41 Questions Everyone Should Be Asking Themselves Right Now
41 Questions Everyone Should Be Asking Themselves Right Now
The current Israel-Hamas war has sparked a ton of outcry. Perhaps it should also induce some introspection.
Editor’s Note: In light of the situation in Israel — where we are based — we are making Future of Jewish FREE for the coming days. If you wish to support our critical mission to responsibly defend the Jewish People and Israel during this unprecedented time in our history, you can do so via the following options:
1. Have I internalized antisemitism? Do I even know what internalized antisemitism means?
Internalized antisemitism is the concept that people can ingest and even accept Jewish stereotypes, discrimination, prejudices, and traumas experienced by Jews, the Jewish People, Jewishness, Judaism, Zionism, and the State of Israel.
Consider when you hear about a Jewish person who commits some heinous crime, such as Bernie Madoff or Jeffrey Epstein. Rationally, there is no reason why the Jewishness of these criminals should make us feel ashamed by their actions, though I’ll bet that many of us felt that shame.
And the main reason we feel it is because of the negative stereotypes that abound Jews, Judaism, Jewishness, and the Jewish People. We are triggered by the nasty beliefs that others hold about Jews and Jewishness, which have become so entrenched in the soil of civilization, that many of us have absorbed some of these beliefs ourselves.
For Jews, internalized oppression is likely to consist of self-hatred, self-concealment, fear of violence, and feelings of inferiority, resignation, isolation, powerlessness, and gratefulness for being allowed to survive. All of these feelings and experiences, of course, manifest along a continuum — with some aspects hidden to the eye, others visible if being looked for, and still others displayed in rather appalling fashion.
2. Why is Israel the only country in the world that has the word “anti” before it?
Seriously, think about that for a second. Or two.
3. Do I realize that anti-Zionism and anti-Israel are, in fact, antisemitism?
If anti-Zionism and anti-Israel were not, in fact, antisemitism, then how do you explain Jews being attacked around the world right now?
Jewish students are scared to go to classes and be on campuses. Some are even worried about walking around their own neighborhoods. And others feel like they can’t even share their raw emotions (not their politics) with colleagues and those in their social circles.
Since the Israel-Hamas war broke out, Paul Kessler, a 69-year-old Jewish man, was hit in the head with a megaphone and killed by a pro-Palestinian protestor, who is walking around California freely right now. In Detroit, a Jewish communal leader was stabbed to death, yet almost one month later, police still can’t seem to find her killer.
Across Europe, violent protests against Jews are erupted, with the police enabling them. Anti-Jewish (not just anti-Israel) graffiti has been rampant.
In England, protestors decided to organize their largest demonstration with hundreds of thousands of people on Armistice Day (Memorial Day), one of the most meaningful days for Brits and their history, yet the headlines read: “Scores of counter-protestors (who were defending Armistice Day) arrested.”
Suella Braverman, the home secretary in British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s cabinet, was fired after she wrote an article in the Times of London last week in which she claimed that police were “playing favorites” (they are; this has been proven) and not enforcing the law (they aren’t; this has also been proven) when it came to pro-Palestinian protests in London and referred to protestors as “hate marchers.” (I’m not sure there is a more accurate way of describing them.)
Does this appear to be social justice to you?
That’s why we can make no mistake: Anti-Zionism and anti-Israel are, undeniably, antisemitism. And yes, Jews themselves can think antisemitic thoughts as well, due to internalized antisemitism, poor education, brainwashing, and propaganda.
What’s more, trying to explain to us Jews that anti-Zionism and anti-Israel are not antisemitism is antisemitic in and of itself. You don’t get to tell us what is or isn’t antisemitic.
4. Do I realize that it’s possible I’ve been brainwashed or hypnotized by people who do not actually share similar values as mine?
The majority of Palestinians and Arabs and Muslims who live North Africa and the Middle East do not harbor Western values. This is why it’s plainly absurd to see “Feminists Stand With Palestinians” or “Queers for Palestine.”
I’m not saying you shouldn’t be pro-humanity — of course we all should — but make sure you know exactly who you’re rooting for. To be clear, Israel is the most female-friendly and LGBTQ-friendly country in the Middle East, which doesn’t excuse it of missteps and mistakes, but does make it far more aligned with Western values that so many of us cherish.
