“Don’t Mention the Genocide”
The Zionist “Soft” Response
Recently I opened an email from a lifelong learning program, hoping to find an interesting course. I found this:
“Antisemitism - Bad and Getting Worse”
The description included the following:
“This 2000 year-old hate movement is experiencing a toxic resurgence in the US and Europe. We will examine the why, where, and how it’s happening. We will look at the impact of the Gaza war, Zionism and college campus unrest. And we will talk about what’s being done to fight back against antisemitism.”
Where to begin? Each sentence includes at least one lie, exaggeration, or dubious premise.
First, antisemitism is not 2000 years old. It is a modern political tendency used by both the Right and the Left to stereotype, scapegoat, isolate, and eventually attempt to exterminate Jews. Born of both anti-Jewish hatred and the pseudo-science of “race” studies, this form of racism began in Europe, spreading elsewhere, including the United States. The term “antisemitism,” an absurdity as there was no “Semitism” movement to oppose, was a neologism popularized by the German journalist and political figure Wilhelm Marr in the mid-1800s to describe contemporary violence against Jews in Central Europe.
Jewish communities, like other religious or ethnic minorities, did experience discrimination and hatred for centuries, especially in Christian Europe. However, conflating the earlier religious persecution with the more virulent political movement that descended into the Nazi Holocaust is ahistorical and often motivated by Zionist goals. For a deep dive into the meanings of antisemitism and its use as a political tool, see Norman Finkelstein’s “Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History.”
Next, the “toxic resurgence” of antisemitism - clear-eyed assessment or histrionic overstatement? 2025 was a year of attacks against and a few murders of Jews, notably Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a young couple who worked in the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC. The attempted arson against Governor Shapiro’s residence in Pennsylvania during Passover was also a high-profile crime. Confrontations between pro-Zionist and anti-Zionist protesters happened frequently in some locations, especially in New York City.
But how many US Jews simply had their feelings hurt by hearing “Free, free Palestine” or “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at rallies or other events, or had unexpectedly contentious arguments with colleagues, or were called “Zionists” in a rude tone of voice, and how many suffered real discrimination or significant harassment in public accommodations, employment, education, and other practical matters is impossible to determine. The distinction is important.
In 2024, the pro-Palestinian encampments on UCLA’s and Columbia’s campuses were brutally smashed down. University administrators were forced to resign. Beloved members of their university communities, international graduate students Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk, were snatched by ICE agents and taken to a notorious ICE detention facility in Louisiana, and only saved from deportation by sustained activism and legal work. Pro-Palestinian students, including well-known podcaster Guy Christensen, were suspended or ejected from their colleges for advocating for Palestinians’ rights. At vigils and marches, people of all ages and ethnicities, including very elderly survivors of the Holocaust, have been screamed at, cursed, threatened with rape or death, assaulted, and otherwise treated abusively by “Stand with Israel” types, often while cops stand by doing nothing.
Finally, consistently naming a genocide recognized by virtually every academic and humanitarian organization a “war” falsely characterizes what the State of Israel has been and is committing, with vast military and political support from the United States. This framing calls into question the validity of this course. Its title states a conclusion, rather than a topic to be explored with open minds.
As the Israeli genocide in Gaza grinds on in its third bitter and lethal winter, with a fake “ceasefire,” including over 900 Israeli violations causing hundreds of Palestinian deaths and over 1000 wounded, and the expulsion of 37 international humanitarian aid organizations, the Israeli plan is clear. Push the exhausted Gazans toward the Mediterranean Sea or through the Rafah Crossing into Egypt so that the strip of land can be redeveloped for private profit by Trump’s relatives and cronies, and resettlement by Orthodox Jewish fanatics. Rhetorical support for the sadism on the ground includes efforts to deny, minimize, rename, and distract from the horrific reality of mass murder and ethnic “cleansing.”
The soft Zionist response to the genocide, not “only “of Gaza but as is increasingly obvious, of all of occupied Palestine, is underway. This Learning in Retirement course is but one tiny part.
