Recently a meeting between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Italian counterpart scheduled to be held at the Art Gallery of Ontario was cancelled due to blockades created by Palestinian protestors. Last month, security was beefed up at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital, founded by the Jewish community after Palestinian protestors raising calls for ‘Intifada’ held demonstrations and tried to disrupt the medical services.
In the last
week of February, Palestinian protestors gathered outside the Israeli Embassy
in London and demanded the arrest of the Israeli ambassador over war crimes.
Amid a sudden surge in pro-Palestinian protests across the UK, security
officials have increased the threat level to that of 9/11. Prime Minister
warned that the extremists are trying to “tear us apart” and called on
the country to “beat this poison”1. These
protests aren’t just isolated instances of escalatory demonstrations. But these
are accompanied by an alarming rise in antisemitic attacks.
Since the
October 7th Hamas terror attack on Israel, the Western world has
been rocked by protests. The chants of “From River to Sea, Palestine will be
free” rented the air. Open calls for
the obliteration of Israel situated between the Jordan Sea and Mediterranean
Sea instead of inviting opprobrium and apprehension were feted as slogans of
resistance and liberation.
Why is the
right to exist, which is a universal right denied to Israel? Why is the call
for the liquidation of Jews not repudiated and meted out without any vehemence?
To answer these questions and more, Jake Wallis Simons has published a book- “Israelophobia:
The Newest Version Of The Oldest Hatred & What To Do About It” in
September 2023 ahead of the gruesome October 7th Hamas terror attack
on Israel. The event has quickly spiralled into a major crisis in the Middle
East with no signs of a return to the status quo ante.
Often, a
single act is what it takes to redefine the geopolitics. A case in point is the
two World Wars and in contemporary times, it is the largest terror attack 9/11.
It has divided the geopolitical landscape into- pre 9/11 era and post-9/11.
Foreign policies, legislature, migration policies and security policies have
changed drastically. The ongoing conflict between Israel-Hamas is certainly
going to be a tipping point, in terms of how the Middle East will regroup and
consolidate. The conflict besides amplifying the binaries gave a huge fillip to
the Palestinian cause downplaying the terror aspect which is a potential threat
to global security.
It is often
said, ‘timing is everything’ and the book indeed rightly provides answers to
the motivated, surprise terror attack by Hamas on Israel. The spectrum of
responses of various countries to this carnage ranged from indifference to callous
justification with some of them contending that Israel deserved it, unequivocally
attests to the fact that ‘Israelophobia’ is not a figment of imagination. The
widespread celebrations after the Israeli killings and the chilling
conversations of Hamas terrorists bragging about their massacre with their
parents affirm that the hatred is deeply entrenched. But what is more
disturbing is the fact that a dislike for Israel has become a “non-negotiable
ticket of entry into left discourse”.
In Medieval
ages, Jews were hated for their religion and later it mutated into a dislike
for the race or antisemitism. After the Holocaust and international
condemnation, to be politically correct, antisemitism has transmogrified into
anti-zionism. By conveniently shifting the target of hatred from race to
country, the secular progressives are ducking the allegations and perpetrating
an anti-Israel narrative.
Zionism is
Israeli patriotism and stemmed from the desire of Jews for self-determination
of their homeland who were driven out from their homeland around 598 BCE by
various invaders and colonisers. Evidently, like every other country, Israel's
patriotism is valid. Israel is a multi-racial, post-colonial state established
legitimately under international law and not by deceit. But the hatred for the
Jewish state or anti-Zionism remains the staple of the non-Israeli supporters.
Positioning
anti-Zionism along with anti-racism and decolonization, a bigoted narrative
suffused by misinformation propaganda and distortions has been established.
This blind prejudice rejects Jewish entitlement to statehood, characterises
Israel as the epitome of evil, questions its right to exist and justifies its
annihilation. Since Israel shares liberal democratic values with Western
countries like the US and the UK every attack on “Western history, value and
culture often goes hand in hand with attacking the Jewish state”.
Currently, Israel
is home to 2 million Arabs while the West Bank administered by the Palestinian
Authority (PA) has driven away all Israelis, demolished their synagogues and
defaced tombs. So motivated propaganda of the occupier or even oppressor would
hold no ground. The exception is a few Orthodox settlers in the West Bank who
stayed back to protect the graves of Abraham, Issac, Jacob their wives Sarah,
Rebecca and Leah in the West Bank. However, the administrative issues of the
so-called families of settlers are taken care of by the Israeli government.
