Melanie Phillips: The real cause of the antisemitism tsunami
This week’s Jerusalem conference on antisemitism was boycotted by a number of international participants who withdrew on account of the presence of “populists” from European parties they termed “far right.”To explain Zionism, you need to explain Palestinians
The boycotters claimed that these parties themselves harbored antisemitism. Some European populist parties do have fascist or antisemitic histories that they haven’t properly renounced. Others, though, have disavowed their unsavory pasts.
The organizer of this week’s conference, Israel’s Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli, has made common cause with such penitents because he perceives that, unlike most of the European political mainstream, they unequivocally support Israel and are tackling antisemitism by calling out radical Islam and its alliance with the left.
Those who pulled out of the conference appear to have no problem sharing platforms with the Israel-bashers and antisemites who constitute much of the mainstream left. Instead, the boycotters have smeared Israel for being in bed with alleged neo-Nazis and racists, thus giving credence to a principal trope among left-wing antisemites that Israel itself is a Nazi or “apartheid” state.
Small wonder if Israel concludes that its interests no longer lie with such people and gravitates instead toward those populists whose support is unconditional in a global crisis of unprecedented scale and severityfor the Jewish people.
Since the Hamas-led atrocities in Israel on Oct. 7 and the war that followed, there has been a tsunami of murderous hatred against Israel and the Jewish people who are identified as a global contagion. This ideological cancer has metastasized across the West and is now normative among vast swathes of the intelligentsia and cultural and political elites.
As I have written in my new book, The Builder’s Stone, this is a civilizational crisis for the West. Its reaction to Oct. 7 has repudiated rationality, conscience and justice in a society that’s spent more than half a century dismantling the cultural codes that gave it rationality, conscience and justice in the first place.
Early Zionists were willing to share the land of Israel with the Arabs who lived there. Before Israel was established, early Zionist leaders accepted the suggestions of both the British Peel Commission and the United Nations Partition Plan that the Jewish people and the Palestinian people split the land. At Israel’s seminal moments, Israel’s leaders reached out to the Arabs and offered peace.Israel is on the path to total victory
Only an understanding of Arabs who lived both inside and outside of British Mandatory Palestine’s refusal to talk to the Peel Commission, their rejection of the U.N. Partition Plan and their continued intransigence in the face of numerous Israeli peace proposals can explain why there hasn’t been a Palestinian state.
It is only by researching and understanding the Palestinians, their demands and their culture of violence that one can explain that it isn’t the responsibility of Zionists to satisfy Palestinian demands. Palestinian demonization of Israel instead of Palestinian progress is the cause of their unhappiness. Misunderstanding Zionism by conflating it with Palestinian destiny and desires can only happen when the student misunderstands the Palestinians.
Palestinians accuse Israel of stealing land from the native Palestinians. If educators don’t teach that Palestinians aren’t indigenous to the land of Israel, that the Palestinians weren’t colonized and that Zionism isn’t immoral for returning the Jewish people to live in their historic homeland, then they aren’t fully explaining Zionism.
Although the study of Zionism is a study of objective facts, history and philosophy, it also contains a narrative. Every people has a story and every nation has its legends. In any good story, there is a “good guy” and a “bad guy.” For over a century, the Palestinians have tried to portray the Zionists as the bad guy. To teach the Zionist narrative properly, people must clearly explain why Zionists aren’t the “bad guys” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is only by familiarizing oneself with the Palestinian admiration of violence and terrorism in response to Zionist offers of peace that Zionists can understand their narrative.
It isn’t enough for Zionist leaders, educators, advocates and influencers to talk about the virtues of Zionism. To fully explain Zionism, the views of the other side, the anti-Zionists, must be explained as well.
Israel stands on the precipice of a decisive victory over its adversaries. As the military campaign in Gaza resumes, Hamas finds itself with almost no options and even fewer allies. Its infrastructure has been decimated and its argument that the war with Israel was over has been unraveled. Meanwhile, the Houthis are preoccupied with their battles against U.S. forces. Hezbollah finds itself deeply wounded and withdrawn from Southern Lebanon and Syria and unable to help Hamas. Similarly, Iran is in no position to help or support Hamas. Israel, undeterred, continues its operations in Gaza, while Hamas struggles to assert any meaningful control.
This decisive shift is reinforced by a looming geopolitical earthquake: a Saudi-Israel-U.S. normalization deal. The Arab world is realigning, and Hamas—along with Iran and its proxies—can see the writing on the wall. Adding to this in a stunning reversal, Cairo has agreed to allow up to half a million Palestinians to “temporarily” resettle in the Sinai. This is more than just a policy shift; it is an admission that Gaza, as it once was, is no longer viable.
This is no small concession. At the core of this shift is the fact that as long as Hamas refuses to surrender hostages and relinquish control, no meaningful reconstruction in Gaza can take place. Israel has shown no indication that it will cease military operations while Hamas has shown no willingness to disarm, leave Gaza or return all the hostages.
Meanwhile, reports indicate that Somaliland has agreed to take in Palestinian refugees, further eliminating the argument that Gaza cannot be emptied of its terrorist rulers. Slowly but surely, the pieces are falling into place for a long-term solution that neutralizes Hamas once and for all.
With the newly appointed Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, Israel is poised to complete its mission. Paradoxically, the primary opposition to Israel’s march toward victory comes from within the country itself. Elements of the Israeli left, segments of the retired military establishment and certain political factions continue to resist the full realization of Israel’s military and strategic objective. However, the return of 198 out of 251 hostages is a testament to the effectiveness of Israel’s operations and its willingness to engage in “deals” with its barbaric enemies to secure its people. It’s important to recognize that the status quo of partial victories, where reservists are required to return to the same positions every four to six years, is untenable for reservists and Israel at large.
The broader strategic landscape only reinforces this total victory. The Trump administration’s unflinching support for Israel—its direct action against the Houthis in Yemen, its maximum pressure campaign on Iran and its willingness to “open the gates of hell” on Hamas—has provided Israel with a perfect window to complete what it started. It is no coincidence that Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has recently reiterated the same message: if Hamas does not return every last hostage, “The gates of hell will open.”












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