The rampant antisemitism and anti-Israel bias in societies, media, politics, academia, etc. around the world is even more insane than I ever imagined. I’ve known for years that it was bad, but what we’ve seen during the past twelve months is just on a whole different level.
Israel Lost The Information Warfare
Even many people I consider friends, are trumpeting the same bullshit phrases of “genocide”, “ceasefire” and “war crimes”. People who get their information from the same media who provide a platform to literal terrorists and their supporters. Most recent example would be the BBC giving Khalil Al-Hayya, a Hamas figurehead, screentime as well Hamas’ puppet master Khameinei.
There was a time when strong, Western democracies united and hunted down terrorists – not interviewed them. Israel is now doing what other democracies have been too cowardly to do. Because compared to the rest, they simply don’t have a choice. For Israel it’s a matter of survival. It’s a relatively small country, surrounded by some of the most lethal and well-armed terrorist forces on Earth (Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis) – all backed and funded by Iranian and Qatari money.
Each of them determined to wipe out the only Jewish state and its people.
After Mossad took out most of Hezbollah’s senior leadership in the most sophisticated attack in military history, media outlets and activists around the globe were quick with reminding everyone that this could further increase tensions and escalate the situation. Oddly enough, they rarely bothered to point out that this “escalation” already started on October 8th last year, when Hezbollah started to fire rockets into northern Israel, displacing about 80 000 people from their homes and eventually killing twelve Druze children as well. Apparently, it’s only considered an “escalation” when Jews decide enough is enough and fight back.
Selective humanism is a shitty habit; you cannot mourn the loss of life and agony on one side, while negating the other. This is especially true for the “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” crowd. Besides their inherent genocidal rhetoric (nothing else is this chant, taken at face value), they seem to completely negate the suffering of the Israeli people. Newsflash: you can have empathy for the civilians on both sides of this conflict, without resorting to extremist rhetoric.
The increase in antisemitic attacks worldwide (some even fatal) in the wake of October 7th is something nobody should support, no matter how critical you are regarding Israeli politics. Beating up or stabbing Jews around the world and destroying their property, won’t change the outcome of the current conflict one bit.
During recent months I had many, many debates with friends about this issue. Often enough, I felt like I was the only sane person in the room – but eventually started to question myself as well. What if I was wrong? Maybe I missed something important? How could it be that so many of the smartest people I know are thinking that Israel is mainly responsible for October 7th or at least shouldn’t have fought back in the way it did?
But then I realized something: If your main sources of information are NGOs like Amnesty or Oxfam; media outlets like BBC, Guardian or New York Times or the complete joke of whatever the UN wants to be these days, then I’m not surprised why these otherwise highly educated people assume Israel is the real aggressor on its way to perpetrate a genocide.
Usually, I’m not big on bashing “mainstream media”, because I think for many topics their content is reasonably well researched. This assumption does not hold true when it comes to Israel and this war in particular.
Most of the casualty numbers you see these days are basically the same the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health provides for the press. If journalists mention this source at all, they usually fail to scrutinize them properly. The GMH typically conflates the numbers between Hamas fighters and civilian deaths, making the latter to appear far more significant or outright invents new numbers without proper attribution.
But even if you take these numbers at face value, something else simply doesn’t add up. If around 40 000 people have been killed during the past months and we take a conservative estimation that half of them were Hamas fighters, this puts the civilian to combatant death ratio among the lowest in the history of (urban) warfare.
This ratio is so exceptionally low that military experts around the world are already trying to learn from the IDF how to conduct military operations in urban settings. For example, John Spencer, Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at West Point explained repeatedly why fighting under such conditions is so incredibly difficult and why the IDF is doing such a fantastic job in keeping civilian casualties comparatively low. I recommend listening to this podcast with Sam Harris and to check out his Twitter.
Of course, many of my friends can’t really be bothered to listen to hours of military strategies or dig through pages of corrected data and explanations why most of what you read in prominent sources is misleading at best and complete bogus at worst.
Which is understandable to some degree, I just wished sometimes, they would take a moment to at least try to listen and understand my arguments when I’m explaining them in great detail.
Often enough, though, the emotional “They are killing women and children!” or “If you want to rescue hostages, you don’t bomb the house where they are!” take priority and it’s rather frustrating. The fact alone that in recent months there have been multiple hostage rescues should tell you enough about how the IDF is conducting its operations.
