To the Editor,

The letter, “Auchincloss Needs to Answer for Pro-Israel Lobby Donations” masks an ancient obsession in modern vocabulary. This is not legitimate policy debate; it is a smear campaign aimed at delegitimizing Israel.

Blaming Zionism for global ills parrots Soviet libels against Jews. The Soviets weaponized antizionism to launder hatred of Jews as geopolitics. This letter mimics that blueprint. It twists Israel’s defensive war into a “massacre” erasing the genocidal aims of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. It ignores decades of rocket fire, suicide bombings and October 7.

The same trope resurfaces as a financial accusation: singling out Jewish money for scrutiny, while ignoring larger, non-Jewish money, is the shape it takes. AIPAC’s lobbying is small compared to other special interests, and mirrors other super PACs. Yet where is the outrage over billions Qatar pours into American politics and education? The silence is deafening.

Legitimate criticism does not seek to dismantle the world’s only Jewish state, home to seven million Jews. What his letter calls a “massacre,” “brutalization of civilians,” and “war crimes”—alongside claims that Jewish money buys control of Auchincloss and other politicians—is, at bottom, a case against Israel’s right to exist.

Why does this lobby trigger obsessive scrutiny? It relies on age-old tropes of secret Jewish control, framing Jews as the cause of societal decline. This is a hate movement masquerading as human rights advocacy. There is only one honest answer, and it has nothing to do with campaign finance.

Robin Goldstein
Newton, MA