Contact The Editor
Articles By This Author
"Is this what 1930s Germany looked like?"
That's the question my wife asked me in the weeks following Oct. 7.
"No," I answered. "Not yet."
In prewar Germany, government policy and state-sponsored propaganda fueled the inferno of violent antisemitism. In America, at least, the government still condemns Jew-hatred and — for the most part — prosecutes anti-Jewish hate crimes.
But for how long?
Newly elected representatives Darializa Avila Chevalier of New York, Melat Kiros of Colorado and Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan all won their districts easily despite relentlessly repeating the malignant fiction of Gazan "genocide." NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani couldn't make it through a speech mourning victims of the Oct. 7 massacre without parroting the same heinous slander.
Meanwhile, ousted Rep. Haley Stevens has been pilloried by her own party and is receiving death threats for the crime of demanding integrity over blind party loyalty. As a Jew, I would like to have confidence in constitutional protections and the rule of law. But it's getting harder, staring down the barrel of antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism, radicals elected to Congress and the wholesale abandonment of facts, logic and history in favor of mindless sloganeering.
"From the river to the sea" is nothing but a brazen call to purge all Jews from the land of Israel. How perverse is it to accuse Israelis of committing genocide by defending themselves against genocide?
Before 1948, nearly a million Jews resided in Arab lands; today, 99% have been driven out or fled for their lives. In Israel, by contrast, Arabs sit in parliament, serve as supreme court justices and play on national soccer teams. There have been Arab deputy prime ministers and even an Arab Miss Israel. So, who is actually guilty of apartheid?
Israel returned Gaza to Arab rule in 2005. Israel also offered to return up to 97% of the so-called West Bank to Arab governance in 1967, 1993, 2000 and 2007, only to have the offer rejected each time by Arab leaders. Archaeological and historical evidence places Jews in Israel 3,000 years ago, whereas seventh-century Muslim invaders conquered and occupied at least half of today's 22 Arab countries. So, who are the real "colonizers"?
How can we explain this unhinged rhetoric and brazen disregard for facts? Are the purveyors of anti-Jewish hate speech true believers blinded by willful ignorance? Or are they political opportunists indulging in this week's addition to the Ethical Lexicon:
Demagoguery (dem*a*gogu*ery/ dem-uh-gog-uh-ree) noun
Consolidation of power by appealing to the emotions, fears, prejudices and popular desires in place of reasoned arguments, facts or moral principles.
Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels understood that if you repeat the same message over and over, the masses will eventually believe that it's true. Paradoxically, the more outrageous the message, the more readily listeners come to accept it. The subconscious mind concludes that no one could possibly invent such an outlandish claim; therefore, it must be so.
It's called The Big Lie, a technique effectively employed by Joseph McCarthy, Joseph Stalin and, of course, Adolf Hitler. But if leaders, pundits and politicos have confidence in the authenticity of their own positions and platforms, why must they resort to lies?
There are two possible answers. One is that they've bought into an emotionally rewarding narrative without concern for whether it's true. They know they can't present a coherent argument, so they double down on their ideology. Lacking any rational defense for their positions, they attack again and again with smoke and mirrors.
The second possibility is that they don't care about either truth or resolution. Their only goal is to retain control over their own power base by rallying them against a fabricated enemy.
Leaders who disseminate disinformation about Israel are typically in the second group. Acolytes who credulously consume their disinformation are in the first.
Intellectual incoherence is easy to spot, nowhere more than among antisemites. Jews have been hated for being rich and for being poor; for blending in and for remaining apart; for being subhuman vermin and for controlling the governments and the banks.
There is no logic to Jew-hatred; and that is precisely the point. The question is, who is worse: the demagogues who deal in malicious slander or the willfully ignorant who empower them?
The more important question is this: What are we going to do about it?
Rabbi Yonason Goldson is a nationally syndicated columnist, keynote speaker, award-winning podcast host, and executive coach with Vistage Worldwide, Inc. His observations on culture and ethics have been cited in Forbes, Time, Newsweek, and the Washington Post. He has given two TEDx Talks, published seven books, and serves as Executive Vice President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, Missouri Chapter. Visit him at ethicsninja.com.
Previously:
• The cure is woven into the fabric of our world
• The Idiot Genius Problem
• For Better or Worse, Your Words Become Your Thoughts
• What enables us to hold onto the past by compelling us to live in the present?
• Before we expect justice from others, we need to demand justice from ourselves
• Play allows our soul to thrive
• Get Outside your Head to Look Inside your Mind
• Seeking Peace Does Not Demand Surrender
• The real-world tragedy of Inexcusable Educational Malpractice
• Why do the willfully ignorant mutate into the most intransigent ideologues?
• More Dangerous than FOMO: The Fear of Not Being Missed
• Eyes wide shut
• Increase performance by turning into the wind
• Balancing the Equation of Intentions vs. Outcomes
• To be Human is to be Exceptional
• If You Get Where You're Going, You've Taken the Wrong Road
• Think Twice Before You Take Advice
• Taking intellectual humility seriously
• What are we?
• Are we Pillaging our own Moral Depository?
• Why Sharp Tongues Lose the War of Words
• Good Intentions Never Prevail Over Cold Reality
• Sarcastic Wit Carries Too High a Cost
• Character, not as a bank account. Rather, an investment portfolio
• Are We Programming Ourselves Out of Existence?
• The bigger they come, the harder we try to make them fall
• How to Transform Fallacies Into Actionable Reality
• How to make life worth living --- no, REALLY!
• What Do Opposites Attract? Truth and Wisdom
• Groucho Marx and Embracing Tension
• Toward a more civil civilization
• Break Down Barriers of Thought to Build Towers of Innovation
• 'Tis the Season for Reflecting Beyond your Reflection
• Why Antisemitism Is Not Just a Jewish Problem
• The rank stupidity of 'Just let it go'
• To create a functioning, biblically-based civilization
• The difference between optimism and hope
• The Next Piece of the Puzzle Might Fill the Hole in Your Heart
• Self-Esteem Isn't Given -- It's Earned
• Remember the Past to Promote a Successful Future
• Are We Making Failure the Price of Success?
• Demoralization Is More About Culture than Feelings
• The Lesson We're Missing From the Death of Charlie Kirk
• Invest in Your Own Success by Building Up Others
• The Most Valiant Heroes Fight on a Different Battlefield
• How Pundits Came to Give Punditry a Bad Name
• The Wisdom of Knowing What You Don't Know
• Success Thrives in the Light of Purpose and Passion
• When Seeking Peace, Don't Release the Dogs of War
• Greta Thunberg Sails Toward Moral Hypocrisy
• Checking More Boxes Is Not the Solution
• Why Sometimes NOT Seeing Is MORE Believing
• A Healthy Diet for the Brain Promotes Ethical Clarity for the Mind
(COMMENT, BELOW)