My fellow jews: if nothing else , say Never Again to traveling to Spain. Between the Inquisition and their butchery in the new world and now their choosing to side with hamas and Iran, not seeing or spending time in Spain is a sacrifice all proud jews can make.
Spain was on our travel agenda….not any more. Or Ireland, or England, France…. Come to think about it I’ll just stay home, but not wear my Star of David. How do you fight back against an ideology that has so demonized an entire civilization? F em all. It’s our land. Done explaining.
I totally agree. We travelled to many of these countries in times when we falsely/naively thought "antisemitism" (anti-Jew specifically)--was no longer "a thing". We won't go today to ANY country you listed and then some--like Canada and Australia.
Don't bother trying to convince them otherwise. "Fuck off", a piece and an eye roll are far more effective. I've developed my own brand of hatred.. for religious sectarianism, particularly the Abrahamic tribes. The framers had it right with the deist Constitutional foundation. A Creator, natural order and the rest is up to you. The story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael is so twisted, it is no wonder Islam sprouted from it. Between Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Samson and Delilah, the plagues of Egypt, Babel, Lot, The crucifixion, Apocalypse-And the hate-3 thousand years of grudges, hatred and pissing contests, I cannot imagine this is what God intended unless God has a sadistic streak. And I don't believe that our Creator would have wanted us to destroy each other in the name of the Divine.
I believe the answer to this riddle lies in the theories advanced by theologian Rene Girard. Your essay appears to be saying something similar to the way his ideas can be applied to the scapegoating of Jews. Namely, that human communities, when plagued by intense internal rivalries and mounting violence, unconsciously unite against a single, arbitrary victim (or minority group) to restore peace. This mechanism is rooted in what Girard terms "mimetic desire", which turns the Hobbesian "war of all against all" that our species suffers from when there is no Superego mechanism in place to repress it (Girard was a Freudian), into a "unanimity of all against one". In other words, it provides an outlet for built-up aggression, which serves to unite disparate parties (e.g. today it's Leftists and Islamists, and in the past it was Christians and Muslims), and at the same time vents the aggression in a socially acceptable manner that is given the veneer of respectability by the prevailing faith, being Christianity, Islam, Nazism, or Leftism.
The scapegoat is often someone perceived as different: an outsider or someone who is simultaneously integrated yet distinct from the community. This describes diaspora Jews well: they are a minority in a gentile majority society, usually educated people, not brutes, and thus more vulnerable. Jews have served as a prime candidate for this mechanism in Christian and Muslim societies for over two thousand years, and still do today under the guise of anti-Zionism. The scapegoating of Jews relies on contradictory accusations, such as being too rich and too poor, too secretive and too controlling, which shows that the target is not about objective guilt but about projecting internal community chaos onto a demonized" image. During crises (plagues, economic depression, wars, or, in our day and age, cultural social decay), the community redirects its chaotic fear and rage onto the Jews, who are framed as the hidden architects of that disaster. A good example of this mindset today is Tucker Carlson's infamous scapegoating of Israel, and by extension, all Jews -- though he refrains from stating the latter overly; however, his followers have no problem doing so.
The scapegoating mechanism allows individuals and society to manage internal conflicts without addressing their real causes. When a community suffers from internal frictions (rivalries, economic stress, societal breakdown), the tension is unbearable. Rather than facing their own complicity, the community finds it easier to believe that an outsider is responsible. The scapegoating makes the community feel united, virtuous, and peaceful again, temporarily ending their inner strife. For the mechanism to work, the perpetrators cannot know they are doing it. It is unconscious. They must believe their target is genuinely guilty, framing their violence as a necessary act of justice or cleansing. By demonizing the victim (e.g., picturing Jews as an existential, non-human threat), the persecutors turn their aggression into a moral crusade. This converts negative feelings like fear, guilt, or inadequacy into satisfying, righteous vengeance. The scapegoat provides a convenient outlet for aggression through demonization by acting as a cathartic release valve for the pent-up anger and resentment accumulated within a society.
All the rivalry and envy created by mimetic desire are channelled onto one target, discharging the community’s violent energy, which is then expelled. However, this is a false and temporary peace. The victim is sacrificed (excluded or destroyed). In the aftermath, the community feels a sense of relief and calm for a time, wrongly attributing this peace to the removal of the scapegoat, rather than acknowledging it as a result of shared violence. So the cycle continues, leading to more attacks, pogroms and murders. The scapegoating of Jews has provided a recurring, historical solution to existential fear, to avoid facing their own internal divisions and failures by projecting their sins. Islamists in particular have a lot of aggression towards one another, but are united through a common Jew-hatred.
