Dickinson, Texas requires those seeking Hurricane relief to be Pro-Israel

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

How on earth does anything like this apply to private citizens? How do I, as a private citizen, boycott Israel?

This is nonsensical and any attempt to enforce this farce will hopefully be struck down/thrown out in court

You could boycott by belonging to an organization that does boycott or for that matter simply agree with such an organization.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Does my refusal to purchase a Sodastream constitute a boycott of Israel?

Depends on why. I refused because it's cheaper to buy soda on sale and/or the store brand. You have to be really into gadgets or really buy into their eco-claims to consider using it.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I'm always struck by why Jews tend to vote so strongly Democratic when it is quite clear that Democrats are far from fond of Israel.

I remember about 10-12 years ago or so, Rush Limbaugh had a caller ask him that question. Rush said, "Because they're liberals first and Jews second."

I would say it's because American Jews still remember the sentiment expressed in Niemöller's poem, "First they came ...".  By and large over the past fifty years the Republicans have almost always been about coming for some group or another. The Democrats (with the exception of the Dixiecrats that are now Republicans) have generally not been. Go farther back than that and they remember what happened as a result of Republican isolationism and nativism prior to December 7, 1941.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Israel is actively engaged in apartheid essentially no different from that which existed in South Africa prior to 1994; and anyone who supports Israel in these activities is a bad person.

BDS supporters are not anti-Jewish; in fact, many BDS supporters are themselves Jewish.

Because this needs to be explained again...

1. There is no apartheid in Israel. Israeli Arabs have equal rights. The Palestinians are not citizens, they are under military occupation due to the territory they live in being claimed in a war. This is a very different thing than apartheid, and should be addressed on its own terms.

That no apartheid comment would have some validity if the State of Israel wasn't deciding which parts of the West Bank it wants to annex and which it wants to leave to Palestinian Bantustans.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I'm always struck by why Jews tend to vote so strongly Democratic when it is quite clear that Democrats are far from fond of Israel.

I remember about 10-12 years ago or so, Rush Limbaugh had a caller ask him that question. Rush said, "Because they're liberals first and Jews second."

Why should American Jews care about Israel? Israel is simply a country, not a religion or an ethnicity, no matter how much it pretends to be.  It can not speak for all Jews and Jews are under absolutely no obligation to show any loyalty towards it.

Because people keep trying to kill us, and we like to have a place we can flee to if we need to - or that can threaten said countries with actual consequences if they intend to seal their borders and wipe us out rather than allow us to leave.

That assumes that the State of Israel will forever be able to maintain military superiority over its neighbors. One nation remaining on top forever is something that has never happened before in history and there is zero reason to think that will ever change.  I'll grant that the status quo of Israeli conventional military superiority in the region will remain true for the remainder of at least my lifetime and probably the remainder of the lifetime of any of our posters here.  Even a nuclear exchange is unlikely to happen unless Israel actively moves to take control of the Temple Mount, and I don't see any Israeli government being that reckless in my lifetime.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I'm always struck by why Jews tend to vote so strongly Democratic when it is quite clear that Democrats are far from fond of Israel.

I remember about 10-12 years ago or so, Rush Limbaugh had a caller ask him that question. Rush said, "Because they're liberals first and Jews second."

Why should American Jews care about Israel? Israel is simply a country, not a religion or an ethnicity, no matter how much it pretends to be.  It can not speak for all Jews and Jews are under absolutely no obligation to show any loyalty towards it.

Because people keep trying to kill us, and we like to have a place we can flee to if we need to - or that can threaten said countries with actual consequences if they intend to seal their borders and wipe us out rather than allow us to leave.

That assumes that the State of Israel will forever be able to maintain military superiority over its neighbors. One nation remaining on top forever is something that has never happened before in history and there is zero reason to think that will ever change.  I'll grant that the status quo of Israeli conventional military superiority in the region will remain true for the remainder of at least my lifetime and probably the remainder of the lifetime of any of our posters here.  Even a nuclear exchange is unlikely to happen unless Israel actively moves to take control of the Temple Mount, and I don't see any Israeli government being that reckless in my lifetime.

As long as Israel a has MAD-level nuclear arsenal, they can at least deter another full-scale invasion or attack from an existential threat. Israel isn't interested in further expansion beyond its current region, unlike many other powers, so they just need to be able to have a consistent deterrent power.

Given the irredentist nature of Zionism, it's not that there's no interest in expansion, just a wise realization that Israel can't afford to have even more occupied people to deal with. The biggest problem Israel faces is the tiger back she started riding in 1967. There is no obvious way to get off but lashing oneself tightly to the tiger's back is fairly obviously not a long-term solution.

Now if by some unexpected happenstance of demographics it should ever happen that there is definitive Jewish majority in the territory that Israel currently controls, I wouldn't be in the least surprised if there was serious consideration given to occupying the East Bank. But that's an absolute minimum of a century in the future unless something causes a major decrease in the Arab population of Palestine and Jordan.

But back to your MAD assumption, why do you assume that only Israel will ever be able to deploy something like Iron Dome in the region? When the time comes that there is anything close to military parity in the region, Israel's inability to engage in a defense in depth strategy will be a major weakness.