Whole Lotta Hate

There is a whole lot of hate out there. All sorts of posts on all sorts of platforms, interviews and just people with something to say, full of hate. One might ask, “What about you, Bob? Aren’t you just someone with something to say?” I guess so, but I don’t hate. I don’t like, but I don’t hate. 

The difference is more than just degree. If I don’t like someone or something, I can say why. It might be as simple and inexplicable as “he/she/it rubs me the wrong way”. If I hate something or somebody, I can say why, but I am likely to be more animated, more verbose. I may be moved to do harm. Not physical, but harm. And that would entail the art of the lie. 

A lot of the hate we face as Jews is based on ignorance. Even longer ago than October, 2023, there were gatherings of people to protest the treatment of the poor, hard-done-by, down-trodden Palestinians under Israel’s cruel and evil occupation. YouTube clips would show  people being interviewed about why they would take time from their day to step out for this cause. They felt it was necessary to help those who are oppressed. When asked about an issue that called Israel’s oppression into question, invariably the response would be, “Well, I don’t really know that much about it…” Of course not everyone interviewed said that, and the interviewer was clearly trying to make a point. I got it. Did anyone else? 

There is also a hate that we face that is ideological, or dogmatic, or political. It is these people who are the danger. They provide information for the ignorant. And because the hate is principled, they make stuff up. Either blatant lies, or taking a truth and spinning it into a lie, or using that actual truth to support and strengthen the lie. One of the best and most common of these is to take what the enemy does, and apply it to the other. In our case, it is we who are looking to wipe out a people, it is we who terrorize, it is we who use sex as a weapon of war. Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbles was famous for the power of the big lie. 

Plenty out there make an issue out of the difference between hating Jews and criticism of Israel, or anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist positions. If you want to hate Jews, or Israel, or brussel sprouts, I suppose that people are entitled. I would put one condition on it: don’t lie. If your case against us is a legitimate one, there should be no need to dress it up with falsehood. Even hate demands intellectual honesty.