Supersessionism also plays a part in their antisemitism. Christian supersessionism through Replacement theology has, in the past, led to Christian violence against Jews. Now, with the emergence of a relatively new 'religion' - Leftism - antisemitism has found a new outlet through anti-Zionism. But the underlying dynamic in all these examples is scapegoating. Other groups can and have been scapegoatied throughout history, but Jews are the target frequently, perhaps because they are typically more intelligent than the host society and thus resented. The same thing happened to East Indians and whites in Uganda in 1972. The same thing is happening to some white people in South Africa right now. Centuries ago, some women were scapegoated and burned as witches. It's a pattern found all throughout history.
It’s the same GD thing! Israel is the Jew on the global scale and is demonized just as Jews are—Israel and Jews are the scapegoat. Since the Shoah, direct Jew bashing is no longer socially acceptable, but the Jew haters have it great because they’ve got Israel to bash instead, which is not just acceptable, it’s wildly popular again! It’s not complicated. Time to ditch the lies and conspiracy theories about Israel and face reality. It’s the same old ‘same old’ dressed up in a screaming keffiyeh.
I used to think that, but now, after having investigated it further, I believe that anti-Israel/anti-Zionist arguments are consistent with and contribute to antisemitism/anti-Jewish bias. Here is why:
Arguments against Israel do not merely criticize state policies, but target the foundational right of Jewish national self-determination. Because Israel is the sovereign embodiment of the Jewish people, targeting its existence should be considered a collective attack on Jews. Anti-Zionist rhetoric often directly translates to increased attacks on Jewish institutions and individuals worldwide, blurring the line between anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism. In truth, that line does not exist except as a rhetorical point to defend anti-Zionist rhetoric to support the largely unconscious scapegoating of Jews.
Anti-Israel arguments pose an existential threat to the Jewish people because about half of the world's Jewish population lives in Israel (over 7 million people), and anti-Zionism calls for the dissolution of Israel, an entire nation of people. Let's be real about what it really means: a second Shoah or Holocaust, or to put it another way, October 7th on a national scale. That's what the phrase "from the river to the sea" really means: Islamists murdering everyone there most brutally. 7 million Jews who have built up their country with real sweat and blood are not going to peacefully capitulate and become targets for rape and murder by Islamic jihadis. Palestinians were offered peaceful co-existence in 1947 and refused it, preferring to go to war, which they lost. Their cause is not really about national self-determination; it's predicated on the Islamic mandate to murder Jews as a holy duty (e.g. Quran: Surah Al-Isra (17:4–7) and Surah Al-Baqarah (2:191)).
Hamas and the Iranian regime that supports them don't want everyone to live in peace in a "two-state solution." Palestinians have consistently rejected that option. They want to kill all the Jews and say so openly. This is because their worldview is supersessionist Islamism, which views jihad as a sacred duty. It takes Leftist denialism, "preztel logic". and cognitive dissonance to pretend otherwise. Leftists and those who follow Tucker Carlson or Nick Funtes are useful idiots for Islamic jihad, giving tacit support to real evil.
Another point: anti-Zionism often takes the form of classic antisemitic conspiracy theories, such as Jews as bloodthirsty and manipulative and replaces the word "Jew" with "Zionist" or "Israel" or "IDF." For example, it will portray Israel as intentionally killing Palestinian children, when in reality it is Hamas using them as human shields, whom they call "martyrs for Islam" in Arabic. Civilized peoples do not force children to remain in a war zone to be sacrificed for propaganda purposes, but Hamas does this. The IDF goes out of its way to warn civilians to leave the war zone, but often to no avail. This use of children by Hamas is deliberately done to portray Israel as the villain in "Pallywood" propaganda photos and videos that are shared among millions of Muslims and Leftists on social media. This contributes to anti-Jewish hatred and attacks on Jews worldwide. I recall joining an anti-Israel march years ago, thinking it was about human rights and peace, and being shocked when I heard Arabs openly call for the murder of all Jews and say things like "Hitler should have finished the job." That's when I went from being a naive useful idiot for the Left to educating myself on the reality of Israel, and eventually travelling there to see it for myself.
Another false claim is that "Zionists" somehow control global media, governments, or finance. I heard this on a YouTube show called Fleccas Talks, for example. A common one now is to allege that Epstein, working for Mossad, somehow manipulated Trump to attack Iran. That is false, but conservative antisemites repeat it a lot. An older trope is comparing Israel to Nazis, arguing that Jews are doing to Palestinians what was done to them. Aside from being a false claim, it trivializes the Shoah and is done just to demonize Jews. The reality is that Islamists such as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem adopted anti-Jewish Nazi ideology that greatly influenced and shaped early anti-Zionist pogroms and rhetoric among Arabs in the 1920s and 30s, leading to the anti-Zionist movement -- which eventually also adopted Marxist anti-colonialist rhetoric in the 1960s with the help of the KGB. The Jewish philosopher Emile Fackenheim famously said the 614th commandment should be to not let Hitler have a posthumous victory -- i.e., not allow Jews to be killed for being Jews, but anti-Zionist rhetoric contributes directly and indirectly to violence against them in the name of pro-Palestinianism.
