I began writing blogs for Israel National News thirty years ago when the website was created. I focused on the shortcomings of Jewish life in the Diaspora and on the blessings of Aliyah. Within a decade my essays had garnered over a million hits. Eventually the blog section morphed into categories called Op-Eds and Judaism. I continued to write for both columns, posting hundreds and hundreds of new entries.
In all of that time I cannot recall receiving any anti-Semitic comments. None. True, I received many critical and downright nasty comments from Jews who didn’t share my opinions, but they were never anti-Semitic in nature. When a Jewish reader calls a writer some unpleasant name, that is not to be considered a remark stemming from his hatred of Jews. He merely is using strong language to express his own opinion. He doesn’t hate me because I am a Jew. He or she just doesn’t like my ideas and beliefs.
That has all changed. Antisemitic comments to my posts have tsunamied from zero to hundreds. The change is absolutely overwhelming.
And frightening.
Why frightening? Daily we read on the news about an antisemitic incident in London, or Paris, or Toronto, or Sidney, Australia. Sometimes it is a terror attack, sometimes a mugging, sometimes an angry anti-Israel protest, or a swastika scrawled on a campus wall. While these have become daily occurrences, they still seem isolated, sporadic, disconnected in nature. Worrisome, but seemingly not out of control. In contrast, the antisemitism on the Internet is all over the place, wherever you look. It has become more ubiquitous than automobile advertisements. The hatred of Jews fills up and dominates the social media.
For example, yesterday I posted an admittedly controversial piece on Facebook designed to awaken Diaspora Jews to the fact that ongoing war in Israel was their problem and responsibility as much as it is ours. The post drew an unusually whopping number of views and some 500 comments, 300 of which came from non-Jews who wrote the most poisonous and hateful remarks - once unimaginable - fabricated accusations ranging from genocide, to killing babies and wholesale rape. Liberal Jews added about a hundred of their own, also filled with hatred for the Jewish State.
This was on Facebook alone. I don’t post on Instagram, Telegraph, TikTok, LinkedIn, or X, so I can only judge by Facebook and the comments I receive on my posts on Israel National News. Those, for the time being, have not suffered an anti-Semitic invasion, but Facebook has been conquered by the digital followers of world Jihad. The call to “Globalize the Intifada" has become a reality on Facebook. From the names of the commenters it appears that some kind of Islamic-Christian alliance has been formed. Millions of people, Muslims and Christians from all over the world ganging up on Internet Jews. Are they Iranian bots or are these real people?
The headline reads: Social Media Users Hate the Jews.
I have no idea what can be done to counteract the cancerous phenomena. The more Israel needs to defend itsel,f the more Jew hatred will increase. Perhaps we need to create some type of pro-Israel tsunami of our own. Maybe the Government of Israel needs to expand its public relations efforts and pay talented writers to focus on the social media. Perhaps it is hopeless. My gut feeling is that we had better have a large stockpile of nuclear warheads ready to back up the justness of our claim to the Land that God gave us. Heaven forbid it come to that, but with neighbors like Iran, we have to be prepared.
Another possibility, if it comes to that, is to take a lesson from Iran and knock out the Internet completely with secret cyberspace lasers and the like. Or to block the smartphones of our enemies. Or repeat the beeper operation.
If we don’t come up with some new technological solution, we have only our Father in Heaven to rely on. One thing is certain - it is going to take some mind-blowing miracles to bring the boiling pot of antisemitism to a simmer, let alone put out the flame.
While these suggestions may seem like bizarre sci-fi scenarios, we are living in a bizarre sci-fi world controlled by genuine lunatics filled with blind hatred.
In terms of down-to-earth options, the Government of Israel must do everything possible to encourage Diaspora Jews to make Aliyah. Perhaps Hashem is doing His part with the stick of anti-Semitism.
We have to do ours in a far more active way. Israel’s official Aliyah agencies have indeed stepped up their efforts but much much more can and must be done.
Tzvi Fishman was awarded the Israel Ministry of Education Prize for Jewish Culture and Creativity. Before making Aliyah to Israel in 1984, he was a successful Hollywood screenwriter. He has co-authored 4 books with Rabbi David Samson, based on the teachings of Rabbis A. Y. Kook and T. Y. Kook. His other books include: "The Kuzari For Young Readers" and "Tuvia in the Promised Land," available on Amazon. He directed the movie, "Stories of Rebbe Nachman." By the writer:
