Great article. Gaza and Israel have provided a reason for latent antisemitism to come to the fore clothed in virtue signalling of empathising with the perceived oppressed of Gaza. This antisemitism is also encouraged by an Islamic culture that sees infidels and especially Jews as evil. More practically there is the trouble making and financial support of Iran and the proscribed IRGC that are still mysteriously allowed to operate in the UK. Palestinians and Hamas have also flooded social media and the MSM e.g. the BBC with fake news (lies) and propaganda that is easy to consume by the bbc, journalists and the media. As a Jew I used to get picked on at school when I was only 6 because I killed Jesus. I had never even met him.
We are being manipulated by destructive actors with lots of money. The messaging from Qatar and Iran sponsored groups has been relentless and very compatible with the social justice sentiment of people who need something to care about and to create a community around the Cause. The anti-Israel protests and encampments have been the equivalent of church for the non-religious activists (and some progressive churches have also joined in).
I see elements of a social contagion as well as psychological issues.
The anti Zionist Jews, however, are a special class. Some, like Miko Peled, have daddy issues (his father is a general in the IDF), some want to be famous and influential at any cost (Max Blumenthal and Norm Finkelstein - both remind me of flunky engineers who jumped on the 9/11 truther bandwagon), some are committed Marxists who hate Western civilization (like the guys who made No Other Land), and most are suicidally empathetic and ignorant of the real history of the State of Israel.
With mainstream media being co-opted by the pressure to present "both sides", and with the rest of us choosing our own echo chambers on Twix and Substack, I don't see very much changing. Fortunately, Bibi and his team don't care what Canadians think. They are making hay while Trump is shining, and for all his faults, he is the best thing to have happened to Israel in its history.
You are absolutely correct: not your shrink and not your punching bag. Antisemitism enables people to enjoy the pleasures of bullying without self-identifying as bullies. It is a free and addictive drug.
I have to take a moment out of my vacation to respond to this! In a conversation with a close friend who is a therapist (Ph.D. in Psychology), she said something similar. The ones she talked about were the Jews who are anti-Israel. Her take was basically this: they are among the professional class who grew up with upper middle class privilege. (I have always been a bit fascinated and also alienated by these people, as I am by most people who grew up with enormous economic privilege, since I grew up among Jewish factory workers from poor immigrant families.) They learn in college, usually, that the life they considered normal and ordinary is far beyond the reach of most Americans, let alone people in less wealthy countries. And they are exposed to anti-capitalist theories. They are also exposed, as we all are, to anti-semitic claims that all Jews are rich and have come by their wealth dishonestly. They feel shame and guilt, but instead of devoting their lives to helping the less privileged, they turn on other Jews and on Israel, trying frantically, hysterically to prove they are good Jews not like the rest of us. They are a lot like the closeted GLBTQ people who parade around hysterically demanding that everyone LGBTQ be punished for being authentic. My new approach to them is to tell them this: If you don't like what the Jewish country -- my beloved Israel, the only place low income Jews can flee if they come for us -- is doing, move there and work for change, or shut the fuck up.
I can't argue with you, but I do think that for the most part, the explanation is much simpler. Many non-Jews have always hated Jews. Even though it's become less "acceptable" to do that openly, saying that you hate Israel (or those evil, nefarious "Zionists") allows you to do so openly, with no fallout whatsoever. So, that's what today's Jew-haters are doing. What of the Jewish "anti-Zionists", you ask? Well, they pretty much hate Jews, too.
My best friend lost one of her oldest friends to this. A close 40 year friendship through marriages, births, deaths, divorce, everything. Her friend's mother, who she was caring for for several years, died, her daughter moved to the other side of the world - and she discovered her Cause. Her FB is all Palestine, all the time. She told my friend they couldn't be friends if she didn't join her on the marches (my friend is pretty uninterested in the subject and is not an activist type). This woman and her husband have become utterly obsessed, even though she'd never expressed the slightest interest in the Middle East before this. My friend is reaching out to her to try to rekindle their friendship, which worries me a little, since my friend may be a bit susceptible. I on the other hand have been following things pretty closely, in large part because I spent half a year on a kibbutz in 1982, during the First Lebanon War; I would have liked to stay for good (due to probably-misguided young love), but it was the certainty that what is happening now was inevitable that made me leave. Anyway, I really do think for some that it's a mental health problem. Watching footage of some of these people, they're the same as some of the trans activists - just full-on irrationality, rage and hysteria. It is bizarre, and perhaps a little frightening.
