Every antisemitic attack, the Passover firebombing of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home during his family’s Passover dinner, the recent murders of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., and this week’s firebombing attack in Boulder, Colo., which injured 12 people at a march to bring awareness to Israeli hostages still in Gaza, is preceded by words.
Poisonous, malicious, libelous words.
When these lies are spread, they plant seeds of hatred that too often end in violence. From ancient times to the Holocaust, antisemitic libels have fueled atrocities—from the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290 to the systematic genocide of the 6 million Jews during World War II. Today, the same pattern persists, but with a shift in focus toward Israel.
Many of today’s Israel-demonizers, whether at Harvard University or the BBC, likely don’t see themselves as bigots. They may not understand how their words are the latest link in a centuries-old chain of hate. But ignorance doesn’t absolve responsibility. Like a virus, antisemitic lies adapt to survive, shifting from medieval blood libels to today’s modern anti-Israel rhetoric. The goal and tactics remain the same, even if the language has evolved.
Long before modern-day Israel existed, Jews were the targets of horrific lies. The first recorded blood libel emerged in 12th-century England, accusing Jews of murdering Christian children for ritual purposes. These libels justified mass-murder pogroms from London to Kyiv to Damascus and continued for centuries.
In the early 1900s, Russia gave the world “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a fabricated document alleging a Jewish plot to dominate the world. Its distribution helped seed the belief that Jews secretly controlled the world’s finance, media and governments—a libel that helped to lay the groundwork for the Holocaust decades later.
After the Holocaust, the world briefly acknowledged the horror caused by Jew-hatred. Support for the re-establishment of a Jewish homeland in Israel gained traction, fulfilling the Jewish people’s 2,000-year longing to re-establish sovereignty on their ancestral land.
Israel’s independence did not end antisemitism. Instead, it redirected the stereotypes and lies that once targeted individual Jews for use against the only Jewish state.
Well before the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel-haters tried to incite antisemitic hatred by claiming the Jewish state was committing “genocide” against the Palestinians. This claim, however, falls apart under basic scrutiny—Palestinian populations in all areas controlled by Israel have grown by more than 600%, the opposite of genocide. The same is true in Gaza post-Oct. 7; this is the only war where the alleged target of a “genocide” has seen its population increase during 18 months of war. The absurdity of this libel should be plain to anyone with a functioning frontal lobe.
Another common accusation used to incite hatred is that Israel is an “apartheid” state. But Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy full civil rights, including voting and serving in the government, judiciary and military. Compare this to actual apartheid—or to the many Arab dictatorships where religious and ethnic minorities face real persecution and where there is genuine gender apartheid—and the libel is clear.
Despite the facts, these lies persist and spread primarily to delegitimize and demonize Israel. They are not critiques of specific policies; they are rooted in an age-old hatred repackaged for modern consumption.
Take, for example, the claim that Israel is a “settler-colonial” project, despite the Jewish people’s historical and indigenous ties to the Land of Israel that date back more than 3,000 years. And the lie that Israel indiscriminately bombs civilians ignores the fact that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad deliberately operate from and under civilian areas, including hospitals and schools. Yet media outlets often report claims like these without verification or context.
Just days before Israeli embassy staffers Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were shot and killed on May 21 outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., Tom Fletcher, the U.N. “humanitarian chief,” went on the BBC and claimed that “14,000 babies will die in Gaza within 48 hours.” The statement was fabricated—Fletcher took a year-long projection on malnutrition and twisted every key term to make a sensationalist claim, as:
- “People” became “babies”
- “Malnutrition” became “death”
- “May” became “will”
- “One year” became “48 hours.”
Despite the absurdity of his claim, major news outlets ran with it. No disclaimers, no skepticism. This kind of lie, based on the ancient trope of Jews murdering children, was amplified globally.
The media plays a crucial role in spreading these modern-day blood libels that present false allegations like “genocide,” “apartheid” and “mass child murder” as fact without providing evidence, and then repeating them until they become accepted narratives.
Demonizing Israel with lies isn’t harmless rhetoric. It’s not abstract political discourse. These lies build a world in which violence against Jews becomes not only acceptable, but noble. Just look at the many prominent social media activists who claimed that the D.C. murderer’s actions were heroic.
Yes, the murderers and would-be murderers are responsible for their actions. But the activists and influencers who spread the poison—the lies, the libels—share in that responsibility. Because every antisemitic attack begins the same way: with words.
