I wonder if these sour-faced propagandists have any idea that they're slapping a kosher seal of validation on all the worst modern blood libels against Israel, warming the hearts of all the world's Jew haters and that they're putting a bull's eye on the back of every Jew on earth?
Or that they're sadly re-enacting one of the uglier aspects of Jewish history, where the heretic decides he can no longer stand with his people and decides to sell them out to Jew haters, as a way to both morally preen and to maintain social status? (Which rarely turns out well.)
Or is the approval of the West's cultural aristocrats and a stroll down the red carpet worth it?
I'm guessing that as with most of the lost souls of the modern West and children of the postmodern Academy, they know very little except their pure hearts and feelings, which are always infallible and always exist on a higher plane. And they also know that to be part of the cultural aristocracy in our age of conspicuous compassion means to be always performing your concern for the downtrodden and the wretched of the earth, which in 2026 means lining up to feel the pain of the newest sacred victim, the Palestinian.
Of course this also means that the more you love and center the Palestinian, the more you have to despise and denounce the Jew among nations, Israel, but I guess this is hard to see from the glare of your halo and the popping flash bulbs in your eyes.
Once again the Christian West has set up a worldview and system of morality that posits Jews as its anti-Christ and as the demon that must be vanquished to save the world, and once again a cohort of upscale Jews has fallen for it, hoping to sell their souls to save their skins.
Since I attended a NYU conference on the modern Arab novel for teachers....led by an anti Zionist Jew....who opened with a hideous Canadian Arab made hate film mocking Jewish beliefs and sentiments.....nothing to do with the objective of the conference......I see that there is an irrational Jew hate not just in the Diaspora among Jews....but among Israeli Jews.
"We have witnesed a phenomenon which probably has no parallel in history: An emotional and moral identification by the majority of Israel's inteligentsia, and its print and electronic media, with people committed to our annihilation."
Aharon Megged
"Antisemitism directed at oneself was an original Jewish creation. I don’t know of any other nation so flooded with self-criticism. Even after the Holocaust ...harsh comments were made by prominent Jews against the victims ... The Jewish ability to internalize any critical and condemnatory remark and castigate themselves is one of the marvels of human nature .... Day and night ... that feeling produces dread, sensitivity, self-criticism and sometimes self-destruction."
Aharon Appelfeld
From my reading of Jewish history, it seems not everyone born Jewish can handle the burden and stigma that comes with it, and this seems especially prevalent among the intellectual class, who are also often mostly secular, disaffected and yet determined to make a name for themselves in larger (non-Jewish) society.
Every time a new form of universalism has arisen in Christendom (Christianity, Protestantism, Marxism, and now Social Justice), the same pattern repeats: 1) the universalists demand Jews abandon their old faith for the new one; and 2) some ambitious and/or unbalanced Jews decide to turn on their own people as a way to win favor under the new dispensation. (And there's no easier way to prove your devotion to your new faith than attacking and denigrating your former one.)
People like Norm Finkelstein, Peter Beinart and Masha Gessen (among many others) are the modern versions of Nicholas Donin and Johannes Pfefferkorn, both of whom were born Jews who became leading Jew haters and who helped make life miserable for their own people.
Pardon me....its "M Gessen" non binary. "They" is in NY Times and New Yorker. New Yorker scion hate filled Wallace Shawn is one of the worst. You really covered it all. I don't know how Bill Maher suddenly got so smart. I used to hate him. I don't get HBO so I just see his pro Israel clips. The same few celebrities show up supporting Israel . Now a new film by two hate filled asajewishisraeli" If they lose their citizenship good. Then they get to be citizens of the world....or Ireland. You are spot on in everything you wrote.
M. (lol) they/them Gessen, or as I call her Masha "Warsaw Ghetto" Gessen is as ugly on the inside as they/them is on the outside.
This miserable misshapen freak escaped Soviet anti-Semitism, came to America as a Jewish refugee, has a very successful career, and then decided to run with the herd and become an enemy of the Jewish state, which saved so many Russians just like they/them. Does this count as chutzpah!?
For any sane adult (most esp a Jew) to compare Gaza, which has an elected govt, billions in donations and only faced violence because THEY started a war they could have ended any moment by simply surrendering and returning the hostages with the Warsaw Ghetto, Auschwitz' waiting room, where 99% of the inhabitants were robbed and brutally murdered only for BEING JEWISH—this is the height of moral grotesquery and intellectual bankruptcy.