I see the same things you have written, definitely! It reminds me of Hitler's (and many Germans') tendency to feel victimized - as a child he was, or as Germans did after World War I - and then to focus on "the Jews" as if we were the "cosmic enemy" or a demonic group - and to be convinced that if only he could kill us all, he and others would finally be safe, secure, and above to go on existing. Supposedly "the Jews" were what made Germany lose WW I - instead of the army's admitting it had made some mistakes. Islam prohibits self-criticism, so - that might leave its adherents side open, vulnerable to projecting their shadows onto Jews.
Projecting one's shadow side - fears, everything we don't want to face, that we might be afraid of or feel overwhelmed by - onto "the Jews" - and then attacking it is so ineffectual, like shadow-boxing. Iran does it big-time - "little Satan" and "great Satan."
How I wish Muslims would do the spiritual jihad part of their religion, and that Christians would do whatever the Christian equivalent to that is. Jews monitor our "yetzer ha-ra" or our tendency or will to do evil - and try to strengthen our "yetzer ha-tov" (the part of us that has self-control and does good deeds, follows the commandments/good deeds.
I wish our whole society would. It would definitely lead to much greater self-mastery and more enlightened ways of dealing with our problems, our sufferings... I really appreciate your writings! Thanks so much for putting in your heart, your mind, your time and energy!
Basically the Anti Zionist narrative has devolved into the idea of a massive conspiracy to take over a tiny bit of land that happens to have no oil, and to expel a peaceful, welcoming civilization that totally exists in order to do that.
Which commits genocide such that the population grows and silences criticism such that Israel is about the most criticized entity in the world.
Surely the Zionist narrative I was thought in school (I'm Israeli) is incomplet and biased, but fuck, at least it's recognizably human? At least it picks cherries that exist?
And then another thing I don't understand is, if Israel is as bad as Hamas, what's the point of taking sides in a war between two equally evil players, instead of letting it play out until one of them wins? Is that what morality means? That everyone should get equal opportunity to act out their evil? In a war between equally evil players, isn't the best option to let it end quickly?
I don't know how well you know the USA but here we have something close to apartheid of the indigenous people, people of color denied all civil rights, children as young as 8 in adult prisons, prisons where rape and torture of both women and men are the norms, thousands of homeless people dying of exposure on the streets, women dying because they are denied abortions even of dead fetuses, tens of thousands of women and children sex trafficked, and we take political prisoners to off shore prisons where they are tortured without trial. And more. In my (okay, I'm biased) view Israel is a far superior country. If these nuts want to see social justice they need to start at home!
Heh. "Palestine" is only one more thing the US is guilty of, according to them (they would be pleased to know that there was a US arms embargo on Israel for the first couple of years there).
I understand being invested in something that affects you.
I understand being invested in something that doesn't, because it's especially horrible.
I understand being invested in something that neither affects you nor is particularly horrible in the grand scheme of things because... well honestly there's no bad reason to care about something. I cried over fictional characters so who am I to judge if you care a lot about a real life conflict.
I just... don't understand being so invested you commit crimes and develop an ulcer and all the rest of that shit, and also remaining committed to your ignorance. But isn't this obvious why the rhetoric around Palestine is so extreme? Of course it's a "genocide" and all that shit - that sounds bad enough to justify the apoplectic reaction and the immediate jumping to conclusions. And then when you say that there's no genocide, they can always retreat to "so you think it's okay to commit war crimes?!" or some shit. Sadly, this isn't how burden of proof works. This is an exhausting and transparent motte-bailey.
Which still leaves me wondering, about these people... what do you care? Why are your demands getting increasingly less realistic? What are you going to escalate to, if/when Israel does commit the fucking genocide? It's like the emotional fervor is the only justification needed for even more emotional fervor.
