Most of us were tempted to blame liberalism and wokeism for this eruption of Jew-hatred. Nevertheless, a closer look at reality suggests that the problem is not only political or ideological.
Why haven't the United Auto Workers, United Steelworkers, and the United Farm Workers expressed any sympathy toward Hamas? In fact, cowboys have come to help Israel's harvest.
Are they conservative? Are they Zionist?
In fact, they are all reliably progressive and liberal.
The difference between these unions and those listed above is that the latter operate in entertainment, law, identity politics, and academia, spheres that are disproportionately Jewish.
Does this mean woke Jews are to blame for the attitude of these organizations and institutions?
Maybe a little. But another more sinister dynamic is at play: The actors, lawyers, and academics who pretend to care about Palestinian Arab lives and Palestinian Arab children actually want to hurt Israel because their boss has a name like Berkowitz or the latest promotion was earned by a smarter colleague called Shapiro.
This truth was revealed by a conversation I recently had with an African-American cameraman working in Hollywood. After a very interesting conversation laced with passive aggressive remarks about Jews, I told him, "Couldn’t the reason that so many African-Americans resent Jews be that African-Americans are disproportionately successful in acting, music, and sports – all sectors with many Jewish owners and managers?“
The answer was an enthusiastic, "Yes, that’s it!“
I answered, "but don’t you think its unfair to resent Jews when they gave you chances that WASPs never gave you?“
"It sure doesn’t feel that way,“ my friend replied.
And in fact, that is the crux of the issue. Too many actors, musicians, athletes, lawyers, social activists, and academics readily forget that without proactive Jewish managers, Jewish mentors, and Jewish donors they would never have gotten as far as they have. All they see is a Jew above them they feel entitled to envy and resent.
Since America is still not a country where open antisemitism is acceptable, though it is being manifested unashamedly now, this envy and resentment is mostly expressed as anti-Zionism, which for all intents and purposes is indistinguishable from good ol‘ Jew-hatred.
What about the Ummah?
Does it really care about Palestinian Arab lives?
I don’t think so. If it did, it would care about these lives not just when they are killed by Israel, but also when they are killed by Jordan, Syria, and by fellow Palestinian Arabs.
The truth is that Muslim-on-Muslim violence leaves the Ummah indifferent. What enrages the Ummah is infidel-on-Muslim violence.
But even infidel violence is not always hated. After all, did throngs of Muslims around the world protest the genocide of the Uyghurs in China or the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in Myanmar?
The Ummah only marches en masse to denounce Israel and American-led invasions of Muslim lands.
Why is this hatred reserved for America and for Israel, rather than for far greater offenders?
Because the anger and indignation are only tangentially related to Muslim lives and Muslim human rights. Real anger and indignation are roused by injured Muslim pride. The sight of an American or Israeli flag waving on lands the Ummah considers Muslim, is far more hurtful than thousands of innocent Muslims slaughtered by China or by any Muslim country.
China is not an ideological rival: Tyranny, corruption, and torture are all governance skills that Muslim lands have mastered just as well as China.
But Israel and America are different: They embody values such as democracy, capitalism, individual liberty, human rights, and women’s rights which pose a mortal threat to Islamic traditions and Islamic law.
In other words, hating America and Israel for their real (and imaginary!) crimes is crucial to preserve the illusion and delusion that the Ummah and Islam are better than the West and its value system.
Indeed, it is fascinating to observe how the Muslim masses mobilized more against Israel in America and Western Europe than in many Muslim countries.
One reason is obviously that demonstrations have less influence in dictatorships.
The second reason is that many Muslims in Muslim countries have understood that the Palestinian Arab Cause is a pretext to keep them distracted from grave abuses at home.
The third reason is that the self-respect and identity of Muslims in America and Europe hinges on permanently finding new reasons to resent and hate their host societies. Because only when Europe and America can be viewed as no less cruel and corrupt than the Muslim lands they ran away from, can Diaspora Muslims feel reassured that their religion is not bankrupt.
The recent month has demonstrated the opposite: Islam is indeed bankrupt.
The pride and exhilaration vast swathes of the Muslim world experienced as Hamas massacred thousands of Jewish civilians proves that nothing unites the Ummah more than shedding Israeli-Jewish blood.
I am in contact with many Rabbis, including those who have gone out of their way to engage Muslims in interfaith dialogue. If they had received sympathetic calls and emails from their Muslim peers and partners, even anonymously, they would have certainly publicized this fact.
Instead, I have seen even Islamic leaders engaged in interfaith dialogue and modernist Muslim intellectuals publicizing jihadist verses from the Quran and baying against Israel.
The only people I know who genuinely care about Palestinian Arab welfare are most Israeli Jews.
Everyone else just weaponizes Palestinian Arab suffering to rationalize their envy and justify their hatred for the Jewish people.
Am Yisrael Chai!
Rafael Castrois an Italian Noahide who graduated from Yale and (even more fortunately) from Hebrew University. Rafael can be reached at rafaelcastro78@gmail.com