Extremely well put. It reminds what an evil force The New York Times has become in the world. There have always been serious problems from Walter Duranty and Ukraine through a strange reluctance to report the Holocaust, but now they are outdoing themselves. And yet people still believe them as a "newspaper of record," an absurd concept to begin with. Most of the media follows along behind them like obedient puppies. They now have blood on their hands, both Israeli and Palestinian.
Michael, your excellent piece sums the situation very well. Your subscribers will read it, and of course agree. If you could condense it perhaps the “main stream media” could be persuaded to run it. I believe that the MSM bares a large part of the problem we are experiencing today.
I don’t know how convincing the evidence is that Hamas intended a conventional war to destroy Israel with the aid of its terrorist allies. But whatever its initial intent, it seems indisputable that Hamas quickly transformed its massacre into a propaganda war that it correctly assessed much of the world would be eager to join. The seemingly daily blood libels hurled against Israel are beyond shameful, but, viewed in the light of the historical treatment of Jews, certainly cannot come as a surprise. As they say, leopards are not fond of changing spots.
Paradoxically, and unfortunately, one could argue that Israel’s past conduct facilitated this pariah status. As noted, Israel underwent repeated attacks by Hamas for years, followed by defensive action, and “[i]n each case, Israel, battered and delegitimized, was forced to agree to a ceasefire.” Any other nation, however, faced with an armed terrorist organization on its border swearing its outright destruction, would not have thought twice about what was required, and would have finished the job. I would suggest that Israel was not “forced” to relent each time; it chose to do so. And by so doing, it implicitly lent credence and validity to its accusers’ delegitimization efforts. We now appear to be witnessing the culmination of that display of moral vacillation. Bizarrely, in an apparent attempt to irrefutably prove the definition of insanity, many Israelis seem prepared to do the same thing yet again. I would suggest that Israel has more than enough basis now to set aside the inanities of “world opinion”. Rather, it should focus exclusively on a government’s most fundamental obligation, which is to safeguard its citizenry. This means effectively eradicating Hamas from Gaza.
Josh, despite the menacing tone and implications, it doesn't have to be that dark.
One thing, ppl think Hamas is actually the representative of Palestinians in Gaza? They are not. They took power in a coup and ruled the ppl with cruelty and fear. There have always been possible rivals or threats to their power. They need to get rid of Hamas, but not necessarily direct rule by Israel. There are families, clans, who are somewhat powerful and could form a counter to Hamas, and strong enough to keep them from coming back.
Then there's the fact that most people in Gaza aren't actually from Gaza originally. The long term traditional families might want to take control back.
I've considered whether they should take Gaza in, as part of Israel, with the Gazans, the traditional ones, families there before 1948, keeping their homes and lands, as Israelis. Frankly, I've thought that maybe the one-state solution thst Netanyahu talks about might be the only and best one. Where everyone just lives in the boundaries of Israel, and can live or move wherever they want and whatever they can afford. I certainly believe that at this point in time most Palestinians have no appetite for war or terrorism, and are close enough to Israel to want to live in a modern state. Ironically, a fully disarmed, fully non-violent Palestinian population would be by far the biggest challenge to Netanyahu and the settlerism he uses to stay in power.
But the idea that Israel can still be wiped out and the Palestinians "take back their land" is a delusion. The violence and genocidal aspiration of it is irrelevant. It's not going to happen. Israel doesn't actually need the US as some people seem to think, and there are and will be suitors to be Israel's patron instead of the US if we actually ended relations. Israel is never going to bow to the white western elites now, not after their behavior around BDS and then October 7th.
So, if you don't like the menacing implications, neither do I. But also, as a non-Jew, if ur reading this column, good. Take note, this is how most Jewish Americans feel. Pay attention to the sense of history and continuity. Don't miss the forest for the maniacal attention-seeking dirtbag trees in Netanyahu's cabinet, or the Knesset, or some fringy settler group.
Oh, don't conflate Judaism and Israel. One thing that pisses me off is people always linking Israel with the Jewish people, from both the Israeli side and the destroy-Israel side. I'm American, I'm Jewish. Most of the "anti-Israel" stuff is just anti-Semitic slightly relabeled. Nah, not gonna do that. You cannot claim to be only anti-Israel and not anti-Jewish, then attack Jewish things or undermine Judaism. If someone supports me as a Jewish person I expect them to say "I support the Jewish people." and stop right there. You don't need to tie my Judaism, or me, to Israel, nor is it acceptable for you to appropriate things like the Holocaust, for your purposes, the Holocaust was against all Jewish people, everywhere, not Israel. Keep the two separate. If it upsets you to not use it "because Gaza" that's a you problem, not me. If you can't make your argument without exploiting the Holocaust, then you don't have a valid argument. I can argue against all kinds of crimes against humanity without referencing the Holocaust, so can you.
