I started High School in 1954. Finally, in late 1956, when I was already a committed leftist, I refused to say the "Pledge of Allegiance" and was disciplined for it by, among other lesser things, being suspended from the Math Team! BTW, I used the excuse that the phrase "under god" was a violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment, and somebody else won a (Supreme Court ?) case on that basis a few months later, but my more important reason was my rejection of "American" (i.e., U.S.) patriotism and of capitalism generally.

Israel wasn't much of an issue in those days, except for the Suez attack, which got me looking into the matter and becoming anti-Zionist. So my anti-capitalism, anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism have always been linked. Although the interests of the Zionist bourgeoisie and of broader U.S. capitalism are sometimes in conflict, Israel is, in my view, essentially a more concentrated expression of the murderous settler colonialism that established the United Snakes.

As is said, if doing the right thing was easy, then everyone would be doing it.