Western leaders are getting Jews killed.
Powerful politicians across the West are "fighting" antisemitism with one hand, while feeding it with the other. Sadly, they don't seem to understand the link, and it is now costing lives.
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This is a guest essay written by Nachum Kaplan of the newsletter, “Moral Clarity.”
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
Western leaders’ anti-Israel rhetoric is having foreseeable ugly consequences.
It is not a coincidence that the murder of two Israeli embassy staff members in Washington, D.C. follows an escalation in anti-Israel rhetoric from world leaders.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar rightly said the murders were a direct consequence of rising global antisemitism and anti-Israel incitement, and called out world leaders for spreading “modern blood libels.”
Britain, France, Canada, Australia and other countries have dialed up the rhetoric and again repeated Palestinian lies about Israel’s war against the genocidal terror group Hamas in Gaza. These countries’ leaders now have blood on their hands and all over their bodies.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee gets it. He accused Britain and France of “hypocrisy” and said he was “outraged” by their recent rhetoric and actions against Israel. The two countries “need to go back and remember their history,” he said, referencing how Britain, France, and their allies won the Second World War. They “bombed the heck out of Germany, and that’s what ended the war, it was a decisive victory.”
This is not the first time violence has followed Western countries’ anti-Israel actions. The firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue in November came immediately after Australia betrayed Israel by clandestinely changing its policy and voting at the United Nations to recognize Palestinian sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank).
Ultimately, many Western governments’ policies and rhetoric towards Israel are feeding rampant antisemitism, yet leaders do not seem to understand their role in stoking it. It is partly a moral failure and partly ignorance about the nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and France have more in common than just a huge antisemitism problem and terrified Jewish communities. They also have leftist leaders, whose policies and rhetoric exacerbate antisemitism. These leaders seem to think that just because they condemn antisemitism, it somehow undoes their contribution to it, or stops it.
It does not.
These states have diplomatic relations with Israel and, in theory, are the Jewish state’s allies. Yet, increasingly, they base their policies towards Israel on Hamas’ lies. This legitimizes those lies, gives them an undeserved credence, and these lies are antisemitic to their core.
Every time a Western leader reacts to the dishonest and biased news cycle and expresses concern about an Israeli attack on Hamas terrorists, or calls for a ceasefire because “too many civilians” have been killed, it serves Hamas. The things they claim to be concerned about are outright lies, but they seem more credible when coming from Western leaders’ frothing mouths.
For example, the Palestinians and their ignorant supporters in the West accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza, which is a lie, a smear, and a modern blood libel. Western leaders might not accuse Israel of genocide directly, but their rhetoric about Israel having killed “too many civilians” in Gaza implies a kind of genocide could be taking place.
Consider these quotes, which parrot Hamas’ lies wholesale:
“They’re (Israel) starting to lose … support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place.” — U.S. President Joe Biden
“The world is witnessing this killing of women, of children, of babies. This has to stop.” — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
“What we saw this week, the bombing of a school where people essentially had gone to seek refuge. That is unacceptable. It is unacceptable for Hamas to fire rockets into Israel, but the collective punishment is against all the rules of engagement and Israel must stop these actions. At the moment we are seeing a child killed every hour in Gaza.” — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
“There is a clear and urgent need for a ceasefire.” — UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
“De facto — today, civilians are bombed — de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop.” — French President Emmanuel Macron
It is not surprising that antisemites feel justified in hating Jews when leaders are feeding the lie that Jews are doing terrible things to Palestinians in Gaza, especially since most Jews (obviously) support Israel. These dots are as easy to connect as those in a child’s connect-the-dots book, yet it seems beyond today’s political leaders.
An honest reading of the facts shows such things are not happening. The U.S. Census Bureau International Database shows that the Palestinian population of Gaza was 265,800 in 1960, 342,700 in 1970, 431,600 in 1980, 645,100 in 1990, 1.1 million in 2000, 1.5 million in 2010, and 2.1 million in 2023. This is the opposite of what would happen if there was genocide.
There is even talk that the population in Gaza has actually increased since October 7, 2023.
The deaths that have occurred in Gaza have been war deaths; that is, deaths that occur in war because two sides are shooting at each other. Hamas puts this number at about 40,000, with no breakdown between civilians or combatants, and the credulous world repeats this despite Hamas members being murderous, evil, baby-slaughtering liars, and despite the numbers having been discredited.
In fact, by giving warnings of its attacks, creating humanitarian corridors, and taking great care in its targeting, the Israel Defense Forces has achieved the lowest civilian-to-combatant ratio in history. It has set the standard against which all future urban wars will be judged.