And I came to substack to look for something on Ryan MacBeth, two hours ago. Saw this piece, and here I still am... I'm so sick of this isht.
The recent report that a very popular name for children born in the UK is Yahya should alert the powers that be there is a very difficult problem brewing.
I don't really care about the names. Yahya is a long-standing name that alot of people have, has a Hebrew parallel, and doesn't mean who or what he was.
We should never give up the normal because monsters adopt it, or come from it. There were plenty of Jewish Adolphs once. The swastika is the fire wheel, the Nazis don't get to own it unequivocally. Their version of it is verboten, sure, but people freaking out over ancient firewheel symbols is dumb, ignorant, thoughtless, and a kind of victory for the people who appropriated it. Fuck them.
I'm not going to give up the Magen David bc of racist white people.
Besides, what Michael Oren says here is true, but it's not the end, by a long shot.
Instead of lamenting our betrayal by these white people, fuck them, forget them. Get over it. They're just showing who they always were. Perhaps my disinterest in being white or perceived as white makes this easier for me, but I've seen this bias and hatred under the surface my whole life. He gives only a glance to it, but his comment that they're all seeking relief from the guilt of the Holocaust is spot on, (and why they even feel guilty or feel they have to feel guilty is an interesting question). If you haven't detected their eagerness to be able to point at Jews and say "ha! you're not so good after all." then you probably aren't paying attention.
Here's how I handle it: Fuck you, the Holocaust was nothing new, you haven't begun to make amends for the milennia of your hatred and trauma, and Gaza has nothing to do with that history, or the Holocaust, and you are the colonizers of the world, so, fuck you, you don't get off the hook.
I don't care about their bullshit arguments. Jewish people need to STOP ARGUING WITH WHITE PEOPLE. You eill never convince them, they will constantly move the goalposts. They don't care. Stop trying to convince them.
October 7th showed us who people really are. It's never going to be undone, we're never going back. They may think things will go back to normal someday, you need to make sure they aren't right.
And stand your ground, but also, stop letting them make it all about us, Jewish or otherwise. They aren't just phobic anti-Jewish hypocrites, they're also racist as fuck. You have to hold their feet to the fire on their failure to care about the real genocide in Darfur.
Also, stop expecting them to care about the Holocaust or getting it right. and say that to their faces. They only learn about the Holocaust to weaponize it against us. That's as perverse as people who learn about the Talmud to attack Jews, or people who only learn about the Koran to attack Muslims. They don't give a fuck about the Holocaust.
Stop trying to get people to like you. Stop explaining yourself as if you expect sympathy. State your position and counter lies with facts, of course, but stop trying to get them to agree with you. They don't care. They don’t respect it. We have spent way too much of our history trying to argue our way to logic, as if that protects us from the illogic of their ancient need for hate objects and scapegoats and blood-letting. They're making all their BS arguments in service of their emotions. They really think they're different from their violent ancestors. They aren't. Tell them so.
It's also important to remember, Mr. Open is talking about SOME people, not ALL people. He's not explicit about it, but one of the reasons the Muslim world didn't rise up is because a) They're much more familiar with Palestinians than white ppl and tired of them. That's not necessarily fair, since, after all, the Palestinians that fled were listening to the ancestors of the current population of those same countries that have checked out. Those ancestors also refused to allow Palestinians to resettle in their countries, apparently pan-Arabism has some serious limits. b) much of the Muslim world is sick of sectarian violence and want to move on. They don't like being labeled as terrorists or associated with atrocities.
There are also people who are righteously pushing back on the the bizarre construct around the Palestinian "genocide" which is a contortion that amounts to a supremacy of inferiority. The Palestinian trauma (and it is traumatic, objectively. It doesn't matter if you blame Hamas or Israel, for the majority of Gazans, there's a ton of trauma.) is held up to the exclusion of all the other ethnic or religious strife in the world. I think it's important to note that fact. We can chalk it up in part to ancient hatred of Judaism, but we can't ignore the fact this narrative serves our despotic enemies soooo well. They want the world to ignore Ukraine, Darfur, Xinjiang, Tibet, Syria, etc.
But this is not a majority of people or a majority of white people, or Black people, or Americans. I don't really put much stock in any polls these days, and I doubt a majority of Americans under 35 believe it's a genocide. And I've seen people change when they look at the actual definition, learn of the fake news aspect, and consider how their own issues or ethnic vulnerability is being utterly ignored for this narrative. Michael Oren, for all his exhaustive coverage of the topic, doesn't even touch on the racism of the anti-Israel movement for their hypocrisy. He probably doesn't know any poor people, or people of color outside of the same intellectual circles the Gaza deceptors and he come from. It's unfortunate no one is exploiting the total elitism of the anti-Israel movement to attack it, except, the people fighting it, like the people reading this piece and my comment, are all from that elite, and they don't think to make the point. I say "make the point" because it's not an argument, it's fact.
