Hatred of Israel is the new antisemitism
As we mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, Jews are facing a worldwide bombardment of antisemitism more intense and widespread than anything since the horrors we commemorate.
For those who hate Jews, Hamas carrying out the Oct. 7 attacks was not a cause for sympathy or reflection, but a call to action.
In more than two years since, we have seen antisemitic protests on streets and campuses throughout the West, and murders of Jews in the United States, United Kingdom — and, most recently, Australia.
There is no country in the world where Jews do not need ironclad security to protect their schools, community centers, and places of worship.
Just this past weekend, an Israeli comedian was banned from an appearance in Beverly Hills because of allegations attributed to his nationality.
Against this backdrop of hatred, people often ask us: Could the Holocaust happen again?
Do we think the Jews of Europe, America, or Australia will be put on trains to be transported to their industrial murder while the world watches and does nothing?
The probable answer is no, though there can be no room for complacency about the scale and ferocity of the threat facing Jewish communities.
But are there entities who would carry out a genocide against Jews and are seeking the means to carry it out? The answer, alas, is yes.
Yes to understand contemporary Jew-hatred, we need to understand how much of it is framed through the prism of opposition — or “resistance,” if you will — to “Zionism” and the State of Israel, the world’s only majority Jewish nation.
The focal point for those who wish to carry out an organized, systematic slaughter of Jews today is therefore the dismantlement of Israel “by all means necessary.”
The outcome of that would be a genocide of Israel’s Jews – though among its advocates there may be variations on whether that would be the primary aim, or just a necessary evil.
Large sections of our societies have been groomed to support that goal and trained to view Israel as a unique source of evil in the world that must be destroyed if a better future is to be born.
Hence, when Hamas carried out its barbaric attack on Oct. 7, on the very next day there were mass protests throughout the world to support them.
Antisemitism is not simply racial or religious prejudice, but also a conspiracy theory built on tropes of Jewish power and control. The hatred of Jews is shapeshifting, adapting, and updating itself to suit the language, culture, and political environment of its time.
Today’s antisemitism has shifted from a hatred of Jews, per se, to Israel-related Jewish hate.
That is why the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism is accompanied by several examples that illustrate what Jew-hatred looks and sounds like when expressed in anti-Israel terms. In the real world, it is antisemitism to blame Jews collectively for Israel’s actions; to hold Israel to standards not applied to any other state; to deny the Jews (and only the Jews) the right to self-determination; and to repurpose classic antisemitic imagery of global control, greed, disloyalty and bloodlust to demonize Israel and “Zionists.”
The IHRA’s examples do not preclude criticism of Israel or its government.
To claim the IHRA blocks ordinary criticism of Israel is either a misreading or a lie.
At a time when Jews are coming under literal attack from those who wish to “globalize the intifada,” it is unfathomable that public officials — like Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City, a city with more Jews than any other — would seek to remove a working definition that provides a layer of protection for them.
Because if you claim to oppose antisemitism, but fail to recognize that so much of it is now carried out under the guise of anti-Israel activism, then you are not protecting Jews and fighting bigotry. You’re endangering Jews and protecting bigots.
Deborah Lipstadt, a professor at Emory University, was the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, 2022-25.
Noa Tishby, Israel’s first Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and Delegitimization, is a best-selling author and the founder of Eighteen, an institute to combat antisemitism and inspire Jewish pride.
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