{"id":270347,"date":"2026-08-30T18:05:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T18:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/270347\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T18:05:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T18:05:33","slug":"why-israel-the-double-standard-behind-the-worlds-obsession-with-jews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/270347\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Israel? The double standard behind the world\u2019s obsession with Jews"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Candice Owens\u2019, Tucker Carlsons\u2019 and Zohran Mamdanis\u2019<\/a> of today\u2019s America feel free to malign Israel and Jews with malicious, shameless and baseless accusations, amplified by social media, one is entitled to ask: What is happening to America?<\/p>\n

Why has Israel become the convenient scapegoat for virtually every political, social and humanitarian problem in the Middle East<\/a> \u2013 and increasingly, in the wider world?<\/p>\n

Why are Jews, representing barely 0.2% of the world\u2019s population, so frequently portrayed as responsible for events over which they have neither control nor influence?<\/p>\n

And why is Israel held to standards that are applied to virtually no other country?<\/p>\n

These are not merely rhetorical questions. They go to the heart of a disturbing phenomenon in contemporary political discourse: the normalization of anti-Israel prejudice, frequently dressed up as legitimate political criticism.<\/p>\n

\"DEMOCRATICDEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks outside the Islamic Cultural Center of the Bronx on Friday. The writer asks: Does Mamdani still not understand that anti-Israel rhetoric has generated a sharp spike in antisemitic violence? (credit: Mike Segar\/Reuters)<\/p>\n

Of course, Israel, like every state, is not beyond criticism. Policies should be and are scrutinized and debated. But there is a fundamental difference between legitimate criticism of Israeli policy and the systematic, blind and naive demonization of Israel as uniquely evil, illegitimate or criminal by an international community blinded by division.<\/p>\n

The distinction becomes especially important when criticism of Israel is accompanied by a double standard.<\/p>\n

Where are the comparable demands for international sanctions against countries that deliberately murder, torture or expel their own populations? Where is the same outrage directed at regimes that suppress women, LGBTQ communities, persecute minorities, imprison political opponents or launch wars of aggression?<\/p>\n

Why is Israel routinely singled out at international forums while some of the world\u2019s worst violators of human rights escape comparable scrutiny?<\/p>\n

And why is the Jewish state, alone among the nations of the world, so often expected to justify its very existence?<\/p>\n

These questions become even more troubling when the history of the region is ignored.<\/p>\n

Israel did not create the Arab-Israeli conflict. It did not initiate the rejection of the 1947 United Nations partition proposal. It did not invent terrorism as a political instrument. And it did not compel generations of Palestinian and Arab leaders to reject opportunities for negotiated accommodation.<\/p>\n

Nor did Israel create Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah<\/a> or Iran\u2019s policy of seeking Israel\u2019s destruction.<\/p>\n

Yet whenever Israel defends itself against terrorism or armed attack, an extraordinary reversal frequently takes place. The aggressor disappears from the narrative, while Israel becomes the principal culprit.<\/p>\n

This inversion of responsibility is not merely intellectually dishonest. It can have deadly consequences.<\/p>\n

The October 7 massacre<\/a> demonstrated what happens when a terrorist organization is allowed to operate on the assumption that Israel\u2019s response will be constrained by international condemnation while the terrorists themselves will be shielded by political rhetoric.<\/p>\n

The victims of terrorism are then transformed into the alleged perpetrators, while those who deliberately attack civilians are presented as freedom fighters.<\/p>\n

Blurred line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism<\/p>\n

There is another disturbing dimension to this phenomenon: the increasingly blurred line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.<\/p>\n

It may be legitimate to criticize Israeli policies, but when Jews throughout the world are held collectively responsible for Israel\u2019s actions; when Jews are physically accosted, Jewish institutions are attacked because of events in the Middle East; when Jewish students are intimidated; or when Jewish communities are told that they must condemn Israel to prove their moral legitimacy, something far more sinister is taking place.<\/p>\n

The old accusation from time immemorial that Jews are responsible for society\u2019s problems has simply acquired a modern vocabulary and is now accompanied overtly by violence and intimidation.<\/p>\n

The question therefore must be asked: Why Israel? Why the Jews? Why this extraordinary obsession?<\/p>\n

Perhaps the answer lies in both political and social convenience. Israel is a small, identifiable and highly visible target. It is easier to mobilize public anger against a democratic state than against authoritarian regimes whose governments control information and suppress dissent. It has always been easier to mobilize anger against Jews, especially in Europe. The fact that history is repeating itself with vengeance is reason for utmost concern<\/p>\n

But convenience cannot justify hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

Those who genuinely believe in human rights, international law and the protection of civilians should apply those principles universally. They should condemn terrorism regardless of its perpetrators, defend civilian life regardless of nationality, and demand accountability from all states, organizations and societies that violate fundamental norms.<\/p>\n

Israel should be judged by the same standards as every other country \u2013 not by lower standards, but certainly not by impossibly higher ones.<\/p>\n

The alternative is not justice. It is prejudice masquerading as principle.<\/p>\n

Israel will continue to face criticism. That is part of being a democratic state. But criticism becomes unacceptable when facts are deliberately distorted, history is erased, responsibility is inverted, and an entire people are demonized.<\/p>\n

The time has come to ask the uncomfortable questions \u2013 and to insist on honest answers.<\/p>\n

For if Israel and the Jews are blamed for everything, sooner or later we must ask whether the problem lies not with Israel or the Jews, but with those who have made blaming them their political reflex.<\/p>\n

The writer served as a legal adviser to the United Nations, as the legal adviser to Israel\u2019s foreign ministry and Israel\u2019s ambassador to Canada. He presently directs the International Law program at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Candice Owens\u2019, Tucker Carlsons\u2019 and Zohran Mamdanis\u2019 of today\u2019s America feel free to malign Israel and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[40632,37,502,49,1243,82,8983],"class_list":["post-270347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-islamic-jihad","tag-israel","tag-jews","tag-middle-east","tag-united-nations","tag-world-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117185788284288773","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}