On the other
hand, over 50% of Arabs in Israel are granted citizenship and some of them occupy
the highest positions like Supreme Court judges and are part of the political
process as well. But Israel still is
labelled an apartheid state. So, the unsparing attacks against Israel under the
guise of supporting Palestinian rights is nothing but blatant antisemitism.
Fighting the
bogeyman of the Jewish state is among the popular causes of the left-leaning
liberals. As a result, Israel Apartheid Week is popular across campuses even as
millions of people suffer the atrocities by authoritarian regimes like Syria,
China, Yemen, Libya, etc. Apartheid in the past was used to topple the South African
regime and so the same strategy is activated against Israel. Though Israel was
subjected to apartheid kind of discrimination, this tactic is employed since the
pro-Palestine movement had failed to garner much support.
The dislike
for Israel has become the tenor of the progressives who set the narrative
ascribing negative connotations to Zionism as white supremacy and colonialism. The
Black Lives Movement (BLM) has deemed Jews as White Oppression forces and
#jewishprivilege trended during the BLM protests. Jews who suffered the worst
form of genocide continue to be targets of hate crimes and are ironically
castigated as a privileged race by progressive academicians.
The author
notes that a not-for-profit black community group in Crown Heights contended
that ‘Jewishness’ was a ‘form of almost hyper-whiteness’. In reality, only 20%
of Jews are white and over half of the Jewish population in Israel are Middle
Eastern or North African, the remaining have migrated from Asian countries
including India and some of them have Caucasian features. So pitting Jews as white
when whiteness carries negative association is bigotry.
Like any
other country, Israel has its share of virtues and evils but the unusual
scrutiny and the double standards set for it has a history to it. Israelophobia
comprising of antisemitism and antizionism, is an intelligent word jugglery
that has three characteristics. The author delves into details in respective
chapters- Demonisation, Weaponisation and Falsification. Demonisation is
smearing Israel as evil and as a threat to the world; Weaponisation is the use
of the social justice movement as a Trojan horse for hatred of Jews and Israel
and Falsification is an amplification of lies of the Nazi and Soviet
propaganda.
Spread in
six different chapters, the author has been uncharacteristically forthright in
dissecting the cultist conviction of hatred for Jews. Israel has been the
victim of the propaganda narrative of countries that wanted to settle scores
with the West and dismantle the alliance of Allied countries during the World
Wars. The insidious agenda spearheaded by the Nazis in collaboration with the
Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Hussaini, the father of the Palestinian
Arab National Movement was utilised to the hilt by the Soviet Union to bond
with Arab allies.
Jake Wallis
Simons, a seasoned journalist and novelist adopting an unhinged approach brings
to light the lasting notoriety of bigoted tropes that continue to fuel
Israelophobia. This unremitting coloured vision has for decades blockaded a
permanent solution for the Israel-Palestine issue that continues to simmer and
sow dissensions among the nations. The book also highlights the
disproportionate influence of the progressive activists and their emergence as
the ‘cultural gatekeepers’ and ‘opinion framers’. Under the garb
of equality and social justice, they are redefining the values and concepts to
suit their interests. Adept at cascading their views through every channel of
communication, research conducted at Kings College London showed that these
activists are six times more likely to reinforce their views on social
influence than others.
The big two
takeaways from this book for India and especially Sanatanis are to factor in
the incommensurate influence of the highly dogmatic and evangelical progressive
activists and to be circumspect about the wordplay. The virtue signalling of
condemning antisemitism is a farce. It continues to thrive under the banner of
anti-zionism which is a norm in the bastions of progressives, on university
campuses. Sanatanis would do themselves more good if they read antisemitism as
‘Hinduphobia’ and ‘Hindutva’ for anti-zionism. The Western bias towards
Sanatana Dharma is not a secret anymore. “Dismantling Global Hindutva” conference
was just a trailer. Jews are at the forefront of the Progressive Activists'
propaganda. Sanatanis are next in line.
Deeply
incisive and categorical, this book expertly demolishes prejudiced discourse,
falsehood and double standards. Written in a conversational style, this highly
engaging book makes for a quick read. This book is a must-read for every
enthusiast who wants to understand the interplay of bigoted narratives,
venomous extremist ideologies and the amplifying effect of disinformation
literature suffused by undercover agents to capitalise on moral inversions for
geopolitical gains.
Pages: 224
Publishers:
Constable
@ Copyrights reserved.
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