Busting Antisemites

We are living through a time when you can say almost anything about and against Jews and it will be unfailingly believed. All you have to do is substitute “Zionist” or “Israel” for “Jews,” and just like that, hatred toward them will be as easy as dealing from the bottom of a deck containing 52 Get Out of Jail Free cards.

Sometimes you don’t even need to make the substitution—transparent antisemitism works just as well.

We have seen how a chain reaction of inciteful rhetoric can leave a landscape strewn with dead and terrified Jews. None are responsible for Palestinian deaths. Jewish victims everywhere, on Bondi Beach, outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., an outdoor mall in Boulder, Colorado, after a soccer match in Amsterdam, and in synagogues in Rotterdam, Liège, London, Toronto, Houston, Austin, Oak Park and Brooklyn, among other parts of the world.

No distinctions are made by those who wish nothing but misery for Jews. Hamas knew that most of its victims on October 7 were progressive, left-wing Jews who desired friendly relations beside a Palestinian state. Many performed acts of kindness to those living on the other side of the security fence.

Minor details. They were destined to die—because they were Jews. Those on the fairy tale left are always shocked to discover that “I’m one of the good ones” offers no exemption from death sentences and mass rapes and mutilations.

On city streets and college campuses, antisemitic slogans that ought to receive no First Amendment protection are allowed to linger like hallowed words of wisdom. They elicit enraged, violent reactions. Incite lawless behavior. Meanwhile, foul-mouthed antisemites live to spew another day.

Until lately. It’s a relief to see Jew-haters finally receive some just deserts.

A Haverford College professor who teaches religion was this week arrested for cyberstalking a Jewish colleague. He is facing charges in federal court. He sent threatening messages such as “The goyim have woken up, jew. Run. Flee. Leave”; and “Lower Merion will be cleansed of the jew filth.”

To a Jewish professor from another university he wrote, “What flavor would you like for the gas we will be using?” On social media he had choice words for non-Jewish supporters of the Jewish state. He called New York Congressman Ritchie Torres the N-word, and declared that Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman was “mentally retarded.”

He’ll now have to explain to a federal judge the “academic” meaning behind: “Spare not a single one of the jew rats.”

Last week, a French member of the European Parliament in Strasbourg removed an Israeli flag from an exhibition commemorating victims of the October 7 massacre. She tossed it aside and trampled on it for good measure. The Parliament President condemned the incident and promised to take appropriate disciplinary action. A fellow French parliamentarian upbraided his countrywoman, stating that her actions were “[a] form of complicity with those who, including in Europe, seek to bring back the antisemitic hatred that marked the darkest hours of our continent.”

Francesca Albanese, the Italian U.N. Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories and the grand dame of die-hard Jew-hatred worldwide (and the irrepressibly loudest voice on Israeli “genocide”), has been taking a well-deserved beating as of late—even from her native land.

Francesca Albanese, the Italian U.N. Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories and the grand dame of die-hard Jew-hatred worldwide (and the irrepressibly loudest voice on Israeli “genocide”), has been taking a well-deserved beating as of late—even from her native land.

In Italy, she faced official diplomatic condemnation from the government. The Italian Foreign Ministry publicly stated that her report on the “Gazan Genocide” exceeded the scope of her mandate and lacked impartiality, integrity and good faith. The city of Bologna shelved the ceremony it had planned to grant her honorary citizenship.

In France, she was rebuked for minimizing the undeniably antisemitic character of the October 7 pogrom. She contradicted the mournful words of the French president by stating that Israelis were killed not because they were Jews but “in reaction to Israel’s oppression.”

Several European nations, including France and Germany, called for her to resign from her U.N. post—and to receive a formal public reprimand—on account of unrelenting inflammatory and false remarks about Israel. One such example was calling Israel the “common enemy of humanity.”

And the United States imposed financial sanctions against her for spearheading international legal proceedings against both Israeli and American officials.

On a much smaller scale, a New York City public school teacher was terminated for posting on social media, “Long live Yahya al-Sinwar.” Sinwar was the mastermind behind 10/7. A teacher in Jacksonville, Florida was fired for a TikTok rant where she stated that “Jews control everything” and Israel is a “fake country” created “out of thin air.”

A man was sentenced to seven years in prison for hate crimes when he defaced Northwestern University with Nazi swastikas. A manager at the consulting firm KPMG was fired for calling a Jewish man a “Zionist pig.”

The Italian prime minister deported an imam who said during a sermon, “Every Muslim must fight the infidels or face catastrophic consequences.” Two other Muslims were deported for attacking a Chabad rabbi at a bus stop.

A federal civil rights report called upon Rutgers University to take action against a faculty member who condoned the murder of Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C. Separately, the university had allowed for the creation of a “Zionist-free space” on campus.

A former University of Arkansas professor was terminated for praising Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. She also called for Israel’s destruction and for a “dagger” to be “thrust […] into the throats of the Zionists.”

She is now suing the state, and the misapplication of its antisemitism law. She argues that her “academic freedom and free speech rights” were violated by “impos[ing] a limitation on the ability to criticize the state of Israel’s actions.”

Is it, really? She’s impeded in merely “criticizing” Israel? What manner of public policy debate befitting a university professor includes plunging a knife into the hearts of Jews—given that most Jews identify as Zionists?

At the University of Oregon on October 7, Hamas supporters rioted outside of the campus Hillel. They shouted: “Long Live the Intifada”; “Death, death to the IDF”; “Zionism, shut it down. Get Hillel Off Campus now.” They burned an American flag and distributed a manifesto celebrating the October 7 massacre and praising all Islamic terrorist groups.

Does any of that suggest plausibly legitimate criticisms of Israeli actions—kicking Hillel off campus, calling for an intifada against all Jews? Shouting and issuing violent threats does not inspire or invite civilized debate. And free-speech guarantees do not extend to “fighting words” and “true threats” because among other things, they don’t contribute to the marketplace of ideas.

Once you call for the destruction of a state—to end its existence and question its legitimacy alone among the constellation of 193 nation-states—you are not engaged in a constructive debate on either public policy or international affairs.

You lose your status as an academic when you choose to become an activist. You’re not a true scholar when you refuse to teach both sides of a conflict, or when you award extra credit for students who join antisemitic crusades. And you forfeit your journalistic credentials when libel-smearing replaces truth-telling as your guiding light.

You lose your status as an academic when you choose to become an activist. You’re not a true scholar when you refuse to teach both sides of a conflict, or when you award extra credit for students who join antisemitic crusades. And you forfeit your journalistic credentials when libel-smearing replaces truth-telling as your guiding light.

The good news is that some purveyors of anti-Jewish hate are being punished. But the world’s most vile antisemitism peddlers very much remain in business with impunity.

Zionism is an idea that was debated and embraced by the United Nations nearly 80 years ago. Israel is its realization. There’s no going back, and no room for eradication. Today’s antisemites will have to live with that reality.

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro University, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society. He is a contributing writer for White Rose magazine. His most recent book is titled, “Beyond Proportionality: Israel’s Just War in Gaza.”