It's also interesting how anti-Zionists rarely apply the same intense scrutiny or calls for dissolution to other nations with far worse human rights records. I could list dozens of far more horrible examples of human rights violations than anything Israel has ever done, but I have never heard anti-Zionists mention them. All their ire, for some reason, is focused on the only Jewish state in the world. For example, Tucker Carlson falsely claims that Israel discriminates against Christians while at the same time ignoring examples of Islamist violence against Christians in neighbouring Arab states, such as Iran.
These points are summed up in Natan Sharansky's 3D test: 1) Demonization (using tropes); 2) Double Standards (unique focus on Israel but not other nations that are far worse); and 3) Delegitimization (denying Jews the right to exist in their ancestral homeland). Anti-Israel arguments that do not violate these three points are legitimate (such as for example, criticism of government overreach during Covid, a criticism that could be applied to a majority of governments at that time), but more typically, they do violate them and thus cross over into antisemitism.
A majority of Jews worldwide identify with some form of Zionism, viewing a connection to Israel as a core part of their Jewish identity. Zionism at its most basic just means believing that Israel has a right to exist, which I believe, so I am a Zionist, although not a Jew. I am a Christian philosopher who supports Israel both as a moral duty and also from a faith perspective.
Nonsense. Israel, the only Jewish state, and 1/6 of 1% of the Middle East, gets put under a microscope unlike any other country. It gets attacked for defending itself (did you notice the mass anti-Israel demonstrations starting the day after the 10/7 massacre?). The bottom line is, if Israel weren't Jewish - if the conflict were Sunni vs. Shiite or Kurd vs. Sunni, for example, it would elicit no more than a global yawn.
You might also have seen vicious antisemitic mobs assembling outside synagogues and other Jewish places, ostensibly because they hate Israel, but they're 1000s of miles away from Israel, attacking Jews! Do Jews besiege American mosques, because we don't like jihad terror in Ramallah? Do we assemble outside Catholic Churches because Spain's leader is an a-hole? The linkage between anti-Zionism and Jew-hatred is so obvious, I'm surprised anyone questions it. Israel is merely the latest excuse for 3000 years of vile antisemitism. Enough already.
Melissa, no doubt about it. I’ve said for the longest time that if someone were creating the perfect formula for a scapegoat, the Jews would tragically fit it. We are a very small demographic, yet highly visible everywhere. We are disproportionately successful in many fields. And historically, Jews were seen as a people unlikely to physically fight back in large numbers.
That combination makes Jews the perfect target for societies looking to dump their frustrations, failures, and anger onto someone else. A small minority that is visible, successful, and isolated becomes an easy symbol for people looking for someone to blame instead of confronting their own problems.
Exactly. The great psychologist/philosopher Carl Jung gave the phenomenon you describe so well a name: "projection." When we "project," we see all of our own unrecognized faults in the object onto which we project our shortcomings.
Quite the compelling argument, especially the last paragraph. Fortunately, the Jews are no longer impotent to the attacks. Welcome the Mossad and the IDF.
Douglas Murray, one of the few sane , decent writers and commentators of our time, brilliant and outspoken, has said this many times: look at what you accuse the Jews of and then look at what is wrong with you. It's been like this since Christianity, which based its Pauline religion on the fabricated hatred and vindictiveness against all Jews everywhere and of all times. For them it was also a question of identity and the affirmation of an insecure faith, contrasted with the certainty- considered arrogance and blindness by them- of the Jews . But the ferocity of their slaughtering and martyring or Jews allowed their own barbarism and decay to be projected on them. Islam followed. Two sick daughter religions, a case of matricide. I wonder what Freud would have thought. Perhaps he did tie Jew-hatred to personal shortcomings and religion. I need to look it up.
Welcome! :) But seriously, it’s time all Jews finally understood this. It’ll break many out of the trap of ‘what can Jews do differently’ or ‘if we just assimilate more.’
My suggestion is that we stop being perceived as "soft targets." Bullies always prey on the weakest, because bullies are cowards at heart. We Jews must teach the haters that there's a price for their loutish behavior. In the 70s, such people might leave hate screeds in people's mailboxes, in the dead of night. Today, they parade in front of synagogues, banging war drums. They tear down hostage posters. They sucker punch Jews walking down the street. If they get away with it, it will get worse. Turning the other cheek only gets your second cheek slapped too.
Every Jew needs to be prepared to respond, in some form or another. Be it self defense training, carrying a weapon where appropriate, or even just carrying pepper spray. Different countries have different laws that impact this, but the general point stands.
I'd recommend carrying 2 types of defense, perhaps pepper spray and a firearm. Pepper spray might be fine for some jerk trying to punch you, but for a screaming jihadist with a knife, you'll need "the nuclear option." If you carry a baseball bat in your trunk, throw in a baseball glove, for plausible deniability, ha ha!