It’s far from “indiscriminate bombing”.
Speaking of which, since this comes up so many times during these debates: We all know the images of Gaza, whole buildings levelled, a lot of destruction all around.
Alas, relatively few bodies can be seen (which is one reason why Hamas and their allies reuse images and footage from other conflicts like Syria to create a false narrative). There’s also another reason why the destruction looks so damning: Hamas built a network of tunnels below very populated areas and civilian infrastructure, and these tunnels can usually only be effectively destroyed by using ammunition designed to hit underground targets.
To provide another perspective: I happen to live in a city that was hit pretty badly by the allied forces during WW2. In two days, British bombers killed around 25 000 people. This is what “indiscriminate bombing” really looks like. In an area with fewer people, which was also less densely populated.
The IDF killed not even twice that number during almost a year of ongoing warfare, which speaks volumes about the high level of precautions this army takes to avoid unnecessary casualties. There have even been some rumours lately that, internally, Hamas officials admitting that about 80% of people killed have been Hamas fighters or supporters – which would put the number of civilians killed at a maximum of roughly 10 000. Sure, still a lot of tragic deaths which no sane human should celebrate but it puts this war in the category with the least civilian deaths in warfare history. Alas, it’s only a rumour and no official confirmation has been made. It’s unlikely we will get one, but considering what we know about the level of precision the IDF has demonstrated recently against Hezbollah, it’s not a completely unrealistic assumption.
“Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.”
Ernest Hemingway
Imagine that, after World War II, Germany and France would have fallen under the rule of the allied powers. Let it be US, Britain and UDSSR. Each of those controls a part of Germany. Eventually, it is declared, that the people of France should have their own state and the Germans can have one as well, provided they live peacefully among their neighbours.
France agrees but Germany doesn’t like the deal, because it doesn’t like the French and wants their territory as well. As a consequence, it starts another war against France, which it loses – again. Now, instead of learning the lesson, Germany radicalizes even more and states explicitly, that it does not recognize the existence of France and wants to eliminate all French people.
Germany’s efforts are backed by Russia, because they didn’t like it, that France allied with the Brits and the Americans. NGOs worldwide send aid to Germany, because French and all the surrounding countries started to blockade Germany, since one way of voicing its frustration was to start firing rockets and sending suicide bombers towards France. But thanks to superior technology and with the help of its allies, the casualties in France are minimal.
The German leadership continues to grow their wealth and power, while the rest of the people live in awful poverty. But the fight must go on, so, in another effort, German soldiers infiltrate France and kill thousands of innocent people.
Question: What should France do now? Given the history of Germany and that it’s absolutely clear that its leadership has every intent to carry out its threat to kill every French person and their collaborators.
This is pretty similar to the situation of Israel and Hamas. The Germans are not necessarily the enemies of the French (although some certainly are, the exact amount has yet to be determined), but their leadership is – same holds true for the people in Gaza.
Sometimes, I do think war is necessary. Sad, but necessary. Hamas is a corrupt terrorist organization which uses foreign aid to enrich its leaders (their combined net worth is about 11 billion dollars), wage war against Israel and impoverish and brutally oppress their constituents. Its main goal is the eradication of the state of Israel, all Jews and people cooperating with them are seen as traitors and infidels who need to be killed.
It is evident by the current events, that especially Hamas uses the civilian population and their infrastructure as human shields. While many Hamas fighters hide in tunnels beneath the city, some are also actively preventing people from leaving the areas where most of the fighting and airstrikes are occurring. Hamas leadership stated on multiple occasions that they are willing to sacrifice as many Palestinian lives as needed.
How To Build a Society?
Shortly after the attack of October 7th, the AWRAD conducted a poll among the people in Gaza and the West Bank to answer the question whether this attack was justified.
Here are some key takeaways:
If those numbers are representative of the will of the Palestinian people, then we have a grim future ahead of us.
But that’s the thing: If.
As usual in statistics, the most you can do is make educated guesses and hope your chosen method of obtaining those data, didn’t skew the results too much. You also have to keep in mind that people might answer polls according to what they think is expected of them. Living under a theocratic rule for decades, might create the impression you have to support this rule in polls as well, even if you dislike it secretly.
