יום ראשון, ו׳ תמוז תשפ״וSunday, June 21, 2026
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Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld is the emeritus chairman of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Journal for the Study of Antisemitism and the International Leadership Award by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
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It is far more difficult to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of Israel than it is to do the same for a Western European country. Israel has a great deal of hard and soft power, but it also seriously underperforms in terms of diplomatic power and the combating of anti-Israel propaganda.
The coronavirus pandemic has sparked widespread conspiracy theories. Such theories are an integral part of contemporary Western culture, even in places that are purportedly enlightened. The irrational elements in Western society are very significant, and it will take serious study to begin to understand the many ways in which this irrationality affects Western attitudes.
Giffey announced she would no longer be using her doctor’s title. In the public eye she is now profoundly associated with an academic scandal.
Reports of antisemitic incidents continue to rise in Germany. Problems concerning Jews, Israel, the perception of the Holocaust, and other related issues still plague the culture 75 years after the end of the attempted destruction of the Jews. One way to analyze this phenomenon is to view it as a clash of viewpoints within the generation of Germans whose grandparents participated in the Holocaust: those descendants who look toward the light, and those who continue to live in the darkness of antisemitism.
The number of antisemitic incidents worldwide increased in 2020, but the past year also saw some notable positive developments in the battle against this hatred. The most important resulted from Trump policies, including the stopping of American financing of the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA. The US also announced that it considers the anti-Israel BDS movement antisemitic. Another major development was the publication of the British Equality and Human Rights Commission report on antisemitism within the Labour Party.
The coronavirus pandemic has created a new kind of culture shock. It has affected essential and highly personal elements of many people’s lives within their own environments. A culture shock of this magnitude has not occurred since WWII. When the pandemic ends, societies will be quite different from what they were in the pre-coronavirus era.
To better explain why Israel’s consulting of Diaspora Jews is such a bad idea, a simple means of analysis is to assume that Israel would set up a council representative of organized Diaspora Jewry. Who would represent US Jewry on such a council? Those who line up with Israel’s enemies?
For about 20 years, the EU has been largely inactive, incompetent, negligent, and at times even evil in the battle against antisemitism. During that period, Jew- and Israel hatred has greatly increased in the EU. The EU Commission has announced that in 2021 it will present a comprehensive strategy on combating antisemitism. No such strategy can succeed without a detailed explication of the lengthy history of antisemitism in Europe. If the strategy does not explicitly admit that antisemitism is integral to European culture, it will fail.
A “mood swing” that negatively affected economic globalization started well before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. When Donald Trump began his term as president in 2016, he established a more confrontational US policy toward China. From the former ”feel good” one-world attitude, the world has been moving toward more fragmentation. Uncertainty surrounding the pandemic is intensifying this process. The mood of anti-economic globalization will be strengthened further by a substantial increase in unemployment in Western countries.
From a Jewish and Israeli point of view, there are two main issues to look at when analyzing the activities of American Jewish billionaire George Soros. The first are his damaging statements and actions against Jews and Israel, and the second are antisemitic attacks on Soros himself. For Jews, the problems that arise around these issues require fine tuning of their reactions to Soros’s statements and actions.
Israel has largely ignored the war of words against it. This includes malicious terms such as “apartheid” and “occupation,” as well as anti-Israel phrases like “land for peace” and “two-state solution.” The UN’s falsely calling descendants of Palestinians who fled during the 1948 war “refugees” is another example. Well before any new negotiations take place with the Palestinians, the issue of Palestinian incitement as part of their cult of the glorification of genocide and death should be put on the international agenda.
Israel urgently needs a separate anti-propaganda agency, something the Strategic Affairs Ministry should have recommended long ago.
Many people who are not antisemites are nevertheless their allies. This can be seen clearly in Germany, which contains whitewashers and minimizers of antisemitism as well as people who want to abolish the position of national antisemitism commissioner. There are also Germans who falsely claim that the BDS movement is not antisemitic, as well as those who want the country to declare the IHRA definition of antisemitism, in particular the part about Israel, invalid.
Cancel culture—the denial to certain people of any platform on which to express their side of an issue—has become more and more accepted in public debate. It led to a letter decrying it by more than 150 writers and intellectuals in Harper’s Magazine. But the signatories never saw fit to object to the longstanding anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish cancel culture that exists at many Western universities. The letter offers no operational conclusions, though a logical one would be the reformulation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution to make hate speech punishable by law.