This is a fascinating, well researched and thought-through exploration of the hidden dynamic driving the hatred of those on the outside of Jewish existence.
But why doesn’t the author consider and address two obvious questions… A) Don’t those same traumatic drivers exist within the Jewish community’s own internal experiences? How come we don’t cope with our, arguably more justified trauma, by manufacturing our own scapegoats?
B) In what way, if any, does this inoculation against playing our own blame game, contribute to the documented successes that free, unsullied Jews bring to their wider communities?
I’m not qualified to answer these questions - I’m not even positive their suppositions are valid. But what I’m feeling is that the overarching solution may be to somehow bring everyone into our long-suffering, but impervious, Jewish tribe. Wouldn’t it help if everyone was on the same page?
Proselytizing is forbidden within Judaism, yet Google’s AI answered: “Yes, evidence suggests that a growing number of people are converting to Judaism or exploring conversion, with many rabbis reporting increased conversion rates, especially following the events of October 7, 2023.”
Which then leads to two other questions… A) Doesn’t this contradict the increase in antisemitism? B) Doesn’t “the same page” sound awfully like the objective of the Islamists’ Caliphate obsession?
In Fourteen Hundred and Ninety Two / Columbus sailed the ocean blue / His maps were made by a Sephardic Jew / As were his pilot and half his crew / And maybe even Columbus too.
They sailed for Spain and away / from Inquisition and Auto de Fe / from certain death from those who'd say / My god is love, you die today / What's yours is mine, for you must pay,
And so pirates they became / of the Caribbean and Barbary fame
From Morocco and Jamaica Bay, / To London and Amsterdam they / for refuge first and then to say / the Crown of Spain, it must pay / for each Jew slain that way.
So as pirates they patrolled / For revenge and for Spanish gold / their plans were laid, their deeds were bold / Their blood ran hot, their swords swung cold / Destroy Spain's Empire let it be told
And so pirates they became / of the Caribbean and Barbary fame
Thanks Melissa. I also read Kritzler's book. As you pointed out, we Jews came to what was then Sepharad, what is now Spain, about 3000 years ago, during King Solomon's reign.
To summarize Kritzler, "2400 years later, fleeing the Inquisition after the Alhambra Decree, the Sephardi Jews left the Iberian peninsula or went underground as Conversos. Maimonides left for Morocco, settled in Cairo. Others stayed in Morocco, or continued to Sarajevo, Istanbul, Iran, India, Amsterdam, London, the Caribbean, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, California, ....
"Ferdinand and Isabella built an empire, in part using Jewish money stolen from the executed Conversos, but simultaneously laid in its foundation the seeds of their empire's collapse. Jewish pirates, privateers, and financiers sought revenge. And revenge is sweetest when it is legal and profitable.
"Jewish mapmakers and navigators established the global trade routes. They helped the British and the Dutch build New Amsterdam / New York, wrest those trade routes from Spain. They helped the British sink the Spanish Armada.
"The Sephardim helped establish the "Golden Age" of the Ottoman Empire."
And today ...
Erdogan wants to rebuild the Ottoman Empire, but in building training camps for Hamas he is inviting them to do what Hezbollah did in Lebanon, what the PLO did in Jordan, what the IRGC and the Mullahs did in Iran.
Today Spain and Portugal, with about 60 million people, have 10 Nobel Laureates, seven in literature and three in medicine. The 660 million people of Latin America have another 18 Nobel Laureates. And Cesar Milstein, of Argentina, is an Ashkenazi Jew whose family is from Lviv. He is one of the 17 million Jews who have 220 Nobel Laureates. The Spanish traded dynamism and curiosity for obedience and dogma.
Sanchez in Spain is inviting Hamas. This is a particular kind of stupid.
In the classic tale of the scorpion and the frog the frog did not go out of its way looking for scorpions to ferry across the water.
Great points! As an aside, I've met many pro-Israel people & encountered more than my share of the haters. The former tend to be happier and have better senses of humor than the latter. The haters are full of anger and resentment. Which is the cause and which is the effect I can't say. Maybe both?
Beautiful essay !!!!!!! So truthful !!!!!!..... It's haŕd to believe how antisemitism had spread all over the world again !!!!!!!......Am Israel Chai!!!!!....
My fellow jews: if nothing else , say Never Again to traveling to Spain. Between the Inquisition and their butchery in the new world and now their choosing to side with hamas and Iran, not seeing or spending time in Spain is a sacrifice all proud jews can make.
Spain was on our travel agenda….not any more. Or Ireland, or England, France…. Come to think about it I’ll just stay home, but not wear my Star of David. How do you fight back against an ideology that has so demonized an entire civilization? F em all. It’s our land. Done explaining.
Consider visiting Panama! Wonderful, Jewishly friendly.