I just learned that the arms embargo was not lifted until 1968, correct me if I'm wrong but that was a stunner.
Leonard Slater wrote a book about the international Jewish and gentile patriots who helped to arm the newly formed state and the consequences that they suffered because of it.
Just borrowed it to my daughter and can't remember the title 🙄
Full on FBI investigations and prosecutions yet studying Israel history and operations has disavowed me of ever wanting to read fiction again.
You are describing the psychological phenomenon of scapegoating, which happens when something in the group dynamic has gone awry. This is group psychodynamic theory 101. Scapegoating happens in a group when members wish to deflect negative emotions or blame away from themselves. The group the finds a target on which they can project their problems or deflect responsibility. Jews are prime candidates for a number of reasons which anyone familiar with the history of antisemitism is well acquainted with.
I'm able to dismiss and mock those with the derangement syndrome with this statement feel free to use or not
May the skate park you've built between your ears for the Jews to grind away daily all day everyday rent-free continue to thrive and have a populace of large Jewish families grinding away all day everyday forevermore😜 Israel's the fifth happiest nation on the planet🤔 Hess, he got hung, they cried out remember Purimfest as they were hung until dead🐖 Those who bless Israel will be blessed those who curse Israel will be cursed 👌
Pat, that's a very interesting article on the cause of antisemitism, which isn't much discussed, and certainly not discussed enough, so thanks. Maybe your hypothesis could be tested by a study of the correlation of antisemitism and the pathological disorders you mention?
I imagine there may be a lot of components among different people, including not just simple racism but also ignorance; stupidity exposed to propaganda; and the arrogance of those who think their access to the internet now makes them omniscient.
Rather than simple racism being so prevalent as to explain the breadth of the pro-Palestinian movement, I suspect it's related to a societal shift. In the natural way of things, the activist young have idealism and nerve, combined with a lack of knowledge, experience, or judgement. With the modern decline in religious faith and the reduction in the need for local social justice within the Western countries, those inclined to activism have shifted their interests from religion and social justice to environmentalism and Palestine.
Another factor that I believe gets too little consideration is envy and jealousy. The media is constantly trumpeting the wealth, success and power of Israel, and have made everybody aware that Jews have a higher IQ, get more Nobel prizes, make the high tech breakthroughs, and are more successful on average; and rarely mention the poor Jews who are struggling in Israel and elsewhere. In many workplaces most of the workers have a surprisingly visceral dislike and resentment if one worker works noticeably harder than them. Therefore, I suspect they have the same feeling toward Jews.
If we were to ask the pro-Palestinians about the popularity of their movement, I suspect the reasons they would give would be, firstly, the scale of the Palestinian suffering; secondly, the alleged theft of Palestinian land; and thirdly, the statehood issue including blockade and occupation.
I have argued that Hamas is to blame for much Palestinian suffering because of putting billions of aid dollars into preparation for war instead of into economic development. However, Toronto writer Carlyn Zwarenstein ("War Zone Innovation," Salon, March 29 2025) claims Israel prevented economic development, de-developing Gaza by a "capricious", "mostly unpublished" and unpredictable blockade for "decades", writing "Israel doesn’t even justify the raw materials ban on security grounds". The Jewish Virtual Library has several articles on history, that emphasize ongoing terrorism and weapons smuggling as justification for the blockade, at https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/myths-and-facts-gaza; the most recent being from last October at https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/myths-facts-online-exclusives#423.
I wish someone would publish an answer to Zwarenstein.
Nailed it! I can't tell you how much this makes sense. This vitriol for Israel, Jews and Zionists is like a cheap hit of dopamine for the souless robotic trolls who would rather live with their addiction rather than consider, at the minimum, that there is some nuance or background info they have missed.
