There is an enormous amount to unpack in this article which is superb and, unfortunately, inaccurate in places. Israel’s military advantages rely on relationships with G7 countries and mainly the USA. Those who partner with us regionally, would attack if they thought they could destroy Israel (Egypt, Jordan and Syria).
DO NOT KID YOURSELF ABOUT THIS FOR ONE SECOND. They know they cannot beat us so they take what benefits they can get. There is a concerted, purposeful and effective ongoing effort by our enemies in The region and in western countries to separate diaspora Jews from Israel and Western Liberal democracies from Israel. They are going after emotional connection, monetary and military support and eventually it will be natural resources support.
They peddle lies about apartheid and genocide because they can wash away their guilt about the crusades, the inquisition, the pogroms and the Holocaust if they accuse Jews of the perfidious acts that have been inflicted upon us for Millenia.
They already are starting to envision a world where Israel is completely delegitimized. Their goal is to get people to think of Israel not as the home of the Jewish people but as a colonial enterprise even though that is ahistorical and out of touch with reality. These Western countries are using Jewish blood to wash away their guilt about their colonial and genocidal histories.
We need to recognize this and fight it on every front. What Joshua says is true, but it ignores the necessity of a small country to have powerful friends when surrounded by wolves.
Yes you are correct. Israel needs powerful friends like the U S to survive. The Muslim states that surround Israel only accept it while it is to their advantage. When they no longer see that advantage they will turn on Israel to destroy the Jewish state. Their leaders have trouble even in peaceful times, keeping the majority of their populations, who still bear a medieval hatred against infidels, under control.
You seem to have missed the part about western countries being weaker than Israel in most respects because they lack confidence in their own culture and identity. The University educated elites who dominated these countries have for years been trying to outdo each other in distancing themselves from western civilisation and its achievements and instead suck up to every other culture, including ones that want to destroy the west, like Islamists.
Apart from this cultural suicide, these elites are complacently presiding over demographic suicide, relying on immigrants to disguise demographic collapse. They are also committing energy suicide by trying to replace fossil fuels and nuclear energy with intermittent renewables.
This elite is doomed as most voters in these countries are proud of their culture, and having resisted indoctrination, have a better understanding of reality. Within 10-20 years the old elite will be totally discredited as the catastrophic effects of their energy suicide policies become unignorable, and replaced by a new elite with a better grasp of reality and without the same self-loathing delusions. This group will support Israel because it is the only high income western country to have solved ALL these problems and has a future. The ONLY high income country with an above replacement fertility rate.
People will be queung up trying to learn from Israel to save their countries from extinction,
I hope you are correct. However the Arab countries have been at war with Israel for 5000 years. They are stuck in this mentality. I don’t think anything will change it. This world is just a passing place where they receive their reward in heaven for killing infidels. The leaders of the countries in the Abraham Accords only hold on to their power precariously because the majority of their populations adhere to a 6th Century religion and its doctrines.
I wholly agree with you except for the G7 countries. They can barely take care of their newest populations, pandering to them above their own native born citizens. So far they have not been countries Israel could rely on as allies, recognizing Palestine as a state, and speaking out against Israel. They seem to be part of the group of wolves Israel has to contend with, along with the taqiyya countries like Lebanon, Qatar, etc. The US has been the only reliable ally with Israel and has shown their loyalty through its actions, not just its words.
At this time of history western countries have lost all credibility as well as their ability to defend their future. They stand with the Terrorists sponsors: Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas. Suicide by empathy.
Excellent essay. And not just some Middle Eastern countries but a much bigger country, India, also appreciates Israel. Most Hindus are pro-Israel. Yes, none of these accusations against Israel, including that of genocide and apartheid, are at all new. They were being levelled against Israel much before October 7. Social media and influencers have helped these new blood libels to spread faster. And they cannot be argued out of existence, because you cannot reason a man out of an idea which he did not reason himself into (Swift). Jew-hatred has come out with such force precisely because it has been around so long: https://ruthvanita452091.substack.com/p/jew-hatred-comes-out
And losing "friends" in the process. There may have been wisdom in the old advice to keep politics and religion out of polite conversation. But if one can't converse about important things with one's close friends, what's the point?
You are right. Of course, we choose our friends because they are like us. In other words, we don't associate with the neighbors across the street who are Stalinist Democrats, but the Republicans aren't far behind. They're the same, just slower at it like Leon Trotsky.