For whatever reason, my intermarriage and having a family that is actually more than half Black, the fact I've always been open and indifferent to color or background, or that I've lived in poor neighborhoods, as I do now, and I'm actually poor, right now, though I grew up & went to school with the economic elites, like most ppl here... or that I literally actually talk to people, just... talk to people, who are poor, Black, Latino, and listen, I can assure you, the issue of Hamas being promoted doesn't fly well with them. These are the people who got Biden elected and saved us from disaster, multiple times, in elections in swing states, Georgia, Alabama... These people sat out the last election in numbers enough to swing it. There was an uptick in Black and brown voters for Trump, especially among men, but not enough to counteract the people who just checked out becauae they didn't like what they were seeing and hearing from the Democratic Party. And it wasn't because they didn't like Biden nor because they didn't like Harris. That has never, ever come up in my informal focus groups. They don't like the identity politics, they never get to be liberal by choice, it's always just assumed by white ppl, liberal elites, thst they'll get the PoC vote, and it ranges them to be taken for granted. They don't want sexuality forced on them. They aren't anti-Muslim, but they say, rightly, what does that happening over there have to do with them and what they're facing over here? And claims of genocide, by white people, sometimes works, often results in eye-rolling and some bitterness, because, "you care about them, now, while you haven't done shit for us..." and memories of decades and generations of what could be called genocidal Jim Crow reconstruction is another point of resentment.
Note that Michael Oren mentions none of this, because he doesn't even perceive it. And he's a Republican, and it's not surprising he's so socially & culturally narrow.
Alot of Black Americans, people of the African diaspora in anglophone countries in general, are actually quite pissed off about the attention on Darfur and the neglect of Darfur. I say it's worse than that, it's a true racist genocide by Arab supremacists who are actually literally stealing the land of the people they massacre and rape, when they can get their hands on them. I've encountered people who are angry, just angry about it, and they're growing.
I don't necessarily see the biggest challenge as the generational shift to open anti-Judaism amongst white elites and Arab supremacists, I see controlling or preventing a massive, violent, terrifying backlash, against Muslims, Islam itself, as an increasingly likely scenario. The white westerners talking shut now won't be affected by it directly, as they never are when they talk shit in other people's names, but they'll not likely be worried about attacking and labeling Jews either... unless that's part of the plan by the ppl who are planning anti-Muslim mass murder... but I think that's unlikely. I don't think China or Russia are planning it, though they're genocidal. I think it will come from Modi, or, an even worse successor, as well as spontaneous outbreaks.
I'm not saying that matters more than what is being done to Jews now, or threatening to be done to us. I'm just saying, what faces us is smaller, bcuz we're smaller in number. And like it or not, we're much more accustomed to it and know better how to handle it.
But really, I also see this as an avenue to have allies against the disinformation AND head off a bloodletting that could number in the hundreds of millions, maybe more. If partnering with allies whose trauma is being erased, not ignored, erased, by the anti-Jews, which will shame at least some of them, force the Arab anti-Israel groups to show their base racism, could break this wave of propaganda in part of the elite.
Which is also an anti-Western movement, meant to serve our adversaries, not people being mass-raped and murdered by those adversaries or their proxies.
This was a very long comment. I bet it doesn't post when hit...
I hope a compromise can be reach that serves everyone -- a return of all of hostages and aid to all Palestinians.
I would insist only on the order of operations. Siege Gaza: nothing in or out until the last hostage is home. October 7th cannot be rewarded and its many costs are widely shared by the innocent as well as guilty. Then aid after war. I know of no examples among the countries recognizing a Palestinian state of aiding enemies during war. The Marshall Plan started after Germany surrendered not before. Electricity, water, food, even dessert -- line it up and get it ready for the moment that the Palestinians want any of it, the moment that they release their hostages. It is what any other country would do -- certainly any country in that region. Israel gets manipulated by enemies that are masterful at PR. I am sad that it is so effective and that the audience for that PR is so easily duped but it is time to simply write off the PR, siege Gaza and demand all the hostages before any aid.
Hamas’ primary strategy of massacring Jews to whet the appetite of the antisemitic world, then maximizing civilian suffering to embolden the full flowering of millions’ most basest instincts - the hatred for the “collective Jew” - has been triumphantly vindicated beyond their wildest dreams.