Great article. Gaza and Israel have provided a reason for latent antisemitism to come to the fore clothed in virtue signalling of empathising with the perceived oppressed of Gaza. This antisemitism is also encouraged by an Islamic culture that sees infidels and especially Jews as evil. More practically there is the trouble making and financial support of Iran and the proscribed IRGC that are still mysteriously allowed to operate in the UK. Palestinians and Hamas have also flooded social media and the MSM e.g. the BBC with fake news (lies) and propaganda that is easy to consume by the bbc, journalists and the media. As a Jew I used to get picked on at school when I was only 6 because I killed Jesus. I had never even met him.
Your writing is a gift.
We are being manipulated by destructive actors with lots of money. The messaging from Qatar and Iran sponsored groups has been relentless and very compatible with the social justice sentiment of people who need something to care about and to create a community around the Cause. The anti-Israel protests and encampments have been the equivalent of church for the non-religious activists (and some progressive churches have also joined in).
I see elements of a social contagion as well as psychological issues.
The anti Zionist Jews, however, are a special class. Some, like Miko Peled, have daddy issues (his father is a general in the IDF), some want to be famous and influential at any cost (Max Blumenthal and Norm Finkelstein - both remind me of flunky engineers who jumped on the 9/11 truther bandwagon), some are committed Marxists who hate Western civilization (like the guys who made No Other Land), and most are suicidally empathetic and ignorant of the real history of the State of Israel.
With mainstream media being co-opted by the pressure to present "both sides", and with the rest of us choosing our own echo chambers on Twix and Substack, I don't see very much changing. Fortunately, Bibi and his team don't care what Canadians think. They are making hay while Trump is shining, and for all his faults, he is the best thing to have happened to Israel in its history.
You make powerful points. (I might take exception to the last pojnt, but ...)
You are absolutely correct: not your shrink and not your punching bag. Antisemitism enables people to enjoy the pleasures of bullying without self-identifying as bullies. It is a free and addictive drug.
I have to take a moment out of my vacation to respond to this! In a conversation with a close friend who is a therapist (Ph.D. in Psychology), she said something similar. The ones she talked about were the Jews who are anti-Israel. Her take was basically this: they are among the professional class who grew up with upper middle class privilege. (I have always been a bit fascinated and also alienated by these people, as I am by most people who grew up with enormous economic privilege, since I grew up among Jewish factory workers from poor immigrant families.) They learn in college, usually, that the life they considered normal and ordinary is far beyond the reach of most Americans, let alone people in less wealthy countries. And they are exposed to anti-capitalist theories. They are also exposed, as we all are, to anti-semitic claims that all Jews are rich and have come by their wealth dishonestly. They feel shame and guilt, but instead of devoting their lives to helping the less privileged, they turn on other Jews and on Israel, trying frantically, hysterically to prove they are good Jews not like the rest of us. They are a lot like the closeted GLBTQ people who parade around hysterically demanding that everyone LGBTQ be punished for being authentic. My new approach to them is to tell them this: If you don't like what the Jewish country -- my beloved Israel, the only place low income Jews can flee if they come for us -- is doing, move there and work for change, or shut the fuck up.
The headline alone is great. Just noting that before I read it.
Very interesting! As always I thank you for being a righteous gentile.
I can't argue with you, but I do think that for the most part, the explanation is much simpler. Many non-Jews have always hated Jews. Even though it's become less "acceptable" to do that openly, saying that you hate Israel (or those evil, nefarious "Zionists") allows you to do so openly, with no fallout whatsoever. So, that's what today's Jew-haters are doing. What of the Jewish "anti-Zionists", you ask? Well, they pretty much hate Jews, too.
Pretty sure you boiled it down exactly right.
My best friend lost one of her oldest friends to this. A close 40 year friendship through marriages, births, deaths, divorce, everything. Her friend's mother, who she was caring for for several years, died, her daughter moved to the other side of the world - and she discovered her Cause. Her FB is all Palestine, all the time. She told my friend they couldn't be friends if she didn't join her on the marches (my friend is pretty uninterested in the subject and is not an activist type). This woman and her husband have become utterly obsessed, even though she'd never expressed the slightest interest in the Middle East before this. My friend is reaching out to her to try to rekindle their friendship, which worries me a little, since my friend may be a bit susceptible. I on the other hand have been following things pretty closely, in large part because I spent half a year on a kibbutz in 1982, during the First Lebanon War; I would have liked to stay for good (due to probably-misguided young love), but it was the certainty that what is happening now was inevitable that made me leave. Anyway, I really do think for some that it's a mental health problem. Watching footage of some of these people, they're the same as some of the trans activists - just full-on irrationality, rage and hysteria. It is bizarre, and perhaps a little frightening.
