Absolutely wonderful article, blending ideas I've seen before with new ones, and combining it all into brand new algorithms. I love the idea that Westerners craving moral purity can safely blame Israel which is powerful enough to blame, but also safe. Brilliant.
I'm wondering if there's one more little psychological nugget: does blaming Israel give the guilty West a sense of absolution for having treating the Jews so badly over the centuries?
Zionism emerged as a result of the historical abuse of Jews forced into the diaspora, and native Jewish populations who suffered from Arab massacres. Many countries in the region benefit from the outcomes of Zionism. Nations such as Iraq, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Lebanon did not exist in their current forms prior to World War I; they were established afterward, yet their right to self-determination is never questioned. In contrast, the Palestinian cause was drafted in Moscow in 1964 under the banner of anti-imperialism—a narrative designed to appeal to both the political Left and the Islamic world. To gain the support of international leftists, Marxists, and progressives opposed to the West and capitalism, this movement emphasized the claim that the Jewish connection to Israel either never existed or is irrelevant.
Society is definitely distorted and facts and truth means nothing. I stand with Israel and will die with Israel should need be. I engage those that use their hatred of Israel for gain where there is no fact. They assume a nation smaller than Israel can't be the aggressor yet population has nothing to do with the evil being perpetrated. Israel has shown extreme patience in handling this situation. Any other nation would have brought down Hamas and the Palestinians and not been challenged. All civilized people must defend Israel and stand firm with the facts and truth. Israel has a right to kill all those involved in the October 7th attack and anyone else that gets in the way. That includes all antisemites and all Anti-Zionist. They hate us Christian Zionist also so this fight is not yours alone it also includes us. This is a religious war against Israel and Christian Zionist because half of the Christians are driven by Replacement Theology such as Catholics that believe G-d has chosen them over Israel. It's extreme jealousy that G-d would have chosen Israel over they're fake religious piety. This war is led by Satan and Hashem will deliver the final chapter. May G-d wake up secular Jews and Gentiles and bring them back for the final redemption.
A deep concept very well articulated. Concisely, Israel has been “ghettoized”.
Let’s put these recalcitrant Jews into an isolated box that can be at least be morally and verbally Pogromed if not downright eliminated.
An example of the hypocrisy of the West has been the series History of World War II, produced and hosted by Tom Hanks. The episode on the air war to feature Germany. The allies (Britain and the U.S.) had developed a lense the bombardiers could use to precisely take out military targets with minimal civilian casualties.
The Americans, begin using it in daytime B17 bombing runs beginning in Hamburg Germany, soon discovering it was not very effective in their original intention. They soon revert to an incendiary blanketed bombing campaign with devastating results with England as a base both physical and morally, to punish the German people and Hitler into submission, reducing Hamburg to ashes resembling parts of Gaza today.
The difference being the purposeful, devastating denuding of Hamburg’s civilian population makes Israel’s directing Gazan civilian resettlement remarkably humane. This is followed by our infamous Dresden firebombing.
This is just one example how the facts of war in that case, today is quickly whitewashed into Israel “Genocide” in the cognitive dissonance of its source. Jew hatred.
Many today have no knowledge of the death and destruction that occurred in WW2. My own parents lived through it and told me about the Holocaust and the Dresden firestorm. It's horrifying to think about. If today's younger generations knew more about it, maybe they wouldn't be so quick to throw around words like genocide.
Liberal? Nope. Hamas’s theft of aid and withholding it from the people to stoke the “genocide” blood libel — to be embraced by the ignorant, the culpable, and the Jew haters—is the cause of food scarcity in Gaza. Hamas, and even the UN, were/are shown to be the obstacle to distribution. AI “how does hamas and supporters perpetuate food scarcity in gaza?”—you will get the answer. The one country in the world that soars above all others in demonstrating humanity — Israel — is of course charged with the opposite by the resentful, hateful, unsuccessful grievance culture crowd.
A. Starving children is a fabrication bought hook line and sinker by the Jew hating Left, Hamas has perpetuated having stolen significant amounts of humanitarian relief meant for Palestinians.
B. The “banging Food buckets “ are largely staged by Hamas “reporters” as part of their propaganda campaign swallowed whole by mainstream media like CNN and the BBC.
Yes. Regarding my comment, we used to see photos of children with skeletal faces and distended bellies. Never saw that with Gaza. Biafra happened many years ago so younger people wouldn't know.
