From Black Death to Black Saturday: Fake News Still Kills

Stop The Obsessive Fake News Media From Flanking Israel And The West!

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples
– Zechariah 12:2-3

On June 2, 2025, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee condemned the media for parroting misleading, exaggerated, and utterly fabricated stories from Hamas sources designed to fan the flames of anti-Jew hate.[1] He called out reckless and irresponsible reporting by major media that resulted in the murder of two young people at an Israeli Embassy event in Washington last month and the attempted murder and terror attack on a group of pro-Israel demonstrators in Colorado the previous day.[2] 

Left unsaid is that false news is the primary Islamist weapon in the cognitive battle space against Israel and the West. In the fight for narrative dominance, Islamists are manipulating Western media to grab our attention and misdirect us. One reason they are successful is that they play to the woke ideology that has captured the Western media. But another is subtle. The content triggers subliminal and ancient fears that captivate the crowd. To know both elements is to understand how to dispel the Western media’s pathological fixation on Israel and defend against the danger it poses to Western civilization. 

The Western media’s hostile obsessiveness with Israel is inescapable. Its focus on Israel is so “disproportionate to the Jewish state’s size, the intensity of its conflicts and the amount of US aid it receives” that it cannot be said to be driven by “genuine journalistic motivations.”[3] This saturation coverage of Israel continues while the media plays down or wholly ignores the threat of terrorism and the dire humanitarian crises affecting West Africa and the Sahel region of Africa, where militant Islamic groups–Islamic State and al-Qaeda–are responsible for over half of all global terrorism-related deaths.[4] There is barely any coverage, for example, of the twenty-five million people who are on the brink of famine in the midst of Sudan’s war of ethnic cleansing and genocide against its non-Arab darker-skinned African population.[5] 

A driver of this biased coverage is the Critical Theory model that has captured Western media and academia.[6] The woke system of thought and action is based on the Marxist division of the world into oppressors and oppressed, which borrows from Hegel the concept of the master-slave relationship. Wokeism translates this into a binary power dynamic that it uses as a lens for viewing the world “as divided between the powerless and the powerful, the oppressed and the oppressors, and to attribute disparities among peoples and groups to perceived power differentials, and to assign moral superiority to the oppressed.”[7] Under wokeism, there is no objective truth, only the “truth” of the oppressed, because only they have authentic insight. This framework is construed to mean that people in post-colonial nations and communities are oppressed victims that can do no wrong and that the West, being oppressors, can do no right.[8] Inverting morality, the woke worldview leverages “Western guilt in order to forbid any criticism of racist, misogynist, anti-gay, antisemitic and anti-Western ideologies—so long as these come from groups designated as victims of the West.”[9]

The rejection of truth by Western “progressive” intellectuals is welded to an unhinged historical and moral view that Palestinians are a native people of color and the Jews are European whites[10] who colonized Palestinian lands.[11] With slavery extinct in the West and the elimination of European rule in the Far and Middle East, Zionism is paraded and demonized as the last embodiment of Western sins.[12] We are dismayed but not surprised, when the International Court of Justice tries Israel, not Hamas, for genocide[13]–effectively camouflaging the Islamist goal of establishing a global Caliphate.[14]

In the cognitive battle space, the Western media feast on Palestinian anti-Jew and anti-Israel propaganda that mostly masquerades as anti-Zionism. Media pundits routinely evidence their shocking ignorance and disinterest in objective truth. (There’s virtually no mention that there has been no Israeli presence, let alone rule, in Gaza for 20 years; or, for example, a reckoning with the death of Hamas military leader Mohammed Sinwar in a military base[15] sited underneath a hospital in Khan Younis.) In order to exonerate Hamas for its Black Saturday rapes and barbarous butchery, the media–in an audacious exercise of transference–demonizes the victim, Israel, as heartless, sadistic, immoral, and deserving of no sympathy. 

