From Applegate’s Struggle to the Global Misdiagnosis of a Nation

There is a profound, dizzying disorientation that comes with a false medical diagnosis. For years, actress Christina Applegate suffered from baffling, debilitating symptoms—numbness, tingling, loss of balance—while doctors searched for answers. When she was initially told she had multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2021, it provided a framework for her suffering, even as it brought the grueling reality of a chronic condition. But then came the stunning twist: just this week, her doctors delivered the shocking news that she was entirely misdiagnosed. Instead of relief, the revelation left her back at square one—struggling with severe, worsening physical symptoms daily, yet stripped of the “explanation” she had organized her life around.

Imagine a far more Kafkaesque nightmare on a macro level: what if a nation is entirely healthy, or fighting for its survival against actual threats, but is misdiagnosed by a panel of consensus-driven international specialists with a terminal, monstrous disease? What happens when the world watches a country targeted for defending itself, nods in grim satisfaction, and insists on a false, toxic narrative while ignoring reality?

This is precisely the existential predicament of the State of Israel and the Jewish people today.

The Global Medical Malpractice: A Country Purposely Misdiagnosed

On a geopolitical scale, the world has engaged in a staggering act of medical malpractice. Israel—a vibrant democracy fighting an existential war of self-defense against genocidal proxy armies—has been relentlessly misdiagnosed by international courts and media mobs as “genocidal.”

It is a complete inversion of reality. Israel is targeted for protecting its citizens from actual purveyors of genocide, yet the global consensus has flipped the roles of perpetrator and victim with surgical precision. Even worse is the psychological fallout: the extent to which Jews, battered by centuries of systemic antisemitism, internalize the narrative. Some among us, desperate for universal approval, half-accept the premise, looking at our bruised reflection through the distorted lens of our accusers.

Blaming the Victim

This dynamic of tragic misdiagnosis, compliance, and ultimate reckoning is encoded deep within this week’s Torah reading, Lech Lecha.

When Avram and Sarai descend to Egypt because of a famine, Avram faces a terrifying reality. Fearing for his life, he asks Sarai to say she is his sister: “Please say you’re my sister, so they’ll treat me well for your sake and spare my life because of you” (Genesis 12:13). Pharaoh takes Sarai into his palace, and Avram remains silent to save his own skin.

Then, divine intervention strikes. Plagues afflict Pharaoh’s household. Suddenly, Pharaoh summons Avram with fierce indignation: “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife?” (Genesis 12:18-19).

Notice the psychological twist: Pharaoh, the abductor and superpower ruler, blames the victim! He turns to Avram and essentially asks, “Why didn’t you stop me from falling into this delusion?” Avram remains silent, though we can only imagine his thoughts: And if I had told him, would he have accepted my truth? He would have called me a liar at best, or simply killed me to justify his intentions.

Herein lies the chilling biblical metaphor for our current era. The nations of the world have taken what is most precious to us – our national home and moral integrity – and folded it into their palaces of global opinion based on a grotesque lie.

Reaping What They Have Sowed: The European Reckoning

The rot of this Western delusion is finally coming home to roost. As Belgian philosopher Maarten Boudry sharply observed in a viral commentary on the riots tearing through France, Europe is reaping the exact harvest it planted. For years, Western capitals ignored warnings from Jewish communities about rising extremism and cultural polarization, imagining they could feed the crocodile enough Jewish flesh and remain safe.

As Boudry noted, “We will all soon know what it feels like to be Jewish. In France, they already know. This will be the punishment we deserve for having abandoned the Jews, ignored their warnings, and even marched alongside their oppressors.”

They welcomed the intellectual contagion of anti-Zionism, assuming the fire would only ever consume the Jews. Now, with historic public buildings vandalized and cities under curfew, they find that the only thing truly being colonized from within is their own societal order. (Naturally, some are still blaming the victim, just like Pharaoh.)

Just as Pharaoh and Egypt had to confront their transgression, a reckoning awaits the international stage. Someday soon, the world will look at themselves in the harsh light of morning and ask the agonizing question: How did we allow ourselves to be convinced of something so utterly false?

Until that day arrives, we must refuse the diagnosis. We must reject the gaslighting of the criminal global tribunal. Like Avram stepping out of Egypt, we must hold fast to our truth, knowing that history’s ultimate cure belongs not to the false diagnosticians, but to those who endure with self-respect and integrity.