Perceived anti-semitism is cited as evidence for why Israel needs to be even more violent, militaristic and tyrannical than it already was, and why its brutal treatment of Palestinians is justified and correct.
By Caitlin Johnstone
Caitlin’s Newsletter
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley
There’s a certain particularly toxic personality type which thrives on being hated. They behave in wildly odious and destructive ways, and then when people react to this with hostility they plunge into poor-me victimhood, which they then use to justify more odious and destructive behavior.
You may have been unfortunate enough to have encountered such personalities in your own life. They behave atrociously, and then when people react to it they say “See?? I really AM being persecuted!”
Hillary Clinton is a perfect example of this personality type taken to the extreme. People hate her because she’s a phony, egomaniacal sadist who has spent her entire political career pushing for mass military bloodshed at every opportunity, but she then frames this hatred as evidence of widespread misogyny and far-right extremism, which is why the world desperately needs Hillary Clinton to help fight those things.
Any remotely normal person who was both as wealthy and as despised as Hillary Clinton would have simply retired from public life to enjoy their hundreds of millions of dollars, blissfully sheltered from the vitriol and condemnation of the common riff raff.
But Clinton keeps showing up, adamantly refusing to go away, because the hatred she receives is actually what fuels her entire personal dynamic.
We see a large-scale version of this same dynamic with the state of Israel. A Jewish anti-Zionist Israeli named Alon Mizrahi posted an interesting piece on Twitter a few days ago that’s been rattling around in my head ever since, wherein he argues that Israel is actually intentionally generating hatred towards itself in order to shore up political power.
Claiming that “Israel and American Jewish organizations took it upon themselves to keep Jews afraid and isolated” in a “strategy of intentional paranoia,” Mizrahi opines that when Oct. 7 hit, “the right wing, nationalistic, paranoid section of the Jewish political spectrum, realized it could be translated into political gold.”
“It doesn’t seem like Israel is trying to be hated globally. It is actually what it’s doing,” Mizrahi writes. “It is intentionally airing its cruelty and barbarity so that it will remain closed up to the world, thus guaranteeing the continued rule of the paranoia camp.”
“Palestinians are just crash test dummies in this scenario,” he adds. “Their deaths are used to get people angry and Israel hated, so it becomes even more paranoid.”
Whether you accept or reject Mizrahi’s perspective, you can’t deny that Israel’s apologists have been seizing on the outrage its actions in Gaza have caused as evidence of anti-semitic persecution.
The Anti-Defamation League has started categorizing pro-Palestine rallies as anti-semitic incidents, including rallies organized and attended by Jewish groups, leading to the Israel-friendly mass media reporting a massive spike in “anti-semitism” in the wake of Oct. 7.
Common pro-Palestine chants like, “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free” have been deceitfully labeled calls for the genocide of Jews, and any criticism of Israel’s actions is met with a deluge of accusations of anti-semitism.
Once Israel and its western supporters succeeded in framing any opposition to the Israeli government as evidence of anti-semitism, it was guaranteed that any time Israel does something evil it will cause a new wave of “anti-semitism” per those standards.
This perceived hatred and persecution could then be cited as evidence for why Israel needs to be even more violent, militaristic and tyrannical than it already was, and why its brutal treatment of Palestinians is justified and correct.
This in turn could be used by western governments to justify pouring more weapons into Israel and providing military support against its neighbors.
In this dynamic, anything Israel does causes more people to hate Israel both in the middle east and around the world, to which Israel responds by tearfully proclaiming “See?? They hate us! We must defend ourselves against their hostilities!”
This is not the sort of behavior you would accept from someone in your life, and it shouldn’t be the sort of behavior we accept from nuclear-armed ethno-states.
As with any other widespread dysfunction, the key to dismantling this one is to spread awareness of what it is that Israel is doing.
And what Israel is doing, ultimately, is weaponizing sympathy and victimhood. When somebody is using a weapon to hurt others, you take their weapon away.
The world needs to stop giving Israel sympathy and stop buying into its victimhood narratives, because those narratives are only ever used to justify more and more western-backed atrocities.
This won’t happen until enough awareness has spread of what’s really going on here. For there to be a movement toward health, a lot of eyes need to open to the unwholesomeness of this manipulative dynamic?—?both inside and outside of Israel.
Luckily that does appear to be the case. More and more people are recognizing the unwholesomeness of the pro-Israel victimhood narrative, just as you’d eventually recognize the unwholesomeness of someone in our own life who keeps behaving terribly and then playing the victim.
It’s going to be a messy, two-steps-forward-one-step-back slog, but I think we’ll find our way out of this mess eventually.
Caitlin Johnstone’s work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following her on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube, or throwing some money into her tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy her books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff she publishes is to subscribe to the mailing list at her website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything she publishes. For more info on who she is, where she stands and what she’s trying to do with her platform, click here. All works are co-authored with her American husband Tim Foley.