Some of these leaders are no doubt pandering to the growing number of Muslims in the electorates and their idiotic “Woke” supporters. More worrying is that leaders may believe the nonsense they spout. This is possible given how far to the Left many of them sit. Today’s Center-Left leaders would have been considered Far-Left a generation ago. There is not half a statesman among them.
Unsurprisingly, this has inflamed global antisemitism to its highest level since World War Two. Synagogues have been set on fire in Tunisia, Germany, Canada, Armenia, the United States, Russia, Poland, and France. Jewish businesses have been attacked in Canada, Jews have been refused business services in Australia, Jewish schools in London have been smeared with red paint, and Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated in France and Germany.
It is criminal and unforgivable that Western leaders are contributing to this by spreading, legitimizing, and basing policy off Hamas’ lies.
Another lie that Western policies towards Israel is built on — and which feeds antisemitism — is that there is some clear distinction between Hamas and “ordinary” Palestinians. Western governments have committed to a narrative that Israel and Hamas are at war and that innocent Palestinian civilians are stuck in the middle. No doubt some are. That is the tragedy of war.
Yet, Hamas engineered this war precisely to create that narrative. Like every word Hamas writes or utters, it is an unconcealed lie. All polling shows Hamas enjoys considerable support among Palestinians. Those civilians are not “stuck” in the middle; Hamas strategically puts them there to be killed to create this narrative.
It is as if, during World War Two, the Allied Forces had declared they were not at war with Germany, and not ordinary Germans, but just with the Nazi Party. It makes no sense. Dubbing the war the “Israel-Hamas War” has been a huge PR win for the Palestinians. It should rightly be called the Israel-Gaza War. Hamas runs Gaza, just as the Nazis ran Germany. Disappointingly, the Israeli government has also fed this narrative at times.
This fake distinction further fuels the fabrication that Israel is killing masses of civilians indiscriminately, giving legs to the genocide and war crimes lies.
Again, it is unsurprising that antisemites feel justified in hating Jews when Western leaders portray Israel so appallingly. These leaders are repeating Hamas’ blood libels and stoking racism. When they condemn antisemitism, they are condemning fires that they helped light and have failed to extinguish. It is reprehensible.
At the core of Western policy is an utter non-comprehension of the dispute. They think the Palestinians are a nationalist movement fighting for their own state when, by their own admission, that is not their goal. Their aim, as it has always been, is to destroy Israel and murder Jews in the name of Islam. This is true of both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
If you doubt Western leaders could be so witless and unlearned, consider that they all support a two-state solution and — wait for it — think that this is a pro-Palestinian position. I am laughing like a jackal at the absurdity.
The two-state solution is actually an Israeli position. It is what Israel has been proposing since 1937, even before Israel’s rebirth in 1948, and has now wisely given up on due to decades of Palestinian intransigence, jihad, and violence.
Western leaders persist in their belief that two states is the only path to peace, and that Israel is the party standing in the way. This portrays Israel (i.e. the Jews) as warmongers, further feeding antisemitism. It perpetuates the lie that the Palestinians and Hamas are fighting for a state and their cause is somehow just, even if their methods are grotesque.
It also explains the absurd policies of countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, and France, which will help Israel shoot down Iranian missiles, but not allow Israel to win its war decisively.
Let us look at these countries’ positions more clearly:
Hamas: We want to kill all Jews. It is our religious obligation to do so, and we will never stop trying, and never accept Israel or peace with Jews. When we are done with the Jews, we will destroy the West.
Western leaders: Let’s negotiate and give them their own state.
Now, that is morally lost.
It is also the kind of nonsense you talk when you have no real policy. Blathering on about a two-state solution is just a Pavlovian response because the West refuses to face the reality that Israel is fighting for its survival against maniac Islamists immune to reason because their concerns are celestial.
Facing up to this, and understanding that this makes Israel the good guys, is central to dampening the antisemitism that has infected what remains of the West. This shows no sign of happening. The only hope is that voters in these countries will get these leaders out of office.
Given how much damage they have done, even that may not be enough.
Well written. I am so ashamed of the British government. Starmer and Lammy are a disgrace.
To hook up with Canada and France and lecture Israel what it should and shouldn't do is laughable. Israel is a sovereign state - they have no right at all to come out with their ridiculous comments.
The outcome of cause is to allow Pally nutjobs to kill Israelis. They have blood on their hands
Typical of the Left. Arrogate onto themselves something (tax money, land, narrative) that is not theirs. Then, in a grand show of benevolence and virtue signaling, give it to someone else who did not earn it. The Arabs in Gaza and Judea/Samaria have done nothing to earn a country of their own. But the political leaders of the West know this; yet, they proceed in this direction anyway. Democratic countries get the leaders they deserve. Until one day they find that they are no longer democratic. Votes matter. Even votes in support of the devil.