Monday, November 13, 2023
Elder of Ziyon
(Guest post)
Open Letter from A Jew to the Western World in the Aftermath of the 2023 Hamas Attack on Israel
First, did the words "A Jew" have a disagreeable smell to you, just a little? Be honest.
They did to me, even though they say you can't smell yourself. I had to hold my nose to write them.
For contrast, let's do a sniff test on two other words: "A Christian."
Totally different, right? If "Christian" were a perfume, its signature would be Wholesome, Righteous, Valiant, Honorable, Loving, and Good. Interestingly, it’s the diametric opposite of "A Jew.”
"Moslem" feels positive too, conjuring images of majestic spires or perhaps a demure woman in a hijab.
Relevant? I think yes, considering how important is the shared connotation of words. Just ask any "person of color" about being called a "colored person." Happily, Jew-equals-stinky-poo is not inhaled by quite everyone (and deep gratitude for the many with clogged noses!). Yet it's remarkable to me that it isn't, considering how pervasive the stench has been over the centuries in Western culture. I refer to everything from literature to philosophy to architecture to - dare I say it - parts of the Christian Bible (if Jews could kill Christ, what aren't they capable of?). And unlike the toppled statues of slavery defenders, these pillars of our culture have suffered little more than an occasional ding from academia lo these many centuries.
When you want to wage a war, you assert that the other side is both evil and powerful, and everyone rallies for "self-defense." Since for Jews, this portrayal is definitional, it's never a bad time to "defend" yourself - or others - against Jews!
So naturally, anti-Jewish actions in the West have been historically regarded as positive and liberating, from the Crusades to the Inquisition. Why would anyone expect a turnaround? True, modern cultural and Church influences have had some sway, but antisemitism still seems to feel only semi-wrong to many otherwise decent folks. If someone, regardless their contempt for Israel, cannot declare the deliberate targeting of an infant for mutilation as categorically immoral, I must conclude that they are among those who believe Jews cannot be fully guiltless by definition.
To many pundits and protestors, it’s as if no amount of anti-Jewish barbarism is completely undeserved. Rape and beheading as a form of "freedom fight" or venting of frustration sure look disproportionate to those of us with clarity. So much so that one can only deduce that the true offense must be The Cosmically Evil Jew. Only under this delusion are such acts “appropriate” - not to mention historically familiar.
Apropos disproportionality, ever consider disproportionate intent? The Hamas intent is avowedly genocidal; its founding charter says so. The intent of Jews is to finally live unmolested and in their place of origin (if Jews - swarthy, hook-nosed, and speaking a semitic language - are rather a Germanic tribe, do let me know). Indeed all that was ever required of sovereign Gaza was to live and let live. If someone believes that building a massive tunnel network into Israel had anything to do with Hamas procuring food for its people, then I have a proverbial bridge to sell you.
As confessed by captured detainees, Hamas shelters its arms and leaders in hospitals, schools, and mosques as a way to avoid IDF attack or else max out civilian casualties. Taking such criminality further, Hamas also instructed Gazans, including at gunpoint, to stay put after Israel had warned them to leave. Yet how does the media and its followers process all this? By expressing distrust and "humanitarian" outrage at the side trying to defeat these leaders, and in favor of the side demonstrably and unreservedly committed to inhumanity, even toward its own people.
Here’s another curious media reaction: Hamas long made its genocidal intent toward Jews public, and now it has broadcast its gruesome early successes. Yet within twenty-four hours of the Hamas attack, media focus shifted to the horrors that Israel would do, could do, wanted to do, or was surely already plotting to do against innocent Gazans. This is classic anti-Jewish thinking, often referred to as hallucinatory. The trope is that Jews are suffused with malevolent intent and plot away in the shadows. (What could be more convenient than shadows, since who-all knows what goes on there? Only one’s fevered imagination is the limit!) It’s another reason why the atrocities actually committed by Hamas and actually documented by the perpetrators got eclipsed from the get-go.
Some are still inclined to say it's not about Jews but about fill-in-the-blank (Palestinians, Zionists, Netanyahu, settlers, right-wing governments, colonialism, oppression, occupation, apartheid, land theft, water, U.S. tax dollars, capitalism, imperialism, or perhaps intersectional transgenderism). My response is please don’t bother. Have instead the integrity of those you are allegedly "defending" and just say, "I oppose the Jews because this is my religion."
It is the only argument that cannot be answered.
Yours truly,
A Jew
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