The Pathology of Hatred Devoid of Facts
There is a pathological sickness spreading through much of the Western world. It has abandoned reason, rejected individual judgment, and replaced both with blind ideological hatred. The following incident is an example of Sinat Chinam, the Hebrew phrase that means “baseless hatred” or disliking others without a real reason.
The most revealing aspect of this encounter is not what she shouted, but what she did not know. She knew nothing about the man she was attacking—nothing about his politics, his military service, his values, or his character. None of it mattered. In her mind, being Israeli was enough to convict him.
That is the essence of irrational hatred. It no longer judges individuals by their actions, but by their identity. It dispenses with evidence, reason, and fairness in favor of collective guilt. This is identity politics at its ugliest—a modern form of tribal prejudice masquerading as moral virtue.
This is not political protest. It is naked bigotry.
History repeatedly demonstrates where this mindset leads. The moment an entire people is branded collectively guilty, every member of that group becomes a legitimate target for intimidation, harassment, or violence. That has always been the logic of antisemitism, regardless of the slogans used to sanitize it.
Nor is this an isolated episode. Similar attacks against Israelis and Jews have become increasingly common on university campuses, in the streets of Western cities, at cultural events, and across social media. Even more disturbing is the willingness of otherwise respectable people to excuse or rationalize such conduct simply because the victims are Israeli or Jewish.
Let me be clear. There is an enormous moral difference between criticizing the policies of Israel’s government and threatening or vilifying an individual solely because of his nationality. One is legitimate political discourse. The other is ethnic hatred.
The real tragedy is not merely that this hatred exists. It is that so many who claim to champion tolerance, diversity, and human rights suspend those principles when the target is Israel or the Jewish people. Their commitment to justice proves to be selective, their morality conditional, and their outrage highly discriminatory.
People who become consumed by hatred eventually lose the capacity for reason. They come to love hating more than they hate hatred itself. In doing so, they erode the very values—fairness, decency, and individual responsibility—that sustain a civilized society.
The assault in the Philippines should be understood for what it is: another warning that antisemitism is once again becoming socially acceptable, provided it is wrapped in the language of anti-Zionism. History teaches that such hatred never remains confined to its original target. Once a society accepts collective guilt as a moral principle, it places everyone’s liberty at risk.