Canada, France and the UK requiring Israeli unilateral cease fire while making no demands of Hamas to return the hostages and therefore recognizing a Palestinian State makes October 7 liberation day for Sinwar, Hamas, and the Palestinian people. Sinwar wins. Europe has fallen. God Bless President Trump and God Bless The United States of America. 🇺🇸
Humanity never learns. I’m now living in Spain, the land from which my ancestors were kicked out, and I’m back to fighting the urge to hide my Jewishness because the Jew hate is real. Like it was real when I grew up in the USSR.
Better stay safe or leave for good. There was a piece written just the other day about a woman living with fear in Spain and now living unafraid in Israel.
Michael Oren is one of the most intelligent, well informed and articulate commentators on all matters related to Israel. This is another well written and complete analysis of the world’s pervasive Jew-hatred that had gone to the level not seen for some time. The problem I have with it is that it concentrates exclusively on the despicable reaction of the world while not holding Israelis and their leaders responsible for this. Since my childhood I was taught that whatever problem I face I should look at myself first. What did I do or failed to do to avoid the problem or overcome the adversity. After all this is the only thing I can control.
According to Dr. Oren, Yahya Sinwar anticipated the world’s reaction but apparently Israelis didn’t, in spite of the overwhelming and well documented evidence that this is what should be expected. How do the protesters demanding exchange of over 1000 Palestinian terrorists including Yahya Sinwar for Gilad Shalit feel today? Do they feel any responsibility for this calamity? How is it possible that the leaders of the security apparatus who failed so miserably in their duties that it’s almost crossing the line of treason were allowed to retire comfortably rather than being courtmartialed and stripped of their ranks. Apparently a number of Israelis think that Israel should once again give in, leave Hamas in power in order to save the hostages and the rest of Israelis accepts their behavior as part of “democracy” or moral superiority. The fate of the hostages is absolutely tragic and horrifying. No normal person can remain calm or indifferent but if a nation accepts such a bargain for the next even greater calamity then its fate is in serious jeopardy. Specifically when this is the nation of the Jews. As a Jew who loves Israel and hopes for its survival and prosperity it pains me to no end.
I hope Michael Oren will address these very difficult issues in a not so distant future.
That doesn't get mentioned much anymore. Good reminder.
Maybe we should see the Al-Aqsa atrocities as not a list of "or" items, but "and" items.
We do not discuss, and the protesting public is probably clueless about, the fact that Gaza is not monolithic even amongst genocidal terror regimes. There's Islamic Jihad, aka, Iran's direct report, Jihad this, Martyrs that, and alot of freelancing and taking targets of opportunity amongst non-aligned family groups, criminal gangs, etc. Hamas never controlled everyone 100%, certainly not IJP, because they had to service Iran's regime.
I'd say it was many reasons, and the top three or four might be interchangeable as important or not.
Maybe this should be a standalone question, but, Sinwar has been blamed, even criticized, by people from his support partners, for launching the attack when he did. By the earliest reactions of those allies, including Hamas in Qatar, I'd say they were even taken aback by the ferocity and depravity of the violence. Anyway, I was wondering if Sinwar did that in defiance of Iran, an intentional FU to his Shia overlords?
Thank you Michael for a meticulously written piece. I am bewildered why there is not more discussion about the clear bias in both the a) mainstream media reporting and b) the ratio of social media posts (anti-semitic vs pro-Palestinian). One Australian IT researcher and tech entrepreneur, Anthony Goldblum has taken on TikTok for amplifying pro-Palestine posts. Since the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas militants, Mr Goldblum said he was shocked that American-based users of TikTok were seeing 54 times more pro-Palestine posts than pro-Israel. For Australian-based users of TikTok the ratio was 59:1 in favour of Palestine. There is an obvious engineered bias with considerable financial and ideological support, likely coming from certain dedicated "state entities". Part of Israel's defence needs to be in the social media space. With their incredible innovative spirit and innate brilliance there must be a way to push back and even up the playing field.
A lot of Israelis have the attitude, “We know the world is against us, so we don’t give a damn what they say.” This limits the incentive to counter the propaganda.
From my own experience as founder and 8 years as director of RI Coalition for Israel, Hamas exposed not only Western extremist Jew-hatred, but primarily mainstream indifference, just as in the Holocaust. Thank you Barack Obama for legitimizing daylight between Israel and the US.
God bless you for this. I have been trying to get my progressive friends to see that they are being duped but all I get back from them is Hamas propaganda. I have forwarded this article to all of them, as well as to some deluded liberal media hosts. Thank you for your CLARITY!!
Extremely well put. It reminds what an evil force The New York Times has become in the world. There have always been serious problems from Walter Duranty and Ukraine through a strange reluctance to report the Holocaust, but now they are outdoing themselves. And yet people still believe them as a "newspaper of record," an absurd concept to begin with. Most of the media follows along behind them like obedient puppies. They now have blood on their hands, both Israeli and Palestinian.
