The Day I realized the World Hates Jews
I am going to get so many negative comments for this… but here goes.
I always thought Anti-Jews were on the fringes of society, and that the majority of people were decent, or at worst apathetic.
Yesterday morning I came to the heartbroken conclusion that I was wrong, and that the world does, in fact, hate Jews, and that the line between “Anti-Israel” and “Anti-Jew” is a sham.
Two things happened. On the micro scale, my most recent post started attracting the trolls, spewing vitriol at me.
But more importantly, the catastrophe at Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City put into stark focus the real sentiment of the world.
Major news outlets like the BBC immediately ran with the story that Israel hit the hospital, which triggered an outpouring of violent Anti-Jew protests around the world.
Hamas is an Islamic Terrorist organization that has reams of documented lies and fabrications. Hamas is also not the army of the Palestinians. Yet the world, including the most credible news sources like the NYT and the BBC, never bothered once to ask Hamas for proof. Instead, all concrete evidence has proven Israel did not, in fact, hit Ahli Arab Hospital. Not one paper of record asked for Hamas to show proof.
What struck me most wasn’t the immediate wave of anger from Pro-Hamas, Pro-Terror protesters, those are a given, but from everybody else who should know better.
For example, Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar both refused to retract their comments blaming Israel for the strike.
These are two representatives who have spent most of their political career (rightfully) calling out crazy right-wing Trumpies for propagating misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric, yet here they are doing the exact same. Why would these two be so hypocritical? The reason is simple: it’s Israel.
Two weeks of “Moral Contextualization”, “Proportionalism”, fabrications and fake news make me realize this was never really about Israel at all.
From all corners of the globe, across all formats of media and socials, and with a an army of bots, there is blatant hypocrisy and double standards when it comes to Israel.
The far left progressives who call out every atrocity, except when it relates to Israel. The people who ask for “proof” of mass rape. Those who ask for “proportionality”, while conveniently ignoring proportionality of any other conflict ever.
It is those who call out for a ceasefire but not for the release of Israeli (Jewish) hostages. It is those who are asking for Israel to show mercy, but have never thought to ask of Hamas to do the same. It is those who conveniently gloss over what Hamas has done to the Palestinians of Gaza since Israel left in 2005. It is those who rise up and protest against Israel but ignore atrocities in other country.
Why does this happen only to Israel? What makes Israel so special?
But let’s be honest. This isn’t about Israel, is it.
There is no other country in the world that faces the hypocrisy and double standards that Israel does, and as much as I try to comprehend this, I can see no other reason for this other than the fact that Israel is synonymous with Jews.
But the saddest part of this week, what crushes any hope I have for a future of understanding and possible peace, is the sheer amount of pure hatred.
Endless videos of protesters chanting across the Western World “Gas the Jews” and worse. They are not calling out “Gas the Israeli Government representatives who are pushing bad legislation”. They are not even calling out “Gas Israelis”. They are unequivocally voicing their desire to kill all Jews.
The video of two young women in London who ripped down posters of abducted Israeli children and shouted racial slurs is also a stark example.
They tore down the posters of these children specifically because they are from Israel, and Israel is synonymous with Jews. Nothing says “Jews don’t count” quite like tearing down pictures of kidnapped children.
I am positive they would not be ripping down posters of the 100 Christian schoolgirls who are still missing since 2014 at the hands of Boko Haram.
And the trolls… everywhere the trolls…
This is one of my trolls:
Israel has never been a perfect country. The treatment of Arab Israelis over the decades has been horrible. And yes, the Nakba happened (for all those Right-Winger Israelis who like to ignore this important fact). There is plenty to criticize about Israel policy and actions over the years (I certainly do).
But this was never about Israeli policy. And let’s be honest, it probably isn’t about Palestinian civilians either; otherwise you would been trying to free Palestine from Hamas over the last two decades.
This was always about waiting for the next excuse to release all of the percolating Anti-Jew sentiment around the world.
I write this for three reasons.
- For all of you hiding behind “Anti-Israel” and not “Anit-Jew”, just be honest and admit to the world you just hate Jews. Save the whole planet the guessing game and own it. But realize that all you are doing is spreading more hate around the planet, and hate breeds hate.
- For all those who truly are “Anti-Israel” — shame on you for being silent. When you see those around you calling for the extermination of Jews, this should be the line you draw. You argue all the time “it’s not about Jews, it’s about Israel”. So prove it and say something. Your silence is deadly.
- And finally, maybe, just maybe, there are people out there who feel uncomfortable with the blatant Anti-Jew hatred going on around them and are starting to realize that this conflict has at least two sides.
I hope that most of the Anti-Jew sentiment I am seeing is based on ignorance and lack of understanding of the nuance. I bet the kids from Berkeley High School don’t even know what “From the River to the Sea” actually means. Nuance of such a complication with such a complex history does not translate well to Insta or TikTok. Maybe being Anti-Jew is a passing fad (just like those two minutes when you wanted to Defund the Police and then forgot all about it).
It takes time to understand the bigger picture, the stakeholders, the history, and the future. Maybe someone out there will read this and take a second to try to understand what they are really supporting and why.
Because if all of this Anti-Jew sentiment is not just ignorance then we are all in trouble.
N.B.
If you have gotten this far then I share with you a video that has been making the rounds recently that gives a 28 minute history of the Israel and the situation. But I share it with two caveats:
First, I don’t know this person. I neither condone or nor condemn this video, and there are things missing from what he says. I offer it only as alternative perspective for those who are curious.
Second, major trigger warning, especially to the trolls. You will not like this video, especially the last 5 minutes…