I really want to give the Palestinian people the benefit of the doubt. I want to take those numbers with a grain of salt and remind myself of some videos and interviews I saw in recent days, where Palestinians were super fed up with Hamas and their terror bullshit. I want this to be more realistic than this poll. Alas, I’m also aware that my wishes mean nothing. There is definitely a non-zero possibility that those numbers do represent the majority of the Palestinian people and if that’s the case, we do have a big problem. If large parts of the population continue to think that the eradication of Israel is the only way forward, then any future peace plans are pretty much done for.
I’ve seen the videos of Palestinians celebrating in the streets after the 7th October attack, when Hamas brought back hostages. Dead Israeli bodies were paraded in the streets and further mutilated and disgraced. Those things happened. The evidence is there, Hamas made sure that the whole world could see what they did.
But I also saw videos of people protesting in the streets against Hamas’ rule. Which gives me hope, that not all is lost and not everyone supports the genocidal intent of Hamas and its allies.
A future state of Palestine has to be a liberal and democratic one. The reason for that is as obvious as simple: Theocratic states are pretty much shit for everyone except their leaders. If you want the Palestinian people to be free, truly free, you need to have a system of rights in place, which protects their individual freedoms of self-actualization and expression. When people these days chant “Free Palestine”, they usually mean “Free from Israel” – whatever that means. But a truly free state of Palestine can only be a liberal one, otherwise you are dooming its citizens to just more suffering painted differently. The whole Palestinian leadership as it stands has to go – no matter if it’s the West Bank or Gaza. They have occupied those places of power for far too long and change needs to happen. Nobody wins, if Palestine becomes another failed state, because of a fundamentalist and corrupt government.
How important the idea of a liberal democracy is, can be seen by how many people of the Iranian diaspora currently support Israel in its effort to eradicate Hamas. Those people have experienced firsthand, what it means to live under a brutal theocratic regime and they don’t want for the Palestinian people to continue sharing this fate. It’s an open secret that the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of Hamas’ main income sources, besides the billions of foreign aid which was used to buy more military equipment instead of investing into civilian infrastructure. A state of Palestine needs to be independent of theocratic influences and protect the liberties of people living in its borders – which might and should even include Jews. It’s another open secret that in many Muslim countries, the number of Jews living there has been shrinking for decades. But a true liberal society should be welcoming to people of every faith, as long as they want to live in peace.
As little as governments usually care about their constituents, a liberal society is still the best of all the shitty options. The more autocratic a system is, the worse it gets for those living in it. I’d be really surprised, if western leftists actually want for the Palestinian people to continue to suffer under a theocratic dictatorship.
Controlling The Narrative
Israel and Palestine have two very different approaches when it comes to determining which course of action to take.
Israel stated, that it really wants to eradicate Hamas completely, in order to prevent anything like the recent terror attack again. Thus, it does so by targeting Hamas infrastructure and making a ground offense to find and destroy Hamas’ hideouts. The IDF usually tries to minimize civilian casualties by informing the people living in the targeted areas beforehand that a strike is imminent. While Hamas fighters are actively preventing people from leaving these areas, claiming they are martyrs for the cause and maybe even force the IDF not to strike these targets. The extent to which Hamas was willing to go could be seen when they started shooting at people trying to flee the parts of the city in which most of the fighting took place, while the IDF eventually protected those refugees using tanks and other armored vehicles as shields. The images and videos are freely available online, some are quite graphic but it demonstrates quite well, that Hamas doesn’t care about civilian lives one bit.
Hamas is pretty much aware that they can never win a full-blown war against Israel, which is why they want a narrative victory. And based on the mass demonstrations worldwide and some really frustrating discussions I had with friends; they achieved their goal. Killing more than a thousand Israelis and now being able to show thousands of dead Palestinians is a narrative victory for Hamas. Many people believe the Israeli response is too aggressive, too indiscriminate and in general unfair, because their military is far superior. But let me give you some perspective:
Since 2001, tens of thousands of rockets and mortar attacks have been launched against Israel, mainly by Hamas and Al-Quds brigades. About 9500 rockets have been fired at Israel in the 1.5 months after October 7th alone, many more up to this date.
But luckily, the majority of those rockets are being intercepted by the Iron Dome or don’t cause much damage and loss of life. Tragic irony is, that a decent part of those rockets land in Palestinian territory and cause casualties there – which then Israel gets the blame for it. Remember the headline of “Israel attacks hospital – 500 dead”? Turns out, Israel didn’t hit said hospital, but an attack by Al-Quds hit the parking lot before it. But journalists and NGOs worldwide were only too eager to rush to premature conclusions before anything was clear.
