I get that impression because of how much Israel is hated by the left.
At the risk of coming off like a cliche from a Carly Simon song, I feel as thought I should point out here that I am a liberal who doesn't hate Israel, and supports Israel's right to exist.
However, I do not feel Israel has the right to occupy territory for decades at a time without giving the people living there citizenship, voting rights, or respecting their basic human rights. Demolishing a house that is a home to a woman and a large number of children simply because of the crime's of the family's patriarch, for example, is not right (This has happened more than once). Lobbing missiles at UN designated refugee areas in schools is not right. Building out settlements in disputed territory with the implicit aim of turning Palestine areas into Jewish areas and ultimately committing cultural genocide against the Palestinian people is also not right (And, since we liberals are being accused in this thread of inconsistency on this issue, I will mention here that I also oppose China's policies of encouraging Han Chinese immigration to Tibet for similar reasons, though at least the Chinese grant Tibetans Chinese citizenship. I think you'll find that many liberals, though not all, of course, admire the Dali Lama and even favor either independence or increased autonomy for the Tibet region- I don't know what percentage of liberals feel that way, but the Free Tibet thing is primarily considered a liberal cause.). Taking out a country or region's only power plant is not right. Building a giant wall around what you claim is part of your own country as Israel has done with Gaza is not right, and is eerily reminiscent of the ghettos Germans put Jews in during the WW2 era (By the way, Pope Francis caused much consternation among his entourage by ordering them to stop at the wall on the way back from Bethlehem to Israel and praying for the wall to come down).
That I feel Israel has a right to exist and that I respect Judiasm as one of the world's great religions, as well as many individual Jews, does not mean I have to support the specific policies of the government of a specific country that is ruled by a specific party. I mean, does the fact the some disagree with President Obama's policies automatically mean they are racists and anti-American? Some may be, but of course not everyone who disagrees with him falls into those two categories. Similarly, people can disagree with Benajamin Netanyahu's policies without being anti-Semitic or anti-Israel. Some may be, but not everyone is.
As you are probably aware, Pope Francis has chosen to on most occasions cite Shimon Peres when discussing a leader of Israel in the context of working towards peace and very pointedly avoids mention Benjamin Netanyahu, giving the indication that he doesn't think Netanyahu is working towards peace. I agree with the Pope.
Also, liberals largely ignore the abuses of all the other Middle East countries while focusing only on finding fault with Israel.
We give Israel a ton of money in military and non-military aid, including equipment, and work in close coordination with their spy service. When they were killing people in Gaza on a mass scale last summer, the congress passed (with Democratic as well as Republican votes) and the President (a Democrat) signed an "emergency funding" bill for Israel's iron dome program (Though I personally would not have voted for or signed said bill). We most likely are the source of Israel's nuclear weapons as well, or at least allowed them to get them without doing the normal things we'd do to block other countries in the region from achieving those capabilities. If we are going to back Israel to the hilt, then they need to be held to a higher standard than just being another middle eastern country where human rights are not respected and people die for no good reason. Somehow calls to just cease funding Israel's military and collaborating with their foreign intelligence service are met with cries of "Antisemitism!" instead of a simple acknowledgement that falling back into a neutral posture would be just that- neutrality. Right now we're taking sides, and I think the current Israeli government has lost the moral high ground to the point where it's time to, not take the other side, but simply say we are on the side of peace and human rights, and neither side of that conflict is working hard enough to achieve those things.
If Israel elected a Prime Minister like Rabin or Peres again, people who genuinely sought peace and were working towards a two state solution, I would feel differently. However, a radical right wing Jew opposed to peace shot Rabin and killed him. Not a Muslim, a Jew who wanted perpetual war against the Muslims (and the Arab Christians in the occupied territories as well).