I totally agree. We travelled to many of these countries in times when we falsely/naively thought "antisemitism" (anti-Jew specifically)--was no longer "a thing". We won't go today to ANY country you listed and then some--like Canada and Australia.
Don't bother trying to convince them otherwise. "Fuck off", a piece and an eye roll are far more effective. I've developed my own brand of hatred.. for religious sectarianism, particularly the Abrahamic tribes. The framers had it right with the deist Constitutional foundation. A Creator, natural order and the rest is up to you. The story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael is so twisted, it is no wonder Islam sprouted from it. Between Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Samson and Delilah, the plagues of Egypt, Babel, Lot, The crucifixion, Apocalypse-And the hate-3 thousand years of grudges, hatred and pissing contests, I cannot imagine this is what God intended unless God has a sadistic streak. And I don't believe that our Creator would have wanted us to destroy each other in the name of the Divine.
That´s exactly what I told a f*ckpiece at a Berlin Underground Station who attacked and insulted me "because" I was wearing an Israel Flag.
I shouted at him very loudly (in German):"Jew Hate is only for pitiful b*tches like you who don´t get along with themselves".
The audience applauded.
But I think it was only for the show. Which ends at latest when they have to look in the mirror themselves.
I believe the answer to this riddle lies in the theories advanced by theologian Rene Girard. Your essay appears to be saying something similar to the way his ideas can be applied to the scapegoating of Jews. Namely, that human communities, when plagued by intense internal rivalries and mounting violence, unconsciously unite against a single, arbitrary victim (or minority group) to restore peace. This mechanism is rooted in what Girard terms "mimetic desire", which turns the Hobbesian "war of all against all" that our species suffers from when there is no Superego mechanism in place to repress it (Girard was a Freudian), into a "unanimity of all against one". In other words, it provides an outlet for built-up aggression, which serves to unite disparate parties (e.g. today it's Leftists and Islamists, and in the past it was Christians and Muslims), and at the same time vents the aggression in a socially acceptable manner that is given the veneer of respectability by the prevailing faith, being Christianity, Islam, Nazism, or Leftism.
The scapegoat is often someone perceived as different: an outsider or someone who is simultaneously integrated yet distinct from the community. This describes diaspora Jews well: they are a minority in a gentile majority society, usually educated people, not brutes, and thus more vulnerable. Jews have served as a prime candidate for this mechanism in Christian and Muslim societies for over two thousand years, and still do today under the guise of anti-Zionism. The scapegoating of Jews relies on contradictory accusations, such as being too rich and too poor, too secretive and too controlling, which shows that the target is not about objective guilt but about projecting internal community chaos onto a demonized" image. During crises (plagues, economic depression, wars, or, in our day and age, cultural social decay), the community redirects its chaotic fear and rage onto the Jews, who are framed as the hidden architects of that disaster. A good example of this mindset today is Tucker Carlson's infamous scapegoating of Israel, and by extension, all Jews -- though he refrains from stating the latter overly; however, his followers have no problem doing so.
The scapegoating mechanism allows individuals and society to manage internal conflicts without addressing their real causes. When a community suffers from internal frictions (rivalries, economic stress, societal breakdown), the tension is unbearable. Rather than facing their own complicity, the community finds it easier to believe that an outsider is responsible. The scapegoating makes the community feel united, virtuous, and peaceful again, temporarily ending their inner strife. For the mechanism to work, the perpetrators cannot know they are doing it. It is unconscious. They must believe their target is genuinely guilty, framing their violence as a necessary act of justice or cleansing. By demonizing the victim (e.g., picturing Jews as an existential, non-human threat), the persecutors turn their aggression into a moral crusade. This converts negative feelings like fear, guilt, or inadequacy into satisfying, righteous vengeance. The scapegoat provides a convenient outlet for aggression through demonization by acting as a cathartic release valve for the pent-up anger and resentment accumulated within a society.
All the rivalry and envy created by mimetic desire are channelled onto one target, discharging the community’s violent energy, which is then expelled. However, this is a false and temporary peace. The victim is sacrificed (excluded or destroyed). In the aftermath, the community feels a sense of relief and calm for a time, wrongly attributing this peace to the removal of the scapegoat, rather than acknowledging it as a result of shared violence. So the cycle continues, leading to more attacks, pogroms and murders. The scapegoating of Jews has provided a recurring, historical solution to existential fear, to avoid facing their own internal divisions and failures by projecting their sins. Islamists in particular have a lot of aggression towards one another, but are united through a common Jew-hatred.
Supersessionism also plays a part in their antisemitism. Christian supersessionism through Replacement theology has, in the past, led to Christian violence against Jews. Now, with the emergence of a relatively new 'religion' - Leftism - antisemitism has found a new outlet through anti-Zionism. But the underlying dynamic in all these examples is scapegoating. Other groups can and have been scapegoatied throughout history, but Jews are the target frequently, perhaps because they are typically more intelligent than the host society and thus resented. The same thing happened to East Indians and whites in Uganda in 1972. The same thing is happening to some white people in South Africa right now. Centuries ago, some women were scapegoated and burned as witches. It's a pattern found all throughout history.