The thing is sometimes one changes and one's friends do not. "If you are not a Marxist at 25 you have no heart and if you are still a Marxist after 35 you have no head"
That old saying is still very true, isn't it. The way my mother raised me and the area where we lived, I was never a leftie, but my daughter and five grandchildren are. Colleges and universities change our children on purpose.
It’s not an either or but a both and. Always good to counter misinformation with facts and to show why the purveyors of misinformation are likely little more than antisemites masquerading as humanitarians.
Out of 5.8 million adult Jews in the U.S., only 3.56 million actually practice their faith. The rest? “Just Jewish.” Since 2010, 61% of Jewish marriages have been with non-Jews—and most of their kids aren’t raised Jewish at all. Ironically, intermarriage might be the most effective weapon against antisemitism: suddenly, millions of Americans have Jews in their families. The real problem isn’t outsiders—it’s insiders. Too many U.S. Jews are checked out of their own heritage, indifferent to Judaism, and oblivious to Israel. That's because our community’s biggest threat isn’t hate from the outside—it’s apathy from within. And that's BAD PR
Inter marriage will continue and perhaps a minority of them will raise kids as Jews. But I always say this indifference was evident 50 years ago at university....Kids, Jewish kids were involved in the anti war protests (as I was)....but I realized then that the antipathy for Israel would always be the gap between us. And now that gap is like a ravine.
Whatever it is, Western Europe is no longer an ally of Israel and cannot be treated as such. And it is long past time Western Europe started bearing some consequences for its outrageous insults and diplomatic attacks on Israel. Israel no longer needs Western Europe and so should no longer ignore these slights. Spain has "permanently" recalled its ambassador? Has Israel recalled its onw ambassador? Has Israel expelled all Spanish diplomats or demanded an apology? How about Ireland? Or Britain? Or France? It is long past time these dying nations understand that Israel is not a doormat for their performative asslicking of their Muslims.
Excellent and insightful essay. There are no easy explanations for why Jews are not liked. The only logical explanation is one that defies logic and enters the metaphysical. I've attributed it to the devil, as described in the Book of Job, who hates Job and causes him miseries because Job loves Hashem, even after suffering devil caused calamity after calamity. So too the Jew continues to love G-d, despite centuries of one calamity after another. As none of these calamities were the fault of Job, none of those suffered by Jews are the fault of Jews. The Book of Job in the bible is the story of the Jew in this world. As Hashem restores Job, so too the day will come when the Jew in this world is restored, the veil will be lifted, and the devil inspired mind worm destroyed.
That is the conventional reading of Job, but if his intelligence and security were better he could have prevented the marauding bands from attacking his flocks and family and servants. Job was a Bronze Age chieftain living in the Iron Age.
The entire notion of Israel having to explain itself is obscene. It stems from our persecuted psyche. Israel never did what normal nations do: show who the enemy is. Produce materials, flood the airwaves. Attack the enemy. Enough with History. No one cares. It's a brutalized world, aided by Hollywood violence, who cares only for gore. And Islam and their adherents supply plenty. Stop " explaining". Israel does what sovereign nations do. Period.
Well said. I also believe that there are elements of victim blaming at work. Genocides are not PR problems. They are populist obsessions fueled by propaganda, paranoia and powerful elites. As is currently understood, there is no way to reverse a well manufactured and promoted conspiracy theory. Treating jew-hatred as a PR problem is a form of denial that takes resources away from actual solutions.
MY friends and I have been saying this. One gentile friend remarked he fears for Israel's survival ...after the Iranian campaign. I don't understand his fear. I find your remarks powerful. ISRAEL in academia and the arts has LOST the hasbara battle. It's very existence is an affront to Muslims and now an affront to progressive wrapped up in the pal table cloth. I WILL NOT watch the Oscars tonight but I'm thinking that there will more than a few denunciations of the "war by choice" No imminent danger, of course. And should yet another anti Zionist diatribe win best documentary and I I think several are on the ballot...there will extra performative virtue signaling denunciations of Israel. To get back directly to you....I agree that the International community is aware more than ever of Israel's power and creativity. The anti Zionist propaganda campaign is entrenched in the schools starting with pre school. So that part of the Jewish world that aligns with Israel should have a lot to say to counter all the rest ...especially the "asajews" in pal table cloth lined up to see the voice of hind rajab at film forum NYC.