This guy, in the attached clip, strikes me as the purest and most distilled embodiment of everything you are saying. This incessant repetition of the libel makes me want to vomit. I doubt that he has ever met or spoken with a single Palestinian, let alone formed a relationship with one. I suppose with only three thousand Jews in Ireland the Jew he is abusing may be the first one he was ever met for all we know. I had a Panasonic microcassette answering machine in the 90's that was smarter and better informed than this--and yet many of Americas elite college graduates are not.
This is a powerful argument by Nachum Kaplan. Putting behaviours in context is important as is understanding what the world is saying about Israel and Jews. But we also need now to find a means of fighting back publically. This comes with risks but we must be heard.
What an insightful and well constructed essay! Attributing European and western animosity towards Israel as transferred guilt over the horrendous whay Jews were and currently are treated in those societies is profound. Arab and Muslim countries are guilty of the same to various degrees, though their cultures are more shame based than guilt based. I attribute Jew hatred to demon spawned brain worm that robs the mind of critical thinking, since the devil hates the Jew. But as with the snake in the garden, the devil works through deception and influence through the existing world as created by Hashem. Why does the devil hate the Jew? Because as with Job in the bible, the Jew continues to love G-d despite miseries inflicted upon them. We say Baruch Hashem for each day, which drives the devil batshit crazy Jew hatred insane.
Wonderful piece, Nachum. To the antisemite, history begins on October 8. To the antisemite, all casualties in Gaza and Lebanon are Palestinian casualties. The ceaseless terrorist attacks against Israel and Jews worldwide before and after that date are subjected to voluntary amnesia. The genocidal massacre is now retitled a righteous resistance executed by killing civilians at a concert.
The obsessive focus on Israel reveals far more about the state of Western moral psychology than it does about the realities of the Middle East.
A tiny democracy defending itself against existential threats is subjected to standards of judgment that no other country,democratic or authoritarian,is ever expected to meet. Its military actions are dissected in real time,its internal debates treated as global moral referendums,while far larger conflicts with vastly higher death tolls barely register sustained attention.
This is not driven by abstract concern for international law or human rights. It is the convenient projection of guilt,ideological fashion, and a desire for moral clarity without personal sacrifice. Israel’s crime, in the eyes of many critics, is that it refuses to play the role assigned to it: that of a perpetual victim grateful for conditional tolerance.Instead,it asserts the right of a people to defend themselves,innovate,and thrive in their ancestral homeland.
Until this distorted lens is corrected, genuine progress toward peace will remain hostage to fantasy rather than grounded in the hard realities of security, mutual recognition,and political pragmatism.Israel’s strength and resilience in the face of this pressure is not a flaw,it is a testament to its legitimacy and necessity.
What a writer you are, Nachum Kaplan. Every word as sharply constructed as the swoosh of a sword just before it lands. Yes, you have it here in a nutshell. Circumstance has come together in such a way to allow world response to Israel, as symbol, to eradicate its own need for honest reflection. We shall fight it and win, for nobody choosing hypocrisy and lies wins in the end. Nobody.
If people really cared about genocide, we (as in the world) would be having tent cities erected on campuses in protest of the THOUSANDS murdered if Africa by the same people who are Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, all funded by Saudi Arabia and Iran. Marches everywhere. There would be "Queers for Africa." Banners flying in the streets. What we have is silence. Because no one cares. No Jews, No news. We don't really care about humanity unless we feel that the Jews are somehow interfering with someone else's life, or property, or access to food or medical care. THEN we care. The NYT cares. The U.N. cares. The world will accuse us of everything that has happened to us. WE are the nazis now. And every Jew every where is guilty by association. It makes no logical sense. Logic is completely absent, and it doesn't matter. It is the same blood libel, repackaged.
Nachum, this one sentence needs a better context of amplification for me:'Instead, they shoot people."
High praise for the article, you are blunt, angry, and accurate.
I welcome having our history refreshed and take pleasure! in watching you use facts to destroy stupid, nasty arguments
Now, how can we change the narrative for those who are not listening?
Yes, that sentence stopped me too as it could be misinterpreted. Just replacing “they” with “the genuinely monstrous” would add clarity.
Spot on. Excellent distillation of antisemitism
Absolutely wonderful article, blending ideas I've seen before with new ones, and combining it all into brand new algorithms. I love the idea that Westerners craving moral purity can safely blame Israel which is powerful enough to blame, but also safe. Brilliant.
I'm wondering if there's one more little psychological nugget: does blaming Israel give the guilty West a sense of absolution for having treating the Jews so badly over the centuries?
YES
Zionism emerged as a result of the historical abuse of Jews forced into the diaspora, and native Jewish populations who suffered from Arab massacres. Many countries in the region benefit from the outcomes of Zionism. Nations such as Iraq, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Lebanon did not exist in their current forms prior to World War I; they were established afterward, yet their right to self-determination is never questioned. In contrast, the Palestinian cause was drafted in Moscow in 1964 under the banner of anti-imperialism—a narrative designed to appeal to both the political Left and the Islamic world. To gain the support of international leftists, Marxists, and progressives opposed to the West and capitalism, this movement emphasized the claim that the Jewish connection to Israel either never existed or is irrelevant.
Society is definitely distorted and facts and truth means nothing. I stand with Israel and will die with Israel should need be. I engage those that use their hatred of Israel for gain where there is no fact. They assume a nation smaller than Israel can't be the aggressor yet population has nothing to do with the evil being perpetrated. Israel has shown extreme patience in handling this situation. Any other nation would have brought down Hamas and the Palestinians and not been challenged. All civilized people must defend Israel and stand firm with the facts and truth. Israel has a right to kill all those involved in the October 7th attack and anyone else that gets in the way. That includes all antisemites and all Anti-Zionist. They hate us Christian Zionist also so this fight is not yours alone it also includes us. This is a religious war against Israel and Christian Zionist because half of the Christians are driven by Replacement Theology such as Catholics that believe G-d has chosen them over Israel. It's extreme jealousy that G-d would have chosen Israel over they're fake religious piety. This war is led by Satan and Hashem will deliver the final chapter. May G-d wake up secular Jews and Gentiles and bring them back for the final redemption.
A deep concept very well articulated. Concisely, Israel has been “ghettoized”.
Let’s put these recalcitrant Jews into an isolated box that can be at least be morally and verbally Pogromed if not downright eliminated.
An example of the hypocrisy of the West has been the series History of World War II, produced and hosted by Tom Hanks. The episode on the air war to feature Germany. The allies (Britain and the U.S.) had developed a lense the bombardiers could use to precisely take out military targets with minimal civilian casualties.
The Americans, begin using it in daytime B17 bombing runs beginning in Hamburg Germany, soon discovering it was not very effective in their original intention. They soon revert to an incendiary blanketed bombing campaign with devastating results with England as a base both physical and morally, to punish the German people and Hitler into submission, reducing Hamburg to ashes resembling parts of Gaza today.
The difference being the purposeful, devastating denuding of Hamburg’s civilian population makes Israel’s directing Gazan civilian resettlement remarkably humane. This is followed by our infamous Dresden firebombing.
This is just one example how the facts of war in that case, today is quickly whitewashed into Israel “Genocide” in the cognitive dissonance of its source. Jew hatred.
Many today have no knowledge of the death and destruction that occurred in WW2. My own parents lived through it and told me about the Holocaust and the Dresden firestorm. It's horrifying to think about. If today's younger generations knew more about it, maybe they wouldn't be so quick to throw around words like genocide.
when they see Pal's starving and banging food buckets..that's genocide...
Liberal? Nope. Hamas’s theft of aid and withholding it from the people to stoke the “genocide” blood libel — to be embraced by the ignorant, the culpable, and the Jew haters—is the cause of food scarcity in Gaza. Hamas, and even the UN, were/are shown to be the obstacle to distribution. AI “how does hamas and supporters perpetuate food scarcity in gaza?”—you will get the answer. The one country in the world that soars above all others in demonstrating humanity — Israel — is of course charged with the opposite by the resentful, hateful, unsuccessful grievance culture crowd.
A. Starving children is a fabrication bought hook line and sinker by the Jew hating Left, Hamas has perpetuated having stolen significant amounts of humanitarian relief meant for Palestinians.
B. The “banging Food buckets “ are largely staged by Hamas “reporters” as part of their propaganda campaign swallowed whole by mainstream media like CNN and the BBC.