You are conflating anti-Isreal with anti-Semitism. Not the same!!!!!
It’s the same GD thing! Israel is the Jew on the global scale and is demonized just as Jews are—Israel and Jews are the scapegoat. Since the Shoah, direct Jew bashing is no longer socially acceptable, but the Jew haters have it great because they’ve got Israel to bash instead, which is not just acceptable, it’s wildly popular again! It’s not complicated. Time to ditch the lies and conspiracy theories about Israel and face reality. It’s the same old ‘same old’ dressed up in a screaming keffiyeh.
I used to think that, but now, after having investigated it further, I believe that anti-Israel/anti-Zionist arguments are consistent with and contribute to antisemitism/anti-Jewish bias. Here is why:
Arguments against Israel do not merely criticize state policies, but target the foundational right of Jewish national self-determination. Because Israel is the sovereign embodiment of the Jewish people, targeting its existence should be considered a collective attack on Jews. Anti-Zionist rhetoric often directly translates to increased attacks on Jewish institutions and individuals worldwide, blurring the line between anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism. In truth, that line does not exist except as a rhetorical point to defend anti-Zionist rhetoric to support the largely unconscious scapegoating of Jews.
Anti-Israel arguments pose an existential threat to the Jewish people because about half of the world's Jewish population lives in Israel (over 7 million people), and anti-Zionism calls for the dissolution of Israel, an entire nation of people. Let's be real about what it really means: a second Shoah or Holocaust, or to put it another way, October 7th on a national scale. That's what the phrase "from the river to the sea" really means: Islamists murdering everyone there most brutally. 7 million Jews who have built up their country with real sweat and blood are not going to peacefully capitulate and become targets for rape and murder by Islamic jihadis. Palestinians were offered peaceful co-existence in 1947 and refused it, preferring to go to war, which they lost. Their cause is not really about national self-determination; it's predicated on the Islamic mandate to murder Jews as a holy duty (e.g. Quran: Surah Al-Isra (17:4–7) and Surah Al-Baqarah (2:191)).
Hamas and the Iranian regime that supports them don't want everyone to live in peace in a "two-state solution." Palestinians have consistently rejected that option. They want to kill all the Jews and say so openly. This is because their worldview is supersessionist Islamism, which views jihad as a sacred duty. It takes Leftist denialism, "preztel logic". and cognitive dissonance to pretend otherwise. Leftists and those who follow Tucker Carlson or Nick Funtes are useful idiots for Islamic jihad, giving tacit support to real evil.
Another point: anti-Zionism often takes the form of classic antisemitic conspiracy theories, such as Jews as bloodthirsty and manipulative and replaces the word "Jew" with "Zionist" or "Israel" or "IDF." For example, it will portray Israel as intentionally killing Palestinian children, when in reality it is Hamas using them as human shields, whom they call "martyrs for Islam" in Arabic. Civilized peoples do not force children to remain in a war zone to be sacrificed for propaganda purposes, but Hamas does this. The IDF goes out of its way to warn civilians to leave the war zone, but often to no avail. This use of children by Hamas is deliberately done to portray Israel as the villain in "Pallywood" propaganda photos and videos that are shared among millions of Muslims and Leftists on social media. This contributes to anti-Jewish hatred and attacks on Jews worldwide. I recall joining an anti-Israel march years ago, thinking it was about human rights and peace, and being shocked when I heard Arabs openly call for the murder of all Jews and say things like "Hitler should have finished the job." That's when I went from being a naive useful idiot for the Left to educating myself on the reality of Israel, and eventually travelling there to see it for myself.
Another false claim is that "Zionists" somehow control global media, governments, or finance. I heard this on a YouTube show called Fleccas Talks, for example. A common one now is to allege that Epstein, working for Mossad, somehow manipulated Trump to attack Iran. That is false, but conservative antisemites repeat it a lot. An older trope is comparing Israel to Nazis, arguing that Jews are doing to Palestinians what was done to them. Aside from being a false claim, it trivializes the Shoah and is done just to demonize Jews. The reality is that Islamists such as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem adopted anti-Jewish Nazi ideology that greatly influenced and shaped early anti-Zionist pogroms and rhetoric among Arabs in the 1920s and 30s, leading to the anti-Zionist movement -- which eventually also adopted Marxist anti-colonialist rhetoric in the 1960s with the help of the KGB. The Jewish philosopher Emile Fackenheim famously said the 614th commandment should be to not let Hitler have a posthumous victory -- i.e., not allow Jews to be killed for being Jews, but anti-Zionist rhetoric contributes directly and indirectly to violence against them in the name of pro-Palestinianism.
