As we embark on another Jewish New Year, it’s time to reflect on everything our people have endured in 5784. I’m sure we can agree that for reasons that need not be stated that it had its share of challenges. I am optimistic about the future, though. Global Jew-hate will always exist to some degree, but we can choose to unite together to prevent the spread of misinformation about our people and our homeland.
Influencers like Piers Morgan have given certain Jewish voices platforms upon which to express their views to an audience of millions (read: Piers is basically the Springer of news programs at this point). Since October 7th, Piers has milked the Israel-Hamas War like a cow for ratings. I’ve frequently seen commenters request that he invite guests to discuss other war-torn areas, like Nigeria or Syria, instead of repeating the same points about this same conflict on every broadcast. But I guess such a pivot wouldn’t appeal to Piers’s audience as much. You know the saying: no Jews, no news.
All of the Jews below have actively contributed to the toxicity of that “news.” They should know better—but since they don’t, I’ll make it known. This high holiday season, they have their share of sins to repent for.
So without further ado, here is my partial list of Jews who need to STFU:
Dershowitz made a name for himself with American Boomer Jews as a self-appointed “expert” on Israel. That generation also saw him defend OJ on TV. When I was a teenager, my parents took me to hear him speak live during the promotional tour of his new book at the time. As he closed the event, he actually said, "if Israel is doing something that you don't agree with, that's not a sign to take away your support, it's a sign to support her more.” Everyone laughed. Har har har.
Now that I am closer in age that the Boomers were at that point in the early 2000s, I can now say with authority that Dershowitz is a prime example of how not to generate support for Israel today among younger audiences, the ones Israel needs most for its long-term survival.
Instead of responding to the point at hand, Dershowitz’s M.O. is to pivot the conversation to himself (he thinks his audience is convinced he’s brilliant, but he reads more demented now). He also interrupts people constantly. For example, when anti-Zionist Jew Norman Finkelstein (he gets his own entry below) spouts nonsense, there are plenty of things that an expert on the region could say to counter the misinformation. Instead, he pontificates about how well he, the great Professor Dershowitz, knows the Bible and according to that understanding, “Hamas is just like Amalek and the Nazis.” They’re terrible (and lazy) counterarguments.
Dershowitz is dangerous because he seems to have no regard about the effect of his words, even if they lead to less support for Israel among other Jews.
When I first began expressing my disdain for Dershowitz earlier in the war, I submitted that it was more important for him to shut his mouth than Finkelstein. Why? Because Finkelstein’s points were so outrageous, I believed they could easily be refuted with basic facts. Unfortunately as the war has progressed, Finkelstein and others like him have expanded their audiences and have repeated their lies so many times that Bonhoeffer’s Theory is now in full effect.
One could pen an entirely separate article about Finkelstein’s verbal diarrhea, but here are a few examples, which he has repeated over and over throughout the last year:
"I do not believe it requires a rocket scientist to figure out that from Day 1, Israel has been waging a war of genocide in Gaza."
"This issue of human shielding is completely beside the point because it doesn't come into play in this situation.”
"Denying food, water, electricity and fuel to the civilian population - the order from the get-go to turn Gaza to a place that is not able to sustain human life."
If this were just a few months ago, I probably would have written a line-by-line takedown of each of the points above. But I’ve learned that those who know how wrong he is already know why, and those who have bought into Finkelstein’s stupidity won’t accept my explanation. So I’ll just leave it there.
Ben Shapiro
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I personally consider the sound of Ben Shapiro’s voice to be a crime against humanity.
Shapiro’s motto is “facts don’t care about your feelings.” It’s kind of unfortunate that he feels that way, considering he has built an entire career based on his own controversial opinions.
One of Shapiro’s favorite activities is visiting college campuses to challenge students with his circular arguments. He must believe that all it takes to “destroy the libs” is to talk really, really fast in a voice that would make me jump out of a window with prolonged exposure to. Here is an example when a student asks him why he opposes first-trimester abortions. He attempts to obfuscate by making comparisons to killing adults, i.e. murdering the person who asked the question:
The book Give Them an Argument by
probably features the most elegant takedown of Shapiro’s platform I’ve seen. Here’s an excerpt:“To the extent that Shapiro’s point is that it’s important to get the factual premises of moral and political arguments right, I agree—and I wish he would do a better job of acting on his own advice. To the extent that what he’s saying is that leftists can’t reason our way to our policy preferences by extrapolation from unmixed factual premises, this too is correct. To the extent, however, that his implied point is that this is a difference between the left and the right, he’s full of shit.”