I know it's bad form to criticize someone's appearance instead of their ideas, but with some people it's hard not to. If we were making a pictogram for "self-hatred" a pic of Gessen would be perfect.
Again clear example of another misguided attempt at Tikun Olam by Jews who have little understanding of the Torah and its teachings! It’s no different with Liberal Jews here in America like Jewish Michigan AG (Nessel) in her Queen Esther moment (NOT) who stated that Jews should vote for the antisemite democratic candidate, El-Sayed, b/c Jews should care more about saving humanity than their own safety!! You can’t make this stuff up -> total ignorance of Judaism!!
These are Erev Rav’s. We have been dealing with them ever since we left Egypt. Who started the blood libels against Jews in Medieval England? A Jewish convert. Who was responsible for the burning of the Talmud and worse? Jews who converted to Catholicism and became priests. On and on. We can’t call them Kapos because they really had no choice. These two free odious people have made faux documentaries, including this one why the hostages were suffering in Gaza in cahots with one of the most anti-Israel blood libelling newspapers in the world, the UK’s Guardian. They are traitors. Strip them of their citizenship and let them go live in Gaza or Europe. They don’t deserve to come back to Israel and pollute it with their poisonous venom.
"The more emotionally explosive the comparison, the more rigorous the evidence required to sustain it." Real evidence exonerating Israel is NOT on the agenda of these Jew-haters. The key word is "emotionally" because that's what regressives do. They think that whining and crying bolster their attacks on the Jewish state. All I can say to Israelis and Jewish folks everywhere is hang tough.
Precisely. When so many deliberately lie about us and others glam on to the libels with self-righteous feel-good outrage, I say to myself, “Fuck them all. I know who we are.”
Nailed it again, and again, and again, Joshua. All the most flawed, hypocritical and biased arguments are brought to bear on Israel and the willfully ignorant spectators applaud the Emperor’s new clothes.
Honestly I am at least here in the US pretty close to a free speech absolutist. But Israel is in not only a physical life and death struggle with unrelenting enemies but an even more vigorous struggle with vicious liars the world over. For Israeli citizens to make a film like this is extremely close to the definition of treason. I'm not sure what should be done but Israelis cannot be allowed to give aid and comfort to the enemy in time of war.
An excellent essay, Joshua. I find it incredible that given that we are in the midst of the Yamim Noraim (a time when each Jew recalibrates or re-orients his/her internal compass or priorities) that you have these two (obviously liberal Israeli filmmakers) who decide on doing the polar opposite (trying to discredit both the IDF and the State of Israel) I hope that they will be investigated by the both the military and civilian judiciary. In view of the memories of all the brave IDF soldiers and hostages who lost their lives to these savages I find this so absolutely shameful and reckless!!
Wow. It’s remarkable that these 2 ISRAELIS feel so compelled to be “Good Jews” for the world and to allow all of those “artistic elite Euros”, you know, the ones who love to justify their Jew hatred being affirmed by JEWS! Israelis.
Yup, these 2 “documentarians” did a great job with anonymous sources, editing to the max, and generally offering the perfect excuse for the aforementioned.
Israel used to be the canary in the coal mine but now in light of woke fashion twitching into a pro Islamic pretzel, Israel in now the international punching bag in the naughty corner and government ministers (various so-called democracies) show their governments' loyalty and submission to Islamic cause on their social media accounts, generous grants to Islamic issues and using their old boys network to proclaim relentless stochastic violence against any Jews regardless of whether they are Zionists such as Adass and Chabad etc. And block inquiries.
A passionately coherent essay, Joshua, saying it exactly as it is. I rode with the waves that so rhythmically rose to constantly smash down Israel, on and on, relentless in attempt to obliterate. This was the rhythm and tenor of your writing, showing so starkly the situation we face. That these two young Israelis are caught up in it, contributing so much in the most base of ways, is something they'll have to live with the rest of their lives.
Joshua, there is no logic in the un contained prejudice and hate against Jewish people. A virus which is ingrained far deeper in society than one can imagine.
I find the world is so uneducated about Israel the Arab nations, and the Islamic world! Moreover, so ignorant of history. Everyone should spend a month in Israel and another in any Arab or Islamic led country before having an opinion. However I realize I am living in a wishful fantasy. We as humans are given so many useful tools, yet misuse them. Lies and propaganda become slogans for the lazy. Sometimes I wish I had the money for these twisted liberals so I could send them all a one way ticket to the Gaza they support, with a laptop and read their writing a month later. Joshua, I love all of your articles, especially this fact:
Jewish children were not killed because German officers believed militants were operating near their homes. They were killed because they were Jewish. There were no Jewish armies launching attacks from Warsaw neighborhoods, no Jewish battalions crossing into German towns and murdering civilians, and no Jewish government openly committed to destroying Germany.
