture of what happens in Israel either. I mean I didnt know it was that bad until very recently, I was vaguely aware that some bad stuff went on there but the thing is that a lot of people think israeli atrocities are propaganda. it isn't some sort of holocaust denial type stuff in their case, and many of them are perfectly willing to admit that israel has done some bad things, but a lot of the worst stuff is portrayed as being propaganda which didn't happen, and people don't look deeper into it.
a lot of the time they dont WANT to either. its easier just to ignore it. but if we (the jewish community) continue to do so we will pay the price for our complicity in an evil disgusting regime and we have already paid the price morally and spiritualy.
A lot of people also assume that it is anti-semitism, that worse things go on in the world which are ignored by the media, and the focus on Israel is disproportionate, and also feel uncomfortable with all the references to Jews, "Jewish settlers", etc, in connection to Israel. To be fair to them they have a bit of a point when you compare the coverage of Israel/Palestine to that of other places where human rights abuses take place like Burma, etc, but the problem is that the media coverage of the Palestinians doesn't amount to anything, everyone knows what goes on there and has done for years and yet nothing is done about it. People go out there and people report endlessly on the plight of Palestinians but what is done, i mean really?
A lot of the stuff about the zionist lobby having a disproportionate influence on American foreign policy could be construed as anti-semitic and it is portrayed by the supporters of Israel as representing the idea of a "jewish conspiracy" even though a sizeable proportion of these people aren't jewish, and the people who rule america aren't jewish, they just HAPPEN to need israel, or think they need it, as a US ally in the region, although it is becoming increasingly recognised that the special relationship with Israel will have to change very soon. unfortunately real anti-semites are only too willing to sieze upon this as proof of an all consuming Jewish conspiracy controlling the world, and some of the ways in which this is talked about have been a bit inflammatory (the new statesman cover with the star of david being one example i can think of). i've seen stuff on demos with swastikas inside stars of david saying "smash zionism", and i've been very offended by it and it has put me off.
a lot of the time people support israel because of these reasons, and also because they feel threatened. there's a feeling that you can't criticise Israel in front of non-jews in case you put the community in danger or in case it promotes anti-semitism or the destruction of the state of Israel, which many people will have family connections to. A lot of jews would speak out a lot more if it was recognised that Israels actions are not defensible on that basis any longer.
i think that for anything to succeed it has to be recognised that the majority of jews are somewhat sympathetic to israel and a big part of what people should be concentrating on is on education and persuading people that being anti-zionist or even being opposed to Israels policies does not mean you're anti-semitic as sometimes people who have the best intentions regarding this issue do not do themselves many favours ...