International Business Development Consultant
America’s War for Better of for Worse
The most interesting aspect of antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric is that the story line usually begins at the time a particular incident occurred, effectively negating the prior history that was elemental to the issue even before the incident in question took place.
For example, since the inception on February 28th of the US’ decision to go to war against Iran with Israel’s assistance, I hear many people saying that this war has made American Jews feel less safe because everyone knows it was Netanyahu who convinced Trump to attack Iran. Some people go on to claim that because they believe it is all Israel’s fault that Americans are suffering economically as a result, the safety of American Jews has been negatively affected.
What many of these people fail to realize is that antisemitism in the US has been expanding exponentially ever since October 7th when Hamas invaded Israel and slaughtered over 1,250 people while taking 254 hostages into Gaza, some of whom were already dead. For the last 28 months Jews worldwide have been fearful of displaying Jewish symbols, careful not to dress in a manner that looks “too Jewish”, preferring not to speak Hebrew in public and even going so far as to removing the mezuzot from the doorposts of their homes. The fact is that antisemitism and anti-Israel feelings did not start on February 28th but were already rising rapidly well before that.
The Anti-Defamation League tallied 8,873 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. in 2023, a 140% increase over 2022 and a record high since it began keeping track in 1979. According to the Protection Service for the Jewish Community, antisemitic acts in France rose from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023. In Australia, antisemitic acts recorded from October 1, 2023 to September 20, 2024 showed a 316% increase from a year earlier to 2,062 incidents, a report by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry showed.
Clearly antisemitism was well on its way towards record increases well before February 28th. It was also on the uptick before October 7th as these statistics clearly demonstrate. It is important to remember that anti-Israel demonstrations in response to the October 7th massacre began while the massacre itself was taking place. Such demonstrations began on the afternoon of October 7th in America and Europe, well before the murders ended and the Hamas invaders returned to Gaza. Yet people speak as if prior to October 7th the world loved Jews.
Humanity, of course, always needs someone to blame for its unhappiness, frustration, and disappointment, so who better to blame than the Jews? The President of the United States decides to launch a war against Iran (a) without seeking congressional authorization as the US Constitution demands, (b) without making the case to the almost 390 million Americans that the war is necessary to preserve world order, (c) without justifying the potential loss of American lives, (d) without sharing his administration’s plans for the “day after” (if they even exist), and (e)without consulting and gaining the support of either the UN or America’s allies, and who takes the blame for this? Israel, of course. How convenient and how utterly illogical.
Of course, we here have been hoping for the end of the Iranian regime ever since the Mullahs adopted their twin mantras of “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.” That was a hope shared, by the way, by successive US presidents as well. Reagan said: “They’re evil;” Bush Sr. said: “They’re a real threat;” Clinton agreed when he said: “They’re sponsoring terrorism;” Bush Jr. said: “They’re killing Americans;” Obama said: “They’re building nukes;” and Biden said: “We have to stop them.” So perhaps Netanyahu was not the only one dreaming of this war for 40 years.
In an article in “The Guardian,” Leon Panetta, a former US Secretary of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency director who served in the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama administrations, said about Trump: “He’s facing a very tough issue, which is: Does he go to expand the war by trying to get the strait of Hormuz open so that he can eliminate that leverage and maybe be able to ultimately negotiate with Iran? Or does he just simply walk away and declare victory, although everybody will clearly understand that he’s failed? It’s a very tough position he’s in right now but nobody else is responsible for where he’s at than Donald Trump.”
While it may be convenient to lay the blame for this war on Israel, to ramp up the level of antisemitism as a result and hold America blameless for this war Panetta hit the nail on the head. President Trump brought the US into this war and while it is clear that other parties, including Israel, were encouraging him to do so, it is his war, for better or for worse. There are a lot of actors in this drama and Israel has a starring role, but it is Trump who is the producer and director, absolutely no doubt about that, convenient as it may be to lay the blame elsewhere.