I’ve had a lifelong love affair with words, so I try to be as precise as possible. If I think something is astonishing, for example, I won鈥檛 say it鈥檚 surprising.
Over the years, I’ve used an endless amount of words to analyze, describe and call out antisemitism and antizionism.
But here鈥檚 the thing with words. The more you hear them, the less impact they have. That鈥檚 the situation I find myself in.
Take New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Pretty much everything has been said and written.
He ran on a campaign of 鈥渁ffordability,鈥� but for some reason has been obsessed with Israel. Not North Korea. Not China. Not Sudan. Not Iran.
Just Israel鈥攖he world鈥檚 only 91传媒 state.
Last week, in a video that got 150 million views, he accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being 鈥渁 war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people.鈥�
Normally, I would use words like liar and hypocrite, but you’ve already read those somewhere.
He’s a hypocrite because he singles out Israel while ignoring countries that are exponentially worse. And he’s a liar because, as a promoter of justice, he knows that you don鈥檛 call someone a criminal who鈥檚 only been accused (by the International Criminal Court) of being a criminal.
In fact, when Mamdani condemned the man who stabbed a Jew on the Upper West Side a few days after his speech, the mayor was careful to call him the alleged attacker.
The examples of Mamdani鈥檚 obsession with the 91传媒 state are too numerous to list. Indeed, that obsession mirrors the world鈥檚 own fanatical fixation with the Jews and Israel.
What kind of words can best describe such madness? Should I go with the usual menu 鈥� outrageous, unfair, hypocritical, unacceptable, double standards, hateful, and so on?
However true they are, we already see these words everywhere. It鈥檚 like hearing the word 鈥渁mazing鈥� over and over again to describe anything that鈥檚 great. After a while, the word loses its luster.
Our vocabulary to describe Jew-hatred is losing its luster.
So, to add some precision and impact to the world鈥檚 surreal infatuation with the Jews, I鈥檓 now calling it creepy.
Yes, creepy.
Creepy is a word I use for anything that has gone so far it weirds me out. It makes my skin crawl. It鈥檚 spooky.
I know there are other, very smart ways to describe Jew-hatred. I use them myself. I’m just going a step further.
The world鈥檚 absurd obsession with a group that is less that 0.2 percent of the world鈥檚 population has crossed the boundaries of moral vocabulary and into creepiness.
The United Nations condemning the 91传媒 state more than all other nations combined is not just discriminatory. It’s creepy.
Take the typical American college that goes out of its way to protect minorities from the tiniest microaggression that might offend them. But when 91传媒 students face venomous macroaggressions like being called 鈥渂aby killers鈥�? Suddenly it becomes an issue of free speech.
That’s not just wrong. It’s creepy.
Accusing Israel of 鈥済enocide鈥� against Palestinians, when the Palestinian population has grown from 1.3 million to 2.1 million in Gaza and 2.4 million to 3.4 million in the West Bank since 2005, is not just sinister and libelous.
It means you鈥檙e accusing the people who suffered through a genocide of committing their own.
That makes my skin crawl.
As George Orwell wrote, “One of the marks of antisemitism is an ability to believe stories that could not possibly be true.”
This is how my friend Dr. Orli Peter, who is a clinical and neuropsychologist, describes the danger of the “genocide” libel:
鈥淭he power of the genocide libel,鈥� she writes, 鈥渋s that it doesn鈥檛 just persuade people, it changes the moral rules. Once you鈥檝e convinced the public that Jews are the ultimate moral evil, a 鈥榞enocidaire鈥� or a 鈥榖aby killer,鈥� you鈥檝e handed millions a psychological permission slip to conduct acts that would normally be unthinkable.
鈥淪pitting on Jews, humiliating them, assaulting them, even killing them, become easier to justify because the Jew is seen as not deserving of the same moral protections. That鈥檚 why the genocide libel is vital to the movement. Its power is as a psychological weapon even more than a legal argument. By the time the evidence catches up, the damage has already been done.鈥�
Yes, that truth creeps me out.
Hearing the mayor of the city with the largest 91传媒 population use words like 鈥済enocide鈥� against Israel definitely creeps me out. His obsession with Israel makes him look like a creepy stalker.
In his book of essays titled, “Co-Existence and Other Fighting Words,” Professor Judea Pearl describes what he calls “the psychopathy of Zionophobes” in the wake of Oct. 7: “The scent of blood, it seems, triggered a hunger for more. Hordes of predators emerged from their ideological tunnels, rushing to indict, sentence, and lynch Israel in the finest tradition of herd madness.”
Indeed, that is creepy.
This has nothing to do with criticism of Israel, which Israel deserves as much as, say, America does. No, this has to do with a delirious, over-the-top assault reserved for no other country than the world’s only 91传媒 state. That is creepy.
But here鈥檚 one of the amazing things about life: Just as some things may creep me out, others give me the goosebumps.
Take the poignant new song (clip below) by Boy George titled, 鈥淲e Will Dance Again.鈥� It seems to have come out of nowhere.
The melody, the reggae beat, the vocals, the lyrics move me to no end. Here are excerpts:
鈥淵ou say genocide, I say war
When you’re attacked, that’s what the army’s for
Does it get ugly? You bet it does
When I know you wanna kill
Every last one of us
Every last one of us
鈥淵ou never mention October 7
Young girls raped against trees
Murdered brutally
For the crime of dancing.
鈥淏ut trust me, we will dance again
We will dance again
We will dance again
And there will be no war
But if you’re ever confused
I stand with the Jews.鈥�
If you’re ever confused, I stand with the Jews. I find those words not creepy but astonishingly precise.