I agree that Israel is becoming militarily stronger, but it won't be able to survive if it has to endure the kind of isolation that South Africa faced. Prohibition on travel on Israeli passports to many countries, ban on importing goods from Israel, limitations on all trade, plus unanimous Security Council resolutions requiring Israel to commit national suicide, and lots more? That's where we're headed if the US public is overwhelming anti-Israel, which is where the US education system and media are taking them.
In and above the huge investments that Google has already made in the State of Israel, here's one of the maga ones:
The Biggest Winners From Google’s $32 Billion Wiz
"Wiz’s Founders And Investors Cash Out As Google’s $32 Billion Takeover Closes
Two years after rejecting a $23 billion offer, Israel-based Wiz secured the largest acquisition in Google’s history and will deliver billion-dollar returns to its founders and investors."
In any case, we ca not ignore the tsunami of hatred circulating all around us, we need to fight back furiously just as well as we do on the battlefields.
I don't think anti-Zionist (that is, Jew-hating)Jews in America "sabotage Israel's goals because of harm being done to Jews in the diaspora." It's the other way round. Many anti-Zionist Jews aim to do both - sabotage Israel and also harm Jews in the diaspora. And Israel is a country. It is sympathetic to diaspora Jews but it doesn't include them. The same is true of any country with a diaspora, e.g. India.
What Israel needs to do is WIN. People -- especially Americans -- are drawn to winners. There is no substitute for winning. Winning brings allies and business partners.
Winning means not only toppling the ayatollahs in Iran, but also inflicting permanent loss of territory on the aggressors in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and J&S. There is no other way for the enemy to understand they have lost the war they started than by losing territory. And much of it is highly strategic, providing Israel with defensible borders and high ground.
There is an enormous amount to unpack in this article which is superb and, unfortunately, inaccurate in places. Israel’s military advantages rely on relationships with G7 countries and mainly the USA. Those who partner with us regionally, would attack if they thought they could destroy Israel (Egypt, Jordan and Syria).
DO NOT KID YOURSELF ABOUT THIS FOR ONE SECOND. They know they cannot beat us so they take what benefits they can get. There is a concerted, purposeful and effective ongoing effort by our enemies in The region and in western countries to separate diaspora Jews from Israel and Western Liberal democracies from Israel. They are going after emotional connection, monetary and military support and eventually it will be natural resources support.
They peddle lies about apartheid and genocide because they can wash away their guilt about the crusades, the inquisition, the pogroms and the Holocaust if they accuse Jews of the perfidious acts that have been inflicted upon us for Millenia.
They already are starting to envision a world where Israel is completely delegitimized. Their goal is to get people to think of Israel not as the home of the Jewish people but as a colonial enterprise even though that is ahistorical and out of touch with reality. These Western countries are using Jewish blood to wash away their guilt about their colonial and genocidal histories.
We need to recognize this and fight it on every front. What Joshua says is true, but it ignores the necessity of a small country to have powerful friends when surrounded by wolves.
Yes you are correct. Israel needs powerful friends like the U S to survive. The Muslim states that surround Israel only accept it while it is to their advantage. When they no longer see that advantage they will turn on Israel to destroy the Jewish state. Their leaders have trouble even in peaceful times, keeping the majority of their populations, who still bear a medieval hatred against infidels, under control.
You seem to have missed the part about western countries being weaker than Israel in most respects because they lack confidence in their own culture and identity. The University educated elites who dominated these countries have for years been trying to outdo each other in distancing themselves from western civilisation and its achievements and instead suck up to every other culture, including ones that want to destroy the west, like Islamists.
Apart from this cultural suicide, these elites are complacently presiding over demographic suicide, relying on immigrants to disguise demographic collapse. They are also committing energy suicide by trying to replace fossil fuels and nuclear energy with intermittent renewables.
This elite is doomed as most voters in these countries are proud of their culture, and having resisted indoctrination, have a better understanding of reality. Within 10-20 years the old elite will be totally discredited as the catastrophic effects of their energy suicide policies become unignorable, and replaced by a new elite with a better grasp of reality and without the same self-loathing delusions. This group will support Israel because it is the only high income western country to have solved ALL these problems and has a future. The ONLY high income country with an above replacement fertility rate.
People will be queung up trying to learn from Israel to save their countries from extinction,
I hope you are correct in your prediction.