Michael, your excellent piece sums the situation very well. Your subscribers will read it, and of course agree. If you could condense it perhaps the “main stream media” could be persuaded to run it. I believe that the MSM bares a large part of the problem we are experiencing today.
"bears" not "bares"
I don’t know how convincing the evidence is that Hamas intended a conventional war to destroy Israel with the aid of its terrorist allies. But whatever its initial intent, it seems indisputable that Hamas quickly transformed its massacre into a propaganda war that it correctly assessed much of the world would be eager to join. The seemingly daily blood libels hurled against Israel are beyond shameful, but, viewed in the light of the historical treatment of Jews, certainly cannot come as a surprise. As they say, leopards are not fond of changing spots.
Paradoxically, and unfortunately, one could argue that Israel’s past conduct facilitated this pariah status. As noted, Israel underwent repeated attacks by Hamas for years, followed by defensive action, and “[i]n each case, Israel, battered and delegitimized, was forced to agree to a ceasefire.” Any other nation, however, faced with an armed terrorist organization on its border swearing its outright destruction, would not have thought twice about what was required, and would have finished the job. I would suggest that Israel was not “forced” to relent each time; it chose to do so. And by so doing, it implicitly lent credence and validity to its accusers’ delegitimization efforts. We now appear to be witnessing the culmination of that display of moral vacillation. Bizarrely, in an apparent attempt to irrefutably prove the definition of insanity, many Israelis seem prepared to do the same thing yet again. I would suggest that Israel has more than enough basis now to set aside the inanities of “world opinion”. Rather, it should focus exclusively on a government’s most fundamental obligation, which is to safeguard its citizenry. This means effectively eradicating Hamas from Gaza.
Ok, how?
Just watch, Josh. That’s how
Josh, despite the menacing tone and implications, it doesn't have to be that dark.
One thing, ppl think Hamas is actually the representative of Palestinians in Gaza? They are not. They took power in a coup and ruled the ppl with cruelty and fear. There have always been possible rivals or threats to their power. They need to get rid of Hamas, but not necessarily direct rule by Israel. There are families, clans, who are somewhat powerful and could form a counter to Hamas, and strong enough to keep them from coming back.
Then there's the fact that most people in Gaza aren't actually from Gaza originally. The long term traditional families might want to take control back.
I've considered whether they should take Gaza in, as part of Israel, with the Gazans, the traditional ones, families there before 1948, keeping their homes and lands, as Israelis. Frankly, I've thought that maybe the one-state solution thst Netanyahu talks about might be the only and best one. Where everyone just lives in the boundaries of Israel, and can live or move wherever they want and whatever they can afford. I certainly believe that at this point in time most Palestinians have no appetite for war or terrorism, and are close enough to Israel to want to live in a modern state. Ironically, a fully disarmed, fully non-violent Palestinian population would be by far the biggest challenge to Netanyahu and the settlerism he uses to stay in power.
But the idea that Israel can still be wiped out and the Palestinians "take back their land" is a delusion. The violence and genocidal aspiration of it is irrelevant. It's not going to happen. Israel doesn't actually need the US as some people seem to think, and there are and will be suitors to be Israel's patron instead of the US if we actually ended relations. Israel is never going to bow to the white western elites now, not after their behavior around BDS and then October 7th.
So, if you don't like the menacing implications, neither do I. But also, as a non-Jew, if ur reading this column, good. Take note, this is how most Jewish Americans feel. Pay attention to the sense of history and continuity. Don't miss the forest for the maniacal attention-seeking dirtbag trees in Netanyahu's cabinet, or the Knesset, or some fringy settler group.
Oh, don't conflate Judaism and Israel. One thing that pisses me off is people always linking Israel with the Jewish people, from both the Israeli side and the destroy-Israel side. I'm American, I'm Jewish. Most of the "anti-Israel" stuff is just anti-Semitic slightly relabeled. Nah, not gonna do that. You cannot claim to be only anti-Israel and not anti-Jewish, then attack Jewish things or undermine Judaism. If someone supports me as a Jewish person I expect them to say "I support the Jewish people." and stop right there. You don't need to tie my Judaism, or me, to Israel, nor is it acceptable for you to appropriate things like the Holocaust, for your purposes, the Holocaust was against all Jewish people, everywhere, not Israel. Keep the two separate. If it upsets you to not use it "because Gaza" that's a you problem, not me. If you can't make your argument without exploiting the Holocaust, then you don't have a valid argument. I can argue against all kinds of crimes against humanity without referencing the Holocaust, so can you.
And I came to substack to look for something on Ryan MacBeth, two hours ago. Saw this piece, and here I still am... I'm so sick of this isht.
Cheers.
Betting on the world’s hatred of Jews has never been a losing bet.
The recent report that a very popular name for children born in the UK is Yahya should alert the powers that be there is a very difficult problem brewing.