It's also interesting how anti-Zionists rarely apply the same intense scrutiny or calls for dissolution to other nations with far worse human rights records. I could list dozens of far more horrible examples of human rights violations than anything Israel has ever done, but I have never heard anti-Zionists mention them. All their ire, for some reason, is focused on the only Jewish state in the world. For example, Tucker Carlson falsely claims that Israel discriminates against Christians while at the same time ignoring examples of Islamist violence against Christians in neighbouring Arab states, such as Iran.
These points are summed up in Natan Sharansky's 3D test: 1) Demonization (using tropes); 2) Double Standards (unique focus on Israel but not other nations that are far worse); and 3) Delegitimization (denying Jews the right to exist in their ancestral homeland). Anti-Israel arguments that do not violate these three points are legitimate (such as for example, criticism of government overreach during Covid, a criticism that could be applied to a majority of governments at that time), but more typically, they do violate them and thus cross over into antisemitism.
A majority of Jews worldwide identify with some form of Zionism, viewing a connection to Israel as a core part of their Jewish identity. Zionism at its most basic just means believing that Israel has a right to exist, which I believe, so I am a Zionist, although not a Jew. I am a Christian philosopher who supports Israel both as a moral duty and also from a faith perspective.
This is one of the most intelligently written and factual rebuttals to such claims that I have had the pleasure to read for some time. Thank you.
Nonsense. Israel, the only Jewish state, and 1/6 of 1% of the Middle East, gets put under a microscope unlike any other country. It gets attacked for defending itself (did you notice the mass anti-Israel demonstrations starting the day after the 10/7 massacre?). The bottom line is, if Israel weren't Jewish - if the conflict were Sunni vs. Shiite or Kurd vs. Sunni, for example, it would elicit no more than a global yawn.
You might also have seen vicious antisemitic mobs assembling outside synagogues and other Jewish places, ostensibly because they hate Israel, but they're 1000s of miles away from Israel, attacking Jews! Do Jews besiege American mosques, because we don't like jihad terror in Ramallah? Do we assemble outside Catholic Churches because Spain's leader is an a-hole? The linkage between anti-Zionism and Jew-hatred is so obvious, I'm surprised anyone questions it. Israel is merely the latest excuse for 3000 years of vile antisemitism. Enough already.
Melissa, no doubt about it. I’ve said for the longest time that if someone were creating the perfect formula for a scapegoat, the Jews would tragically fit it. We are a very small demographic, yet highly visible everywhere. We are disproportionately successful in many fields. And historically, Jews were seen as a people unlikely to physically fight back in large numbers.
That combination makes Jews the perfect target for societies looking to dump their frustrations, failures, and anger onto someone else. A small minority that is visible, successful, and isolated becomes an easy symbol for people looking for someone to blame instead of confronting their own problems.
Exactly. The great psychologist/philosopher Carl Jung gave the phenomenon you describe so well a name: "projection." When we "project," we see all of our own unrecognized faults in the object onto which we project our shortcomings.
Quite the compelling argument, especially the last paragraph. Fortunately, the Jews are no longer impotent to the attacks. Welcome the Mossad and the IDF.
You’ve hit on a lot of truth here. Very well said. The accountability part in particular is terrific.
Excellent thinking.
Douglas Murray, one of the few sane , decent writers and commentators of our time, brilliant and outspoken, has said this many times: look at what you accuse the Jews of and then look at what is wrong with you. It's been like this since Christianity, which based its Pauline religion on the fabricated hatred and vindictiveness against all Jews everywhere and of all times. For them it was also a question of identity and the affirmation of an insecure faith, contrasted with the certainty- considered arrogance and blindness by them- of the Jews . But the ferocity of their slaughtering and martyring or Jews allowed their own barbarism and decay to be projected on them. Islam followed. Two sick daughter religions, a case of matricide. I wonder what Freud would have thought. Perhaps he did tie Jew-hatred to personal shortcomings and religion. I need to look it up.
Welcome! :) But seriously, it’s time all Jews finally understood this. It’ll break many out of the trap of ‘what can Jews do differently’ or ‘if we just assimilate more.’
My suggestion is that we stop being perceived as "soft targets." Bullies always prey on the weakest, because bullies are cowards at heart. We Jews must teach the haters that there's a price for their loutish behavior. In the 70s, such people might leave hate screeds in people's mailboxes, in the dead of night. Today, they parade in front of synagogues, banging war drums. They tear down hostage posters. They sucker punch Jews walking down the street. If they get away with it, it will get worse. Turning the other cheek only gets your second cheek slapped too.
Every Jew needs to be prepared to respond, in some form or another. Be it self defense training, carrying a weapon where appropriate, or even just carrying pepper spray. Different countries have different laws that impact this, but the general point stands.
