"Anti-Zionism" — as told through the narrative of "The Nakba" — transformed a forever grievance into a moral framework that shaped much of the world's response to October 7th, Israel, and Zionism.
The Nakba itself is a lie. The tragedy for the Arabs was that they couldn’t destroy the nascent Jewish state and murder its inhabitants. The reality is that, if the Arabs were victorious in 1948, these “Palestinians” would be perfectly happy being Egyptians or Syrians or Jordanians. The goal, as it has been since 1948, is not to build a country but destroy one. The West doesn’t understand this or care if it does.
And, all those Western countries calling for a Palestinian state are foolish to think such a state will be anything but a theocracy or autocracy just like every other Arab country in the Middle East. A Palestinian state will be aligned with Iran, Turkey, China, Russia and against the U.S. and Europe. The West is demanding the creation of an inherently anti-Western country.
It's the progressive leftists in the West who are demanding this collusion with and recognition of Palestinianism. They demand this precisely because their collective consciousness has already been colonized by the forces who wish to destroy them.
The western countries calling for a Palestinian state are not foolish or naive. They are doing it intentionally. It is their way to continue their never ending obsession with the Jews.
We know that, but how many go along with it because they actually believe the propaganda and lies, as a result of 'collectivism' and the lack of critical thinking.
Both. Many people genuinely believe it because collectivism and weak critical thinking make propaganda easy to absorb. But that belief doesn’t emerge in a vacuum. It taps into an older, recurring pattern where hostility toward Jews gets rebranded in whatever moral language is fashionable at the time.
Naya, one of the things your article really brought home to me is how much modern politics and activism operate through slogans, emotional narratives, repetition, and symbolic language — and frankly, Jews and pro-Israel advocates have done a terrible job competing in that arena.
It often feels like we are permanently stuck playing defense, endlessly explaining context, history, nuance, and complexity while the other side reduces everything to emotionally powerful slogans like “Nakba,” “apartheid,” “settler colonialism,” and “resistance.”
And yet almost nobody talks about the hundreds of thousands of Jews expelled from Arab countries, the destruction of ancient Jewish communities across the Middle East, or the fact that Jews themselves experienced a massive regional displacement. Why has that never become part of global consciousness in the same way? Where is the narrative strategy? Where is the symbolic counterweight? Where is the ingenuity?
The reality is that we are living in a world increasingly driven by narrative warfare, emotional framing, and moral symbolism, and too many Jewish organizations still communicate as though facts alone automatically win public opinion battles. They do not.
That is one reason your article is important. Whether people agree with every aspect of it or not, at least you are recognizing that ideas, narratives, and slogans shape how entire generations emotionally interpret history and morality.
I agree with you — and believe that European antisemitism that led to the Holocaust didn’t ‘disappear’ in 1945. The West’s obsession with Israel’s existence is mirrored by Arab nationalists (e.g. the Muslim Brotherhood) who absorbed fascist antisemitic tropes (race purity, insidious Jewish power) as the basis of their Islamist worldview. It’s some kind of awful feedback loop, with the European descendants of those who sent their Jews to the gas chambers now aligning with the October 7 murderers.
I think you are correct that some Islamist and Arab nationalist movements absorbed European antisemitic ideas during the 20th century, particularly through fascist and Nazi influences. What makes today’s situation so disturbing is watching parts of the Western progressive world now align themselves with movements and ideologies that often carry many of those same antisemitic themes underneath the surface.
If Israel and her allies learn nothing else from October 7th they should learn to far more aggressively combat the propaganda and gaslighting that is ubiquitous in the Arab world and that has now infiltrated western institutions.
I mean they have VIDEO of the atrocities of October 7 and it hasn't changed any minds. There isnt much Israel can do except fight to win and win as quickly as possible when forced to fight.
There’a something more atavistic about the Western left’s support of Oct 7. They aren’t operating on a rational, human basis — their latent Jew-hatred provides the perfect conditions for the vilest, most hateful antisemitic propaganda to flourish. At times, I imagine this is what Nazi Germany felt like — evil is triumphant and lies are celebrated and defended.
The ability of the Palestinians to convince the world that they are both victims and deserving of a state is one of the greatest acts of black magic of all time. I do not believe it would have been possible had not the target of their lies been Jews.
The Palestinian National Movement is a murder cult. It exists not to build but to destroy. The question is what can we do about it? I don't think much. Except to keep fighting it. History respects winners not victims. We must and will continue to win.
