Israel, the convenient excuse for collective Jewish guilt
For the last 80 years, after the worst atrocities against the Jewish people, in modern times, were committed, everyone knew that openly disparaging Jews was not acceptable, because no one wanted to be accused of antisemitism.
Regrettably, those days are gone. Yet, even before the tragic events of October 7, some people were already unashamedly claiming that Jews controlled financial markets, media and other outlets of influence. Most remember a number of scandalous comments made by Kanye West, enumerated in AJC Global Voice.
His was not alone. Roger Waters, co-founder of the rock band, Pink Floyd was well-known for his antisemitic remarks, carefully hiding his sentiments behind the cover of the Jewish state, comparing Israel to the apartheid of South Africa as he “declared his ties with the Islamist militant group Hamas” a move which caused his concert to be canceled in Frankfurt, back in February of 2023.
Both Waters and West, learned the hard way, that such noxious criticism of Jews ended up backfiring on their careers, but, now, that’s beginning to change. With the help of nuanced language and political cleverness, the expression of anti-Jewish sentiment has been messaged in a way that makes it appear more credible or justified.
Take, for example, the recent charge of the ICC (International Criminal Court) accusing our prime minister and former defense minister of being responsible for war crimes, through their military actions, as they fought a war in Gaza, against the terrorists who perpetrated a brutal massacre on our sovereign land, also kidnapping children, the elderly and others who were carried off into the captivity, against their will, forced to live in tunnels where many have already died horrible deaths.
Given all that took place, who can truthfully say that Israel hasn’t shown great restraint? Choosing to exercise surgical operations, during their military activities, in order to avoid civilian casualties, they often placed themselves at a great disadvantage. But none of that matters, because, even the IDF has now become a useful tool in the goal of singling out Jews.
Pointing to them, as a single entity, makes collective guilt much easier when you hope to implicate individuals who, altogether, make up the Jewish people.
One of the great benefits of blaming the State, is that it allows the accuser to preserve an untarnished reputation. After all, how can you call someone antisemitic or racist if they are accusing Jews of being immoral and wanton perpetrators of genocide? This is nothing more than duplicitous treachery! The issuance of arrest warrants on our leaders is an indictment upon the Jewish people, in the aggregate, and here is why.
The fact that our prime minister and former defense minister are unable to leave the country, for fear of being arrested, impacts every Israeli citizen. It means that our leadership is now isolated, unable to freely travel, influence other leaders and make sure that we are well-represented before the nations of the world.
Now, those who fought in Gaza are also implicated. After “anti-Israel groups filed complaints against some 30 troops who served in the Gaza Strip, soldiers are being warned to avoid traveling abroad, over fears they could be arrested.”
Of course, Hamas terrorists, the true architects of all the pain and agony, endured by Gazans since October 7, are free from all blame, as are Gazan citizens, many of whom willingly chose to aid and abet a viper, in their midst, foolishly believing that no payback would result from their barbaric actions.
The obvious war that predictably would have followed, should have caused them to foresee the huge probability of being rendered homeless and living in chaos while we sought to smoke out the enemies who were committed to our destruction? But they didn’t, so now a scapegoat for their misery is needed, and that is where the collective guilt comes in.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan refuses to recognize or mention the sins of Hamas and instead has chosen to identify Israel, her leaders, her army and her citizens who, by his way of thinking, stood by and silently watched the starvation and genocide of the people of Gaza. his is the clever masking of the real evildoers.
It begins by naming the principal culprit and then linking everyone together as the bad eggs. First the country, then the leaders, followed by the military, the citizens and then, finally, the Jews who reside throughout the world. That is the pattern, and it has been an effective way to castigate the Jewish people, regardless of their association to the homeland.
Most every Jew, who lives outside the land of Israel, but who, nonetheless, has been the object of undeserved persecution or ridicule, is made to assume guilt for a country they may never have even visited or supported, but it has become an effective way to set apart individuals who, by way of their tribal ethnicity, are seen as guilty and not worthy to share in the same freedoms as everyone else.
It is why American Jewish students feel threatened to roam freely on their campuses, because they never know when they will be accused of being part of the “Zionist” entity, a loathsome identity which, to those hurling the epithet, engenders intolerance, a connection to a state perpetrating genocide and the singling out of an enemy which must not be granted societal considerations given to all others.
Not much has changed over the centuries when Jews were, all too often, made to be the scapegoat for whatever ills no one wanted to ascribe to others who rightly deserved blame. Why did we think that establishing our own homeland would change that image? Jews have been and continue to be the vilified people who are the convenient collective fall guy for a world which wants total absolution from their own stains.
But it is because we are no longer the weak and dependent victims, who are forced to take abuse, that we will not be cast as the villains who wreaked destruction on others who brought their tragedy on themselves.
We will point our own finger, calling out evil and tyranny on the ones responsible, because accountability cannot be conveniently pushed off onto someone else, especially when the accusers were the initiators of the crimes.
This is not on Israel, or the Jewish people. It is on those who tried to destroy us but failed!
A former Jerusalem elementary and middle-school principal who made Aliyah in 1993 and became a member of Kibbutz Reim but now lives in the center of the country with her husband. She is the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, based on the principles from the book of Proverbs - available on Amazon.
