We are living through the largest propaganda environment in human history — and no country on earth is more relentlessly mythologised, demonised, and misrepresented online than the Jewish state.
The deepest problem is not simply that false claims about Israel spread online. It is that the correction often no longer matters, because the verdict has already been reached. A claim is believed not because it has been verified, but because it fits a moral story in which Israel is always already guilty.
That is what makes this so dangerous. Once people say that a fake image or impossible statistic does not matter because “the larger truth” remains, factual accuracy has become subordinate to emotional usefulness. At that point, lying is no longer experienced as lying. It becomes a form of moral participation.
The antisemitic structure is familiar: one Jewish object becomes the explanation for every evil, and any evidence — even counterevidence — is absorbed into the same accusation. The internet has not invented this pattern. It has industrialized it.
The first act of moral seriousness is not agreement. It is verification.
You know what's more troubling? The % of American Jews who think Israel committed genocide. I think its around 38% (no typo). What does that mean? It's a total failure of Jewish education by rabbis and others to even teach Jews what a genocide is and where the term comes from.
All of this is absolutely true. What to do about it is the question? We must face first of all, I think, that the world we once lived in where more care was taken to follow-up truth, where indeed truth mattered, is gone. Across the board it's gone. Those of us who still care about words, inner moral integrity, facing truth instead of projecting what we want onto a lie or distortion to make it our own truth, we are now in the minority. And this change has poisoned everything. Apart from sticking to my guns and voicing my own knowledge and opinion, I'm askance at the world I now live in.
Modern humans have not evolved at all since medieval times. Social media is a filthy cesspool which has resulted in western civilization's regression. We'd be better off if social media was abolished, especially X and tiktok. That so many are willing to accept the claims of islamic terrorists tells me we will not survive as a civilization and frankly we don't deserve to. If Israel was actually doing horrible things, there wouldn't be the need to invent them and in such extreme ways. These miserable Jew-hating losers NEED for Israel to be the bad guys to validate their hatred. They hate Jews because of their own feelings of inadequacy.
So true and each day, it gets worse and worse. And no matter if you post verified facts debunking the claims, no matter how much evidence--the replies are always, "fake news," "Zionist lies," and worse. They WANT to believe the lies, they WANT to hate. And worse than the lies is how comfortable people are posting things like, "Hitler was right," and "We need another Holocaust," and, "you're going back to the ovens, Jew." And worse.
When useful idiots accuse the Jews of controlling the media, the banks, Hollywood, US Administration and so on, I just tell them how ignorant they are. They have totally underestimated our power:
We control the Universe.
And for those who complain about genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid ect. I reply:
Those who fund and initiate wars of aggression or terror campaigns against their neighbors should be ready to bear the consequences.
No serious person needs to claim that Israel is innocent, or that Israeli governments have not made grave mistakes, or that Israel should never be criticized. Of course Israel can be blamed for things it actually does. That is ordinary political judgment.
But that is different from turning Israel into a total explanation — the hidden source of every evil, the uniquely monstrous state, the actor whose guilt is assumed before facts are checked. Calling that a “conspiracy fact” does not solve the problem. It simply turns suspicion into certainty.
The issue is not whether Israel can be disliked. The issue is whether claims about Israel still have to be true.
If a particular Israeli action is wrong, name it, document it, and argue it. But when false images, impossible statistics, missing context, or collapsed stories are excused because “the larger point is still true,” then we are no longer talking about criticism. We are talking about a narrative that has made itself immune to correction.
That is not moral seriousness. It is precisely how conspiracy thinking works.
That isn't applicable here. My point is, so what? So Jews should be attacked and a state menaced because it makes mistakes? Israel is one of the more astonishing success stories in modern history. What are the "bad things" that Israel does that the US, France, UK, China, Italy don't do?
Iran is akin to Nazi Germany or a dystopian state from the handmaid’s tale — exporting terror and trying to develop nuclear weapons. Just because you think YOU won’t face any consequences doesn’t mean Iran should be allowed to plan a genocide of Israelis and finance anti-Western terror.
Those who are brainwashed into believing a lie are still lying. It is a defensive war of a people who gave nowhere else to go. When you are fighting for your life, defense at all costs, what happens to the enemy is not a concern. The Genocide charge is a lie. Israel could have committed a genocide, they chose not to and it cost a lot of idf lives bc they chose to fight a humanitarian war.
Genocide is the intentional effort to exterminate a race, religion, ethnic or other identifiable people. Examples: Nazis, Hamas (unsuccessful Nazis). A bunch of dead people in an urban war is not genocide. If it were, sorry America, but firebombing Tokyo and killing 100,000 over a weekend would be genocide. Sorry UK and US, but a Strategic Bombing campaign where the strategy is to kill so many civilians that the Nazis cave, is genocide.
