Whether or not Ann meant to be insulting to Jews — the Anti-Defamation League called her comments “borderline anti-Semitic” — the fact is that Jews in America always have to straddle the line between wanting Israel to be mentioned a lot by politicians and hoping they won’t mention it too much.

Anti-Semites already believe that Jews have too much influence in American politics. A so-called friend to Israel like Ann Coulter pointing out the importance of Israel to the candidates in a presidential debate isn’t a positive thing. Her tweet implied the long-running canard that while Jews represent a small percentage of the population, their role in influencing policy is outsized. And, of course, why is it outsized? The dark undercurrent in the answer is that it’s due to money.

The hashtag #istandwithann trended after her comments, and the tweets were a hodgepodge of typical anti-Semitism, which questioned whether Jews could even be loyal to the United States. Her comments opened the door for Holocaust-deniers, Israel-haters and plain old Jew-haters to point to Ann’s comments as a mainstream affirmation of their beliefs.