All this fuels the media business, as the outrageous content they manufacture–including dissemination of the most horrifying images–creates the most engagement. There are countless cases where this content is repackaged propaganda conjured up by “Gazawood”, which is the current iteration of “Pallywood” (the Hollywoodization of antisemitism and the 21st century incarnation of the blood libel).[16] The pogrom in Amsterdam is but one example of where anti-Israel narratives in the Western media resulted in serious harm to Jews. In America, physical attacks on Jewish Americans since October 7, 2023, directly correlate to propaganda videos from “Gazawood.”[17] 

These anti-Jew Western media accounts create engagement by catalyzing transgenerationals spiritual fears of damnation that originated in Medieval times with the First Crusade (launched in 1095 CE).[18] Hamas’ death cult and its “necessary sacrifice” of the population of Gaza[19] invokes the death instinct underlying the motivation of thousands of Christians in Western Europe “to take up arms, walk more than a thousand miles, fight numerous battles—all in an effort to conquer Jerusalem.”[20]

The Crusades were instigated by Pope Urban II, who commanded the conquest of Jerusalem in an effort to reform the Christian mindset and religious identity.[21] Participation in the Crusades was encouraged by priests who invoked fear of the last judgment for failure to act.[22] If the Christians could not reclaim the earthly Jerusalem, then they would not be able to claim their place in the heavenly one.[23] 

The vision of going to Jerusalem (of taking the Cross) and sharing in the Millennial Kingdom evoked an “amazing response”[24] that turned out hordes of lower-class peasants–the so-called People’s Crusade–who, believing it to be a necessary prerequisite to the Second Coming of Christ, massacred the Jewish communities living peacefully in the Rhineland.[25] This fanaticism was renewed at the time of the Black Death (1347-51 CE), which was seen by some as the wrath of God for not forcibly pursuing the Crusades and for allowing the Jews to live in their midst.[26] As a result, many towns and cities murdered their Jewish populations and Jew-burning swept through much of Western Europe. The violence “outdid in scale and horror anything else of the sort known in medieval Jewish history.”[270]

This sanguinary cultural enmity survived across time with catastrophic consequences for Jews. “Strikingly, violent hatred of Jews persisted despite the fact that Jews disappeared in many towns and cities for centuries.”[28] More than half a millennium later, cities with Black Death anti-Jew pogroms had, on average, significantly more pogroms in the 1920s than cities that did not have them in 1349. In 1928, when the Nazi Party had a strong anti-Jew focus, it added more than a third to its typical vote share in cities with pogroms in 1349.[29] After 1933, cities with Black Death pogroms had higher deportation rates for Jews and were more likely to have synagogues damaged or destroyed on Kristallnacht (November 9-10, 1938).[30] However, this pattern of transgenerational transmission has been shown to be broken in places where the economic costs of anti-Jew sentiment was particularly high.[31]

Increasing economic costs has become the weapon of choice in the US to stem the tide of Wokeism and antisemitism.[32] More is required to combat the Western media’s anti-Jew obsession and fetish. If anti-Jew attacks in America are the canary in the coalmine, we need more focus on the coalmine and the threat can no longer be downplayed or denied as “Israel-related”.[33] A concerted effort is needed to unmask the peril confronting American and European lives and culture by the Islamist war against Western civilization, strongly funded and supported by nation states–most notably Iran and its proxies,[34] but also aided by Russia–and large immigrant Muslim communities in Western Europe.[35] This counter-narrative should illuminate the Islamist “killing field of defenseless Christians” in Nigeria,[36] reestablishment of slavery in Yemen by the Iran-backed Shia militia Ansar Allah (known as “Houthis”); and the ISIS “utopia” in Syria and Iraq, which was, says, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, “exactly how I imagine hell to be.”[37] To buttress this effort, the West requires a project to eliminate or marginalize the ideology of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the Islamist regime of Iran,[38] comparable to the denazification undertaken in 1945 after the defeat of Hitler and the re-education during the US occupation of Japan.[39]

