The killing of Ali Abu Alia — on top of hundreds of similar atrocities in recent years — has generated outrage in the west. Will anyone bear responsibility for robbing the young teenager of his life? It all depends on the responses of American political actors.

Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Betty McCollum and the UN and EU condemned Israeli killing of boy protester Friday, and JVP called for an end to US military aid. As for liberal Zionist groups? Crickets. Even IfNotNow issues a toothless statement.

US election showed that American Jews and Israeli Jews could not be more different, American Jews dislike Netanyahu two-to-one, and so the Israel lobby is divided forever, because the Jewish community is divided on the Israel question, with many young Jews supporting boycott. And that divide will continue to spur political debate.

22 percent of Jews under 40 support boycott of Israel, according to exit polling. That’s shocking news for liberal Zionists who would constitute the mainstream Israel lobby under a Joe Biden presidency.

Facile accusations of antisemitism on the left have real consequences for people’s lives, and feed into dangerous, reactionary attacks that harm our movements for justice.

The Conference of Presidents, a powerful Jewish organization, caves to Islamophobic rightwing campaign on its leadership choice and liberal constituent groups dont walk away. Americans for Peace Now and Ameinu have stuck with the pro-settler organization for years, out of pro-Israel solidarity.

“Some of the most evil name-calling and epithet-slinging [against Israel] that takes place is sadly within our own Jewish community,” Laura Shaw Frank of the American Jewish Committee says. Her accusation echoes charges the AJC has made against Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, but “evil” sure ups the ante.

“Given the spread of the coronavirus in the West Bank and Gaza, the extreme vulnerability of the health system in Gaza, and the continued withholding of U.S. aid to the Palestinian people, we are concerned that the Administration is failing to take every reasonable step to help combat this public health emergency in the Palestinian Territories,” reads the letter. It was lead by Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), but was also signed by  Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Tom Udall (D-NM), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Tom Carper (D-DE), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH).

Israel lobbyists are thrilled by Bernie Sanders’s recent stumbles at the polls. A Democratic Party Israel lobby group spent $1.4 million against Sanders, and Obama’s former ambassador to Israel writes, “No issue brings out [Joe] Biden’s passion more than his commitment to the U.S. partnership with Israel.”

Writer Eric Flamm says after four trips to Israel, his 15-year-old son has become an anti-Zionist and supports BDS. “Because he couldn’t support the notion that in Israel the Jews received preferential treatment over Palestinians in all aspects of life, such as education, housing, employment, and access to justice.”