This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Zionism equals fascism.Since ancient times, Jews have been expelled from European countries.
Chronology of the expulsion of one entire people from different countries of the world. For nearly 2,500 years in exile
First, let’s look at the known official expulsions of Jews and analyze them, then we’ll look at the unofficial expulsions, and then we’ll try to draw conclusions based on an analysis of all the facts.
Official expulsions (by order of official authorities):
~1200 BC — Exodus from Egypt.
474 BC — Unsuccessful attempt to expel the Jews from the Achaemenid Empire (Persia) by the courtier Haman. It ended with his execution and the coming to power of the Jews, while Artaxerxes I formally retained power. Formally, the reason was Haman’s personal hostility.
19 — Roman Emperor Tiberius, on the advice of the Praetorian prefect Sejanus, ordered the closure of synagogues and the sending of four thousand young Jews to military service on the island of Sardinia; in 30 or 31, after the execution of Sejanus, they were allowed to return, and the synagogues were reopened.
50 — expulsion from Rome by Emperor Claudius.
414 — under Patriarch Kirill, Jews were expelled from Alexandria
7th century — from Arabia by Mohammed (Muhammad). Modern Islam is still eliminating Jews wherever it has sufficient influence.
613 — all Spanish Jews who refused to be baptized were forced to leave the country by order of King Sisebut. They were returned in the 620s, expelled again in 638.
1113 — from Rus’ by Vladimir Monomakh, who declared: “Now send the Jews out of the Russian land with all their property and do not accept them in the future, and if they enter secretly, then you are free to kill and rob them”; This happened after a major Jewish pogrom because… the population rebelled against Jewish oppression.
1171 — partial expulsion of Jews from Bologna and Rome, which is confirmed by both Christian and Jewish sources.
1182 — King Philip II Augustus of France issued a decree expelling all Jews from France and confiscating their property. Most of the exiles found refuge in the county of Champagne, the kingdom of Provence, the county of Venessen and other places neighboring France.
1287 — pogrom in Bern (Switzerland), 1290 — expulsion.
1290 from England by the English King Edward I. The official reason is usury, but such a reason cannot be the real reason for the expulsion of an entire people, which means there must have been something else. The complete expulsion was preceded by the forcing of Jews to wear a distinctive badge in 1218. That. we can say that the population of England began to feel discomfort from the Jews, but the Jews disguised themselves as English and it was difficult to distinguish them. Only Jews were required to wear the distinctive sign; other foreigners were not required to do so, i.e. Jews stood out among the ordinary foreigners moving to England. The exile lasted 365 years and ended with the destruction of royal power. The Jews were returned by Cromwell in 1657. That. we see that the Jews benefited from the fall of the monarchical regime.
1306 — King Philip IV the Fair issued a decree expelling Jews from France and confiscating all their property. Lorraine, Savoy, Dauphiné, and Franche-Comté also expelled Jews. Most of the Jews moved to the southern provinces, not subject to the king. On July 28, 1315, Louis X allowed the Jews to return to France, subject to the payment of a large ransom
1320 — A decree was issued expelling all Jews from Rome. A delegation of Roman Jews led by a member of the famous Roman-Jewish family Kalonymus managed to get the decree revoked, but by the time the new order was received, some of the Jews had already been expelled.
1348 — Repeated expulsion from Switzerland. In 1397, Jews were prohibited from living in Basel, in 1427 — in Bern, in 1428 — in Friborg, in 1436 — in Zurich, in 1475 — in Schaffhausen, in 1490 — in Geneva (where Jews lived from 1428 in a separate quarter, which was attacked in 1460), in 1494 — in Thurgau, at the end of the 15th century. — in Lausanne (in some cases, an exception was made for doctors). In 1622, a meeting of representatives of 13 Swiss cantons (half of the territory of modern Switzerland was under their control) decided to “permanently” expel the Jews. In the 16th–18th centuries. Jewish communities existed only in three small towns in the county of Baden, which was not a full member of the Swiss Confederation — Aargau, Klingnau and Oberendingen (now part of the canton of Aargau).
1349 — First expulsion of Jews from Hungary. 1360 — Jews were expelled again, but in 1364 they were allowed (albeit with some restrictions) to return.
1394 — King Charles VI again banned Jews from living in France. The Jews fled again to the southern provinces. At the end of the 15th century, these lands became part of the royal domain and the Jews were expelled from there too. After this, there were no Jews in France for three centuries.
The end of the XIII-XIV centuries — numerous local expulsions of Jews from various principalities of Germany.
1421 — by order of Albrecht V, all the Jews of Austria were arrested. 270 people were burned at the stake on charges of desecrating the host at Ens. All others, with the exception of those who agreed to be baptized, were expelled from the country, their property was confiscated
1477 — Duke of Lorraine René II expelled Jews from the province.
1487 — municipal councils of Lisbon and a number of other cities adopted resolutions on the expulsion of Jews. However, these decrees were repealed by King João II
1492 from Spain by Isabella I and Ferdinand II («Decree of the Alhambra»).
1492 from the island of Sicily by Ferdinand II.
1495 from Florence.
1495 — Prince Alexander announced the expulsion of Jews from Lithuania. The real estate of the exiles was declared the property of the prince and partially distributed to Christians. In 1501, Jews were allowed to return and even had their property returned.
December 1496 — King Manuel I decreed the expulsion of Jews from Portugal and the compulsory baptism of all children. 20,000 Jews left the country. Those who remained were subjected to forced baptism in accordance with the decree of March 19, 1497. However, even baptism and the king’s special “protective” decree adopted in May 1497 did not save Jews from persecution and pogroms.
1525 — expulsion of Jews from Warsaw.
1530 — 1584 — Under Ivan the Terrible, any presence of Jews in the country was prohibited. After this, the ban was no longer strictly observed. The entry of Jews into Muscovite Rus’ took on a significant scale during the Time of Troubles, especially during the reign of False Dmitry I (1605–1606), who came to power with the help of Polish troops. The Jews were part of the impostor’s retinue and suffered during his deposition. According to some reports, False Dmitry II, who claimed the Moscow throne, was a cross from the Jews and served in the retinue of False Dmitry I. That is. Jews actively participated in organizing the Time of Troubles and tried to come to power.
1549 — a decree was signed on the expulsion of Jews from Austria. But this decree was not fully implemented and part of the Jewish population remained. Under Maximilian II (1546–76), a decree was issued on the expulsion of the Jews of Lower Austria (1572), but it was also not carried out despite petitions from the estates. Jews were forced to wear a distinctive badge introduced in Austria in 1550.
1555 — Pope Paul IV issued a bull deporting Jews to a special quarter and prohibiting Jews from owning land, trading in grain, and prohibiting Christians from being treated by Jewish doctors.
1569 — The bull of Pius V was published on the expulsion of Jews from the papal dominions in Italy (except Rome and Ancona) and France.
1570 — expulsion from Germany (Margraviate of Brandenburg)
April 23, 1615 — Louis XIII issued a decree expelling Jews from France within a month on pain of death. Jews were forbidden to live not only in France, but also in its colonies
1622 — from Switzerland.
1647 — English Revolution. 1657 — lifting of the ban on Jewish residence by Cromwell.
1669 — an imperial decree was signed on the expulsion of Jews from Vienna, Lower and Upper
Austria. In the fall of 1669, 1,600 Jews were evicted. In 1670 the rest were expelled, including the richest Viennese Jews.
1727 — from Russia by Empress Catherine I
1742 — from Russia by Empress Elizaveta Petrovna
1789 — French Revolution. The rise of Jews to power in France, the ban on anti-Semitism.
April 13, 1835 — a decree was published to the Senate, according to which Jews were allowed to settle in 6 western provinces and two regions freely, in 10 provinces with significant restrictions (for example, with a ban on living in provincial cities), in other places settlement was prohibited — «Dash settled life»
In the 1870s, approximately 30,000 Russian Jews fled to the United States to escape persecution. Subsequently, the pace of emigration quickly increased: from 1881 to 1900, another 600 thousand Jews entered the United States. Jews who left Russia were forbidden to return. The migration of Jews to Britain was stopped by the Aliens Immigration Act in 1905
May 3, 1882 — the so-called “May Laws” were introduced. They abolished some regulations previously adopted under Alexander II, which allowed certain categories of Jews to live outside the Pale of Settlement. After this, another expulsion of Jews from large cities took place. In the Pale of Settlement itself, Jews were forbidden to settle, rent or purchase real estate outside cities and towns
1917 — Revolution in Russia. Complete seizure of power by Jews, ban on anti-Semitism.
1930s — from Germany by Adolf Hitler.
1948 — 2000 — expulsion of Jews from Muslim countries (Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen and Aden).
The list above includes only official expulsions carried out by official authorities. Ordinary pogroms, often unofficially supported by the authorities, are simply impossible to count — there are a huge number of them. This list does not pretend to be complete and absolutely accurate, but this is not required — it is already clear that the Jewish nation carries with it something that inevitably causes a reaction of their rejection from themselves among other peoples, as a foreign irritant that must be removed for recovery. All that remains is to determine what exactly the Jews are doing to the peoples whose societies they penetrate?
Turning to history, you can find that the Jews could never stay in one place and were always persecuted. What is the reason for this? Or as the proverb says: “Feed a crow, and she will peck your eye out”…
Der Friedensstifter 