In real life, people are being mercilessly butchered in Iran, Lebanon and Palestine by Israel and its allies. The uglier this gets, the more aggressive the trolling about “anti-semitism” becomes.
Israeli troops near the Lebanese border on March 21. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0)
By Caitlin Johnstone
Caitlin’s Newsletter
Listen to Tim Foley reading this article
Whenever Israel is killing tons of civilians the Western media always start churning out articles about “anti-semitism” and Jewish feelings.
“Jews Begin to Wonder: Is Anywhere Safe?” blares a recent headline from The Wall Street Journal, subtitled “‘It feels like the 1930s again.’ Hostility against Jews surges in Western countries where they felt safe in recent decades.”
An article for The Atlantic titled “Canada’s Polite Pogrom” bizarrely tries to argue that “tolerance for zealotry” is somehow “purging Jews from public life.”
A Washington Examiner headline proclaims that “Jewish voters feel ‘politically homeless’ as antisemitism rises on both sides.”
A headline for The Telegraph asserts that “Many Jews are sensing frightening echoes of 1930s Germany in 2020s Britain.”
War Criminal Tony Blair writes an article for The Free Press titled “Why the West Fails to Stop Antisemitism.”
What about 92 million people in Iran, 5 million people in Lebanon, 2.7 million people in the West Bank, and 2 million people in Gaza? Is anywhere safe for them? https://t.co/ztMlGrpK4f
— Frances ‘Cassandra’ Coppola (@Frances_Coppola) March 27, 2026
Meanwhile, in real life, people are being mercilessly butchered in Iran, Lebanon and Palestine by Israel and its allies. The uglier it gets, the more aggressive the concern-trolling about “antisemitism” becomes.
The Jewish Chronicle has published an article by Maureen Lipman titled “Does the world have any idea of how tired the people of Israel are?,” subtitled “A dear friend told me that his grandchildren have needed to enter their safe room more than 200 times since the current battle began.”
“The BBC and reporters worldwide do not go into the shelters where children are trained to lie on the floor when the sirens go off,” writes Lipman. “Neither do they report on the closure of schools. Most Israeli kids have missed some school every day since Covid. Are the media even aware of the fear of the elderly in Israel?”
Absolutely incredible. She writes as though Israelis are the only people on earth whose country is being bombed. Only Zionists could drop bombs on neighboring populations every single day for years and then go “NOBODY IN THE WORLD CAN IMAGINE WHAT IT’S LIKE TO LIVE IN FEAR OF AIRSTRIKES!”
Western news reporters face so much pressure to pad Israel’s image and advance Israeli information interests that the Associated Press just ran an editorial titled “AP is calling Israel’s attack on Lebanon an invasion. What does that mean and why does it matter?” justifying its decision to call what is self-evidently and indisputably an invasion the thing that it is.
You never saw them do this with Ukraine. You never saw the media holding long internal deliberations about what to label it and then publishing editorials going “We’re going to call this a Russian invasion, we’re pretty sure that’s what this is called, please don’t be mad at us!” That’s how cowed they are by Israel’s supporters, and how much pressure they feel to toe the imperial line no matter what.
At the same time in the Israeli press we’re seeing op-eds like The Jerusalem Post’s “Long-term deradicalization in Gaza faces major hurdles,” which argues explicitly for the total ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territory.
The article’s author Martin Sherman dismisses claims that the people of Gaza can be “deradicalized”— as though the radicalization of Palestinians is the problem, and not the radical political ideology of the people who’ve been waging an extermination campaign upon them. Instead, Sherman argues, everyone must accept the “harsh reality” that only annexation and ethnic cleansing can lead to a lasting peace in the Gaza Strip.
“The only way Israel can ensure how the Gaza Strip will be governed, and who will govern it, is to govern it itself,” writes Sherman. “Moreover, the only way Israel can govern the Gaza Strip without becoming an external oppressor of ‘another people’ is to remove ‘the other people’ from the confines of the Gaza Strip itself.”
“This is not radical right-wing radicalism. It is merely sound and sober political science,” Sherman writes.
If it isn’t right-wing radicalism to advocate the mass purge of a colonized indigenous population from their homeland for being the wrong ethnicity, then right-wing radicalism does not exist. That’s pretty much as right-wing extremist as it gets.
And this is an entirely mainstream Israeli publication.
If anyone on earth needs to be de-radicalized, it’s the Israelis and their supporters.
* * *
The U.S.-Israel alliance exists to fix the problems created by its existence.