I hope you are correct. However the Arab countries have been at war with Israel for 5000 years. They are stuck in this mentality. I don’t think anything will change it. This world is just a passing place where they receive their reward in heaven for killing infidels. The leaders of the countries in the Abraham Accords only hold on to their power precariously because the majority of their populations adhere to a 6th Century religion and its doctrines.
I wholly agree with you except for the G7 countries. They can barely take care of their newest populations, pandering to them above their own native born citizens. So far they have not been countries Israel could rely on as allies, recognizing Palestine as a state, and speaking out against Israel. They seem to be part of the group of wolves Israel has to contend with, along with the taqiyya countries like Lebanon, Qatar, etc. The US has been the only reliable ally with Israel and has shown their loyalty through its actions, not just its words.
Absolutely superb article. Yes! "Israel does not need to be liked. Israel needs to be feared and respected."
At this time of history western countries have lost all credibility as well as their ability to defend their future. They stand with the Terrorists sponsors: Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas. Suicide by empathy.
Excellent essay. And not just some Middle Eastern countries but a much bigger country, India, also appreciates Israel. Most Hindus are pro-Israel. Yes, none of these accusations against Israel, including that of genocide and apartheid, are at all new. They were being levelled against Israel much before October 7. Social media and influencers have helped these new blood libels to spread faster. And they cannot be argued out of existence, because you cannot reason a man out of an idea which he did not reason himself into (Swift). Jew-hatred has come out with such force precisely because it has been around so long: https://ruthvanita452091.substack.com/p/jew-hatred-comes-out
All true Ruth...it's like banging your head against the wall arguing with fools. I've literally been damaged by one of those fools.
And losing "friends" in the process. There may have been wisdom in the old advice to keep politics and religion out of polite conversation. But if one can't converse about important things with one's close friends, what's the point?
You are right. Of course, we choose our friends because they are like us. In other words, we don't associate with the neighbors across the street who are Stalinist Democrats, but the Republicans aren't far behind. They're the same, just slower at it like Leon Trotsky.
The thing is sometimes one changes and one's friends do not. "If you are not a Marxist at 25 you have no heart and if you are still a Marxist after 35 you have no head"
That old saying is still very true, isn't it. The way my mother raised me and the area where we lived, I was never a leftie, but my daughter and five grandchildren are. Colleges and universities change our children on purpose.
It’s not an either or but a both and. Always good to counter misinformation with facts and to show why the purveyors of misinformation are likely little more than antisemites masquerading as humanitarians.
Out of 5.8 million adult Jews in the U.S., only 3.56 million actually practice their faith. The rest? “Just Jewish.” Since 2010, 61% of Jewish marriages have been with non-Jews—and most of their kids aren’t raised Jewish at all. Ironically, intermarriage might be the most effective weapon against antisemitism: suddenly, millions of Americans have Jews in their families. The real problem isn’t outsiders—it’s insiders. Too many U.S. Jews are checked out of their own heritage, indifferent to Judaism, and oblivious to Israel. That's because our community’s biggest threat isn’t hate from the outside—it’s apathy from within. And that's BAD PR
Inter marriage will continue and perhaps a minority of them will raise kids as Jews. But I always say this indifference was evident 50 years ago at university....Kids, Jewish kids were involved in the anti war protests (as I was)....but I realized then that the antipathy for Israel would always be the gap between us. And now that gap is like a ravine.
Whatever it is, Western Europe is no longer an ally of Israel and cannot be treated as such. And it is long past time Western Europe started bearing some consequences for its outrageous insults and diplomatic attacks on Israel. Israel no longer needs Western Europe and so should no longer ignore these slights. Spain has "permanently" recalled its ambassador? Has Israel recalled its onw ambassador? Has Israel expelled all Spanish diplomats or demanded an apology? How about Ireland? Or Britain? Or France? It is long past time these dying nations understand that Israel is not a doormat for their performative asslicking of their Muslims.
Excellent and insightful essay. There are no easy explanations for why Jews are not liked. The only logical explanation is one that defies logic and enters the metaphysical. I've attributed it to the devil, as described in the Book of Job, who hates Job and causes him miseries because Job loves Hashem, even after suffering devil caused calamity after calamity. So too the Jew continues to love G-d, despite centuries of one calamity after another. As none of these calamities were the fault of Job, none of those suffered by Jews are the fault of Jews. The Book of Job in the bible is the story of the Jew in this world. As Hashem restores Job, so too the day will come when the Jew in this world is restored, the veil will be lifted, and the devil inspired mind worm destroyed.
That is the conventional reading of Job, but if his intelligence and security were better he could have prevented the marauding bands from attacking his flocks and family and servants. Job was a Bronze Age chieftain living in the Iron Age.
The entire notion of Israel having to explain itself is obscene. It stems from our persecuted psyche. Israel never did what normal nations do: show who the enemy is. Produce materials, flood the airwaves. Attack the enemy. Enough with History. No one cares. It's a brutalized world, aided by Hollywood violence, who cares only for gore. And Islam and their adherents supply plenty. Stop " explaining". Israel does what sovereign nations do. Period.
Well said. I also believe that there are elements of victim blaming at work. Genocides are not PR problems. They are populist obsessions fueled by propaganda, paranoia and powerful elites. As is currently understood, there is no way to reverse a well manufactured and promoted conspiracy theory. Treating jew-hatred as a PR problem is a form of denial that takes resources away from actual solutions.
Thank you. Thank you so much! A deep bow and gratitude.
"Israel needs to be feared and respected."
MY friends and I have been saying this. One gentile friend remarked he fears for Israel's survival ...after the Iranian campaign. I don't understand his fear. I find your remarks powerful. ISRAEL in academia and the arts has LOST the hasbara battle. It's very existence is an affront to Muslims and now an affront to progressive wrapped up in the pal table cloth. I WILL NOT watch the Oscars tonight but I'm thinking that there will more than a few denunciations of the "war by choice" No imminent danger, of course. And should yet another anti Zionist diatribe win best documentary and I I think several are on the ballot...there will extra performative virtue signaling denunciations of Israel. To get back directly to you....I agree that the International community is aware more than ever of Israel's power and creativity. The anti Zionist propaganda campaign is entrenched in the schools starting with pre school. So that part of the Jewish world that aligns with Israel should have a lot to say to counter all the rest ...especially the "asajews" in pal table cloth lined up to see the voice of hind rajab at film forum NYC.
I agree that Israel is becoming militarily stronger, but it won't be able to survive if it has to endure the kind of isolation that South Africa faced. Prohibition on travel on Israeli passports to many countries, ban on importing goods from Israel, limitations on all trade, plus unanimous Security Council resolutions requiring Israel to commit national suicide, and lots more? That's where we're headed if the US public is overwhelming anti-Israel, which is where the US education system and media are taking them.
So we need to fight, hard, against the lies.
Great article Joshua
In and above the huge investments that Google has already made in the State of Israel, here's one of the maga ones:
The Biggest Winners From Google’s $32 Billion Wiz
"Wiz’s Founders And Investors Cash Out As Google’s $32 Billion Takeover Closes
Two years after rejecting a $23 billion offer, Israel-based Wiz secured the largest acquisition in Google’s history and will deliver billion-dollar returns to its founders and investors."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sofiachierchio/2026/03/11/wizs-founders-and-investors-cash-out-as-googles-32-billion-takeover-closes/
In any case, we ca not ignore the tsunami of hatred circulating all around us, we need to fight back furiously just as well as we do on the battlefields.
Israel’s PR problem in the West hurts Western Jews! That’s why it’s not ‘overrated.’ It’s literally killing Jews.
Yes, that is true. But the article is arguing that it does not hurt Israel as much as we think it does.
Israel should include Diaspora Jews.
Plus, there are way too many antizionist Jews in American sabotaging Israel’s goals because of harm being done to Jews in the diaspora.
I don't think anti-Zionist (that is, Jew-hating)Jews in America "sabotage Israel's goals because of harm being done to Jews in the diaspora." It's the other way round. Many anti-Zionist Jews aim to do both - sabotage Israel and also harm Jews in the diaspora. And Israel is a country. It is sympathetic to diaspora Jews but it doesn't include them. The same is true of any country with a diaspora, e.g. India.
What Israel needs to do is WIN. People -- especially Americans -- are drawn to winners. There is no substitute for winning. Winning brings allies and business partners.
Winning means not only toppling the ayatollahs in Iran, but also inflicting permanent loss of territory on the aggressors in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and J&S. There is no other way for the enemy to understand they have lost the war they started than by losing territory. And much of it is highly strategic, providing Israel with defensible borders and high ground.