The sharp rise in antisemitism that convulsed cities in the U.S. and around the world last month was predicated on the lie Israel’s actions were those of an aggressor, Aaron Klein, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, outlined Monday.
Writing in a featured contribution to the Times of Israel online, Klein said Jew-haters leapt into action following weeks of nonstop blood libels hurled at Israel for the simple act of defending itself against Hamas terrorist rockets.
Hamas talking points, promoting the terror group’s false narratives about the causes of the conflict and Israeli self-defense actions, then began to be echoed in the news media, entertainment industry and diplomatic channels.
The same anti-Israel propaganda was parroted on the streets of cities around the world, excoriating the Jewish state for simply trying to ensure its own survival, as Breitbart News reported.
The “Free Palestine” protest against Israel in London descended into violence on Saturday, with activists attacking police officers with wooden sticks. https://t.co/DctS2BVGv6
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 16, 2021
Echoing Winston Churchill’s dictum that a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on, Klein pointed to the fact Hamas willingly deceived about “mythical Israeli threats to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque” as reason for its actions.
The pre-planned attacks came even though Israel is the only country in the region that “guarantees freedom of worship for all religions and despite massive numbers of Muslims visiting the site annually during Ramadan without incident.”
Klein, who was the editor of Breitbart Jerusalem before leaving to join Netanyahu’s political team, pointed to the political motives underpinning Hamas’s ultimate aim for the total destruction of the Jewish state: He wrote:
Almost entirely missing from the public debate was Hamas’s obvious motive in starting the Gaza violence. Specifically, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to unilaterally cancel parliamentary elections in which Hamas was expected to dominate and gain a major stronghold in the West Bank in addition to ruling Gaza.
Rather than letting Abbas block their rise to power, Hamas ignited the Palestinian street against Israel on false pretenses and launched a terror war aiming to position Hamas as the defenders of Jerusalem and the larger Palestinian cause.
What followed was weeks of terror rocket attacks aimed at Israel’s heavily populated central cities including Tel Aviv, Rishon LeTzion, Bat Yam, Petach Tikva, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beer Sheva and the towns closer to the Gaza envelope.
As Klein explained, no country on earth would tolerate incessant terror rocket attacks against its population by a group sworn its annihilation. The Israel Defense Forces rightly struck at Hamas infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip to stop the attacks and create deterrence.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck more than 100 targets in Gaza overnight after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets at civilians. https://t.co/M3kLaXyAUC
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 12, 2021
One notable point of contention for the anti-Israel mob came when the IDF used precision munitions to flatten a cleared 12-story tower in Gaza that housed a Hamas headquarters for carrying out strikes on Israelis.
Klein pointed out the complex “was used as a Hamas operations base for gathering information to wage terror war, R&D operations for weapons systems and positioning equipment to hamper IDF operations.” He continued:
Yet anti-Israel ideologues went into overdrive painting a misleading picture of Israel bombing journalists’ offices as if Israeli military leaders woke up in the morning and decided to attack the free press. Those critics only encourage Hamas to further place journalists and other civilians in harms way by embedding their terror infrastructure in civilian zones knowing that Israel – and not Hamas – will face international censure for legitimately protecting itself.
Ultimately it is the purveyors of anti-Israel propaganda that feed antisemitism, Klein wrote by way of conclusion, saying they are just as responsible for the violent consequences as the hapless miscreants on the streets of America and Europe attacking Jews for the simple fact that they exist.
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