5. Do I realize that I might be at least a little news media and social media illiterate?
There is no better word than “illiterate” to describe the millions (billions?) of people in our world who do not have the skills and abilities to differentiate between facts and propaganda.
What makes this reality even worse is that so many of these people are also intellectually lazy, meaning they don’t take the time and effort to extensively research and then contemplate said research, preferring instead to spend their time on escapism.
My guidance (which is what I do): Spend one less hour a week watching TV and one more hour a week watching something educational on YouTube. Unfollow some celebrities, athletes, and influencers, and start following educators, social activists, and spiritual leaders. Educate yourself less about pop culture, and more about other cultures (historical and contemporary) across the world. Watch less news, and read more books and long-form content that provide true nuance, context, and depth.
Generally, I try not to judge escapism, and to varying extents we all do it. But when the real prospect of a third world war is on the table — and that is very much what is on the table right now — I think it’s pretty important for people to be hyper-aware and hyper-engaging.
I understand it’s increasingly difficult to know which sources to trust and which to not. I find that the best resource is Wikipedia which, contrary to some haters’ opinions, is incredibly well-sourced, not just from articles, but from books and other types of long-form content.
I think it’s also important to emphasize that right now is not the time to use social media and soundbites (i.e. short-form content) to learn and relearn about the Israel-Hamas war and its very possible, bigger-picture ramifications. Long-form content (measured in hours, not in minutes) must be made a top priority.
6. Do you realize that, within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the news media has become less a reporter of this conflict, and more of a supporting actor in it?
The news media, which is amplified by the sheer scale of social media, has decided not just to describe and explain, but to help. And that is why they sadly do far more harm. This essay explains why the media gets the Israel-Palestinian conflict so recklessly wrong.
7. Am I willing to update my beliefs?
In his international bestselling book, “Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know,” psychologist Adam Grant investigated why we struggle to update our ideas and opinions, and how we can improve at it.
It’s a must-read for anyone open “to let go of knowledge and opinions that are no longer serving you well, and to anchor your sense of self in flexibility, rather than consistency,” according to Grant.
As I read this book, I couldn’t help but reflect on all the times I clung to an opinion that’s past its expiration date, or imagine what I might have learned from a conversation — had I asked a question to learn more, instead of hurling a rebuttal to defend my (or someone else’s) point of view. Can you relate?
8. Why do I think I know more about Israel and the Middle East than people who’ve been living there for decades?
Again, think about that (and the pure arrogance of it) for a second. Or two.
9. How much do I really know about Middle East history and its geopolitics?
The news media, social media, and Palestinian propaganda want you to think that the Israel-Hamas war is exactly that: a conflict between the Jewish state and a Palestinian “liberation” movement. But it’s not. There are significant “bigger picture” factors to reckon with — such as the Iranians and Vladimir Putin — a portion of which I detailed in this essay.
10. Do I know where Israel is on the map?
Sorry but I had to include this question. Haha.
11. Do I know where the Palestinian territories are on the map?
Ditto.
12. Do I know what Fatah is?
It’s hard to have any real respectable opinion about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict if you don’t.
Fatah is the Palestinian political party that oversees most of the Palestinian population in Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank). In recent years, it’s been widely reported that Fatah has been losing ground to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, obviously a dangerous development, both for Palestinians and Israel.
Fatah has maintained a number of terrorist groups since its founding by Yasser Arafat, who many consider to have been a terrorist himself. In 2000, Israel was (again) willing to give land to the Palestinians as part of a peace deal, this one brokered by then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, that would finally put an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Arafat engaged in negotiations, but when he ultimately walked away, he didn’t even make a counteroffer. Instead, Arafat responded by initiating the second intifada (a violent Palestinian uprising during which Israeli fatalities exceeded 1,000 — including 119 children — by way of barbaric tactics, such as suicide bombings and ambushes.
For reference, only two of Israel’s wars (the War of Independence and the Yom Kippur War) had claimed more Israeli lives than this intifada.
In light of the situation in Israel — where we are based — we are making Future of Jewish FREE for the coming days. If you wish to support our critical mission to responsibly defend the Jewish People and Israel during this unprecedented time in our history, you can do so via the following options:
13. Do I know that both Palestinian governments incentivize terrorism against Israelis?
That’s right, if you commit terrorism against Israelis and are jailed for it in Israel, you’ll receive a monthly salary from one of the two Palestinian governments (Hamas and the Palestinian Authority), and your family will also receive monthly stipends. If the terrorist is killed during or after their attack, their family will also receive financial compensation. Yay, terrorism!
14. Do I overemphasize the Israeli settlements and settlers?
Yes, there are settlements and settlers, who are less than 10-percent of the Israeli population. I am personally not in favor of many of these settlements, since they can be provocative.
At the same time, it’s critical for people to understand that Judea and Samaria — what others call “the West Bank” or “the Israeli settlements” — have never truly been a defining issue in the saga that is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel dismantled all the settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2005, and the following year, Hamas was supposedly voted into power in democratic elections.
Five years earlier, the Israelis again were willing to sacrifice land as part of the Camp David offer (brokered by U.S. President Bill Clinton), and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat wasn’t willing to make a deal or counteroffer.
15. Have I read up on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict going back to the 1800s?
If you don’t know that the the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict dates back to the 1800s, that’s a cause for concern. Perhaps it’s best to call it the Jewish-Palestinian conflict, since the State of Israel was established in 1948.
In short, Jews began returning to our indigenous homeland in the mid-1800s, primarily from the Russian Empire and the frightening pogroms there, but also from Yemen. These Jews legally purchased land from landowners in Ottoman-era Palestine and then the British Mandate for Palestine.
Some scholars contend that Palestinian peoplehood was a response to Zionism’s momentum in the late 1800s, while others contend that it was independent of Zionism.
Khalil Beidas was the first person to self-describe Palestine’s Arabs as “Palestinians” in the preface of a book he translated in 1898, one year after the First Zionist Congress took place in Switzerland, on the question of Jewish statehood in our indigenous homeland.
16. Do I know that modern Zionism goes back to the 1800s?
Many people think Israel was created because of the Holocaust, which took place between 1939 and 1945, but using this unsubstantiated logic irresponsibly erases other parts of history that are also important to understanding the critical need for and development of the State of Israel. This essay explains more in detail.
17. Do I know that, since the 1960s, the Palestinians have continuously elected, opted into, or enabled governments which are inherently terrorist organizations?
You can read about the entirety of Palestinian history in this essay.
18. Do I know who funds Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad?
Answer: Qatar, Iran, and others.
19. Do I know why they fund Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad?
To advance their geopolitical interests, which diametrically oppose the interests of every Western country, Saudi Arabia, India, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, and several other countries.
20. Do I know that Qatar has become the largest foreign donor to American universities?
According to a study published in 2022 by the National Association of Academics in the United States, a study that did not attract much attention at the time, the Qataris donated $4.7 billion to U.S. universities starting in 2001, precisely after the September 11th attacks. The recipients, however, did not report part of the money received, as required by law.
In fact, Qatar (whose allies include Iran, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, North Korea, and China) has become the largest foreign donor to American academia in the two decades since 9/11. This includes Cornell (an “Ivy League” school), Georgetown, Northwestern, and Carnegie Mellon, all considered among the most prestigious U.S. universities.
In another report comprising four separate studies, at least 200 American colleges and universities illegally withheld information on approximately $13 billion in undisclosed contributions from foreign regimes, many of which are authoritarian.1
What’s been transpiring on the campuses of these universities and others since the war’s outbreak is a multi-participant, multifaceted strategy that is now coming to fruition at the so-called “right moment” — immediately after the Palestinian massacre and abduction in Israel on October 7th.
Apparently, accepting donations from foreign actors is not unusual in the era of globalization. The Technion, Israel’s most prestigious university, also received a donation from the Chinese billionaire Li Ka-shing to establish a branch in China.
But in the Qataris’ case, the majority share of donations comes from the Qatar Foundation, a nonprofit organization established by the government in 1995 to promote education and science in their country.
By accepting donations from this foundation, academic institutions were also forced to make “adjustments,” such as removing some of the too-liberal books from reading lists, and signing a cooperation agreement with controversial media outlets like the Qatar-owned Al Jazeera, a Muslim mouthpiece disguised as a media organization, that is excessively pro-Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations.
This might be the reason why anti-Zionism agendas have intellectualized and rationalized antisemitism on college campuses, by dressing up centuries-old Jew hate in modern-day academia with sexy terms like “liberation” and “resistance” — and by attempting to rewrite much of the Israeli-Palestinian and Middle East history (or purposely editing out certain parts).
This might also be the reason why there’s a direct connection between the amount of donations from Qatar and other Persian Gulf countries, and the presence of pro-Palestinian groups that today feature on college campuses, led by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
21. Have I asked myself why Gaza, which has received several billions of dollars in humanitarian aid over the years, seems to be running out of everything, except for rockets?
Again, think about that for a second. Or two.
22. Do I know how much influence Vladimir Putin has in North Africa and the Middle East?
For the last two decades, Russia has reaped the benefits of its political, diplomatic, and military investments in the Middle East and North Africa. These investments have paid off for Russia because, for instance, when the time came to impose economic sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, most Middle East and North African nations did not follow suit.
Instead, they remained in “non-aligned” or “neutral stance” lanes, which is likely to endure as Moscow continues to strengthen its position in the Middle East and North Africa. This has made Russia an important trade and military partner in the region, thereby establishing strong ties with many governments, factions, and proxies.
In addition, Russia’s investments in the Middle East and North Africa information space are also paying off. Vladimir Putin is seen in the region as fighting the West on behalf of all those who dislike the United States, which breeds persistent faith in Putin’s vision of a multipolar world. A recent survey published by BBC Arabic investigating the feelings of young people in Arab countries showed that they are already more attracted to Russia than to the United States, with 70-percent describing Russia as an ally.
Much of the Arab world’s attitude towards the war in Ukraine will not depend on Russia’s success or failure, since many think that Putin is not interested in a decisive triumph and is already a “winner.” As perceived from Arab capitals, Putin wishes to demonstrate to the world what would occur if you choose to follow the West, which will eventually desert and abandon you, resulting in war and chaos.
For many Arab leaders, the impression they got from the Syrian civil war is that Russia is “sincere” and “does not abandon its allies,” while the West deserted Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt, Gaddafi in Libya, and Assad in Syria. To many Arab leaders and on the so-called Arab street, Russia has shown what it can do in Syria, where it has displayed its toughness and hard power.
23. Do I know that Israel and Iran used to have bilateral relations and some form of peace?
Relations between Iran and Israel can be divided into four major phases: ambivalence between 1947 and 1953, friendliness during the era of the Pahlavi dynasty from 1953 to 1979, downfall following the Iranian Revolution from 1979 to 1990, and ongoing open hostilities since the end of the Gulf War in 1991.
Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel as a sovereign state. And after the 1953 coup d’état, which reinstalled the pro-Western leader Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as the Shah of Iran, relations between the two countries significantly improved.
But since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran severed all diplomatic and commercial ties with Israel, and its theocratic government does not recognize the legitimacy of Israel as a state. The turn from cold peace to open hostility began in the early 1990s, shortly after the Soviet Union’s collapse and Iraq’s defeat in the Gulf War.
24. Do I know that the Palestinians have had two-state solution proposals on the table multiple times since the 1930s, yet have declined every one?
Check the history, folks. Is “sharing is caring” not one of your values? It sure is one of mine.
25. Do I know that the Palestinians and their Arab partners refused to participate in developments for the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine?
The 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal that recommended a division of Mandatory Palestine at the end of the British Mandate into the creation of independent Arab and Jewish States, as well as a Special International Regime for the city of Jerusalem.
While Jewish organizations collaborated with United Nations during the deliberations, the Palestinian Arab leadership boycotted it. Arab leaders and governments rejected the plan of partition in the resolution and indicated that they would reject any other plan of partition.
The way I interpret this: The Jews worked their political magic, the Arabs stupidly decided not to be involved at all (bad optics in my opinion), and the Arabs refused to negotiate whatsoever with the Jews.
Ultimately, the Arabs decided they’d rather wage a war against the Jews and settle it militarily — a reasonable choice, in my opinion — so five Arab countries attacked the State of Israel just a few hours after it declared independence in 1948, based on the borders recommended in the UN Partition Plan for Palestine.
The Arabs lost this war, but they never came to terms with it, so they kept attacking Israel, and kept losing, in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, further hurting their proverbial ego and increasingly pushing them into denial. Eventually, Egypt and Jordan made peace with Israel, realizing this was a better option than losing war after after against the Jews.
In light of the situation in Israel — where we are based — we are making Future of Jewish FREE for the coming days. If you wish to support our critical mission to responsibly defend the Jewish People and Israel during this unprecedented time in our history, you can do so via the following options:
26. Do I know that many of the 700,000 Palestinian refugees from Israel’s War of Independence were instructed by Arab leaders to leave their homes so they could attack the Jews?
