Stated in one sentence: Irrationality, in medical lingo, is pathognomonic (the distinctive characteristic) of antisemitism. It is how the “diagnosis” is made.
There are many examples of such irrationality, but two are obvious.
First is the charge that Israel is guilty of being a colonialist nation. Before World War I, the Ottoman Empire colonized most of the Middle East. The collapse of the empire led to the creation of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. Therefore, Israel is a product of decolonization. It never colonized anyone else’s land, as there was no other entity there to colonize.
The second example is found in the United Nations. The world body turns a blind eye to the worst human-rights offenders, including Nigeria, Syria, Congo, North Korea, Iran, Russia, China, Sudan and Myanmar. But in the case of Israel, a democracy that respects human rights, it perpetually mass-produces statements of condemnation. There are more violations against tiny Israel—one of the smallest countries in the world—than these barbaric nations combined. It’s absurd.
Not only is irrationality exposed in these two examples, but what further hones in on the irrationality is that the charges are not only untrue, but the opposite is true.
Regarding the colonialist charge, Israel accepted less and has less land than what was lawfully earmarked for the state in the San Remo Resolution of 1920—the seminal treaty that defines the region’s sovereign borders to this day. Further, local Arabs were offered a state in the 1947 U.N. partition plan, but they declined—instead launching a war to annihilate their Jewish neighbors and capture all the disputed land for themselves. They lost.
Are they entitled to a “do-over” for their genocidal act? It makes no sense. And they haven’t tamed their murderous ambitions, as we tragically saw in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Additionally, Israel could have kept the entire Sinai Peninsula when it captured the territory in the 1967 Six-Day War. This would have expanded Israel multi-fold. But instead, it returned the land to Egypt pursuant to a peace treaty in 1979. Not the mark of a colonialist nation.
Israel is accused of being the worst violator of human rights in the world, more than the worst offenders of human rights in the world combined? So bad that there is a single day at the United Nations dedicated to only one country in the world to discuss its violations?
Hardly, it’s the opposite. Israel is one of the world’s champions of human rights. In fact, minorities have greater human rights in Israel than anywhere else in the Middle East. Minorities sit in the state’s supreme court and its parliament. Minorities in Israel hold positions as doctors, judges and lawyers. Muslims there have more freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and yes, greater freedom of religion than in any Arab state.
Many religions find a secure refuge in Israel. One example is the Baha’i faith, with its beautiful, world-renowned shrine in Haifa. Gays can live safely—meaning, without fear of death—in just one Middle East country: Israel. And women have more rights in Israel than in any other country in the Middle East. Even in Middle Eastern countries that hold elections, women’s votes don’t always count as a full one. Many Middle Eastern women outside of Israel have no right to divorce their husbands. They are forced to cover themselves from head to toe with only eye openings. In some of those repressive states, they aren’t even allowed to drive or leave home unaccompanied.
All the non-Jewish countries in the Middle East are dictatorships or monarchies. Yet Israel, the region’s only democracy, is accused of being the violator of human rights? That strange fact highlights the irrationality of this antisemitic disease.
The seriousness of this sickness cannot be overstated. When it comes to the disease of antisemitism, it spreads quickly, sticks firmly and is violent. Its irrationality and pace seem to lull Jews.
A noteworthy example of this tragically played out in Germany after the First World War. German Jews fought for their country patriotically, and many were killed in action. Many received commendations for bravery, and many earned promotions to higher ranks. Then, a violent strain of antisemitism arose in German society, and the once-civilized nation turned on its Jews. And they turned in horrific ways, as the world found out. In 15 years, the disease wiped out two-thirds of European Jewry.
This disease is insidious, upon us and rapidly spreading. So, what do we do?
First, we should stop blaming Israel for its bad public relations. Good hasbara won’t cure this hatred. Next, we should stop talking about Jewish achievements—the number of Nobel prizes Jews have won, products they have invented or illnesses cured—as a defense. Even if Jews won no Nobel prizes, invented nothing and cured nothing, this scourge is beyond the pale. And it must be stopped.
The malady needs to be called out for what it is: a disease that infects and spreads like wildfire, as we are seeing. It inevitably causes the breakdown of societies. And it affects all of us, Jew and non-Jew alike. That is why we must all take it on.