Jill, i did not mean it as criticism, I think islam a threat to world peace. Whilst I am Jewish, I believe in 'humanity' which ever faith or religion one follows. Jews have been the target of hate and evil for centuries, and we're now living in an era in which western societies are being islamised. It's not a fear or a phobia, it is a fact.
When a society becomes corrupt and then pretends it’s being even handed I find it unbearable. It would be like listening to a list of accusations against a black teen delivering newspapers in the antebellum South. Surely some black teen did something wrong maybe even something grievous but on the whole the accusers were utterly compromised people. The hilarity the irony the satire is the left has for decades promoted the idea that a much evolved west is still SO OBSCENELY institutionally racist that the system has to be overturned racist practices put into place to remediate it and how many super bright people signed onto this and still do. But you claim that an ancient hatred that we know has historically over and over rotted brains and hearts is exploding again and no wait, it’s deserved so it’s not the same. Bc in the past NO ONE ARGUED JEWS DESERVE IT. I engage to sharpen my wits not to turn people bc they’re quite happy spinning in a wheel going nowhere mentally & foaming at the mouth. No desire to engage they just copy and paste without challenging that material (it’s only someone else’s copy and paste thats sus) they want to preach shallow ethos shout genocide at the top of their lungs while they wish it on Jews. I agree w the woke mob the whole system can be corrupt they just are poor at identifying which systems those are.
The paradox is that Israel must be found guilty before the evidence is heard because a fair hearing of the evidence will ultimately exonerate them.
I respectfully suggest that anyone watching this NAZA thing should have the courage to also watch the latest Fauda series (Series VI, I think).
And only then consider the insanity of moral equivalence.
I wonder if these sour-faced propagandists have any idea that they're slapping a kosher seal of validation on all the worst modern blood libels against Israel, warming the hearts of all the world's Jew haters and that they're putting a bull's eye on the back of every Jew on earth?
Or that they're sadly re-enacting one of the uglier aspects of Jewish history, where the heretic decides he can no longer stand with his people and decides to sell them out to Jew haters, as a way to both morally preen and to maintain social status? (Which rarely turns out well.)
Or is the approval of the West's cultural aristocrats and a stroll down the red carpet worth it?
I'm guessing that as with most of the lost souls of the modern West and children of the postmodern Academy, they know very little except their pure hearts and feelings, which are always infallible and always exist on a higher plane. And they also know that to be part of the cultural aristocracy in our age of conspicuous compassion means to be always performing your concern for the downtrodden and the wretched of the earth, which in 2026 means lining up to feel the pain of the newest sacred victim, the Palestinian.
Of course this also means that the more you love and center the Palestinian, the more you have to despise and denounce the Jew among nations, Israel, but I guess this is hard to see from the glare of your halo and the popping flash bulbs in your eyes.
Once again the Christian West has set up a worldview and system of morality that posits Jews as its anti-Christ and as the demon that must be vanquished to save the world, and once again a cohort of upscale Jews has fallen for it, hoping to sell their souls to save their skins.
There's "Christian West" marxist woke media-influenced brainwashed scum and then there's some dedicated Judeo-Christians 10000% supporting Israel...
Of course they do. This is why they are doing it. They are traitors.
“Conspicuous compassion”. Perfect. Love it.
Exactly. Well stated.
Since I attended a NYU conference on the modern Arab novel for teachers....led by an anti Zionist Jew....who opened with a hideous Canadian Arab made hate film mocking Jewish beliefs and sentiments.....nothing to do with the objective of the conference......I see that there is an irrational Jew hate not just in the Diaspora among Jews....but among Israeli Jews.
"We have witnesed a phenomenon which probably has no parallel in history: An emotional and moral identification by the majority of Israel's inteligentsia, and its print and electronic media, with people committed to our annihilation."
Aharon Megged
"Antisemitism directed at oneself was an original Jewish creation. I don’t know of any other nation so flooded with self-criticism. Even after the Holocaust ...harsh comments were made by prominent Jews against the victims ... The Jewish ability to internalize any critical and condemnatory remark and castigate themselves is one of the marvels of human nature .... Day and night ... that feeling produces dread, sensitivity, self-criticism and sometimes self-destruction."