Once the Arab invasion of Israel began in 1948, most Arabs remaining in Palestine left for neighboring countries. Surprisingly, the Palestinians chose to flee to safety in other Arab states, still confident of being able to return, rather than acting as a strategically valuable “fifth column” that would fight the Jews from within the country.
As the fighting spread into areas that had previously remained quiet, the Arabs began to realize the possibility of defeat, and the flight of the Arabs increased: More than 300,000 departed just one day after the Arab invasion, leaving approximately 160,000 Arabs in the State of Israel.
A plethora of evidence exists, demonstrating that Palestinian Arabs were encouraged by other Arabs to leave their homes in order to make way for the invading Arab armies.
The Economist, a frequent critic of the Zionists, reported on October 2, 1948: “Of the 62,000 Arabs who formerly lived in Haifa, not more than 5,000 or 6,000 remained. Various factors influenced their decision to seek safety in flight. There is but little doubt that the most potent of the factors were the announcements made over the air by the Higher Arab Executive, urging the Arabs to quit. It was clearly intimated that those Arabs who remained in Haifa and accepted Jewish protection would be regarded as renegades.”
Time magazine’s report of the battle for Haifa on May 3, 1948 was similar: “The mass evacuation, prompted partly by fear, partly by orders of Arab leaders, left the Arab quarter of Haifa a ghost city. By withdrawing Arab workers their leaders hoped to paralyze Haifa.”
Benny Morris, a historian who documented instances where Palestinian Arabs were expelled, also found that Arab leaders encouraged their brethren to leave. The Arab National Committee in Jerusalem, following the March 8, 1948, instructions of the Arab Higher Committee, ordered women, children and the elderly in various parts of Jerusalem to leave their homes, saying: “Any opposition to this order is an obstacle to the holy war and will hamper the operations of the fighters in these districts.”
Who gave such orders? Leaders like Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Said, who declared: “We will smash the country with our guns and obliterate every place the Jews seek shelter in. The Arabs should conduct their wives and children to safe areas until the fighting has died down.”
The Secretary of the Arab League Office in London, Edward Atiyah, wrote in his book, The Arabs: “This wholesale exodus was due partly to the belief of the Arabs, encouraged by the boastings of an unrealistic Arabic press and the irresponsible utterances of some of the Arab leaders that it could be only a matter of weeks before the Jews were defeated by the armies of the Arab States and the Palestinian Arabs enabled to re-enter and retake possession of their country.”
In his memoirs, Haled al Azm, the Syrian Prime Minister in 1948, also admitted the Arab role in persuading the refugees to leave, writing: “Since 1948 we have been demanding the return of the refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to leave. Only a few months separated our call to them to leave and our appeal to the United Nations to resolve on their return.”
Even Jordan’s King Abdullah, writing in his memoirs, blamed Palestinian leaders for the refugee problem:
“The tragedy of Palestinian Arabs was most of their leaders had paralyzed them with false and unsubstantiated promises that they were not alone; that 80 million Arabs and 400 million Muslims would instantly and miraculously come to their rescue.”
“The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny,” Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas said, “but instead, they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland, and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live.”
In other words, the Palestinian refugee problem was a direct consequence of the Arab-launched war. As a result of Israel’s victory, the state took control the area that the UN had proposed for a Jewish state, as well as some 60-percent of the area proposed for a Palestinian state.
Around 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes in the area that became Israel, and they became Palestinian refugees in what they refer to as the Nakba (“Catastrophe”).
There are consequences for attacking another country, such as loss of land, refugees, and reparations. To expect the Jews to accept the UN’s Partition Plan for Palestine, only to be invaded by four countries, and then not take precautionary measures following the invasion is nothing short of foolish.
27. Do I realize why Israel has erected so many walls, checkpoints, and other security arrangements?
There are two sides to the coin of Palestinians having been offered multiple two-state solution proposals since the 1930s. The first side is that they’ve declined each one. The second side is that they’ve committed a multitude of grotesque acts of terrorism against Israeli citizens after each time they declined.
Hence why Israel has erected so many walls, checkpoints, and other security arrangements. Wouldn’t you want your country to do the same?