Once you claim that something as minor (in the context of all wars) as Gaza, where Gazans (Hamas is just a bunch of Gazans, and supported to this day by 70% of them) started a war and hid among fellow citizens, then all wars are genocides where civilians are killed. And once you go there, you have eviscerated the moral distinction of genocide.
There is zero evidence of Israel seeking to exterminate Gazans. If there were, they sure did a lousy job of it.
"Genocide" is wholly made-up charge. Do the Goddamn math, you idiot. There are more people in Gaza now than before October 7, 2023. You are not morally serious. You cling stubbornly to a narrative which has repeatedly been debunked. You have your mind made up and won't be confused with facts. The bottom line is that you WANT to believe Israel is guilty of genocide. You won't accept clear, undeniable evidence to the contrary. You want your hatred of Israel to be validated.
The war in Gaza has a very low combatant to civilian casualty ratio — the lowest of any similar urban conflict, such as the US war in Iraq. That’s a fact. The IDF had a clear military goal — to remove Hamas infrastructure and militia.
Your incoherent, deluded conclusion about the IDF’s restrained, serious and costly ground war in Gaza is not a reflection of reality or truth. You believe what you’re saying, but it’s plainly not what happened in Gaza after Oct 7.
Your ideological objections to war (or the Jewish state?) don’t make lies and distortions acceptable or moral. You’re a product of the global left’s campaign to vilify Israel that started at the Durban Conference with the designation of Israel as a ‘genocidal’, ‘apartheid’ state, long before this latest war that Hamas launched. It’s Orwellian and insidious language designed to brainwash and radicalise adherents (people like you) and dehumanise the targets of this hate (Israelis). You’re wrong and nothing can change that because it’s the truth. Believe what you like, but know that your OPINION is irrelevant to people who believe in facts, truth and honesty.
Nonsense. Your argument about genocide is completely false and beyond comprehension. It’s nothing but a new antisemetic blood libel. The world Jewish population has not recovered it pre world war 2 levels. The number of Gazans increased regularly throughout the war. You are right, Israel is not the explanation. The world oldest hatred is.
You’re proving the point that many critics of Israel are indulging in an atavistic ritual of othering and demonisation. There are no words or facts that can make people like you see reason. You deny doing exactly what you’re doing — because you’ve embraced antisemitic conspiracy theories and seem to think you haven’t? You’re in an ideological cult that has proven to be extremely powerful and appealing to some since Oct 7. Hope you learn more and start considering all perspectives, rather than crafting a narrative that is straight from Hamas–IRGC HQ.
Is self-defense Israel's fault? Is conducting the least damaging urban war in history Israel's fault (per John Spencer, head of urban war studies at West Point)
There is zero evidence -- zero -- of Israel intentionally targeting civilians. Although its true, they "target" them with flyers warning of impending military operations. And what's wrong with revenge? When an admitted genocidal group like Hamas slits throats (and films it), shoves rods into the privates of young women after raping them and before shooting them, slices women's breasts off to play catch, tosses babies into ovens, what's wrong with revenge? And what territorial conquest are you talking about?
You need to ask yourself why you’re attacking Israel — you’re being manipulated and radicalised by ideologically-driven lies and distortions. Clearly you’re brainwashed and lack critical thinking skills. That’s your problem.
Are you a worthy American, or do you not meet the benchmark for some mutable/immutable characteristic? Or is not being Jewish, Muslim, Nazi or communist all that is required? This is fascinating.
You’re supporting a Nazi ideology IMO — Israel and the US are fighting evil, anti-Western forces that seek to commit genocide and cause chaos via terror and insidious ideological means. Wake up.
So you’re a nationalist and isolationist? Would you have been against the US entering WWII, or do you feel that was justified, but only because Japan attacked the US? Your position seems to be one of amoral utilitarianism and solipsism.
Of course utilitarianism can be considered amoral — it focuses on the 'best' outcome for the majority, which can often be at the cost of values or rights for the minority. Just because it's a 'moral philosophy' doesn't mean it IS 'moral'. Who's to decide what is 'best' anyway — the majority regardless of what is right or fair? We've seen the Orwellian atrocities that ensue when that's the case.
This is an excellent and necessary essay.
The deepest problem is not simply that false claims about Israel spread online. It is that the correction often no longer matters, because the verdict has already been reached. A claim is believed not because it has been verified, but because it fits a moral story in which Israel is always already guilty.
