The hate mask slips
I have to say the antisemites still have the capacity to surprise me.
I thought I could usually predict what they’d do next. But, since the ceasefire brokered by Donald Trump, they’ve surprised me.
Writing a book about their global campaign (The Hidden Hand, out in February) and being the centre of a documentary about that (The Campaign, ditto), I had studied them enough to know they didn’t love Palestine. In truth, they hated Israel.
But, I give them grudging credit: they were pretty good at disguising that. They probably seemed authentic to a lot of witless people – in the media, in government, in unions, in academia, amongst Gen Z and Millennials.
But I know what campaigns look like – and it was a campaign. And, like just about every campaign, it had a glossy and impressive exterior, designed to obscure a darker and uglier objective at the center. In their case, it was isolating, delegitimizing and then eliminating the Jewish state. Destabilizing Western democracy, too.
They’d slip, occasionally. Lying about casualties, lying about famines, lying about what Hamas and its legions really are. But, most of the time, their campaign was very effective and efficient. They didn’t make a lot of mistakes.
You can see the proof in public opinion research. Throughout the West, polls now show majorities or near-majorities believe Israel is a genocidal, fascist, white supremacist state, bent on the utter destruction of a powerless dark-skinned minority. Like apartheid South Africa.
They were greatly assisted, of course, by Israel’s total inability to tell its own story. Too many Israelis have convinced themselves that their lot in life is to be hated by everyone, so they just take it. They shouldn’t, but they do.
And, so, the global antisemitic campaign was winning – exceeding the expectations of even those who were behind it (Iran, the campaign manager; Qatar, the banker; a web of NGOs, charities and non-profits staffing it all – and Hamas and its cabal, of course, providing muscle.)
Anyway. All that changed with the (unlikely, unexpected) Trump-devised ceasefire. The curtain was pulled back on the evil Wizard of Oz. We got to see who they really are.
Around the world, however, the protests have continued – even though there was a real, actual ceasefire in place. Even though Israel did everything they demanded.
The haters didn’t celebrate that. They just kept on hating Israel.
And, of course, they said nothing – literally nothing – about the orgy of murder Hamas has unleashed on the innocent Palestinian people they had once professed to care about. They said, and did, nothing.
So, like I say: I didn’t expect to see them get sloppy. I didn’t expect a campaign as disciplined and as well-organized as theirs to stumble, and for the mask to slip. To show everyone who they really are – which is Jew-hating bastards who don’t give a sweet damn about Palestinians.
That’s who they are, that’s who they’ve always been.
But now they’ve revealed themselves, so that all can look ant them and see.
So: look.
It’s important.