Israel works hard to connect themselves to the Jewish people, they even passed the Nation-State Bill officially calling Israel the nation-state of the Jewish People; so it should be no surprise that opposition to Israel or its actions is often mistakenly expressed as opposition to Jews completely uninvolved in the conflict. This trend is well documented and should serve as a reminder that Jews being associated with Israel is only a danger.

In The Wake of War in Gaza

Two months after the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza began, the United States experienced a 337% increase in anti-Semitic incidents according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), this included 40 incidents of physical assault. Similarly, France saw an explosion of antisemitism resulting in 486 arrests in just the first month of the war including the stabbing of a Jewish woman in Lyon with a swastika painted outside her home. The Community Security Trust, a British organization that tracks antisemitism, reported a 537% increase in incidents following October 7th compared to that span last year. According to the ADL other countries saw even sharper spikes; 738% in Australia, 818% in The Netherlands, and 961% in Brazil.

While the precise numbers may be hard to pin down because the issue of antisemitism itself has been politicized for the purpose of Zionism; the anecdotal evidence certainly confirms the relationship between Israel’s war in Gaza and global antisemitism.

The ADL reports that a poster reading “The Jews are the cancer of the world” was hung in Rio de Janerio, a historic synagogue in Tunisa was burned by rioters, Molotov Cocktails were thrown at the Kahal Adass Jisroel synagogue in Berlin, two men poured gasoline on the door of an apartment belonging to an 80 year-old Jewish couple and set in on fire apparently chosen because it was the only door with a mezuzah, and the list goes on. These are not common occurrences around the world and all unfolded in the weeks following the military conflict in Gaza.

Continuing a Trend

This pattern is unfortunately easy to predict. The same happened following the 2021 Operation Guardians on the Wall when Israel fought both Hamas in Gaza and Palestinians rioters in the West Bank. Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) released a report examining the “wave of antisemetic events in the US in May 2021 during and immediately after Operation Guardians of the Wall” according the the INSS “. . .the operation ignited [antisemites] and enabled them to move from the realm of ideas into the public space. For this reason, in this wave of antisemitism, it is possible to analyze the problematic elements and the underlying trends that promote and spread antisemitism, particularly when Israel is involved.”

Seven years earlier, in the wake of the 2014 Israel-Gaza War, the last time the IDF had entered Gaza, antisemitic attacks spiked in the US and Western Europe according to a report from Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry This included the horrific attack on the Hypercache Kosher supermarket in Paris where a gunman killed four Jews and took 15 hostages. Dina Porat, an editor of the report, points out at in response to Israel’s actions “Synagogues were attacked, not Israeli embassies.”

While 2014 was not a good year in terms of antisemitism, the report does mention that is was only the second biggest spike of the decade. Worse was the fallout from the 2008-2009’s Operation Cast Lead, when antisemitic incidents in 2009 doubled compared with 2008 and was followed by a “significant decline” in 2010. With Britain’s Community Security Trust calling January 2009 “the worst month ever in Britain for antisemitic incidents, in the wake of Israel’s actions in Gaza.” Silvyo Obadya, editor-in-chief of the Turkish Jewish newspaper Salom stated that following the 2009 conflict, “every speech criticizing Israel has a tendency to turn into cries of ‘Damn Jews.’ I don’t recall such an atmosphere previously.”

This correlation was best summed up by the head of the Great Mosque of Paris, Dalil Boubakeur, who said that the relationship between Jews and Muslims in France is completely dependent on developments in the Middle East. The same has been proven true in much of the rest of the world.

“Representative of the Entire Jewish People”

Why would people upset about the actions of politicians in the Middle East direct their anger at Jews who have never show any particular opinion or support for those actions?

In 2015 Sen. Diane Feinstein harshly criticized comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who was on his way to the US to speak about the Iran Deal. Referring to speech he had made in France he said, “I went to Paris not just as the prime minister of Israel but as a representative of the entire Jewish people.” From be beginning of the state they have always claimed that Israel is not a state of its citizens, the Israelis, rather a state of the Jews and their representatives to the world. This is the result.