Endnotes:

1. Cf., Review of a graphic video – which has been seen 134,000 times in one X post alone – reveals that the events pictured are unrelated to the story reported. B. Garman & S. Vandermees, Claim graphic video is linked to aid distribution site in Gaza is incorrect, BBC Verify (12:50 June 2, 2025), https://www.bbc.com/news/live/ceqgvwyjjg8t
2. See, U.S. Ambassador M. Huckabee Statement on Media Misinformation on Gaza (June 2, 2025), https://il.usembassy.gov/statement-on-media-misinformation-on-gaza/; cf., White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Press Briefing (June 3, 2025), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y_lxsbZhH8, at 35:55; R. O’Donoghue, 48 Hours, Two Blood Libels: Aid Site Massacres Faked by Hamas, Spread by the Media, HonestReporting (June 3, 2025), https://honestreporting.com/48-hours-two-blood-libels-aid-site-massacres-faked-by-hamas-spread-by-the-media/
3. Cf., D. Litman, TRACKING CNN’S BIAS: CNN’S OBSESSION WITH ISRAEL, Camera (Oct. 3, 2023),  https://www.camera.org/article/tracking-cnns-bias-cnns-obsession-with-israel/; P. Chesler, The New York Times’ Orwellian Obsession with Israel, Mid East Forum (Jan. 10, 2023), https://www.meforum.org/the-new-york-times-orwellian-obsession-with-israel
4. Cf., Chairman McCaul Delivers Remarks at Hearing Addressing U.S. Policy in the Sahel Region, House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa (Dec. 7, 2023), https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/press-release/chairman-mccaul-delivers-remarks-at-hearing-addressing-u-s-policy-in-the-sahel-region/; Global Terrorism Index 2025, Inst. for Economics & Peace (March 2025), p.48, https://www.visionofhumanity.org/resources/
5. See, M. Abubaker, The History Behind Sudan’s Identity Crisis, (Feb. 18, 2021), Wilson Center, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/the-history-behind-sudans-identity-crisis
6. Cf., R. Barron, The Philosophical Roots of Wokeism, RELIGION & LIBERTY: VOLUME 34, NUMBER 1 (Jan. 8, 2024), https://www.acton.org/religion-liberty/volume-34-number-1/philosophical-roots-wokeism
7. See, S. Abrams & D. Bernstein, Liberals, Progressives, Wokeness, and Israel, Jewish Journal (Dec. 14, 2022), https://www.aei.org/articles/liberals-progressives-wokeness-and-israel/
8. See, M. Phillips, in D. Vigler, “British Journalist Warns Something BIG is Happening in the Islamic World…“, June 1, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k4yqWW9M68, at 4:52; cf.,
   [M]any celebrated [Hamas’ grotesque 10/7 murders]…as a form of ‘anti-colonialist resistance.’ Memes circulated, like the now infamous Chicago #BLM paratrooper, that quite literally glorified an unimaginable slaughtering. Student groups at Harvard decried Israel as ‘entirely responsible’ for Hamas’ attack; groups at the University of Virginia went a step further in saying that ‘colonized people can resist occupation of their land by whatever means they deem necessary’; and groups at Tufts took the cake by praising Hamas’ ingenious creativity.
   A. Olshansky, Hamas Killed My Wokeness, Tablet (Oct. 26, 2023), https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/hamas-slaughtered-wokeness
9. G. Taub, Benjamin Netanyahu vs. Edward Said: The global war over woke ideas, JNS (May 4, 2025), https://www.jns.org/benjamin-netanyahu-vs-edward-said-the-global-war-against-woke-ideas/
10. As astutely pointed out to the contrary by Sarah Ettedgui, “Ashkenazi Jews didn’t ‘come from Europe’, they survived Europe. There’s a difference.” https://x.com/sarahettedgui/status/1904009678004125934?s=46&t=ZCFGUANbpHJosF8HfLt_QA