The sad reality is this:
If Israel didn’t have all its protective measures in place, the number of people killed by Palestinian rockets would be far, far higher – but the world’s sympathy would also increase at the same time. Israel can never win the war of pictures, because it tries a lot to keep its own people safe.
Hamas and their allies completely rely on the old David vs. Goliath narrative. Instinctively, many people want to support the apparent underdog. The worst equipped. The poorest. But this is only true on the surface. Yes, many people in Gaza live in poverty but only because Hamas wants it so. Its leaders are filthy rich and all the money they get from foreign aid is put into their own pockets and to continue the war against Israel. If you want to blame anyone for the shitty situation many Palestinians are in, blame their corrupt leaders.
Palestinian leadership doesn’t recognize Israel, which obviously exists (another narrative). Internationally, you can see this idea being display as the “The Three Noes” of the Khartoum Resolution in 1967:
“No peace with Israel. No negotiation with Israel. No recognition of Israel.”
This was supported by many Arab countries for decades. Although tension have come down with some of those countries, for Palestinian leadership, especially Hamas, these Three Noes hold true to this day.
This whole issue is even more problematic, since the neighboring Arab countries never integrated Palestinian refugees into their societies, which created the odd situation of the “eternal refugee”. The status of a refugee can be inherited – but only if you are a Palestinian. They are the only people in the world for which this applies. It is important to be aware of this, because this is directly tied to the idea (I’d call it the invention of the myth) of the Nakba – the displacement of many Palestinians as a result of the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948, after the UN declaration to create the state of Israel on parts of the territory which was under British rule until this point.
The Nakba is deeply tied to Palestinian culture and identity and the “right to return” is part of the narrative which strengthens Hamas and the likes. It’s also one of the reasons why other Arab countries never accepted Palestinian refugees as citizens, because then they would lose a key weapon in their war of delegitimizing and eventually destroying Israel.
While this idea is still alive in a lot of people’s minds to this day, especially in Arab countries, some of the more pragmatic ones have recognized that it is far more useful for everyone to sign peace treaties and trade agreements with Israel, instead of trying to destroy it. If a future government of Palestine can do the same, everyone will benefit.
Taking A Stance
Adam Fisher put the thoughts and feelings of many Israelis quite well:
Another one of the people who demonstrated the kind of moral clarity we desperately need during these times is Douglas Murray:
What we have seen in the past year is nothing short but the consequence of the decades-long war of attrition on Western values. I have a theory about its causes, but this would reach far beyond the scope of this essay. I’m trying to write it sometime during the upcoming months.
Our liberal democracies have been under attack for quite a while now. And their enemies have already succeeded in making it a reasonable position for many educated people to question the very fabric of our society. The fundamental rights and freedoms, along with their prospective duties are no longer something many people deem universal but up for debate. I wrote it last year and I say it again: one of the most dangerous and cancerous ideas people follow these days is cultural relativism. The idea that cultures in which minorities or women are not equal before the law are somehow of similar value to the Western model of life.
Let me be clear: They are not. Western, liberal democracies, including all their flaws and shortcomings, are far superior to any other current form of government. Only in these countries are you allowed to openly mock its leaders, burn their flags and protest for nonsensical ideas – and as much as I disagree with many things my fellow citizens are doing, they should be allowed to exercise these freedoms, because they are a fundamental part of what makes our way of life so amazing.
But this also means standing up against everyone who wants to destroy this idea.
I have a morbid fascination with a society that does not know how to deal with the challenges of its totalitarian opponents. Especially because it no longer knows what it actually stands for.
It is one of the greatest successes of the opponents of Western civilization to have credibly conveyed to so many people within these countries that Western values and ideals are a mistake. Too many people here seem to have forgotten that the incredible amount of freedom we enjoy here is only a distant dream for many people in other countries. Fascists, whether politically or religiously motivated, are united above all by their desire to destroy this freedom. With a society for which fundamental values of freedom are more a question of perspective than an inviolable cornerstone, fascists are having a field day.
Those who are truly serious about fighting for a better, more inclusive, fairer, in short, freer society cannot choose their opponents. They must fight fascism in every form. Regardless of motivation, origin, gender or religion. Fascism has many faces and every single one of them must be stopped.
Egotheist 