The U.S. and Israel have sown death and destruction throughout the middle east for generations, creating generation after generation of survivors who hate them and want them gone, and then it cites the existence of people who hate them and want them gone as the reason why the U.S. needs to keep supporting Israel.
The U.S. needs to help Israel harm people or else the people who are mad about being harmed might harm Israelis. It’s circular reasoning all the way through.
Ask an American Israel supporter why it benefits the U.S. to defend Israel, and they’ll tell you it advances American interests in the middle east.
Ask them what American interests it helps advance in the middle east and they’ll tell you it counters the malign influence of Iran and terrorist groups.
Ask them to describe exactly what Iran and the terrorist groups are doing which directly harms American interests, and they’ll tell you they threaten American troops in the region.
Ask them why American troops can’t just leave the region to remove the threat, and they’ll tell you they can’t because that would be abandoning Israel.
Ask them why the U.S. can’t simply abandon Israel, and they’ll tell you it’s an important U.S. ally.
Ask them to explain why Israel is an important U.S. ally, and they’ll tell you it’s because it advances American interests in the middle east.
The official narrative about the importance of the U.S.-Israel alliance is self-justifying circular logic the whole way through, no matter what point you start examining it from.
They’ll tell you the west needs to support the poor innocent nation of Israel because it gets attacked by evildoers who want to destroy it for no reason.
In reality Israel is despised by middle eastern populations because the west dropped a brand new ethnostate on top of a pre-existing civilization and has forced it into being through continuous brute military force ever since, and that violence is all Israel’s opponents are ever responding to.
The west created the violence it claims to be countering.
The only argument Israel’s defenders in America make which does not rely on circular reasoning and dishonest obfuscation is “The Bible says we gotta give JDAMs to Benjamin Netanyahu.”
But the argument that permanent war is justified because you think that some book of made-up stories commands you to give military support to a nation that’s younger than Dolly Parton does not deserve to be taken seriously.
If they were honest they’d just admit that it benefits the U.S. empire’s ambitions of total global domination to have a ton of military bases and sympathetic partners in the middle east, which is rich in fossil fuels and critical trade routes.
If you knew absolutely nothing about the middle east but understood global military conquest you’d be able to tell that west Asia would be a critical point of geostrategic control just by looking at a globe, since it’s the only region on our planet which joins three continents.
But they can’t admit that, because it would be admitting that all this violence and suffering isn’t about promoting the interests of Americans or defending Jews or fighting terrorism or spreading freedom and democracy, and is instead about advancing the interests of a few oligarchs and empire managers with the facilitation of crazy religious beliefs held by Jewish Zionists and Christian Zionists.
So they lie and make up stories about why it makes perfect sense for American soldiers to be headed to Iran right now, and why it was entirely reasonable for the U.S. to send genocide weapons to Israel throughout the incineration of the Gaza Strip. It smells like bullshit because that’s what it is.
Caitlin Johnstone’s work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following her on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube, or throwing some money into her tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy her books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff she publishes is to subscribe to the mailing list at her website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything she publishes. For more info on who she is, where she stands and what she’s trying to do with her platform, click here. All works are co-authored with her American husband Tim Foley.
This article is from Caitlin’s Newsletter and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
If Maureen Lipman who wrote about the effect of air strikes on Israeli children, showed the same compassion for the more than 120 little girls of Minab, who will never go to school again, the antisemitism she fears might begin to wane.
For anyone, who missed it:
jewsdemandaction dot org
The zionists, just pretending to be religious, actually have been able over the decades to project their evil deeds on the entire Jewish community; which is why anti- semitism is growing, especially in the western countries.
Since most people there cannot differentiate between people being truly of Jewish confession, and the criminal zionists.
Oh, thank you for your clarity and passion, but most especially for “. . . . the argument that permanent war is justified because you think that some book of made-up stories commands you to give military support *to a nation that’s younger than Dolly Parton* does not deserve to be taken seriously.” Brava!
If Jews let Israel define Judaism then it is their problem if nobody loves them (boo hoo). Everyone hates Trump, Netanyahu, Lindsay Graham, etc., too, and they don’t give a damn.
The real problem is that Israel assassinates people who have the power to stop them from nuking the planet. Nowhere is safe for any of us, and stopping Israel is necessary for us AND them to be safe.
Kucinich is right – congress needs to be rid of every corrupt coward that throws all our money at weapons and zionists. Immediately.
False críes of “antisemitism! antisemitism!” are insidious forms of racism. They convey the message that defending the humanity of Palestinians, Lebanese, Iranians, etc is morally wrong. They carry the sick idea that some people — the people that zionists are trying to ethnically cleanse — are subhuman. Weaponized, xenophobically motivated accusations of antisemitism express hatred of humanity.
Who cares what the Squares think?
It is inevitable that anti-Zionist and anti-Israel sentiment should spill over into antisemitism. Until such time, if ever, Israelis start doing genuinely good things for the world, this sentiment is only going to get worse.
They only have themselves to blame.
Do your spoken words not attract echoes , heard in reply ,
or are they meant to cut out your tongue ?
One voice hears many replies from said deaf ears when unspoken ?
I hear ya . I hear ya .I hear ya !
Thanks ,
Vincent
Get off my back, as the saying goes .
But on the shoulders of the giant you drew .
Atop of Van Gogh one flailing hand and one ear held onto.
An unheard of, eight “second” view .
Well said Caitlin. As you know much of the Australian political, media and cultural firmaments are either in thrall to, or in fear of, the Zionist lobby, shown by withdrawal of platforms for those opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza and support for the illegal settlement movement in the West Bank; the assaults on free speech through the legislating of certain terms or gatherings as anti-Semitic and on it goes. The illegal Israeli/US war against Iran, the Israeli attacks in Lebanon only serve to heighten hatred of the state of Israel and a growing attitude of indifference to the suffering of Jewish People whether in Israel or elsewhere. My attitude and that of many I know is that if you didn’t stand up against your country’s genocide, don’t whinge when it comes back to bite you.
The real issue is whether humanity will survive this century. The ongoing slaughtering of innocents of whatever origin is the sign of a “civilization” in sharp decline. Why this is so difficult for our “leaders” to recognize is an endless mystery.
“Remembering the fate of Socrates, Seneca, Bruni and others, today’s heretics against the Zionist orthodoxy are being defamed as ‘anti-Semitic.’ Among the critics are Professors Jeffrey Sachs, Richard Falk, Norman Finkelstein, Ilan Pappe – all highly respected Jewish academics. None of them are in any way shape or form ‘anti-Semitic,’ they are all proud of their Jewish heritage, and they all condemn the war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed by the current government of Israel. They call it genocide and publicly protest: ‘not in our name.'”
Source:
Alfred de Zayas, “The Track Record of the Collective West In Regards to Human Rights and International Law,” CounterPunch, April 1, 2026
Thanks.
What’s next?
It’s anti-semitic to avoid being blown into a fine red mist by the Zionist war machine?
I imagine that any Jewish people who feel threatened in this way are those who are supporting or condoning Israel’s genocide in Gaza, as well as its unprovoked wars against Iran and Lebanon. They are in fact threatened by their own conscience which is trying to break out. It’s nothing to do with antisemitism. “As you sow…” I doubt that they will ever feel safe anywhere ever again. And for that, they can give a big “Thank you!” to Bibi and his ghouls.
I imagine that a large number of those who feel threatened have at some point directly contributed funds to Israel and permitted their offspring to join the IDF or ‘holiday’ in a kibbutz. Safety will never be achieved through the support of hate.
It’s beyond an insult to one’s intelligence.
A constant barrage of blatant gaslighting and projection.
A glimpse of how bad it’s become is had when Zionists begin unironically acting out ‘antisemitic’ tropes that have become illegal to acknowledge in public, or that detailed explanations of the specific machinations, root causes, proofs and contexts that have brought us all to this point, still cannot be openly and legally analysed, either for error or confirmation.
‘Antisemitism’ This is the enormous and disingenuous lie perpetuated by the State of Israel. Around the planet there results, rightfully, and increasingly, a huge wave of ‘Anti-Israelism.’
The killing continues along with the equally disingenuous lie of ‘We are the victims!’ whilst their mass murders of the women and children, of other nations, expand daily.
The apparently-disinterested electorate of the United States of Perpetual War is complicit in these war crimes if their own elected representatives continue to vote for even more dollars to fund the US War Machine.
While there is some hope that our elected representatives may stand up to and stop Orange Man Bad, it would have been so much simpler for Joe Biden to proclaim “We will not fund Israelis’ genocide of Palestinians” for the first 15 months when most Palestinians were killed with American support/ munitions (now disease and starvation continue the deaths). Just as Obama embraced Bush’s torture policies, Trump has embraced the Genocide. Truly the US has just One Party, the UniParty, for all their Kabuki theatrics.
This is not a recent thing, the USA has been supporting Israel since 1948.
Without USA money there would not be an Israel.
But, but the Holocaust (TM).
Right on!