I see the same things you have written, definitely! It reminds me of Hitler's (and many Germans') tendency to feel victimized - as a child he was, or as Germans did after World War I - and then to focus on "the Jews" as if we were the "cosmic enemy" or a demonic group - and to be convinced that if only he could kill us all, he and others would finally be safe, secure, and above to go on existing. Supposedly "the Jews" were what made Germany lose WW I - instead of the army's admitting it had made some mistakes. Islam prohibits self-criticism, so - that might leave its adherents side open, vulnerable to projecting their shadows onto Jews.
Projecting one's shadow side - fears, everything we don't want to face, that we might be afraid of or feel overwhelmed by - onto "the Jews" - and then attacking it is so ineffectual, like shadow-boxing. Iran does it big-time - "little Satan" and "great Satan."
How I wish Muslims would do the spiritual jihad part of their religion, and that Christians would do whatever the Christian equivalent to that is. Jews monitor our "yetzer ha-ra" or our tendency or will to do evil - and try to strengthen our "yetzer ha-tov" (the part of us that has self-control and does good deeds, follows the commandments/good deeds.
I wish our whole society would. It would definitely lead to much greater self-mastery and more enlightened ways of dealing with our problems, our sufferings... I really appreciate your writings! Thanks so much for putting in your heart, your mind, your time and energy!
Basically the Anti Zionist narrative has devolved into the idea of a massive conspiracy to take over a tiny bit of land that happens to have no oil, and to expel a peaceful, welcoming civilization that totally exists in order to do that.
Which commits genocide such that the population grows and silences criticism such that Israel is about the most criticized entity in the world.
Surely the Zionist narrative I was thought in school (I'm Israeli) is incomplet and biased, but fuck, at least it's recognizably human? At least it picks cherries that exist?
And then another thing I don't understand is, if Israel is as bad as Hamas, what's the point of taking sides in a war between two equally evil players, instead of letting it play out until one of them wins? Is that what morality means? That everyone should get equal opportunity to act out their evil? In a war between equally evil players, isn't the best option to let it end quickly?
I don't know how well you know the USA but here we have something close to apartheid of the indigenous people, people of color denied all civil rights, children as young as 8 in adult prisons, prisons where rape and torture of both women and men are the norms, thousands of homeless people dying of exposure on the streets, women dying because they are denied abortions even of dead fetuses, tens of thousands of women and children sex trafficked, and we take political prisoners to off shore prisons where they are tortured without trial. And more. In my (okay, I'm biased) view Israel is a far superior country. If these nuts want to see social justice they need to start at home!
Heh. "Palestine" is only one more thing the US is guilty of, according to them (they would be pleased to know that there was a US arms embargo on Israel for the first couple of years there).
I understand being invested in something that affects you.
I understand being invested in something that doesn't, because it's especially horrible.
I understand being invested in something that neither affects you nor is particularly horrible in the grand scheme of things because... well honestly there's no bad reason to care about something. I cried over fictional characters so who am I to judge if you care a lot about a real life conflict.
I just... don't understand being so invested you commit crimes and develop an ulcer and all the rest of that shit, and also remaining committed to your ignorance. But isn't this obvious why the rhetoric around Palestine is so extreme? Of course it's a "genocide" and all that shit - that sounds bad enough to justify the apoplectic reaction and the immediate jumping to conclusions. And then when you say that there's no genocide, they can always retreat to "so you think it's okay to commit war crimes?!" or some shit. Sadly, this isn't how burden of proof works. This is an exhausting and transparent motte-bailey.
Which still leaves me wondering, about these people... what do you care? Why are your demands getting increasingly less realistic? What are you going to escalate to, if/when Israel does commit the fucking genocide? It's like the emotional fervor is the only justification needed for even more emotional fervor.