That is what makes this so dangerous. Once people say that a fake image or impossible statistic does not matter because “the larger truth” remains, factual accuracy has become subordinate to emotional usefulness. At that point, lying is no longer experienced as lying. It becomes a form of moral participation.
The antisemitic structure is familiar: one Jewish object becomes the explanation for every evil, and any evidence — even counterevidence — is absorbed into the same accusation. The internet has not invented this pattern. It has industrialized it.
The first act of moral seriousness is not agreement. It is verification.
You know what's more troubling? The % of American Jews who think Israel committed genocide. I think its around 38% (no typo). What does that mean? It's a total failure of Jewish education by rabbis and others to even teach Jews what a genocide is and where the term comes from.
All of this is absolutely true. What to do about it is the question? We must face first of all, I think, that the world we once lived in where more care was taken to follow-up truth, where indeed truth mattered, is gone. Across the board it's gone. Those of us who still care about words, inner moral integrity, facing truth instead of projecting what we want onto a lie or distortion to make it our own truth, we are now in the minority. And this change has poisoned everything. Apart from sticking to my guns and voicing my own knowledge and opinion, I'm askance at the world I now live in.
Regarding the Iran war: “make Iran Persia again.
Modern humans have not evolved at all since medieval times. Social media is a filthy cesspool which has resulted in western civilization's regression. We'd be better off if social media was abolished, especially X and tiktok. That so many are willing to accept the claims of islamic terrorists tells me we will not survive as a civilization and frankly we don't deserve to. If Israel was actually doing horrible things, there wouldn't be the need to invent them and in such extreme ways. These miserable Jew-hating losers NEED for Israel to be the bad guys to validate their hatred. They hate Jews because of their own feelings of inadequacy.
So true and each day, it gets worse and worse. And no matter if you post verified facts debunking the claims, no matter how much evidence--the replies are always, "fake news," "Zionist lies," and worse. They WANT to believe the lies, they WANT to hate. And worse than the lies is how comfortable people are posting things like, "Hitler was right," and "We need another Holocaust," and, "you're going back to the ovens, Jew." And worse.
When useful idiots accuse the Jews of controlling the media, the banks, Hollywood, US Administration and so on, I just tell them how ignorant they are. They have totally underestimated our power:
We control the Universe.
And for those who complain about genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid ect. I reply:
Those who fund and initiate wars of aggression or terror campaigns against their neighbors should be ready to bear the consequences.
JVP...truth tellers as they are Jewish, and you?.....
The US generally follows Europe in lifestyle decisions so hopefully the brilliant Eurovision performance will calm down some US minds.
Eurovision doesn't attract enough advertising to meet our high standards for entertainment.
Lucy substack "Notes from the Ruins" is well worth the price of a subscription.
This is exactly where the distinction matters.
No serious person needs to claim that Israel is innocent, or that Israeli governments have not made grave mistakes, or that Israel should never be criticized. Of course Israel can be blamed for things it actually does. That is ordinary political judgment.
But that is different from turning Israel into a total explanation — the hidden source of every evil, the uniquely monstrous state, the actor whose guilt is assumed before facts are checked. Calling that a “conspiracy fact” does not solve the problem. It simply turns suspicion into certainty.
The issue is not whether Israel can be disliked. The issue is whether claims about Israel still have to be true.
If a particular Israeli action is wrong, name it, document it, and argue it. But when false images, impossible statistics, missing context, or collapsed stories are excused because “the larger point is still true,” then we are no longer talking about criticism. We are talking about a narrative that has made itself immune to correction.
That is not moral seriousness. It is precisely how conspiracy thinking works.
You don't understand. Israel is the only country in history to make mistakes.
That isn't applicable here. My point is, so what? So Jews should be attacked and a state menaced because it makes mistakes? Israel is one of the more astonishing success stories in modern history. What are the "bad things" that Israel does that the US, France, UK, China, Italy don't do?
Iran is akin to Nazi Germany or a dystopian state from the handmaid’s tale — exporting terror and trying to develop nuclear weapons. Just because you think YOU won’t face any consequences doesn’t mean Iran should be allowed to plan a genocide of Israelis and finance anti-Western terror.
Hilarious. You speak of moral seriousness and repeat the genocide lie.
Those who are brainwashed into believing a lie are still lying. It is a defensive war of a people who gave nowhere else to go. When you are fighting for your life, defense at all costs, what happens to the enemy is not a concern. The Genocide charge is a lie. Israel could have committed a genocide, they chose not to and it cost a lot of idf lives bc they chose to fight a humanitarian war.
