Blaming Bibi is the Current "Get-Out-of-Antisemitism-Free" Card
Yeah, we all hate Netan-yahoo. So what?
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I will start off this entry by stating that as a Jew, I despise Bibi. I despise Trump. I wish both of them were never elected and re-elected. Both are dangerous demagogues for slightly different reasons. Bibi empowered Hamas and likely prolonged the Gaza war to avoid prison. Both men are pathological narcissists who care more about their own political survival than about the people they govern. There is no doubt in my mind that should Bibi disobey him, Trump would gladly throw Israel under the bus (and probably partner with the Qataris to do it). I resent how Trump represents Americans the same way I resent how Bibi represents Jews.
Did reading the above paragraph make anyone feel better? How many times have you heard these arguments? They’re views shared by millions, and they are not exactly original. As sincerely as I mean them, I am bored typing them out.
Our mainstream media continues to beat a long-dead and decomposing horse on this very topic:
That’s an entire front page spread that the NYT devoted to the the “Middle East crisis.” Israel is the entire crisis in a region that features over a dozen Muslim countries in various states of disarray.
Yeah, I agree that Bibi has prolonged the war in Gaza to stay in power. The question isn’t whether or not the headlines are right; it’s why they exist. Why did this article need to be front-page news in what is supposed to be one of the premier newspapers of the U.S.? It’s not new information, and it’s not even something that requires an entire “investigation” to prove. Yet the NYT felt compelled to devote an interminable article that basically just repeats things that everyone already knows. What groundbreaking revelations did you get from this piece? I’ll wait.
Perhaps we can use the article’s comment section as a lesson in how low people are willing to go to virtue signal their disgust with Israel:
Oh okay, so it’s not just that he “prolonged” the war—actually, Bibi started the war to stay in power. He wanted 1200 of his own people to be slaughtered and for 240 others to be kidnapped, knowing full well it would help his political career for that to occur. They’re ideas bordering on conspiracy theories. Reminds me of the old joke: “how do we know G.W. Bush didn’t cause 9/11? BECAUSE IT WORKED, LOLZ!!!!”
“My criticism of the Israeli government doesn’t make me an antisemite!"
Yeah, no one says it does. I do it all the time, and I’ve never been called an antisemite. No matter our motivations, we can all bash the Israeli government with no threat to our safety. No Mossad agent will barrel through your front door with a 2000-lb bomb just because you called Bibi a fucking asshole on multiple social media platforms. Yet you’re getting called out by people like me who freely criticize the Israeli government in a way that’s actually not antisemitic—must be frustrating, I know.
Here’s a question worthy of analysis: why do journalists around the world, including many Israelis, get to use the press to criticize the Israeli government with no threat to their safety, while little to no criticism of Palestinian government figures from Hamas or the PA appears in articles written by Arab journalists in the same publications? I’m not even talking about my favorite news outlet Al Jazeera here; I’m talking about media organizations in free countries. How hard could it be to find a Palestinian journalist to pen a critical piece on Mahmoud Abbas to run alongside Gideon Levy’s numerous articles bashing Bibi? They can’t—and I’m fairly sure it isn’t because Palestinian leaders are so wonderful, there’s nothing to criticize. They know that keeping the focus on Bibi/Israel to be a far a safer (and probably far more lucrative) option than putting their lives on the line for calling out their own autocratic leaders.
“But the goal should be PEACE! Why don’t the Israelis just give PEACE a chance?!”
Sigh. It’s unfortunate that none of the blowhards chanting these words have actually been present the Middle East during an active war. If they did, they would know that there is no peace in that region without a heavily armed Israel, as counterintuitive to delicate western minds as that sounds on paper.
If you walk the streets of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, or any other Israeli city, all of the imagery suggests that what ordinary Israelis want is peace. There are no “death to Arabs” or “let’s level Gaza” signs. There may be extremists in fringe communities who think that way, but it’s not a mainstream Israeli view as far as I could see. Yes, there are hostage posters and “bring them home now” signs, which translates roughly to “let’s bring this war to an end.” I for one have expressed my opposition to the war in Gaza multiple times, and unfortunately Bibi never responded to my polite requests to end the war.
Real criticism of a government or of a people takes nuance. It takes discipline. It takes holding multiple truths in one’s head at the same time. Of course you’re free to pontificate about something without truly educating yourself; it’s a free country. What you’re not allowed to do is to apply standards to Israel and Jews that you wouldn’t apply to any other group of people, and expect not to be called an antisemite when you do it. The days of us politely ignoring that behavior are over, and you have Hamas and their supporters to thank for that.
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It’s actually quite simple to ascertain in this particular conflict which side represents the good guys. Ask yourself one question: what would happen should each of the adversaries somehow lose all their military capabilities? If Iran and their proxies laid down their weapons, there would be no more war. If Israel laid down its weapons, there would be no more Israel.
The inability of so many to distinguish between aggressors and defenders is one of the great moral failings of our age.
The day Hamas disarms, surrenders and releases all hostages is the day the war ends, as everyone knows but refuses to acknowledge. This is as true today as it was on Oct 8. All subsequent needless suffering and civilian deaths are wholly the fault of Hamas and their terror enablers in the international community.
This ties into the archetypal Antisemitic trope that Jews are somehow, at the same time, both "subhuman" and "weak", but also superhumanly powerful and competent. In reality there was gross incompetence at all levels, Netanyahu included, which was one of the reasons Hamas was not prevented from carrying out the October 7th attack. There is a reason Bibi and his followers strongly object to an independent investigative commission after all...
Nothing intentional. Just negligence, incompetence, and a government distracted from its job by internal politics.
But an incompetent Israeli prime minister simply failing in his job in a particularly horrible way is unimaginable to Antisemites, who believe we are demonically superpowered and always acting according to some imaginary infernal plan.