11. This view markedly ignores the vast Arab project of colonial empire and second-class citizenship laws under the Pact of Umar. Cf., M. Abubaker, The History Behind Sudan’s Identity Crisis, (Feb. 18, 2021), Wilson Center, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/the-history-behind-sudans-identity-crisis; Bat Ye’or, Dhimmi Peoples: Oppressed Nations (1978), https://dhimmitude.org/archive/by_dhimmi_peoples_oppressed_nations.pdf
12. Cf., M. Bard, Universities are selling out to Qatar, and selling off their integrity, JNS (May 14, 2025), https://www.jns.org/universities-are-selling-out-to-qatar-and-selling-off-their-integrity/; D. Belkin & S. Randazzo, Eyeing Harvard, Trump Targets Foreign Funding of Universities, Wall St. J. (April 23, 2025), https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/harvard-foreign-funding-executive-order-trump-5cb8438f?mod=article_inline; The Ongoing Failure to Report – Yale University, Qatar and Undisclosed Foreign Funding, ISGAP (2024), https://isgap.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Yale_Report_V4-1.pdf
13. Cf., D. Scheffer, Holding Hamas Accountable at the ICJ Through Palestine, Lawfare (June 26, 2024), https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/holding-hamas-accountable-at-the-icj-through-palestine; J. Swan et al., State Dept. Imposes Sanctions on International Criminal Court Judges, NY Times (June 5, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/05/us/politics/international-criminal-court-sanctions-rubio-state.html
14. Hamas Political Bureau member and former Minister of the Interior Fathi Hammad makes clear, “Jerusalem will not only be the capital city of Palestine as an independent state – it will be the capital city of the Islamic Caliphate…” Quoted in, Hamas Leaders: Our Goal Is Establishment Of Global Islamic Caliphate, Not Just Liberation Of Palestine, MEMRI (Dec. 8, 2023), https://www.memri.org/reports/hamas-leaders-our-goal-establishment-global-islamic-caliphate-not-just-liberation-palestine
15. Cf., A. Blair, Dramatic footage captures moment body of Hamas chief Mohammad Sinwar is pulled from hidey-hole, NY Post (June 9, 2025), https://nypost.com/2025/06/09/world-news/dramatic-footage-captures-moment-body-of-hamas-chief-mohammad-sinwar-is-pulled-from-hiding-lair/
16. “Pallywood” is a neologism coined by the American historian Richard Landes to refer to the industry of lies built around making Palestinian Arabs appear as victims and Israel as the aggressor. See, Pallywood and the Mainstream Media’s Antisemitism Problem, April 9, 2025, https://canarymission.org/campaign/Pallywood_Mainstream_Media; R. Landes, Pallywood’s Latest Blockbuster, Tablet (Nov. 29, 2023), https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/pallywood-ahli-hospital; R. Landes, Fake News from the Middle East, Written evidence submitted by Second Draft (March 2018), https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/87844/pdf/
17. See, Pallywood and the Mainstream Media’s Antisemitism Problem, April 9, 2025, https://canarymission.org/campaign/Pallywood_Mainstream_Media
18. Cf., Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream, Daniel 2, https://www.sefaria.org/Daniel.2.45?lang=bi; A. Reis, Review of, J. Rubenstein, Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream: The Crusades, Apocalyptic Prophecy, and the End of History, Oxford U. Press (2019), in Andrews U. Seminary Studies 58 (Fall 2020), https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3947&context=auss
19. See, S. Said & R. Jones, Gaza Chief’s Brutal Calculation: Civilian Bloodshed Will Help Hamas, Wall St. J. (June 10, 2024), https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/gaza-chiefs-brutal-calculation-civilian-bloodshed-will-help-hamas-626720e7?mod=middle-east_news_article_pos1