28. Do I realize that the claim about Israel as an “apartheid state” is a complete misnomer?
If you want to know how Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict compare to South African apartheid, you’re invited to read this essay.
29. Do I know that Israel has invented military techniques specifically designed to save Palestinian lives?
One such technique is called “roof knocking” or “knocks on the roof” — a practice of dropping non-explosive or low-yield devices on the roofs of targeted civilian infrastructure that is used by Palestinian combatants (therefore making these targets legitimate military targets according to international law).
The point of this practice is to warn non-combatants of imminent bombing attacks and give them time to leave the buildings.
30. Do I know that Israel has a much better combatant-to-civilian death ratio than the international average?
While Israel is routinely criticized for any of its actions that kill civilians, you may be surprised to know that Israel’s civilian-to-combatant ratio is routinely much lower than the nine-to-one international average. (Yes, you read that correctly. Worldwide, for every one combatant killed, an average of nine civilians die.)
In the very last operation carried out by the Israeli military prior to October 7th (in Jenin), 0.6 civilians were killed for every one combatant killed. In other words, the Israeli military managed to kill more combatants than civilians, which is extremely rare.
31. Do I realize that Israel has and will make mistakes?
And if this makes Israel particularly bad, then the whole world is rotten.
32. Do I realize that, while Israel wants the world’s support as it fights pure evil, it does not need it?
In 1982, a young senator named Joe Biden — that’s right, the same Joe Biden whose America’s sitting president — appeared to try to blackmail Menachem Begin, Israel’s then-prime minister, who replied:
“Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country.”
“We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.”
In this same vein, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday, November 11th:
“The State of Israel in 2023 is not in 1943. We have the ability and the obligation to defend ourselves by our own means, and that’s what we’re doing.”
33. Do I acknowledge the hypocrisy of certain countries and politicians calling for ceasefires?
Such as by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who’s literally killed hundreds of thousands of his own people.
And by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who’s nickname is “the Hangman of Tehran” because he was a prosecutor and member of the infamous death committees in the 1980s, which sentenced thousands of Iranians to death and even committed mass murders.
34. Do I realize that Israel has been clear about its conditions for a ceasefire?
Our message stayed (and is still) unmistakably clear: Return all the 240 abductees, immediately and unconditionally, if you want a ceasefire.
Until this happens, we reserve the right to both diplomatically and politically (i.e. militarily) vie for their return.
35. Do I realize that Israel has been acting in accordance with international humanitarian law, and with “proportionate” responses?
Here are all the facts.
36. Do I decry every single Israeli military action as unjust and racist?
And do you call every wall “apartheid,” every fence “oppression,” every checkpoint is “racism?”
Do you think Israel’s blockade of Gaza, enacted after Hamas violently seized control of the strip in 2007, created an “open-air prison?”
“I must have heard that phrase a thousand times, and I still have no idea what it means,” said Carly Pildis, an organizing and advocacy professional living in Washington, D.C. “Even the Iron Dome, which does not harm Palestinians and saves Israeli lives, you wanted to defund,” referring to left-wing “progressives.”2
“Remember when you assured me that those rockets were just falling in fields and would never do real harm? You were wrong,” she added. “Not only have the rockets gotten worse, but we now know Hamas can and will launch mass atrocities against Israel. If you oppose every attempt to keep Israelis safe, you are sending the message that Jewish blood is cheap — and encouraging groups like Hamas, which explicitly treat it as such.”
“The fact that ceasefire calls have focused almost exclusively on Israel shows me that there is a deep antisemitic rot within the left that has conditioned people to view Jewish lives as less important,” Pildis continued, claiming that leftists have minimized Israeli losses, dehumanized Israelis, endorsed violence, and inflamed the conflict with outlandish rhetoric for years.
“You have used your rhetoric to erase the existence of Mizrahi Jews, Ethiopian Jews, and other Jews of color to claim that Israel is an entirely white state populated by European colonizers,” she wrote. “You ignored Jews’ clear claims of indigenousness to the Levant and claimed we were ‘settler colonialists.’ You justified terrorism and worked to demonize Zionism. When your rhetoric sounds exactly like that of far-right white nationalists, doesn’t that disturb you?”
37. Do I know the difference between antisemitic criticism and fair criticism regarding Israel?
Is it not antisemitic to wish Israel could find some other way of destroying Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza — as long as you can offer a viable alternative that ensures Palestinians are not able to do what they did on October 7th (or anything remotely close to it) at any time in the future.
