Jerusalem, ISRAEL — As the 2010 film Inception suggests, the introduction of a simple idea can be done very subtly but can transform a person’s resulting thought pattern or behavior completely. In reality, if you do not have conviction about a particular fact, you are much more likely to be swayed to believe the opposite when a voice of persuasion introduces their agenda.
After only five minutes online, I encounter rhetoric borne out of anti-Jewish propaganda, and I have to swallow the bitter knowledge that the misinformation I’m reading is being put forward as fact by a Jewish writer. Despite my fellow blogger’s optimistic thoughts on the State of Israel’s defense capabilities in a physical war, she does not acknowledge the war that does far worse damage to Israel and the Jewish people worldwide—the world war of words.
This war carries arguably greater import than one of missile-and-mortar; the players often are not and cannot be held accountable for the deadly blows they wield.
In fact, as this blogger tries her hand at analyzing Israeli national behavior, she undermines herself with buzzwords and expressions coined by people who are very aware they are fighting this war of words – a war of ideas and ideology – who intended their terminology to be deceptive and destructive from day one.
“We try not to repeat their rhetoric. You can’t use the buzzwords, because the moment you do that, you’re lost,” said South African representative Ariela Carno at the 2012 Congress of the World Union of Jewish Students this past week.
More than 80 internationals from 48 independent national Jewish Student Unions converged on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, Israel, for the congress. The multi-day event comprised a series of lectures, forums and focus groups on issues affecting Jewish students and their surrounding communities—including the serious problem of anti-Jewish propaganda mainstreamed into global opinion.
“As soon as these words come out, we have to fight it—or it becomes a coin of speech,” said Rachel Kedar, director of educational programs for the Anti-Defamation League’s Israeli office. Kedar said that many Jewish students steer clear of degrees in international relations or Middle East affairs, because the expectation on them in those fields is exhausting.
However, this burden cannot be evaded by studying in another field. Those who avoid learning what the political situation is or what the accusations are, those who distance themselves from association with the State of Israel, will still face confrontation.
“You don’t represent the State of Israel, you being Jewish … but to them you do,” Kedar said. “When people say to you, ‘You are Nazis. What you commit are war crimes,’ if you don’t know what war crimes are, you can’t defend us.”
Avoiding the argument also does nothing to dissolve anti-Jewish misunderstanding. There has been a very rapid and consistent homogenization of hostile sentiment among internationals against the Jewish people and Israel—a carbon copy of Middle Ages’ suspicion.
“There’s a much more vocal population on an anti-Israel side … not so concerned with facts,” said Adam Teitelbaum, Lorber Director of Jewish Programming and Philanthropy for the International Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity.
The Anti-Defamation League documents anti-Semitic articles and cartoons that appear daily in primarily Arab and Muslim media.
“Newspapers across the Arab world continue to feature anti-Semitic caricatures and themes, with demonic depictions of Jews that include big noses, black coats and hats, large skull caps, and many promoting age-old global Judaization conspiracy theories, including blood libel themes, Nazi symbols and the use of animal references – snakes, octopuses and scorpions – to sinisterly portray Israel,” the ADL’s January-June 2012 “Arab Media Review” writes.
In the 6-month compilation, the ADL records more than 80 anti-Jewish or anti-Israel cartoons and about 20 news-article excerpts libeling Jews and Israel , from countries such as Lebanon, Gaza and Egypt, and the United Kingdom.
But where are the demands for justice, for the broad-scope repeal of this agitating propaganda?
When the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten printed 12 editorial cartoons on the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 2005, the publication led to protests, violent demonstrations, riots and the deaths of more than 200 people worldwide. One blogger describes the drawings as “a symbol of the Muslim threat to free speech.”
Though the Jewish world is laudably not given to violent protest and rioting, its credibility and identity have continued to wear down from every deceptive label, every falsified picture, every slanderous depiction, every lie, every nuance and expression built with one goal: the destruction of Israel and the complete annihilation of the Jewish people.
“Anti-Semitic rhetoric is being slammed down our throats and we don’t know how to respond to it,” Teitelbaum said. “There’s such a fear of political correctness. … Understanding how to respond to it, it’s a war of attrition.”
The Anti-Defamation League offers significant resources to those in the crosshairs of slander and libel, including focused efforts to equip Jewish students to defend their people.
“Our job is to equip you. It’s a war of P.R. on campuses, and the more you know, the better you’ll be able to handle it,” Kedar said.
Even Jews themselves can be activated into self-destruction if they do not know the facts, if they do not identify the weapons used in this world war of words, and if they do not acknowledge the full picture, the players’ identities and intentions.
I invite you to be aware of the buzzwords, the subtly malignant nuances of speech that often are waved away as too small to be important.
Make a list of propagandist terms and avoid using them: Don’t replace “disputed territories” with “occupied territories.” Don’t label Israel as the “oppressor,” when facts show that it has provided abundant aid to its neighbors in Gaza, Judea and Samaria.
Even though their leaders continue to align themselves with terror and call for Israel’s destruction.
Even though their newspapers deny the Holocaust and muddy the fabric of Jewish identity by claiming its traditions are “satanic rituals.”
Equip yourself to fully understand the context, consequences and “correctness” of responding accurately to serious global issues such as the prevalent anti-Semitism on our college campuses and in our communities.
Don’t call evil good and good evil, and most of all, don’t just say nothing.
