Israel and Palestine are two ways of looking at the same reality.

There are many things that trigger Jewish anxieties. Statistics showing rising antisemitism, terms such as genocide and apartheid, being expected to take a position on Israel to name but a few. There is however an underlying fear that I think is worth examining. It is the word Palestine. And what it represents. On hearing it, especially accompanied by the word ‘free’, Jews are liable to hear a call for the destruction of the state of Israel, which many elide with a call to murder Jews. So the term itself is frequently considered to be antisemitic. People might be slightly less worried if the term used was ‘the Palestinian territories’, as this explicitly refers to the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, but ‘Palestine’ alone remains deeply threatening.