The last decade has seen an explosion of attacks on the memory of the Holocaust. This expresses itself in many ways, including the casting of doubt on the Holocaust’s uniqueness. This version was aired in recent public debates in Germany and can also be found in historical manipulations by academic scholars.
Many understand that racism is an intrinsic part of Western societies. So is antisemitism, yet this is acknowledged by very few. Antisemitism was on display during mass demonstrations about the coronavirus pandemic and the problem of racism, but was scarcely remarked upon. There has also been an outpouring of new mutations of anti-Jewish conspiracy theories in the wake of the pandemic. As has occurred for millennia, western cultures are interweaving their antisemitism into issues of the day.
In civilized societies action should be taken against anyone who expresses the desire to commit murder. The Iranian government, Hamas, Hezbollah, various clerics, and other influential figures within the Muslim world, as well as neo-Nazis and other extreme rightists, openly proclaim their desire to commit murder or even genocide against Jews and Israel. Many in the Western world either refuse to heed these statements or actively support them. Many others relentlessly criticize Israel and remain completely silent about Palestinian promotion of the killing of Jews.
The coronavirus pandemic has had a profound impact on the world of religion. This can be seen in three major areas: attitudes of religious leaders, behavior and rituals of believers, and efforts to give a theological meaning to the pandemic. Spiritual leaders may have squandered an opportunity to reinforce their religions through their responses to the crisis.
During major crises, those in power have increased advantages over their opponents. A structural handicap of those leading the opposition is that the only tool they have at their disposal is their words. Furthermore, during a crisis the media mainly focus their attention on those who are in charge and the measures they are taking.
A number of conspiracy theories have quickly emerged linking Jews and Israel to the coronavirus pandemic. These are new mutations of historical strains of antisemitic conspiracy theories, including the “poisoning of gentiles” motif and the accusation that the Jews want to control the world. These theories are all linked to the most popular antisemitic conspiracy theory of all, the modern mutation of the ancient blood libel that claims that Israel behaves like the Nazis and has Nazi-esque intentions toward the Palestinians.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The acceptance of a non-legal working definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in 2016 was an important step forward in the battle against this widespread hatred. It included 11 examples of antisemitism, several of which concerned anti-Israelism. Yet no definition can fully encapsulate the dark and expanding universe of post-modern antisemitism. It includes hate statements and positions by Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie Sanders, former German Socialist leader Sigmar Gabriel, and many others.
Antisemitism has fragmented into many subcategories in the postmodern era, which has made it ever more confusing and opaque. One concept that can shed new light on contemporary antisemitism is confirmation bias: the idea that people are often receptive to information, even if dubious, that confirms their existing opinions.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague has an abysmal record. It has few convictions, yet in the 17 years of its existence has spent more than $1.5 billion. The ICC’s decision to investigate supposed Israeli war crimes is a largely political ruling. Israel should confront the court by exposing that its multiple deficiencies far exceed its merits.
If antisemitism is to be fought effectively, three priorities have to be set. First, the Israeli government should establish an anti-propaganda agency. Second, an effort must be made to achieve a broad recognition that antisemitism is an ancient and integral element of Western culture. Third, there should be a consistent exposure of Jewish masochists who claim that Israel alone has to be perfect while others do not.
The surging interest in climate change intermingles science, ideology, politics, and religion and is likely to lead to increased polarization in Western societies. By analyzing the key characteristics of environmentalism and trying to assess societal developments, we can monitor the impact of climate change awareness and the inciting of fear.
It is not difficult to prove that antisemitism is an integral part of Western culture. To be clear: this is radically different from saying that all Europeans are antisemites. Yet Western politicians and leaders almost never admit this evident reality about their societies’ cultures.
Berlin has surpassed Malmö as Europe’s antisemitism capital, with a wide variety of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel attitudes on display. They include dozens of cases of physical aggression against Jews, including rabbis. Jewish pupils have had to leave public schools. Thirty-five percent of Berliners view Israelis as analogous to Nazis. An Al-Quds Day march takes place annually that calls for the destruction of Israel. Both the municipality and the federal government are two-faced about the problem of antisemitism.
Smokescreening, the false pretense of friendship toward Israel, is a common practice. Practitioners include US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, former US president Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and German FM Heiko Maas. There is also a mirror phenomenon in which Israeli leaders identify smokescreeners as friends, as when Israeli president Reuven Rivlin called German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier a “true friend of Israel.”
The clumsy manner in which the Israeli government handled the non-visit to Israel of US Democratic Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar was not a mere mishap. It resulted from a structural problem. The government’s refusal to establish an anti-propaganda agency has led to repeated public relations failures against vile verbal aggression.