Aharon Appelfeld
From my reading of Jewish history, it seems not everyone born Jewish can handle the burden and stigma that comes with it, and this seems especially prevalent among the intellectual class, who are also often mostly secular, disaffected and yet determined to make a name for themselves in larger (non-Jewish) society.
Every time a new form of universalism has arisen in Christendom (Christianity, Protestantism, Marxism, and now Social Justice), the same pattern repeats: 1) the universalists demand Jews abandon their old faith for the new one; and 2) some ambitious and/or unbalanced Jews decide to turn on their own people as a way to win favor under the new dispensation. (And there's no easier way to prove your devotion to your new faith than attacking and denigrating your former one.)
People like Norm Finkelstein, Peter Beinart and Masha Gessen (among many others) are the modern versions of Nicholas Donin and Johannes Pfefferkorn, both of whom were born Jews who became leading Jew haters and who helped make life miserable for their own people.
Thanks
Pardon me....its "M Gessen" non binary. "They" is in NY Times and New Yorker. New Yorker scion hate filled Wallace Shawn is one of the worst. You really covered it all. I don't know how Bill Maher suddenly got so smart. I used to hate him. I don't get HBO so I just see his pro Israel clips. The same few celebrities show up supporting Israel . Now a new film by two hate filled asajewishisraeli" If they lose their citizenship good. Then they get to be citizens of the world....or Ireland. You are spot on in everything you wrote.
Thanks!
M. (lol) they/them Gessen, or as I call her Masha "Warsaw Ghetto" Gessen is as ugly on the inside as they/them is on the outside.
This miserable misshapen freak escaped Soviet anti-Semitism, came to America as a Jewish refugee, has a very successful career, and then decided to run with the herd and become an enemy of the Jewish state, which saved so many Russians just like they/them. Does this count as chutzpah!?
For any sane adult (most esp a Jew) to compare Gaza, which has an elected govt, billions in donations and only faced violence because THEY started a war they could have ended any moment by simply surrendering and returning the hostages with the Warsaw Ghetto, Auschwitz' waiting room, where 99% of the inhabitants were robbed and brutally murdered only for BEING JEWISH—this is the height of moral grotesquery and intellectual bankruptcy.
I know it's bad form to criticize someone's appearance instead of their ideas, but with some people it's hard not to. If we were making a pictogram for "self-hatred" a pic of Gessen would be perfect.
Joshua,
Again clear example of another misguided attempt at Tikun Olam by Jews who have little understanding of the Torah and its teachings! It’s no different with Liberal Jews here in America like Jewish Michigan AG (Nessel) in her Queen Esther moment (NOT) who stated that Jews should vote for the antisemite democratic candidate, El-Sayed, b/c Jews should care more about saving humanity than their own safety!! You can’t make this stuff up -> total ignorance of Judaism!!
These are Erev Rav’s. We have been dealing with them ever since we left Egypt. Who started the blood libels against Jews in Medieval England? A Jewish convert. Who was responsible for the burning of the Talmud and worse? Jews who converted to Catholicism and became priests. On and on. We can’t call them Kapos because they really had no choice. These two free odious people have made faux documentaries, including this one why the hostages were suffering in Gaza in cahots with one of the most anti-Israel blood libelling newspapers in the world, the UK’s Guardian. They are traitors. Strip them of their citizenship and let them go live in Gaza or Europe. They don’t deserve to come back to Israel and pollute it with their poisonous venom.
The Guardian = Der Sturmer
"The more emotionally explosive the comparison, the more rigorous the evidence required to sustain it." Real evidence exonerating Israel is NOT on the agenda of these Jew-haters. The key word is "emotionally" because that's what regressives do. They think that whining and crying bolster their attacks on the Jewish state. All I can say to Israelis and Jewish folks everywhere is hang tough.
Precisely. When so many deliberately lie about us and others glam on to the libels with self-righteous feel-good outrage, I say to myself, “Fuck them all. I know who we are.”
Jews are always judged and always guilty.
Nailed it again, and again, and again, Joshua. All the most flawed, hypocritical and biased arguments are brought to bear on Israel and the willfully ignorant spectators applaud the Emperor’s new clothes.