20. See, S. Rowan, Reimagined History: Trauma as Provocation for the First Crusade, Harvard Extension School (Master’s thesis, 2019), p.10, https://dash.harvard.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2ef3c487-1789-4125-90dd-ccc9c71d0e76/content
21. Cf., Calling the Crusade: Myth, Memory and Legend in the Accounts of Pope Urban II’s Speech at Clermont, French History Podcast, 77 Supplemental 1  (July 15, 2023), https://www.thefrenchhistorypodcast.com/77-supplemental-1-calling-the-crusade-myth-memory-and-legend-in-the-accounts-of-pope-urban-iis-speech-at-clermont/; S. Rowan, Reimagined History: Trauma as Provocation for the First Crusade, Harvard Extension School (Master’s thesis, 2019), p.8, https://dash.harvard.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2ef3c487-1789-4125-90dd-ccc9c71d0e76/content
22. See, R. Rooney with A. Miller,  The Crusades: Motivations, Administration, and Cultural Influence, Newberry  (June 25, 2012), https://dcc.newberry.org/?page_id=115
23. Cf., P. Aitchison, ESCHATOLOGY AND THE FIRST CRUSADE, U.S. Army Command & General Staff College (Master’s Thesis 2018), pp.55-78, https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/trecms/pdf/AD1084089.pdf
24. See, S. Rowan, Reimagined History: Trauma as Provocation for the First Crusade, Harvard Extension School (Master’s thesis, 2019), p.40, https://dash.harvard.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2ef3c487-1789-4125-90dd-ccc9c71d0e76/content
25. See, S. Rowan, Reimagined History: Trauma as Provocation for the First Crusade, Harvard Extension School (Master’s thesis, 2019), p.12, https://dash.harvard.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2ef3c487-1789-4125-90dd-ccc9c71d0e76/content; The First Massacres, French History Podcast, 77 Chapter 4 (July 28, 2023), https://www.thefrenchhistorypodcast.com/77-chapter-4-the-first-massacres/
26. Christians also accused Jews of poisoning wells and food. See, N. Voigtlaender & H. Voth, PERSECUTION PERPETUATED: THE MEDIEVAL ORIGINS OF ANTI-SEMITIC VIOLENCE IN NAZI GERMANY, NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES, Working Paper 17113 (June 2011), pp.5-8, https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w17113/w17113.pdf
27. See, Europe, Jewish Virtual Library, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/europe
28. N. Voigtlaender & H. Voth, PERSECUTION PERPETUATED: THE MEDIEVAL ORIGINS OF ANTI-SEMITIC VIOLENCE IN NAZI GERMANY, NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES, Working Paper 17113 (June 2011), p.28, https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w17113/w17113.pdf
29. N. Voigtlaender & H. Voth, PERSECUTION PERPETUATED: THE MEDIEVAL ORIGINS OF ANTI-SEMITIC VIOLENCE IN NAZI GERMANY, NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES, Working Paper 17113 (June 2011), p.1, https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w17113/w17113.pdf
30. “In the sample as a whole, 94.7% of cities with medieval pogroms saw synagogues damaged or destroyed in the ‘Night of Broken Glass.’ In cities without Black Death Pogroms, the corresponding figure was substantially lower – 79.8%.” See, N. Voigtlaender & H. Voth, PERSECUTION PERPETUATED: THE MEDIEVAL ORIGINS OF ANTI-SEMITIC VIOLENCE IN NAZI GERMANY, NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES, Working Paper 17113 (June 2011), p.22, https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w17113/w17113.pdf
31. N. Voigtlaender & H. Voth, PERSECUTION PERPETUATED: THE MEDIEVAL ORIGINS OF ANTI-SEMITIC VIOLENCE IN NAZI GERMANY, NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES, Working Paper 17113 (June 2011), pp. 2, 24-25, 30, https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w17113/w17113.pdf