Michael Koplow might be a serious thinker but we all have blind spots and this is his (in which he is far from alone): The Nakba narrative, along with all the endless claims and slanders about Israeli apartheid, genocide, settler-colonial imperialism etc, are simply weapons, as are every Palestinian and their children, along with every Palestinian institution from school to mosque to hospital, and even every Palestinian household from doorknob to crib to bed (which might be booby-trapped or hiding weapons), and they all have the same single purpose: to destroy the evil Zionist entity, no matter how many deaths or decades this might take.
There are various reasons some people refuse to face this simple obvious truth, all the way from warm-hearted liberals who sincerely believe everyone wants what they wants and values what they value (peace and prosperity etc) to Europeans glad they no longer have to feel sorry for Jews and can go back to despising them for existing to our campus keffiyeh Brown Shirts who just want to attack anyone in the name of Justice and "liberating the oppressed" and are happy to find a cause to pour their zeal into, all the way to their Social Justice parents and babysitters who just want to signal that they're on the "right side of history".
Michael Koplow seems like a nice, smart guy, but once you start making excuses for people who would gladly butcher you and your children, you've become both an enabler and a part of the problem. (Also, it's hard for anyone to respect someone who won't stand up for himself.)
You can't solve any problem until it's clearly, properly analyzed and diagnosed: the only hope for the Palestinians is a full and thorough de-Nazification in every aspect of their society, with every cent of aid demanding this. Until people face this and insist upon it, they're just prolonging the conflict, which of course is exactly what the Palestinians want.
But how? At this point, victim is their identity and demonizing Israel and the Jewish people is all they know. It's the national pastime and it's fed by their news sources from all over the Muslim world. How do you drag them out of their echo chambers and convince them that we aren't evil and don't wish them dead?
I'm reminded that Japan had been radical. The US military occupied Japan after its surrender. The country was rebuilt and the society transformed. In the case of Gaza the Israelis have already said they won't occupy it. Trump suggested moving the Gazans while it was rebuilt which might have been beneficial to them but everyone had a fit. Now there is the Gaza Peace Board. Maybe it will have some impact. IMHO I believe it would be good to get the Palestinian Arabs out of Gaza. Putting so many people in such a small area can breed anger and resentment.
If only the people of Gaza were like the Japanese. I agree with your point of view. Everyone will be really mad and hate Israel but they already do so why not?
The strongest point here is that not every narrative functions the same way. Some narratives preserve memory; others organize moral judgment. A grievance can be real and still be transformed into a framework that assigns permanent innocence to one side and permanent guilt to the other. Once that happens, “acknowledgment” is not a neutral educational act. It can become a way of accepting the verdict before the argument has even begun. I’ve been writing about a related problem: how modern moral language often turns political questions into fixed roles of innocence and guilt, making genuine judgment almost impossible.
I'm subscribing to your newsletter after reading your remarkable essay deconstructing the Nakba libel. I'm sitting here scratching my head wondering why no one has come forward before to explain so clearly the fatal consequences of swallowing the Nakba story on its own terms.
My hat's off to you for identifying this critical leverage point in the narrative battle so clearly and effectively.
As a lapsed Catholic, with a grasp of actual, literal history, I have never been able to comprehend how intelligent people can accept the ‘Palestinian’ fiction applied so liberally to relatively modern history.
Your dissection of the libel is forensic.
Thank you for this - whilst being ashamed of my country every time our ‘leaders’ permit another Hate March, I just hope you can believe that most of us loathe the antisemitic ‘antizionism’ that seems to have grown and become fashionable - the violence, the murders are not what England, country of my birth, is about.
The oldest hatred has been increasingly legitimised since a certain Jeremy Corbyn slithered into national prominence, and I believe it not a coincidence (in terms of tolerance for antisemitism) that the current occupant of No 10 was Corbyn’s No 2 for so long.
Thank God for Trump, thank God for Bibi - things WILL get better.
Yesterday was Nabka Day in NYC. Mayor Mamdani posted a one sided video on X that served as an attempt to keep the grievance alive. There were responses posted that listed the same points that are mentioned in this essay. It will take much hard work to turn the situation around.
Every article is us trying to get the world to see the truth. We are the most hated victims in the world. We diaspora Jews are pathetic trying to convince the world we deserve to live. Truth be told I never cared about the so called fake-estians. Their fake cause, their fake peoplehood, their fake tragedies. Never cared, it was extremely difficult pretending to care. My fake concern for them is as fake as their claim to the land of Israel.
The Nakba itself is a lie. The tragedy for the Arabs was that they couldn’t destroy the nascent Jewish state and murder its inhabitants. The reality is that, if the Arabs were victorious in 1948, these “Palestinians” would be perfectly happy being Egyptians or Syrians or Jordanians. The goal, as it has been since 1948, is not to build a country but destroy one. The West doesn’t understand this or care if it does.