Whenever the media mention Iceland in the context of Israel, it is usually to report negative news. It is difficult to find in Iceland’s history more than one substantial occasion when it played a positive role for Israel. There have been many cases of anti-Semitism in Iceland over the centuries. Every year, during the Lent period before Easter, 17th century hymns full of hatred for the Jews are read out daily by distinguished citizens and broadcast on Iceland’s public radio station.
The recent resignation of Peter Schäfer, Director of the Berlin Jewish Museum, follows a series of missteps by the museum that have led the German Jewish umbrella organization to declare that the museum has lost the trust of the community. Schäfer, a respected scholar, resigned from a position that requires an experienced manager with profound political understanding and instincts who is able to operate in what is for German Jews a highly problematic reality.
Sweden’s Social Democrat PM Stefan Löfven has announced that in 2020 his country will host an international antisemitism conference to commemorate the Holocaust. This is perplexing in view of both Sweden’s and the Social Democrat party’s abysmal records on antisemitism and anti-Israel incitement. Jewish organizations should make an effort to prevent the Swedish government from turning this conference into a PR stunt.
Retired Dutch general Toine Beukering – a candidate for chairman of the Senate – said earlier this month that the Jews were “chased like docile lambs into the gas chambers.” This remark, for which he later apologized, once again raised the issue of the huge historical distortion of the Dutch role during WWII. The Dutch, who collaborated massively with the German occupiers, now exaggerate Dutch wartime resistance and underemphasize the disproportionately large role of Jews in it.
Germany’s national antisemitism commissioner, Felix Klein, recently said, “I cannot advise Jews to wear kippot everywhere all the time in Germany.” Klein’s words, which prompted strong responses from the German authorities, revealed that the German legal system and police cannot guarantee Jewish freedom of expression in the public domain.
Media that frequently incite against Israel often slip into publishing antisemitic cartoons. A case in point is a recent cartoon in The New York Times that dehumanized Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu by depicting him as a dog. Antisemitic cartoons have appeared in the British Independent and Guardian, the German Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Italian Il Manifesto, the Swedish Dagens Nyheter, the Dutch Volkskrant, and all three leading Norwegian dailies.
One tool of verbal demonization that is extremely difficult for Israel to combat is accusations of crimes it supposedly will commit in the future. These are far more difficult to contest than outright lies about current events. An example of this kind of manipulative lie is a remark in an interview by the outgoing French ambassador to the US, Gérard Araud, in which he said that Israel will officially be an apartheid state in the future.
British scholar and Labour party member Alan Johnson concludes in a new report that the Labour party is institutionally antisemitic. He contends that three types of antisemitism are present in the party: the socialism of fools, classical racial antisemitism, and antisemitism dressed up as anti-Zionism. Reading the report and comparing Labour to other European socialist parties, one finds that while they target Israel, much of Labour’s antisemitism is aimed at Jews.
Major cases of anti-Semitism are usually accompanied by attempts at whitewashing. Yet the whitewashing of antisemites and antisemitism is rarely looked at as a widespread international issue. There are many ways one can cover up antisemitism. Politicians, media, the legal system, Jewish organizations and Jews abroad (mainly from the left), Israeli Jews, and Arabs have all participated. Still, the whitewashing of today’s antisemitism pales in comparison to the whitewashing of national anti-Semitism during the Holocaust.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The German government’s official policy is that it makes efforts to fight antisemitism and is friendly toward Israel. At the same time, it actively promotes antisemitism and anti-Israelism. It allows massive migration of antisemites from Muslim countries, supports discriminatory anti-Israel motions at the UN General Assembly, generously finances the antisemitism-supporting UNRWA, and congratulates the genocide-promoting regime of Iran.
Chants like “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas” have entered the public domain at soccer stadiums. The Dutch Supreme Court has forbidden this chant, but it can still be heard at matches
Anti-Semitism, integral to European culture, was developed in a dominating hostile Christian environment over more than a millennium. In recent decades, the hatred towards Jews found in European societies mutated partly into anti-Israelism, which targets the Jewish state.
While the findings do not mean the majority of Europeans are anti-Semites, they are nevertheless an indictment of Europe’s hypocrisy, pervasive anti-Semitism, non-selective immigration policies, widespread anti-Israelism, and huge discrepancy between the rhetoric of European leaders on fighting anti-Semitism a
Seems Airbnb has made many enemies, not just Israel.