It is also not antisemitic to be reasonably critical of Israeli policies, politicians, and other public servants — both during and before this war — as long as you spend a similar amount of time and energy applying these critiques to other countries, and so long as you are specific and provide realistic alternatives.
“But it is antisemitic to rush to false judgments about Israel’s actions and intentions, to blame them for what they do not do, and to refuse to understand the existential fears that drive their actions,” Howard Jacobson, a British novelist and journalist, wrote.3
In light of the situation in Israel — where we are based — we are making Future of Jewish FREE for the coming days. If you wish to support our critical mission to responsibly defend the Jewish People and Israel during this unprecedented time in our history, you can do so via the following options:
38. Do you realize that one of the main reasons Jews returned to their indigenous homeland to build their own country is because they’ve been expelled from so many others?
With the exception of North America, Jews have been expelled from all these regions, from one country after another, spanning thousands of years. Inquisitions. Pogroms. Excessive taxation. Barred from owning land and working in many jobs, guilds, and workplaces. The Holocaust. October 7th.
Yet still, today, all over the world, all over social media and, more alarmingly, in the middle of major “liberal” cities, you hear thousands of people explicitly calling for more death to more Jews. Will only complete Jewish extinction be enough?
“Of course not,” many people will tell you. “I just don’t like when Israeli Jews do what they do!” In other words, a classic gaslighting ploy to make it about “anti-Zionism” — a lame attempt to differentiate Israeli Jews from other Jews — which every educated Jew knows is the newer, more socially acceptable rendition of antisemitism.
And when us Jews try to defend their beloved, absolutely necessary, and also quite ordinary country, they continue to gaslight us with words like, “Oh, so you support the occupation.”
You don’t have to support Israel and the Middle East’s complex realities — and the occupation is indeed a complex reality — to understand the Jewish state’s grave necessity and admire the miraculousness of its founding. Again, if you judge any state by the mistakes it makes, the whole world would be rotten.
39. Do you realize how much nuance and context is part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
However, you won’t find much of it in the news media, on social media, and in classrooms and other places where these vital nuances, the historical missteps by both Israelis and Palestinians, and the grotesque institutionalized antisemitism still predominantly within the Palestinian territories and across Middle Eastern countries (antisemitism that far predates the State of Israel).
Even with all these complicated realities and histories that blame and responsibility can perform in the name of antisemitism, “the one you never expect to see is unrestrained delight in an atrocity, praise for the perpetrator, and callous scorn for the victims, as though their victimhood is all the proof of their culpability you need,” as Howard Jacobson so accurately put it.
“Ask what it takes for a feminist in London to applaud a rape, or a MeToo revolutionary in New York to dance a jig in celebration of the abduction of a woman and the mutilation of her baby,” he wrote. “How many lecturers in human rights partied through the night after being shown the footage of Israelis denied their right to live?”
Surely, this is victim-blaming, Jacobson added, “were the victims not guilty without trial of being Jews.”
40. Do you know just how nuanced and diverse antisemitism has been and still is?
In Europe, antisemitism is often a response to alienation and particularly high where unemployment runs rampant. For example, roughly half of all Spaniards and Greeks express unfavorable opinions about Jews. And antisemitic violence is fueled by young Islamic men and even women, who are immigrants and refugees (or the children of them) with little respect and no real socioeconomic upward mobility.
Across the Arab world, antisemitism is used as some crazed, abstract system for making sense of a world gone wrong. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, doesn’t just oppose Israel. He has called it the “sinister, unclean rabid dog of the region” and he’s said Israeli leaders “look like beasts and cannot be called human.”
“This sort of antisemitism thrives where there aren’t that many Jews,” according to famed U.S. columnist David Brooks. “The Jew is not a person but an idea, a unique carrier of transcendent evil: a pollution, a stain, a dark force responsible for the failures of others, the unconscious shame and primeval urges they feel in themselves, and everything that needs explaining. This is a form of derangement, a flight from reality even in otherwise sophisticated people.”4
Finally, in the United States, which is home to the second-largest population of Jews, the problem is the number of people who can’t fathom what antisemitism is, or who think Jews are being paranoid or excessively victimizing themselves.