Genocide is the intentional effort to exterminate a race, religion, ethnic or other identifiable people. Examples: Nazis, Hamas (unsuccessful Nazis). A bunch of dead people in an urban war is not genocide. If it were, sorry America, but firebombing Tokyo and killing 100,000 over a weekend would be genocide. Sorry UK and US, but a Strategic Bombing campaign where the strategy is to kill so many civilians that the Nazis cave, is genocide.
Once you claim that something as minor (in the context of all wars) as Gaza, where Gazans (Hamas is just a bunch of Gazans, and supported to this day by 70% of them) started a war and hid among fellow citizens, then all wars are genocides where civilians are killed. And once you go there, you have eviscerated the moral distinction of genocide.
There is zero evidence of Israel seeking to exterminate Gazans. If there were, they sure did a lousy job of it.
"Genocide" is wholly made-up charge. Do the Goddamn math, you idiot. There are more people in Gaza now than before October 7, 2023. You are not morally serious. You cling stubbornly to a narrative which has repeatedly been debunked. You have your mind made up and won't be confused with facts. The bottom line is that you WANT to believe Israel is guilty of genocide. You won't accept clear, undeniable evidence to the contrary. You want your hatred of Israel to be validated.
The war in Gaza has a very low combatant to civilian casualty ratio — the lowest of any similar urban conflict, such as the US war in Iraq. That’s a fact. The IDF had a clear military goal — to remove Hamas infrastructure and militia.
Your incoherent, deluded conclusion about the IDF’s restrained, serious and costly ground war in Gaza is not a reflection of reality or truth. You believe what you’re saying, but it’s plainly not what happened in Gaza after Oct 7.
Your ideological objections to war (or the Jewish state?) don’t make lies and distortions acceptable or moral. You’re a product of the global left’s campaign to vilify Israel that started at the Durban Conference with the designation of Israel as a ‘genocidal’, ‘apartheid’ state, long before this latest war that Hamas launched. It’s Orwellian and insidious language designed to brainwash and radicalise adherents (people like you) and dehumanise the targets of this hate (Israelis). You’re wrong and nothing can change that because it’s the truth. Believe what you like, but know that your OPINION is irrelevant to people who believe in facts, truth and honesty.
Nonsense. Your argument about genocide is completely false and beyond comprehension. It’s nothing but a new antisemetic blood libel. The world Jewish population has not recovered it pre world war 2 levels. The number of Gazans increased regularly throughout the war. You are right, Israel is not the explanation. The world oldest hatred is.
You’re proving the point that many critics of Israel are indulging in an atavistic ritual of othering and demonisation. There are no words or facts that can make people like you see reason. You deny doing exactly what you’re doing — because you’ve embraced antisemitic conspiracy theories and seem to think you haven’t? You’re in an ideological cult that has proven to be extremely powerful and appealing to some since Oct 7. Hope you learn more and start considering all perspectives, rather than crafting a narrative that is straight from Hamas–IRGC HQ.
Dumbass, not even worthy of responding to.
I don't think Israel turned herself into a disliked conspiracy. I think Hamas and useful idiots did that on their own.
Is self-defense Israel's fault? Is conducting the least damaging urban war in history Israel's fault (per John Spencer, head of urban war studies at West Point)
There is zero evidence -- zero -- of Israel intentionally targeting civilians. Although its true, they "target" them with flyers warning of impending military operations. And what's wrong with revenge? When an admitted genocidal group like Hamas slits throats (and films it), shoves rods into the privates of young women after raping them and before shooting them, slices women's breasts off to play catch, tosses babies into ovens, what's wrong with revenge? And what territorial conquest are you talking about?
You need to ask yourself why you’re attacking Israel — you’re being manipulated and radicalised by ideologically-driven lies and distortions. Clearly you’re brainwashed and lack critical thinking skills. That’s your problem.
Are you a worthy American, or do you not meet the benchmark for some mutable/immutable characteristic? Or is not being Jewish, Muslim, Nazi or communist all that is required? This is fascinating.
You’re supporting a Nazi ideology IMO — Israel and the US are fighting evil, anti-Western forces that seek to commit genocide and cause chaos via terror and insidious ideological means. Wake up.
So you’re a nationalist and isolationist? Would you have been against the US entering WWII, or do you feel that was justified, but only because Japan attacked the US? Your position seems to be one of amoral utilitarianism and solipsism.
Of course utilitarianism can be considered amoral — it focuses on the 'best' outcome for the majority, which can often be at the cost of values or rights for the minority. Just because it's a 'moral philosophy' doesn't mean it IS 'moral'. Who's to decide what is 'best' anyway — the majority regardless of what is right or fair? We've seen the Orwellian atrocities that ensue when that's the case.