The killing of 11 Jews in Pittsburgh is the next in a series of lethal attacks targeting Jews and their institutions for decades around the world. In killings outside the US, the murderers of Jews are often Muslim, while in Pittsburgh the murderer was a white supremacist. The Pittsburgh killings demonstrate that Jews are subject to threat all over the world, including in the US.
The intense public discussion on anti-Semitism in the UK Labour party has almost entirely overshadowed the problem of the huge risk a Corbyn-led government would represent to the Western world. Corbyn, a terrorist sympathizer, and various problematic associates of his would gain access to intelligence gathered by the British security services. How safe would it then be for other Western countries to continue to share high-level intelligence with their British colleagues?
Relations between France and Israel have been ambivalent and complex for decades, and there have been ample occasions when the French government has set out expressly to blacken Israel. Pres.Macron is seemingly a new type of Frenchman yet continues the hypocritical French policy of tarnishing Israel.
A small Chanukah miracle taking place in Israel with t whichhe Bahraini delegation included Sunni and Shiite Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Christians.
French leaders classify many anti-Semitic incidents as “hooliganism” denying their anti-Semitic motives. Trump is far more positive toward Jews than virtually any French leader from the right or left.
Before the current outburst of anti-Semitism, problems existed. According to 2015 FBI hate crime statistics over 1/2 of 1200+ religious motivated incidents were aimed at Jews, only 2% of US population
Jeffrey Goldberg, media muse to President Obama, zigzags between journalism and sycophancy when interviewing the President.
The conspiracy of silence by officials and media was to deceive the German public about the refugees
Israeli exports to the EU will be affected by a further decline in the Euro. There would be significant consequences, as the EU is Israel’s largest market abroad.
What if years from now, IS were to control substantial territory? What world havoc would that wreak?
Prof. Wistrich, was THE foremost historian of anti-Semitism; committed spokesman & advocate of Jewry
A record number of hate crimes complaints in Malmö from 2010 through 2011 led to zero convictions
Moshe Kantor Pres. of European Jewish Congress: “Normative Jewish life in Europe is unsustainable.”
The West must be educated about the cruelty that has become endemic to much of the Muslim world.
Studies show that large numbers of Europeans hold a demonic view of Israel.
Now that several weeks have passed since President Obama’s visit to Israel, it is possible to get a better perspective on many of its aspects. Focus must not only be placed on what was said and done, but also on what was missing.
On February 17, the Dutch Nederland 2 TV station broadcast an interview with Dutch Turkish youth conducted by volunteer youth worker Mehmet Sahin. In the broadcast the youngsters expressed their admiration for Hitler and his role in the murder of Jews during the Holocaust.
Apologies offered by the British Sunday Times for an anti-Semitic cartoon published on International Holocaust Remembrance Day address only one, albeit major, aspect of this issue.
On October 15, the Knesset voted unanimously to dissolve itself. Elections will be held on January 22, 2013. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to take the step after realizing he could not obtain a majority for his proposed budget.
When Israelis say, “I worry about my grandchildren’s future,” it has a radically different dimension than similar concerns expressed in many other countries.
Since Oslo we have had some Israeli governments emulate Neville Chamberlain’s foolish position. While the current government has not done so, there certainly is vast room for improvement in the presentation of Israel’s case to the world.
There are few societies where the contradiction between Holocaust distortion and Holocaust commemoration is as pronounced as it is in the Netherlands. This phenomenon came to the fore earlier this month on National Memorial Day, May 4, designated to commemorate the many victims of the German occupier. One hundred thousand Dutch Jews – more than 70 percent of the country’s pre-war community – were by far the largest group of victims.
Last month the IDF responded to rockets being launched from Gaza into southern Israel by bombing Gazan targets. It took little time for some media outlets to equate the Palestinian aggressor with the Israeli aggressed. It took only slightly longer for many other media outlets to highlight Israel’s actions while shoving continued Palestinian aggression into the background.
Let us employ a bit of fantasy and assume that Muslim states were intent on assailing the Netherlands. They would claim in the United Nations Human Rights Council that the hundreds of cases every year of euthanasia in the Netherlands, in which the patient is not asked his or her permission, constitutes a severe breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These states could easily muster a majority to have the UNHRC appoint a commission of inquiry into this matter.
A new poll finds that two-thirds of the Dutch people are opposed to their prime minister apologizing to the Jewish community for the misconduct of the wartime government in exile in London.
Should Israel treat pro-Palestinian news manipulators as if they were serious journalists?