I just learned that the arms embargo was not lifted until 1968, correct me if I'm wrong but that was a stunner.
Leonard Slater wrote a book about the international Jewish and gentile patriots who helped to arm the newly formed state and the consequences that they suffered because of it.
Just borrowed it to my daughter and can't remember the title 🙄
Full on FBI investigations and prosecutions yet studying Israel history and operations has disavowed me of ever wanting to read fiction again.
The book's title is the pledge by Leonard Slater
You are describing the psychological phenomenon of scapegoating, which happens when something in the group dynamic has gone awry. This is group psychodynamic theory 101. Scapegoating happens in a group when members wish to deflect negative emotions or blame away from themselves. The group the finds a target on which they can project their problems or deflect responsibility. Jews are prime candidates for a number of reasons which anyone familiar with the history of antisemitism is well acquainted with.
I'm able to dismiss and mock those with the derangement syndrome with this statement feel free to use or not
May the skate park you've built between your ears for the Jews to grind away daily all day everyday rent-free continue to thrive and have a populace of large Jewish families grinding away all day everyday forevermore😜 Israel's the fifth happiest nation on the planet🤔 Hess, he got hung, they cried out remember Purimfest as they were hung until dead🐖 Those who bless Israel will be blessed those who curse Israel will be cursed 👌
https://open.substack.com/pub/canadianzionistforum/p/progressives-for-terror-and-queers?r=1z5dmo&utm_medium=ios
This article is excellent - and the Fathom Journal articles it references are as well.
All are highly recommended.
Pat, that's a very interesting article on the cause of antisemitism, which isn't much discussed, and certainly not discussed enough, so thanks. Maybe your hypothesis could be tested by a study of the correlation of antisemitism and the pathological disorders you mention?
I imagine there may be a lot of components among different people, including not just simple racism but also ignorance; stupidity exposed to propaganda; and the arrogance of those who think their access to the internet now makes them omniscient.
Rather than simple racism being so prevalent as to explain the breadth of the pro-Palestinian movement, I suspect it's related to a societal shift. In the natural way of things, the activist young have idealism and nerve, combined with a lack of knowledge, experience, or judgement. With the modern decline in religious faith and the reduction in the need for local social justice within the Western countries, those inclined to activism have shifted their interests from religion and social justice to environmentalism and Palestine.
Another factor that I believe gets too little consideration is envy and jealousy. The media is constantly trumpeting the wealth, success and power of Israel, and have made everybody aware that Jews have a higher IQ, get more Nobel prizes, make the high tech breakthroughs, and are more successful on average; and rarely mention the poor Jews who are struggling in Israel and elsewhere. In many workplaces most of the workers have a surprisingly visceral dislike and resentment if one worker works noticeably harder than them. Therefore, I suspect they have the same feeling toward Jews.
If we were to ask the pro-Palestinians about the popularity of their movement, I suspect the reasons they would give would be, firstly, the scale of the Palestinian suffering; secondly, the alleged theft of Palestinian land; and thirdly, the statehood issue including blockade and occupation.
I have argued that Hamas is to blame for much Palestinian suffering because of putting billions of aid dollars into preparation for war instead of into economic development. However, Toronto writer Carlyn Zwarenstein ("War Zone Innovation," Salon, March 29 2025) claims Israel prevented economic development, de-developing Gaza by a "capricious", "mostly unpublished" and unpredictable blockade for "decades", writing "Israel doesn’t even justify the raw materials ban on security grounds". The Jewish Virtual Library has several articles on history, that emphasize ongoing terrorism and weapons smuggling as justification for the blockade, at https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/myths-and-facts-gaza; the most recent being from last October at https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/myths-facts-online-exclusives#423.
I wish someone would publish an answer to Zwarenstein.
Interesting points. I will reflect and read her piece.
Nailed it! I can't tell you how much this makes sense. This vitriol for Israel, Jews and Zionists is like a cheap hit of dopamine for the souless robotic trolls who would rather live with their addiction rather than consider, at the minimum, that there is some nuance or background info they have missed.