Another part include recently published books such as one by Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of Park Avenue Synagogue in NYC, “For Such a Time As This,” whose title is based on a key phrase in the Book of Esther. The Jewish Book Council’s review describes Cosgrove’s response to the attack by Palestinian fighters on October 7th: “…the unimaginable slaughter that occurred; clarity that this was unadorned evil and must be called out” but nowhere does the rabbi even mention the word “Gaza” let alone “call out” a genocide perpetrated by Jews, a far greater “unimaginable slaughter.”
A book authored by a well-known rabbi, published by a reputable publisher, sounds so thoughtful, so measured, and then comes the reiteration of Israeli lies about mass rapes and related atrocities by Palestinian fighters on October 7th. (I’ve read the book and have written to Rabbi Cosgrove, reminding him of the Ninth Commandment - “Thou shalt not bear false witness” - to no response.) Is this a new subgenre? It is, of course, outrageous that HarperCollins allowed these lies to be published, when they have been widely debunked.
Lies in nonfiction books are consequential. Libraries give their contents a stamp of legitimacy. Books are far more durable and discussed longer than social media posts or newspaper reports. Propaganda, repeated by well-known religious leaders and authors, becomes “history” or “what everyone knows happened.”
Talks by rabbis and other Jewish notables in churches or in multi-ethnic community settings tug at the heartstrings of Christians who want to be (or at least appear) solid allies. I attended such a talk in an Episcopal church by a retired Reform rabbi, with long experience leading a big, upscale congregation in Los Angeles. A handsome, suavely confident man, the rabbi described a recent trip to Paris with his wife, recalling his musings about the Nazis using the hotel he visited as a detention and torture facility for Jews. He then developed his theme, both an appeal and a warning: be nice to us Jews, or you’ll resemble those nasty killers. The rabbi received a standing ovation.
“Being nice” includes only mild and shallow criticism of Israel, keeping any negative assessments far from the root cause of the tragedy of Palestine: Zionism. The “conflict” is to be acknowledged (if at all) with euphemisms; Netanyahu and a few others in his government, and/or possibly “the settlers” can be deplored. A brighter day of mutual respect and peace, with no mention of justice or reparations for the devastated, displaced Palestinians, is to be wished for. No serious prognostication is offered of how this brighter day will ever dawn after years of catastrophic bombing and siege and torture, and decades of brutal occupation and apartheid laws, except for a mention of support for the now dead-as-a-coffinnail “two state solution.”
I’ve gone into detail about only a few of the many methods that seek to squelch anti-Zionist/anti-Israel criticism and/or deflect attention to other issues, the ones that have crossed my path, so to speak. Others are available or in development. CBS “News” under the command of ultra-Zionist Bari Weiss has already offered up a “town hall” with the widow of Charley Kirk, seeking to cover up Kirk’s turning away from Zionist money and pressure shortly before his public assassination. Numerous magazine articles, films and TV shows purporting to be documentaries, and websites are now or will soon be accessible to a gullible public. A TV commercial that played during NFL games last week focused on the threat of rising antisemitism. How many will air during the 2026 Super Bowl?
Given how thoroughly and long US and Israeli Zionists have directly and indirectly defamed Palestinians and propagandized for their “side” during what Professor Rashid Khalidi names “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine,” and given their immense resources, they may now think that this attempted erasure of an ongoing genocide will succeed. More fundraising, more media appearances, more $7000-each social media posts by “volunteers,” more campaign contributions to Congressmembers, more “campaigns” about the outrage du jour, more targeting of pro-Palestinian teachers, students, activists, journalists - it all keeps the Zionist system, which has invaded most Jewish institutions and minds, humming along. It’s always Groundhog Day in the Zionists’ calendar: antisemitism is always getting worse, and they always have ways to find it and “fight” it.
There’s no reason for those of us who oppose the genocide of Palestinians to be complacent that the horrifying reality will eventually reach everyone. I find the title of Omar El-Akkad’s memoir, “One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This,” to be too optimistic. I fear that “one day, everyone except for the committed pro-Palestine activists will have forgotten or misremembered this” to be a more accurate prediction. (I would love to be wrong about that.) The Zionist “soft” counteroffensive against Palestine Solidarity, as well as the more blatant, obviously genocidal pronouncements, will have to be exposed and opposed. Our work lies before us, often in places we thought were safe and familiar.
Note: “Don’t mention the genocide” is a reference to the British “Fawlty Towers” skit, “Don’t Mention the War.” Watch it here.