I don't really care about the names. Yahya is a long-standing name that alot of people have, has a Hebrew parallel, and doesn't mean who or what he was.
We should never give up the normal because monsters adopt it, or come from it. There were plenty of Jewish Adolphs once. The swastika is the fire wheel, the Nazis don't get to own it unequivocally. Their version of it is verboten, sure, but people freaking out over ancient firewheel symbols is dumb, ignorant, thoughtless, and a kind of victory for the people who appropriated it. Fuck them.
I'm not going to give up the Magen David bc of racist white people.
Besides, what Michael Oren says here is true, but it's not the end, by a long shot.
Instead of lamenting our betrayal by these white people, fuck them, forget them. Get over it. They're just showing who they always were. Perhaps my disinterest in being white or perceived as white makes this easier for me, but I've seen this bias and hatred under the surface my whole life. He gives only a glance to it, but his comment that they're all seeking relief from the guilt of the Holocaust is spot on, (and why they even feel guilty or feel they have to feel guilty is an interesting question). If you haven't detected their eagerness to be able to point at Jews and say "ha! you're not so good after all." then you probably aren't paying attention.
Here's how I handle it: Fuck you, the Holocaust was nothing new, you haven't begun to make amends for the milennia of your hatred and trauma, and Gaza has nothing to do with that history, or the Holocaust, and you are the colonizers of the world, so, fuck you, you don't get off the hook.
I don't care about their bullshit arguments. Jewish people need to STOP ARGUING WITH WHITE PEOPLE. You eill never convince them, they will constantly move the goalposts. They don't care. Stop trying to convince them.
October 7th showed us who people really are. It's never going to be undone, we're never going back. They may think things will go back to normal someday, you need to make sure they aren't right.
And stand your ground, but also, stop letting them make it all about us, Jewish or otherwise. They aren't just phobic anti-Jewish hypocrites, they're also racist as fuck. You have to hold their feet to the fire on their failure to care about the real genocide in Darfur.
Also, stop expecting them to care about the Holocaust or getting it right. and say that to their faces. They only learn about the Holocaust to weaponize it against us. That's as perverse as people who learn about the Talmud to attack Jews, or people who only learn about the Koran to attack Muslims. They don't give a fuck about the Holocaust.
Stop trying to get people to like you. Stop explaining yourself as if you expect sympathy. State your position and counter lies with facts, of course, but stop trying to get them to agree with you. They don't care. They don’t respect it. We have spent way too much of our history trying to argue our way to logic, as if that protects us from the illogic of their ancient need for hate objects and scapegoats and blood-letting. They're making all their BS arguments in service of their emotions. They really think they're different from their violent ancestors. They aren't. Tell them so.
It's also important to remember, Mr. Open is talking about SOME people, not ALL people. He's not explicit about it, but one of the reasons the Muslim world didn't rise up is because a) They're much more familiar with Palestinians than white ppl and tired of them. That's not necessarily fair, since, after all, the Palestinians that fled were listening to the ancestors of the current population of those same countries that have checked out. Those ancestors also refused to allow Palestinians to resettle in their countries, apparently pan-Arabism has some serious limits. b) much of the Muslim world is sick of sectarian violence and want to move on. They don't like being labeled as terrorists or associated with atrocities.
There are also people who are righteously pushing back on the the bizarre construct around the Palestinian "genocide" which is a contortion that amounts to a supremacy of inferiority. The Palestinian trauma (and it is traumatic, objectively. It doesn't matter if you blame Hamas or Israel, for the majority of Gazans, there's a ton of trauma.) is held up to the exclusion of all the other ethnic or religious strife in the world. I think it's important to note that fact. We can chalk it up in part to ancient hatred of Judaism, but we can't ignore the fact this narrative serves our despotic enemies soooo well. They want the world to ignore Ukraine, Darfur, Xinjiang, Tibet, Syria, etc.
But this is not a majority of people or a majority of white people, or Black people, or Americans. I don't really put much stock in any polls these days, and I doubt a majority of Americans under 35 believe it's a genocide. And I've seen people change when they look at the actual definition, learn of the fake news aspect, and consider how their own issues or ethnic vulnerability is being utterly ignored for this narrative. Michael Oren, for all his exhaustive coverage of the topic, doesn't even touch on the racism of the anti-Israel movement for their hypocrisy. He probably doesn't know any poor people, or people of color outside of the same intellectual circles the Gaza deceptors and he come from. It's unfortunate no one is exploiting the total elitism of the anti-Israel movement to attack it, except, the people fighting it, like the people reading this piece and my comment, are all from that elite, and they don't think to make the point. I say "make the point" because it's not an argument, it's fact.