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach embodies every characteristic of the crazy uncle archetype, a guest you have on your program if your goal is to lead your audience of goyim to believe that all Jews are unhinged lunatics.
Rabbi Shmuley made a name for himself as ‘America’s Rabbi’ (self-appointed) through his relationship with the late Michael Jackson and his bestselling book Kosher Sex. He also likes to appear on TV. During interviews, his presentation style is levying ad-hominem attacks on the opposing anti-Israel commentator, thereby giving the latter legitimacy.
No, watching his feud with Candace Owens is not entertaining, because both are just two horrible self-promoters yelling at each other. He also seems to think that after achieving celebrity status by entertaining audiences on TV and with his sex book, he would rather that we be “feared than loved”:
The problem is people don’t “fear” him so much as they laugh at him.
Let’s face it, this guy’s face is just so punchable:
My first exposure to Beinart was his 2012 book The Crisis of Zionism, which admittedly is an excellent read. Unfortunately, Beinart is one of those progressives who has gradually gotten dumber as he’s gotten older. He was a liberal Zionist when he knew it would help him sell his first major book, and now that it’s much more fashionable among certain sects of the left just to bash Israel, that’s what he’s doing to maintain his membership within that circle. In short, he’s simping.
His recent commentary on the Hezbollah exploding pager incident is most indicative of why he’s a problem. He seems to think that he has moral high ground for not laughing along with the rest of us about some terrorists getting their dicks blown off. Maybe he’s just trying to compensate for…well, never mind.
His new book Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza will be available at your local bargain basement bin shortly.
Gabor and
I’m including this father-son duo in one heading because one does not exist without the other. To put it more accurately, Aaron would not have his current platform were it not for his daddy’s anti-Zionist connections.
These two are prime examples of how one uses the ‘Jew card’ to convince others to buy into their lies. Gabor is a survivor of the Nazis, which means that when he says that Israel is committing genocide, it must be true. He’s also a psychologist with this weird inability to listen to any voices but the ones inside his own head.
Oren of the TravelingIsrael YouTube channel did a beautiful takedown of Gabor. Check it out:
Aaron is terribly problematic because he’s a representative of my millennial generation who appears to have a significant following of antisemitic trolls. Among his ideas, which I’m guessing he absorbed from his psychologist dad:
There’s “not enough evidence” to support the claim that Hamas committed sexual assaults on Oct 7th.
There is enough evidence to suggest that the IDF killed more Israelis on Oct 7th than Hamas did.
“Journalists in Gaza are the bravest in the world, which is why Israel is slaughtering them.”
There’s really nothing I can say about any of the above points other than that they are pernicious lies (one being rape denial, which is in its own category of sin). To anyone who might watch him speak: pay close attention to Aaron’s affect when he’s being challenged in real time. His eyes show pure, seething rage…towards what or who, I’m not entirely sure. People who act out of unadulterated anger cannot be trusted.
Everyone from the above list needs to repent for the sin of representing Jews poorly. If they vowed to STFU in 5785, it would be a true mitzvah on their part.
Thank you for this. Just a P.O.I. : Gabor Mate is not a psychologist. He's a family physician [who publishes books as if he were a psychologist]. He worked for a time with a harm reduction organization, hence his "authority" on addictions, but I was told by one of his former colleagues from that time that he is "incapable of getting anything done".
I wonder if you have thoughts on Ilan Pappé? I have recently lost friendships due to people disappearing down a rabbit hole of his writing. The claims my otherwise thoughtful friends now make: "Zionists are fanatics", "The kids at the peace rave were asking for it by dancing close to the fence", and more of this ilk, has left me in a state of despair. Bonhoeffer had a salient point, but there's more going on here. These people are not stupid, but have embraced a hateful distortion that is out of character and completely mystifies me. Do you know of anyone besides Benny Morris dissected Pappé's propaganda? These folks also dismiss Morris as a "fanatic".
Rabbi Shmuley is also a schnorer. He wanted to know how to get a copy of my book. I told him where he could buy one for me to sign for him at my local bookstore. Neither the store nor me ever heard from him. I think he wanted it for free.