I've always felt that the new Left's obsession with Israel veils a great deal of unprocessed anti-Semitism, twisted in knots over the rules of identity and when it's "okay" to have one. In the 60s and up until pretty recently, it was the KKK and John Birch Society that hated Israel. Leftists, like Noam Chomsky, were defenders of Israel.
At its core is the idea that "Jews aren't victims anymore, but they're allowed to contribute to the culture and express their identity as former victims of persecution, and that's wrong." Muddled up in this belief is all kinds of unpleasantness. Jewish people get to have their cake an eat it too, right? So it's better to take the side of a population that has been so brutalized and manipulated that they actually believe in martyrdom.
I saw an anti-Israel march in my city not long ago. All these white "anarchist" kids were yelling "Mothers, daughters, all are martyrs!" I see little difference between them and neonazi skinhead punks.