6 days ago
Why Is Anti-Semitism Cool Now?
A Muslim Egyptian who came to the US as a tourist but stayed on after his visa expired, attacked people demonstrating at a mall demanding the release of Israeli hostages
After 20 months of relentless demonisation of Israel, people in the West, especially mainstream media, are now feigning surprise at the rising number of attacks on Jewish events—and Jews—in US! If that is not egregious, what is? A majority of the student body across universities, besides sizeable section of the entire young cohort there today, has been convinced that it is cool, and righteous, to chant for the destruction of Israel and, by extension, Jews anywhere.
Indian-American student Megha Vemuri using the platform of a commencement event last week to lash out at her alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology over its ties with Israel and praise the campus protests about Gaza, wearing a keffiyeh over her graduation gown, is just the latest example of the impact of this widespread indoctrination. It just goes to show that even education often has very little to do with common sense or powers of discernment.
This week, a Muslim Egyptian who came to the US as a tourist but stayed on after his visa expired, attacked people demonstrating at a mall demanding the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. He used a flamethrower to cause horrific burn injuries to 12 people and shouted, 'Free Palestine". Two weeks earlier, a 30-year-old man pumped 21 bullets into two people at the National Jewish Museum in Washington DC and also later screamed 'Free Palestine".
In April, a man set fire to the home of Democrat Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (once considered as a running mate for Kamala Harris in 2024) with Molotov cocktails while the family was inside celebrating the Jewish ritual of Passover. The man admitted he targeted Shapiro because of his views on Gaza. Yet, incredibly, media reports averred that 'law enforcement officials have not conclusively said his alleged attack was motivated by hate or anti-Semitism"!
This happens when obvious questions are deliberately not asked. The most long-standing of this ask-not-tell-not charade relates to death tolls and Israel's choice of targets. 'Reporters" (all Palestinians) reel off death tolls and show bodies (especially of children), but do not mention the extensive tunnels found under Gaza, including under hospitals, stocked with food, medicines and weapons. That begs the obvious unasked question: how did these items get there unaided?
Moreover, why are Hamas-run 'health ministry' casualty numbers of Israeli Defence Force attacks taken as truth even though they do not specify how many are its own cadres? Foreign doctors shown on TV attending to injured children and women also minister to Hamas cadres who access hospitals through tunnel networks. Why are these doctors not asked about the health of the hostages who are still alive or how Hamas manages to get medical treatment for its men?
That points to another deliberate silence: on distribution of food and medicines in Gaza. The current refrain is that 'civilians" are on the brink of starvation and a 'humanitarian crisis" and that the US and Israeli-managed new distribution system there is an abject failure. Media is magnifying the assertion that unless the same entities who were dispensing aid there before, particularly the discredited UN Relief and Works Agency, are allowed to do so again, Gazans are doomed.
The questions never asked or probed include, what proof is there that aid was not being diverted to terrorists of Hamas, that runs Gaza? How did Hamas get supplies after Israeli attacks began, unless from UNRWA? Are the armed gangs waylaying food trucks really independents or Hamas proxies? No questions about the condition of the few Israeli hostages still alive, nor any media investigation into how the rest died, or why Hamas has refused to hand over their bodies.
The skewed rules have been set, of course, by the blatantly biased coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. Hours were and still are devoted to the vilification of Vladimir Putin and hailing every speech of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with no nuances. The impression disseminated is that all Ukrainians support their president. Is such unanimity possible in a democracy? Dissent is taken as a given in Russia—a known autocracy—but none is assumed in 'free" Ukraine?
Phone surveys in Ukraine (including by The Economist, whose findings on India are invariably grim) claim Zelenskyy's approval now stands at 67-70 per cent. Yet for Putin, whose popularity also hovers at 70-90 per cent, qualifiers are added, such as 'His high approval ratings do not necessarily reflect genuine loyalty or agreement with his policies. Instead, they result from political apathy, symbolic allegiance, and lack of viable alternatives." Why this Volod-Vlad double standard?
Zelenskyy's unending demands for more and more sophisticated arms are not parsed as war mongering; in fact, he has attained a Nelson Mandela-like star status with front row seats at every world leaders' jamboree. Realistic assessments of either Russia's war effort or popular opinion there. For example. the Atlantic Council, in two reports 11 months apart in 2024, first contended that most Russians want the war to end but later recanted and said most support it. That raises serious doubts about the sources of western information on Russia.
India has also been relegated to the Russia-Israel doghouse by the western media, which unleashed a similar biased coverage campaign on, first, the terror attack in Pahalgam and then India's Operation Sindoor retaliatory strikes Pakistan's terror camps and military launchpads. The western media has been seeking out dissenting voices in India—but not in Pakistan. They have questioned all of India's statements, even when provided proof of veracity but not Pakistan's.
So, if any people should understand the danger of this sort of one-sided coverage and biased opinion-mongering, it is Indians. In the past decade, India has been the target of charges of all kinds from data-fudging to genocide, in sync with its rising profile. India's economic credentials have been the focus of criticism and scepticism from the west for over a decade; the recent uptick in western media attacks on its geo-political moves, including Op Sindoor are thus expected.
Being afraid of Islam—a less used definition of Islamophobia—and Islamists and therefore being chary of measures to counter terror groups and radicals lest they are accused of the better-known definition of Islamophobia has made the west cede far too much ground on anti-Semitism. How much longer will activists be allowed to propagate false or exaggerated narratives on Gaza—its roots, its reality and its goals under Hamas—to capture impressionable hearts and minds?
The author is a freelance writer. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views.
Location :
New Delhi, India, India
First Published:
June 04, 2025, 19:24 IST
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