And, all those Western countries calling for a Palestinian state are foolish to think such a state will be anything but a theocracy or autocracy just like every other Arab country in the Middle East. A Palestinian state will be aligned with Iran, Turkey, China, Russia and against the U.S. and Europe. The West is demanding the creation of an inherently anti-Western country.
It's the progressive leftists in the West who are demanding this collusion with and recognition of Palestinianism. They demand this precisely because their collective consciousness has already been colonized by the forces who wish to destroy them.
Tragically, I believe Sam is correct.
But the wheel turns.
Yup, it’s insane. The creation of a Palestinian state is akin to the world deciding to create another North Korea.
It’s far worse - one believes the rank & file North Koreans would love to throw off the yoke - I get no such feeling about the insane Islamic maniacs.
The western countries calling for a Palestinian state are not foolish or naive. They are doing it intentionally. It is their way to continue their never ending obsession with the Jews.
We know that, but how many go along with it because they actually believe the propaganda and lies, as a result of 'collectivism' and the lack of critical thinking.
Both. Many people genuinely believe it because collectivism and weak critical thinking make propaganda easy to absorb. But that belief doesn’t emerge in a vacuum. It taps into an older, recurring pattern where hostility toward Jews gets rebranded in whatever moral language is fashionable at the time.
It will be a bloody terror state, likely taken over by ISIS or something equally as bad instantly. Which is why it will never happen.
Israel left Gaza, so they could run that themselves, and look what happened?
Naya, one of the things your article really brought home to me is how much modern politics and activism operate through slogans, emotional narratives, repetition, and symbolic language — and frankly, Jews and pro-Israel advocates have done a terrible job competing in that arena.
It often feels like we are permanently stuck playing defense, endlessly explaining context, history, nuance, and complexity while the other side reduces everything to emotionally powerful slogans like “Nakba,” “apartheid,” “settler colonialism,” and “resistance.”
And yet almost nobody talks about the hundreds of thousands of Jews expelled from Arab countries, the destruction of ancient Jewish communities across the Middle East, or the fact that Jews themselves experienced a massive regional displacement. Why has that never become part of global consciousness in the same way? Where is the narrative strategy? Where is the symbolic counterweight? Where is the ingenuity?
The reality is that we are living in a world increasingly driven by narrative warfare, emotional framing, and moral symbolism, and too many Jewish organizations still communicate as though facts alone automatically win public opinion battles. They do not.
That is one reason your article is important. Whether people agree with every aspect of it or not, at least you are recognizing that ideas, narratives, and slogans shape how entire generations emotionally interpret history and morality.
I agree with you — and believe that European antisemitism that led to the Holocaust didn’t ‘disappear’ in 1945. The West’s obsession with Israel’s existence is mirrored by Arab nationalists (e.g. the Muslim Brotherhood) who absorbed fascist antisemitic tropes (race purity, insidious Jewish power) as the basis of their Islamist worldview. It’s some kind of awful feedback loop, with the European descendants of those who sent their Jews to the gas chambers now aligning with the October 7 murderers.
I think you are correct that some Islamist and Arab nationalist movements absorbed European antisemitic ideas during the 20th century, particularly through fascist and Nazi influences. What makes today’s situation so disturbing is watching parts of the Western progressive world now align themselves with movements and ideologies that often carry many of those same antisemitic themes underneath the surface.
If Israel and her allies learn nothing else from October 7th they should learn to far more aggressively combat the propaganda and gaslighting that is ubiquitous in the Arab world and that has now infiltrated western institutions.
I mean they have VIDEO of the atrocities of October 7 and it hasn't changed any minds. There isnt much Israel can do except fight to win and win as quickly as possible when forced to fight.
There’a something more atavistic about the Western left’s support of Oct 7. They aren’t operating on a rational, human basis — their latent Jew-hatred provides the perfect conditions for the vilest, most hateful antisemitic propaganda to flourish. At times, I imagine this is what Nazi Germany felt like — evil is triumphant and lies are celebrated and defended.
A chilling thought. But dreadfully on target.
The ability of the Palestinians to convince the world that they are both victims and deserving of a state is one of the greatest acts of black magic of all time. I do not believe it would have been possible had not the target of their lies been Jews.
The Palestinian National Movement is a murder cult. It exists not to build but to destroy. The question is what can we do about it? I don't think much. Except to keep fighting it. History respects winners not victims. We must and will continue to win.