Honestly I am at least here in the US pretty close to a free speech absolutist. But Israel is in not only a physical life and death struggle with unrelenting enemies but an even more vigorous struggle with vicious liars the world over. For Israeli citizens to make a film like this is extremely close to the definition of treason. I'm not sure what should be done but Israelis cannot be allowed to give aid and comfort to the enemy in time of war.
An excellent essay, Joshua. I find it incredible that given that we are in the midst of the Yamim Noraim (a time when each Jew recalibrates or re-orients his/her internal compass or priorities) that you have these two (obviously liberal Israeli filmmakers) who decide on doing the polar opposite (trying to discredit both the IDF and the State of Israel) I hope that they will be investigated by the both the military and civilian judiciary. In view of the memories of all the brave IDF soldiers and hostages who lost their lives to these savages I find this so absolutely shameful and reckless!!
Wow. It’s remarkable that these 2 ISRAELIS feel so compelled to be “Good Jews” for the world and to allow all of those “artistic elite Euros”, you know, the ones who love to justify their Jew hatred being affirmed by JEWS! Israelis.
Yup, these 2 “documentarians” did a great job with anonymous sources, editing to the max, and generally offering the perfect excuse for the aforementioned.
Israel used to be the canary in the coal mine but now in light of woke fashion twitching into a pro Islamic pretzel, Israel in now the international punching bag in the naughty corner and government ministers (various so-called democracies) show their governments' loyalty and submission to Islamic cause on their social media accounts, generous grants to Islamic issues and using their old boys network to proclaim relentless stochastic violence against any Jews regardless of whether they are Zionists such as Adass and Chabad etc. And block inquiries.
A passionately coherent essay, Joshua, saying it exactly as it is. I rode with the waves that so rhythmically rose to constantly smash down Israel, on and on, relentless in attempt to obliterate. This was the rhythm and tenor of your writing, showing so starkly the situation we face. That these two young Israelis are caught up in it, contributing so much in the most base of ways, is something they'll have to live with the rest of their lives.
Joshua, there is no logic in the un contained prejudice and hate against Jewish people. A virus which is ingrained far deeper in society than one can imagine.
I find the world is so uneducated about Israel the Arab nations, and the Islamic world! Moreover, so ignorant of history. Everyone should spend a month in Israel and another in any Arab or Islamic led country before having an opinion. However I realize I am living in a wishful fantasy. We as humans are given so many useful tools, yet misuse them. Lies and propaganda become slogans for the lazy. Sometimes I wish I had the money for these twisted liberals so I could send them all a one way ticket to the Gaza they support, with a laptop and read their writing a month later. Joshua, I love all of your articles, especially this fact:
Jewish children were not killed because German officers believed militants were operating near their homes. They were killed because they were Jewish. There were no Jewish armies launching attacks from Warsaw neighborhoods, no Jewish battalions crossing into German towns and murdering civilians, and no Jewish government openly committed to destroying Germany.
Jill, forgive me for saying .. I’d say the islamic world, not just the many Arab countries.
I appreciate your criticism when you are correct. Thank you. I edited my piece. 🙏🏻
Jill, i did not mean it as criticism, I think islam a threat to world peace. Whilst I am Jewish, I believe in 'humanity' which ever faith or religion one follows. Jews have been the target of hate and evil for centuries, and we're now living in an era in which western societies are being islamised. It's not a fear or a phobia, it is a fact.
As or the useful idiocy of film makers: Let's be culturally appropriate: Blight of Balestinians.
When a society becomes corrupt and then pretends it’s being even handed I find it unbearable. It would be like listening to a list of accusations against a black teen delivering newspapers in the antebellum South. Surely some black teen did something wrong maybe even something grievous but on the whole the accusers were utterly compromised people. The hilarity the irony the satire is the left has for decades promoted the idea that a much evolved west is still SO OBSCENELY institutionally racist that the system has to be overturned racist practices put into place to remediate it and how many super bright people signed onto this and still do. But you claim that an ancient hatred that we know has historically over and over rotted brains and hearts is exploding again and no wait, it’s deserved so it’s not the same. Bc in the past NO ONE ARGUED JEWS DESERVE IT. I engage to sharpen my wits not to turn people bc they’re quite happy spinning in a wheel going nowhere mentally & foaming at the mouth. No desire to engage they just copy and paste without challenging that material (it’s only someone else’s copy and paste thats sus) they want to preach shallow ethos shout genocide at the top of their lungs while they wish it on Jews. I agree w the woke mob the whole system can be corrupt they just are poor at identifying which systems those are.