I'd recommend carrying 2 types of defense, perhaps pepper spray and a firearm. Pepper spray might be fine for some jerk trying to punch you, but for a screaming jihadist with a knife, you'll need "the nuclear option." If you carry a baseball bat in your trunk, throw in a baseball glove, for plausible deniability, ha ha!
This is a fascinating, well researched and thought-through exploration of the hidden dynamic driving the hatred of those on the outside of Jewish existence.
But why doesn’t the author consider and address two obvious questions… A) Don’t those same traumatic drivers exist within the Jewish community’s own internal experiences? How come we don’t cope with our, arguably more justified trauma, by manufacturing our own scapegoats?
B) In what way, if any, does this inoculation against playing our own blame game, contribute to the documented successes that free, unsullied Jews bring to their wider communities?
I’m not qualified to answer these questions - I’m not even positive their suppositions are valid. But what I’m feeling is that the overarching solution may be to somehow bring everyone into our long-suffering, but impervious, Jewish tribe. Wouldn’t it help if everyone was on the same page?
Proselytizing is forbidden within Judaism, yet Google’s AI answered: “Yes, evidence suggests that a growing number of people are converting to Judaism or exploring conversion, with many rabbis reporting increased conversion rates, especially following the events of October 7, 2023.”
Which then leads to two other questions… A) Doesn’t this contradict the increase in antisemitism? B) Doesn’t “the same page” sound awfully like the objective of the Islamists’ Caliphate obsession?
All good questions and you've given me some things to think about and respond to...if I can! Thank you.
Columbus and the Conversos
In Fourteen Hundred and Ninety Two / Columbus sailed the ocean blue / His maps were made by a Sephardic Jew / As were his pilot and half his crew / And maybe even Columbus too.
They sailed for Spain and away / from Inquisition and Auto de Fe / from certain death from those who'd say / My god is love, you die today / What's yours is mine, for you must pay,
And so pirates they became / of the Caribbean and Barbary fame
From Morocco and Jamaica Bay, / To London and Amsterdam they / for refuge first and then to say / the Crown of Spain, it must pay / for each Jew slain that way.
So as pirates they patrolled / For revenge and for Spanish gold / their plans were laid, their deeds were bold / Their blood ran hot, their swords swung cold / Destroy Spain's Empire let it be told
And so pirates they became / of the Caribbean and Barbary fame
Thanks Melissa. I also read Kritzler's book. As you pointed out, we Jews came to what was then Sepharad, what is now Spain, about 3000 years ago, during King Solomon's reign.
To summarize Kritzler, "2400 years later, fleeing the Inquisition after the Alhambra Decree, the Sephardi Jews left the Iberian peninsula or went underground as Conversos. Maimonides left for Morocco, settled in Cairo. Others stayed in Morocco, or continued to Sarajevo, Istanbul, Iran, India, Amsterdam, London, the Caribbean, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, California, ....
"Ferdinand and Isabella built an empire, in part using Jewish money stolen from the executed Conversos, but simultaneously laid in its foundation the seeds of their empire's collapse. Jewish pirates, privateers, and financiers sought revenge. And revenge is sweetest when it is legal and profitable.
"Jewish mapmakers and navigators established the global trade routes. They helped the British and the Dutch build New Amsterdam / New York, wrest those trade routes from Spain. They helped the British sink the Spanish Armada.
"The Sephardim helped establish the "Golden Age" of the Ottoman Empire."
And today ...
Erdogan wants to rebuild the Ottoman Empire, but in building training camps for Hamas he is inviting them to do what Hezbollah did in Lebanon, what the PLO did in Jordan, what the IRGC and the Mullahs did in Iran.
Today Spain and Portugal, with about 60 million people, have 10 Nobel Laureates, seven in literature and three in medicine. The 660 million people of Latin America have another 18 Nobel Laureates. And Cesar Milstein, of Argentina, is an Ashkenazi Jew whose family is from Lviv. He is one of the 17 million Jews who have 220 Nobel Laureates. The Spanish traded dynamism and curiosity for obedience and dogma.
Sanchez in Spain is inviting Hamas. This is a particular kind of stupid.
In the classic tale of the scorpion and the frog the frog did not go out of its way looking for scorpions to ferry across the water.
What is being described here is the psychological defensive mechanism of displacement: I am not the cause of my suffering: You are!
Very convenient. Very soothing to the one who feels himself victimized and persecuted by others. Very infantile.
If you like the Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean, I recommend you also read:
Sao Tome' by Paul D. Cohen
I’ll add that to my list, thank you.
Great points! As an aside, I've met many pro-Israel people & encountered more than my share of the haters. The former tend to be happier and have better senses of humor than the latter. The haters are full of anger and resentment. Which is the cause and which is the effect I can't say. Maybe both?
Beautiful essay !!!!!!! So truthful !!!!!!..... It's haŕd to believe how antisemitism had spread all over the world again !!!!!!!......Am Israel Chai!!!!!....
Awesome read. Thanks 🙏. Shabbat shalom