Others in the U.S. think antisemitism is just another form of racism or bigotry. Hence why we see some Jewish organizations mistakenly partnering with other organizations designed to fight different types of hatred.
But antisemitism is not just another form of racism or bigotry. Heck, what other group is the word “clever” used as an insult? And who else is purported to amass control of media and finance, tremendous wealth, and covert manipulation of the world’s governments?
Antisemitism is a much broader and more varied bigotry than racial or ethnic prejudice. While all prejudices stem from an “us”-versus-“them” mindset, antisemitism emerges from feelings of superiority, contempt, fear, envy, and even inferiority, according to Bret Stephens, the editor-in-chief of Sapir.5
“The racist and ethnic bigot thinks the objects of his bigotry are deservedly beneath him,” Stephens said. “The antisemite thinks the object of his bigotry is undeservedly above him.”
This matters because Jew-haters consider themselves the underdogs, no matter how much power they possess, and the victimized party, no matter how much damage they inflict. The antisemite, as historian Deborah Lipstadt observed, almost always believes they are punching up; that their prejudice and cruelty is an act of courage and defiance.2
“For all the horrific cruelties of racism, it generally seeks subjugation, not elimination,” Stephens said. “It’s the religious dimension of antisemitism that so frequently leads antisemites to seek a ‘solution’ to their Jewish problem through mass expulsions or genocide.”
Another antisemitic argument is that Jews are imposters and swindlers. Imposters for claiming to be German, American, Canadian, Argentinian, Mexican, Australian, and so on — when we are actually “Semitic.” And swindlers for using all of our powerful tricks to deprive others of their entitlements.
“Anti-Zionists make the same claim about Jewish Israelis: that they are imposters for claiming an indigenous connection to the Land of Israel when really, they are latter-day European colonialists, and swindlers for trying to take from Palestinians what, supposedly, is rightfully theirs,” Stephens said.
“This is why anti-Zionism (never to be mistaken for criticism of Israeli government policy) is a modern-day version of antisemitism,” he added. “It is an attempt to organize politically and ideologically against Jews by employing the same false charges.”
41. And, finally, do you realize that Jews have, for thousands of years, been faced with an intensely vulnerable nowhere-to-go reality?
This reality was summed up by Israeli novelist and author, Amos Oz, who famously wrote:
“When my father was a boy in Poland, streets of Europe were covered with graffiti. ‘Jews, go back to Palestine.’ When my father revisited Europe 50 years later, the walls had new graffiti. ‘Jews, get out of Palestine.’”
In 1973, Joe Biden first met then-Israeli prime minister Golda Meir. She was in her 70s, and he, then 30, was in his first year of a decades-long Senate career. This was just before the 1973 Yom Kippur War (the fourth Arab-Israeli war).
As they’re standing shoulder-to-shoulder while photographs of them are being taken, Meir asked Biden, without looking at him, “Why do you look so worried?”
And Biden said, “Worried? Of course I’m worried!”
Meir, still looking at the photographers, replied to him: “We don’t worry, Senator. We Israelis have a secret weapon. We have nowhere else to go.”
“THE CORRUPTION OF THE AMERICAN MIND: HOW CONCEALED FOREIGN FUNDING OF U.S. HIGHER EDUCATION PREDICTS EROSION OF DEMOCRATIC VALUES AND ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS ON CAMPUS.” NCRI. https://networkcontagion.us/wp-content/uploads/NCRI-Report_The-Corruption-of-the-American-Mind.pdf.
“My friends on the left want a cease-fire. Why aren’t they demanding that Hamas surrender, instead?” Forward. https://forward.com/opinion/568121/cease-fire-leftists-hamas-israel-war.
“We ask ourselves how ordinary Germans could stand idly by in the 1940s. Today, we must ask: How can so many stand idly by and applaud?” The Daily Mail. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12708791/Howard-Jacobson-offers-scalding-critique-Israel-Booker-Prize-winning-author.html.
Brooks, David. “How to Fight Anti-Semitism.” The New York Times. March 24, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/24/opinion/david-brooks-how-to-fight-anti-semitism.html.
Stephens, Bret. “Three Falsehoods About Antisemitism—and One Truth.” Sapir. June 27, 2023. https://sapirjournal.org/antisemitism/2023/08/three-falsehoods-about-antisemitism-and-one-truth.
Good piece. One question: occupation? What part of Israel is truly “occupied?” Forgive my ignorance.