and he quickly began to turn accusatory.

He was playing dumb for sure. Whenever they don't want to talk about something sensitive they go on the offensive.

It didnt even occur to me that he was basically accusing me of being a Nazi, because at that time I was still largely clueless about the JQ and thought I was just talking to a fellow lefty who also thought the Iraq war was total bullshit. Little did I know.

Looking back in hindsight I've probably had a few of these situations as well. I was totally unaware. In fact I do remember one. I was talking to a jewish women who's the mother of a close friend of mind. I was in a libertarian phase (this was maybe 2013ish?). I remember saying to her if a white family wants to move their kids to a charter school that in in a suburban area away from low income low academic kids why is that racist? If a lot of white families do that together but they're not coordinating it why are they accused of racism? Isn't that just families looking out for their kids and trying to find the best school for them? Looking back I must have sounded alt right and I'm sure she had bells going off in her head but to me it was just a legit question.

while trying to be as diplomatic as possible, and it always went nowhere.

It went nowhere because only one party (you) were trying to approach in good faith. Jews REALLY rarely believe in having debates and political exchanges in good faith. Political discussion are treated like life or death exchanges. They really think they're going to get 'found out' and expelled. Guilty conscious?

and reacting with intense hostility over any suggestion that they are anything besides humanities greatest victims.

So true; and not just victims. When talking to Jews they frequently come off as gatekeepers of all things science, history, academics, etc. They love butting in and smugly inserting how it's problematic how you see something in history or how you addressed someone or how you're going about something. The show Seinfeld tried to put a humorous spin on this but in reality it's like a much darker version of Seinfeld when you dealing with most Jews. They simply are the rule makers and the rule executors and if they're not in the position they are carrying water for someone else in their tribe that is. It's all so tiring.