Michael Koplow might be a serious thinker but we all have blind spots and this is his (in which he is far from alone): The Nakba narrative, along with all the endless claims and slanders about Israeli apartheid, genocide, settler-colonial imperialism etc, are simply weapons, as are every Palestinian and their children, along with every Palestinian institution from school to mosque to hospital, and even every Palestinian household from doorknob to crib to bed (which might be booby-trapped or hiding weapons), and they all have the same single purpose: to destroy the evil Zionist entity, no matter how many deaths or decades this might take.
There are various reasons some people refuse to face this simple obvious truth, all the way from warm-hearted liberals who sincerely believe everyone wants what they wants and values what they value (peace and prosperity etc) to Europeans glad they no longer have to feel sorry for Jews and can go back to despising them for existing to our campus keffiyeh Brown Shirts who just want to attack anyone in the name of Justice and "liberating the oppressed" and are happy to find a cause to pour their zeal into, all the way to their Social Justice parents and babysitters who just want to signal that they're on the "right side of history".
Michael Koplow seems like a nice, smart guy, but once you start making excuses for people who would gladly butcher you and your children, you've become both an enabler and a part of the problem. (Also, it's hard for anyone to respect someone who won't stand up for himself.)
You can't solve any problem until it's clearly, properly analyzed and diagnosed: the only hope for the Palestinians is a full and thorough de-Nazification in every aspect of their society, with every cent of aid demanding this. Until people face this and insist upon it, they're just prolonging the conflict, which of course is exactly what the Palestinians want.
Yes the Palestinians need to be deradicalized.
But how? At this point, victim is their identity and demonizing Israel and the Jewish people is all they know. It's the national pastime and it's fed by their news sources from all over the Muslim world. How do you drag them out of their echo chambers and convince them that we aren't evil and don't wish them dead?
I'm reminded that Japan had been radical. The US military occupied Japan after its surrender. The country was rebuilt and the society transformed. In the case of Gaza the Israelis have already said they won't occupy it. Trump suggested moving the Gazans while it was rebuilt which might have been beneficial to them but everyone had a fit. Now there is the Gaza Peace Board. Maybe it will have some impact. IMHO I believe it would be good to get the Palestinian Arabs out of Gaza. Putting so many people in such a small area can breed anger and resentment.
If only the people of Gaza were like the Japanese. I agree with your point of view. Everyone will be really mad and hate Israel but they already do so why not?
The strongest point here is that not every narrative functions the same way. Some narratives preserve memory; others organize moral judgment. A grievance can be real and still be transformed into a framework that assigns permanent innocence to one side and permanent guilt to the other. Once that happens, “acknowledgment” is not a neutral educational act. It can become a way of accepting the verdict before the argument has even begun. I’ve been writing about a related problem: how modern moral language often turns political questions into fixed roles of innocence and guilt, making genuine judgment almost impossible.
The thesis here is so well articulated. I’ll be returning to this essay.
I really love the way Naya writes. Clear and concise. 🎤🫳🏼
I'm subscribing to your newsletter after reading your remarkable essay deconstructing the Nakba libel. I'm sitting here scratching my head wondering why no one has come forward before to explain so clearly the fatal consequences of swallowing the Nakba story on its own terms.
My hat's off to you for identifying this critical leverage point in the narrative battle so clearly and effectively.
Great article! Beautifully written. Shabbat shalom!
First class piece.
As a lapsed Catholic, with a grasp of actual, literal history, I have never been able to comprehend how intelligent people can accept the ‘Palestinian’ fiction applied so liberally to relatively modern history.
Your dissection of the libel is forensic.
Thank you for this - whilst being ashamed of my country every time our ‘leaders’ permit another Hate March, I just hope you can believe that most of us loathe the antisemitic ‘antizionism’ that seems to have grown and become fashionable - the violence, the murders are not what England, country of my birth, is about.
The oldest hatred has been increasingly legitimised since a certain Jeremy Corbyn slithered into national prominence, and I believe it not a coincidence (in terms of tolerance for antisemitism) that the current occupant of No 10 was Corbyn’s No 2 for so long.
Thank God for Trump, thank God for Bibi - things WILL get better.
Am Yisrael Chai
Yesterday was Nabka Day in NYC. Mayor Mamdani posted a one sided video on X that served as an attempt to keep the grievance alive. There were responses posted that listed the same points that are mentioned in this essay. It will take much hard work to turn the situation around.
Every article is us trying to get the world to see the truth. We are the most hated victims in the world. We diaspora Jews are pathetic trying to convince the world we deserve to live. Truth be told I never cared about the so called fake-estians. Their fake cause, their fake peoplehood, their fake tragedies. Never cared, it was extremely difficult pretending to care. My fake concern for them is as fake as their claim to the land of Israel.
Top notch essay. Essential.
Wonderful piece 👏🏼
it's still the Nakba, and, it happened!.....