32. Cf., M. Bard, Universities are selling out to Qatar, and selling off their integrity, JNS (May 14, 2025), https://www.jns.org/universities-are-selling-out-to-qatar-and-selling-off-their-integrity/; D. Belkin & S. Randazzo, Eyeing Harvard, Trump Targets Foreign Funding of Universities, Wall St. J. (April 23, 2025), https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/harvard-foreign-funding-executive-order-trump-5cb8438f?mod=article_inline; The Ongoing Failure to Report – Yale University, Qatar and Undisclosed Foreign Funding, ISGAP (2024), https://isgap.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Yale_Report_V4-1.pdf
33. Cf., “Much of the American Jewish establishment and possibly even a majority of U.S. Jews would still rather not come to grips with the fact that the current surge in antisemitism is connected to concerns they would prefer to dismiss as issues related to a right-wing culture war.” J. Tobin, Can Jews admit that Trump is right about woke antisemitism?  JNS (June 4, 2025), https://www.jns.org/can-jews-admit-that-trump-is-right-about-woke-antisemitism/; Familiar Attempts to Justify and Downplay Antisemitic Violence Follow Latest Attack on Jewish Community, ADL (June 2, 2025), https://www.adl.org/resources/article/familiar-attempts-justify-and-downplay-antisemitic-violence-follow-latest-attack
34. Cf., J. Laurence, How to Prevent an Iranian Caliphate, Wall St. J. (Feb. 29, 2024), https://www.wsj.com/opinion/how-to-prevent-an-iranian-caliphate-holy-sites-israel-al-aqsa-middle-east-78a9dd7e?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAj6gs2cNluqKZuMHHl3VwWIlSc4_W698TkbmkQFaLFyxL6JBHh7y7qjWR1D27c%3D&gaa_ts=684af535&gaa_sig=OV9PVQ20uqsmxuVY_wfb2wA_XuEGIZkmVTgw6HG5RaZRaJk1wdFtE9lj87ebUNyr89WRj3a6sosLIYpHqRlQ-Q%3D%3D
35. Cf., M. Toth & J. Sweet, Vladimir Putin’s jihad against the West, The Hill (Nov. 1, 2022), https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/3709926-vladimir-putins-jihad-against-the-west/; R. Schmad, Conservative media targeted by Qatari foreign influence operations, Washington Examiner (May 17, 2025), https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/investigations/3414894/conservative-media-targeted-qatari-foreign-influence-operations/#google_vignette
36. E. Umeagbalasi, Nigeria Is A Killing Field Of Defenseless Christians, Genocide Watch (April 13, 2020), https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/2020/04/13/nigeria-is-a-killing-field-of-defenseless-christians; cf., U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, Chairman House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Nigerian Christians targeted, massacred solely because of their faith – An appeal to Trump Administration to redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (Press Release (March 12, 2025 ), https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=413554
37. Exclusive – Houthis Restore Slavery in Yemen, Asharq Al-Awsat (July 13, 2019), https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/1810456/exclusive-houthis-restore-slavery-yemen; A. Roberts & A. Hirsi Ali, Ayaan Hirsi Ali On The Threat To The West, Secrets of Statecraft (Podcast Jan. 21, 2025), https://www.hoover.org/research/ayaan-hirsi-ali-threat-west
38. Cf., “To dismiss the reality of conflict between the West and Islam, is also to undermine the anti-Islamist struggle of brave Muslims [who] are the only people, ultimately, who can defeat the … jihadi death merchants.” R. Cohen, Islam and the West at War, NY Times (Feb. 15, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/17/opinion/roger-cohen-islam-and-the-west-at-war.html
39. Cf., A. Roberts & A. Hirsi Ali, Ayaan Hirsi Ali On The Threat To The West, Secrets of Statecraft (Podcast Jan. 21, 2025), https://www.hoover.org/research/ayaan-hirsi-ali-threat-west