For whatever reason, my intermarriage and having a family that is actually more than half Black, the fact I've always been open and indifferent to color or background, or that I've lived in poor neighborhoods, as I do now, and I'm actually poor, right now, though I grew up & went to school with the economic elites, like most ppl here... or that I literally actually talk to people, just... talk to people, who are poor, Black, Latino, and listen, I can assure you, the issue of Hamas being promoted doesn't fly well with them. These are the people who got Biden elected and saved us from disaster, multiple times, in elections in swing states, Georgia, Alabama... These people sat out the last election in numbers enough to swing it. There was an uptick in Black and brown voters for Trump, especially among men, but not enough to counteract the people who just checked out becauae they didn't like what they were seeing and hearing from the Democratic Party. And it wasn't because they didn't like Biden nor because they didn't like Harris. That has never, ever come up in my informal focus groups. They don't like the identity politics, they never get to be liberal by choice, it's always just assumed by white ppl, liberal elites, thst they'll get the PoC vote, and it ranges them to be taken for granted. They don't want sexuality forced on them. They aren't anti-Muslim, but they say, rightly, what does that happening over there have to do with them and what they're facing over here? And claims of genocide, by white people, sometimes works, often results in eye-rolling and some bitterness, because, "you care about them, now, while you haven't done shit for us..." and memories of decades and generations of what could be called genocidal Jim Crow reconstruction is another point of resentment.
Note that Michael Oren mentions none of this, because he doesn't even perceive it. And he's a Republican, and it's not surprising he's so socially & culturally narrow.
Alot of Black Americans, people of the African diaspora in anglophone countries in general, are actually quite pissed off about the attention on Darfur and the neglect of Darfur. I say it's worse than that, it's a true racist genocide by Arab supremacists who are actually literally stealing the land of the people they massacre and rape, when they can get their hands on them. I've encountered people who are angry, just angry about it, and they're growing.
I don't necessarily see the biggest challenge as the generational shift to open anti-Judaism amongst white elites and Arab supremacists, I see controlling or preventing a massive, violent, terrifying backlash, against Muslims, Islam itself, as an increasingly likely scenario. The white westerners talking shut now won't be affected by it directly, as they never are when they talk shit in other people's names, but they'll not likely be worried about attacking and labeling Jews either... unless that's part of the plan by the ppl who are planning anti-Muslim mass murder... but I think that's unlikely. I don't think China or Russia are planning it, though they're genocidal. I think it will come from Modi, or, an even worse successor, as well as spontaneous outbreaks.
I'm not saying that matters more than what is being done to Jews now, or threatening to be done to us. I'm just saying, what faces us is smaller, bcuz we're smaller in number. And like it or not, we're much more accustomed to it and know better how to handle it.
But really, I also see this as an avenue to have allies against the disinformation AND head off a bloodletting that could number in the hundreds of millions, maybe more. If partnering with allies whose trauma is being erased, not ignored, erased, by the anti-Jews, which will shame at least some of them, force the Arab anti-Israel groups to show their base racism, could break this wave of propaganda in part of the elite.
Which is also an anti-Western movement, meant to serve our adversaries, not people being mass-raped and murdered by those adversaries or their proxies.
This was a very long comment. I bet it doesn't post when hit...
Oy.
I hope a compromise can be reach that serves everyone -- a return of all of hostages and aid to all Palestinians.
I would insist only on the order of operations. Siege Gaza: nothing in or out until the last hostage is home. October 7th cannot be rewarded and its many costs are widely shared by the innocent as well as guilty. Then aid after war. I know of no examples among the countries recognizing a Palestinian state of aiding enemies during war. The Marshall Plan started after Germany surrendered not before. Electricity, water, food, even dessert -- line it up and get it ready for the moment that the Palestinians want any of it, the moment that they release their hostages. It is what any other country would do -- certainly any country in that region. Israel gets manipulated by enemies that are masterful at PR. I am sad that it is so effective and that the audience for that PR is so easily duped but it is time to simply write off the PR, siege Gaza and demand all the hostages before any aid.
Hamas’ primary strategy of massacring Jews to whet the appetite of the antisemitic world, then maximizing civilian suffering to embolden the full flowering of millions’ most basest instincts - the hatred for the “collective Jew” - has been triumphantly vindicated beyond their wildest dreams.
That is 100% true and it works every single time.
Canada, France and the UK requiring Israeli unilateral cease fire while making no demands of Hamas to return the hostages and therefore recognizing a Palestinian State makes October 7 liberation day for Sinwar, Hamas, and the Palestinian people. Sinwar wins. Europe has fallen. God Bless President Trump and God Bless The United States of America. 🇺🇸
Don’t forget Australia. We have a despicable Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. Actually ignorant people.
