Israelis and more generally Jews are being treated as some type of viral species that must be contained at all cost.
One of the many awful aspects of the Covid years was the way in which our behavior devolved into near voodoo and witchcraft. “Don’t touch that!” “Don’t cough in my direction!” "Keep your distance!" I was on one flight in which a woman ran her UV lamp over her screen and tray area. She was nothing compared to my seat neighbor who ran a full Clorox treatment on her space—after United had announced that they had completely sterilized the plane prior to our boarding. At one store, my wife asked to see some jewelry. The salesman had a Plexiglass divider that he put between us and him. As we moved from case to case, he moved the chunk of plastic with him. I thought that Covid must be a really dumb virus as it only flies directly between people and would never figure out how to go over or around a one foot wide piece of plastic.
The Jewish people generally and Israelis more specifically are being treated as society’s virus. Four thousand nobodies in Hollywood vowed not to work with the Israeli film sector. Israeli artists, like most in the world, are generally but not exclusively leftists. The ones being boycotted are politically identical to the ones who want nothing to do with them. Just being associated with Israel is enough to make one a dangerous pathogen that must be avoided at all cost. The same thing happened to the Munich Philharmonic because its conductor is Israeli. How many people are involved with the group? Say 100 including artists and staff. And one Israeli conductor with his baton is so dangerous, so threatening that the entire ensemble must be sterilized with disinvitation in Belgium. In Spain, a bike race was violently disrupted because an Israeli team was competing. The Spanish prime minister was pleased. In England, a defense institute promulgated no Israelis for 2026-2027, though Chinese, Iraqi and other bad actors will still be welcome. France refused entry to Israeli defense contractors to a big conference, while several nations are threatening to leave the boring Eurovision competition if Israel is not summarily thrown out.
Somehow Jews being the victims got the anti-Jewish virus rolling. Let’s go back to October 7, 2023. Hamas fired thousands of rockets as it created over 100 openings in the fence separating Gaza from Israel. Six thousand terrorists and Gazan citizens crossed the border that day and caused mayhem in Israeli towns and military bases in the south of the country. Twelve hundred people were murdered, 5,000 were injured, 250 were taken prisoner, while hundreds of houses were burned down and cash and valuables were stolen and taken back to the strip. These points are not debatable as they are rooted in the facts of what occurred on that horrific day. Everything that has followed has been a response to this extraordinary provocation. If anyone should be radioactive in polite society it should be the Gazans, their supporters among Palestinians more generally, and their supporters in the Arab world and the West. Someone from Ramallah who cheered the slaughter of Israelis should be denied access to flights or prevented from performing in front of a European audience. But such is not the case. Rather, the Israelis who were attacked and murdered are the official bad guys and, like Covid, are being treated as a potential danger by their mere presence and existence. Israelis have been told to leave restaurants in Europe and several have been beaten in countries such as Greece and Italy. In Australia, a restaurant and synagogue were firebombed, while massive protests in large Western cities demand an intifada revolution to get rid of Israelis and Jews alike. Jews are spit upon or threatened by association. I find it hard to believe that people would beat up Chinese Americans because of the sins of Beijing, but for Jews, now are all de facto Israelis worthy of scorn, threat and occasionally bodily harm.
I recently attended an event at which a very solid Israel supporter said that Israel is failing in the media sphere. It needs better spokespeople who are available 24/7 and respond to any false claim immediately. Someone pointed out that he was right but that much of the media and population hate Israel, so even perfect “hasbara” (Hebrew: explanation, PR) would fall on deaf ears. When Israel proved that it had not bombed the hospital in Gaza, many—including Rep. Tlaib—still claimed that she was the culprit, though two Islamic Jihad members spoke by phone and said that their rocket fell short. As with the overall picture: Arabs do bad, Jews get blamed.
Israel is at fault in part for the worsening international situation against Israelis and Jews. The war should have been over in 3 months. Telling people to leave buildings saves lives, including those of terrorists. The war should have been ruthless, total, and without any aid, water, or electricity. Hamas would have come out on all four begging for mercy. Instead, Israel has adopted the American Afghanistan model of endless war with murky outcomes. The violence should have been at a level that Gazans would be afraid to go to sleep. There was a story from World War II about a Panzer tank crew. They were not too far from the coast, and when a 16-inch battleship shell fell near their tank, the tank lifted off of the Earth and fell on its top, killing the commander. Those outside of the tank panicked: if this is what a shell can do in near proximity, imagine what would have happened if it had made a direct hit! The Israelis should have pummeled Gaza into the past tense in three months and then started a mop-up. Dragging the war out for two years has given the well-oiled and funded Qatari/Muslim Brotherhood propaganda machine plenty of time to turn the world against the Jews.
What is the cure for the anti-Jew virus? It ends not with the war but with social conditions that make public antisemitism unfavorable. Whether it be the law or public opinion, when people punish those who display anti-Jewish or anti-Israeli behavior, then the actions seen during the past two years end. We see today those on the right who are against cancel culture demanding the firing of people who glorified the horrific murder of Charlie Kirk. The hatred will always exist but it will go back underground where it always lives, waiting for new conditions that allow for its appearance in public. Other ethnic or religious groups are not tarred as the Jews are. When this deranged black fellow shamelessly stabbed the Ukrainian refugee in North Carolina, there was no outpouring of anti-black vitriol. No black person was denied a seat at a restaurant, and white players did not disavow their black teammates. But when Israel acted to save the country and give Hamas what it deserved, Israelis and Jews became radioactive. Stewardesses could wear Palestinian flag pins and serve kosher meals with antisemitic threats written on them. Nobody would give a black person a meal with a noose drawn on it after the murder in Charlotte. The goal is to say that if you want normal in your life, just exclude the Jews.
Add to the mix the self-hating Jew, like the third-rate starlet at the Emmys who wore a pin depicting bloody hands, a reminder of the violent murder of two Jews in Ramallah. She screamed, “Free Palestine” because she wanted to show the difference between Jews and the state of Israel. A Palestinian would be more than happy to kill any Jew, including a traitor to her people.