Hamas did steal a large portion of the aid, as BiBi would not let American marines in to make a direct delivery...knowing it would be stolen....
I'm remembering photos of starving children coming out of places like Biafra.
see above...
Yes. Regarding my comment, we used to see photos of children with skeletal faces and distended bellies. Never saw that with Gaza. Biafra happened many years ago so younger people wouldn't know.
you should see the photos Haaretz publishes.....
great essay. Thanks for writing it.
This guy, in the attached clip, strikes me as the purest and most distilled embodiment of everything you are saying. This incessant repetition of the libel makes me want to vomit. I doubt that he has ever met or spoken with a single Palestinian, let alone formed a relationship with one. I suppose with only three thousand Jews in Ireland the Jew he is abusing may be the first one he was ever met for all we know. I had a Panasonic microcassette answering machine in the 90's that was smarter and better informed than this--and yet many of Americas elite college graduates are not.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PKEQS21f33w
This is a powerful argument by Nachum Kaplan. Putting behaviours in context is important as is understanding what the world is saying about Israel and Jews. But we also need now to find a means of fighting back publically. This comes with risks but we must be heard.
What an insightful and well constructed essay! Attributing European and western animosity towards Israel as transferred guilt over the horrendous whay Jews were and currently are treated in those societies is profound. Arab and Muslim countries are guilty of the same to various degrees, though their cultures are more shame based than guilt based. I attribute Jew hatred to demon spawned brain worm that robs the mind of critical thinking, since the devil hates the Jew. But as with the snake in the garden, the devil works through deception and influence through the existing world as created by Hashem. Why does the devil hate the Jew? Because as with Job in the bible, the Jew continues to love G-d despite miseries inflicted upon them. We say Baruch Hashem for each day, which drives the devil batshit crazy Jew hatred insane.
Wonderful piece, Nachum. To the antisemite, history begins on October 8. To the antisemite, all casualties in Gaza and Lebanon are Palestinian casualties. The ceaseless terrorist attacks against Israel and Jews worldwide before and after that date are subjected to voluntary amnesia. The genocidal massacre is now retitled a righteous resistance executed by killing civilians at a concert.
The obsessive focus on Israel reveals far more about the state of Western moral psychology than it does about the realities of the Middle East.
A tiny democracy defending itself against existential threats is subjected to standards of judgment that no other country,democratic or authoritarian,is ever expected to meet. Its military actions are dissected in real time,its internal debates treated as global moral referendums,while far larger conflicts with vastly higher death tolls barely register sustained attention.
This is not driven by abstract concern for international law or human rights. It is the convenient projection of guilt,ideological fashion, and a desire for moral clarity without personal sacrifice. Israel’s crime, in the eyes of many critics, is that it refuses to play the role assigned to it: that of a perpetual victim grateful for conditional tolerance.Instead,it asserts the right of a people to defend themselves,innovate,and thrive in their ancestral homeland.
Until this distorted lens is corrected, genuine progress toward peace will remain hostage to fantasy rather than grounded in the hard realities of security, mutual recognition,and political pragmatism.Israel’s strength and resilience in the face of this pressure is not a flaw,it is a testament to its legitimacy and necessity.
What a writer you are, Nachum Kaplan. Every word as sharply constructed as the swoosh of a sword just before it lands. Yes, you have it here in a nutshell. Circumstance has come together in such a way to allow world response to Israel, as symbol, to eradicate its own need for honest reflection. We shall fight it and win, for nobody choosing hypocrisy and lies wins in the end. Nobody.
Wow, this is breathtaking!
If people really cared about genocide, we (as in the world) would be having tent cities erected on campuses in protest of the THOUSANDS murdered if Africa by the same people who are Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, all funded by Saudi Arabia and Iran. Marches everywhere. There would be "Queers for Africa." Banners flying in the streets. What we have is silence. Because no one cares. No Jews, No news. We don't really care about humanity unless we feel that the Jews are somehow interfering with someone else's life, or property, or access to food or medical care. THEN we care. The NYT cares. The U.N. cares. The world will accuse us of everything that has happened to us. WE are the nazis now. And every Jew every where is guilty by association. It makes no logical sense. Logic is completely absent, and it doesn't matter. It is the same blood libel, repackaged.
Nailed it again, Nachum. Or, as Dara Horn’s book says, “People Love Dead Jews”.
Wonderful commentary - as always.