Humanity never learns. I’m now living in Spain, the land from which my ancestors were kicked out, and I’m back to fighting the urge to hide my Jewishness because the Jew hate is real. Like it was real when I grew up in the USSR.
Better stay safe or leave for good. There was a piece written just the other day about a woman living with fear in Spain and now living unafraid in Israel.
Can you link to the piece?
Actually Margarita, it was about being unsafe in England (as a Jew.) Future of Jewish article on 8/6/25 released @ 3pm
Thanks.
Michael Oren is one of the most intelligent, well informed and articulate commentators on all matters related to Israel. This is another well written and complete analysis of the world’s pervasive Jew-hatred that had gone to the level not seen for some time. The problem I have with it is that it concentrates exclusively on the despicable reaction of the world while not holding Israelis and their leaders responsible for this. Since my childhood I was taught that whatever problem I face I should look at myself first. What did I do or failed to do to avoid the problem or overcome the adversity. After all this is the only thing I can control.
According to Dr. Oren, Yahya Sinwar anticipated the world’s reaction but apparently Israelis didn’t, in spite of the overwhelming and well documented evidence that this is what should be expected. How do the protesters demanding exchange of over 1000 Palestinian terrorists including Yahya Sinwar for Gilad Shalit feel today? Do they feel any responsibility for this calamity? How is it possible that the leaders of the security apparatus who failed so miserably in their duties that it’s almost crossing the line of treason were allowed to retire comfortably rather than being courtmartialed and stripped of their ranks. Apparently a number of Israelis think that Israel should once again give in, leave Hamas in power in order to save the hostages and the rest of Israelis accepts their behavior as part of “democracy” or moral superiority. The fate of the hostages is absolutely tragic and horrifying. No normal person can remain calm or indifferent but if a nation accepts such a bargain for the next even greater calamity then its fate is in serious jeopardy. Specifically when this is the nation of the Jews. As a Jew who loves Israel and hopes for its survival and prosperity it pains me to no end.
I hope Michael Oren will address these very difficult issues in a not so distant future.
"more isolated"
Nonsense. Israel was on the brink of normalization with Saudi Arabia.
Hamas did the attack on October 7 to stop the normalization.
Kvetching isn't analysis.
That doesn't get mentioned much anymore. Good reminder.
Maybe we should see the Al-Aqsa atrocities as not a list of "or" items, but "and" items.
We do not discuss, and the protesting public is probably clueless about, the fact that Gaza is not monolithic even amongst genocidal terror regimes. There's Islamic Jihad, aka, Iran's direct report, Jihad this, Martyrs that, and alot of freelancing and taking targets of opportunity amongst non-aligned family groups, criminal gangs, etc. Hamas never controlled everyone 100%, certainly not IJP, because they had to service Iran's regime.
I'd say it was many reasons, and the top three or four might be interchangeable as important or not.
Maybe this should be a standalone question, but, Sinwar has been blamed, even criticized, by people from his support partners, for launching the attack when he did. By the earliest reactions of those allies, including Hamas in Qatar, I'd say they were even taken aback by the ferocity and depravity of the violence. Anyway, I was wondering if Sinwar did that in defiance of Iran, an intentional FU to his Shia overlords?
Anyone have info or thoughts on that?
Thank you Michael for a meticulously written piece. I am bewildered why there is not more discussion about the clear bias in both the a) mainstream media reporting and b) the ratio of social media posts (anti-semitic vs pro-Palestinian). One Australian IT researcher and tech entrepreneur, Anthony Goldblum has taken on TikTok for amplifying pro-Palestine posts. Since the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas militants, Mr Goldblum said he was shocked that American-based users of TikTok were seeing 54 times more pro-Palestine posts than pro-Israel. For Australian-based users of TikTok the ratio was 59:1 in favour of Palestine. There is an obvious engineered bias with considerable financial and ideological support, likely coming from certain dedicated "state entities". Part of Israel's defence needs to be in the social media space. With their incredible innovative spirit and innate brilliance there must be a way to push back and even up the playing field.
A lot of Israelis have the attitude, “We know the world is against us, so we don’t give a damn what they say.” This limits the incentive to counter the propaganda.
From my own experience as founder and 8 years as director of RI Coalition for Israel, Hamas exposed not only Western extremist Jew-hatred, but primarily mainstream indifference, just as in the Holocaust. Thank you Barack Obama for legitimizing daylight between Israel and the US.
God bless you for this. I have been trying to get my progressive friends to see that they are being duped but all I get back from them is Hamas propaganda. I have forwarded this article to all of them, as well as to some deluded liberal media hosts. Thank you for your CLARITY!!
On the nail, per usual. Keep up the good work … truth wins in the end and liars are revealed to be what they are…
Dr. Oren is chillingly correct, unfortunately. Hard to believe this anti-semitic trope keeps getting fuel.