When I first told my Israeli husband about the Kristof op ed claim, he laughed and asked - Who was it, the Egyptians?

Israelis are accustomed to the wild and ridiculous smear fantasies that come out of press in the Muslim world regularly. We laugh at them because they’re usually so insane that it’s hard to imagine even a child believing them.

I don’t think Americans realize this, but this kind of conspiracy theory - a weirdly large proportion of which involve animals - is actually completely normal in Arab-language press across the Middle East.

I remember about 20-ish years ago, watching the news in Israel… the news presenters snickering as they reported the Saudi headline warning people not to buy melons - apparently Israel was exporting melons to Arab countries that had been “injected with AIDS”.

Then there were the Mossad-trained sharks who were spies and also trained to eat Egyptians. This was seriously reported in Egyptian papers.

The Palestinians have claimed Israel trained wild pigs to make scary noises and dig up Arabs’ trees. This one was a real head-scratcher. Don’t worry - the Palestine Press Agency explained it - the Jews trained the pigs to distinguish between Arab and Jewish farms. So it makes sense.

Just last week, Fatah claimed that there are unusually large rats and mice in Gaza have been engineered and trained by Israel to attack people. It’s hard to believe that Fatah officials don’t know that The Princess Bride is Israel’s ultimate cult movie, but apparently they don’t.

In 2015, Hamas claimed that Israel trained dolphins fitted with cameras to spy on the organization and to attack them - I guess when they were swimming?

The Palestinians also came up with the Zionist “sex gum” conspiracy in Gaza - it was causing the youth to behave unbecomingly. That’s right - caught your teen having sex? The IDF air-dropped “sex gum”, what else could possibly explain this shameless immorality?

An Israeli-trained spy vulture was captured and detained by Saudi Arabia in 2011.

Of course there are all the old go-to’s like Jews did 9/11, Jews did the Boston Marathon bombing, Jews are behind every incident of a Quran being burned, Jews “spread homosexuality” in order to control the world (not sure about the logic there - I don’t think gay people are inherently more controllable than straight people but maybe I’m missing something). Yawn. Everyone knows about these.

They don’t publish this “news” because it’s true. It’s not satire.

They do it because their audiences want it to be true. In fact they need it to be true. One of the most dangerous possibilities in the dysfunctional mess of corruption that is most Arab dictatorships is this: what if all this isn’t because of the Jews?

It’s not about a crazy story here or there. When an entire society’s self image is fragile and teetering - for example when you’ve been raised to believe that the Jew is the lowest form of humanity and then you start and lose 5 wars against them - the steady drum beat of blame deflection is how you keep your ego intact. It’s how you reconcile what you think you deserve with a reality that is wanting. The momentum must be maintained. There needs to be a steady rhythm of “It’s the Jews”. A cadence without enough space in between beats for someone to entertain the thought that god’s promise of your supremacy being unrealized might have something to do with you. No no - it’s not that. It’s just that sometimes, Jew things happen to good people.

The wild colorfulness of the stories - all these brilliantly trained animals - is also telling about the egos of the “victims” of these plots. Jews don’t think about Muslims this way. We’re busy. The psychological war is one-sided - which is insulting to the side engaging in it. These crazy stories assign the level of importance to the storyteller he wants. Why would your enemy go to such extreme and elaborate lengths to hurt you? What could be more badass than getting your own dedicated department of the Mossad! Even if it is a totally weird zoo-like one.

This is what antisemitism is in most Muslim countries. It’s not just the licensed grievance, it’s affirmation of a war that doesn’t really exist, it’s what’s normal and predictable, it’s not extreme, it’s the train on the tracks that needs to keep going. So these stories keep coming. Whether they’re needed to explain something horrible like 9/11 or not. Even if the content is crazy. It’s a kind of norm-setting. It’s virtue signaling that has been going on for over 1000 years.

We all suffer from the need for stories to follow a certain arc and portray us in a way that affirms our sense of who we are.

The story of the American Left is being changed. The Free Palestine industrial complex is calling the shots of the progressive movement. What would they do if the real war ends?

Did you think that the ceasefire would mean “Free Palestine” would get to work with Palestinians to create a civil alternative to Hamas? Help de-radicalize young people so a two state solution would be possible? Shut up and go back to class?

That’s not what the encampment crowd came for. Their war isn’t over because their war was never about freedom for Palestinians. The Palestinians are just the front line in their war - which is and has always been - against Israel.

That war can’t end. Because then this movement wouldn’t need to exist. They need it to continue.

The New York Times’ campaign against Israel of the last 2.5 years has become a drum beat, the train of anti-Israel accusations in steady rhythm, with not enough time between beats to actually analyze claims. The fact-checking standards slowly edging downwards (because why bother - this isn’t about truth anymore). The Kristof article represents a step-change into a new realm - knowingly publishing unchallenged propaganda.

The rape dog libel is business-as-usual bullshit from Hamas-infiltrated NGO’s in the Middle East. What’s newsworthy is the slithering of these tactics into the Western press. But maybe this was predictable. Every test the Times performed indicated they should keep going. Falsely claiming Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza - it’s what their readers wanted. Photos falsely claiming a child with severe incurable cerebral palsy was being starved to death by Israel - it’s what their readers wanted. Misapplication of the term genocide - even before it would have been physically possible to determine if it was true - and continuing to hammer on it even after the ICC prosecutor admits it can’t be sustained - it’s what their readers wanted. False reporting of starvation blamed on Israel (Egypt’s border with Gaza isn’t even a minor logical inconvenience for the intelligent Times reader) - it’s what their readers wanted. So why not just take the plunge into complete erasure of journalistic standards when it comes to Israel - the goal isn’t journalism here - it’s maintaining a relevance of the progressive movement - whose current form is fueled by obsession with Israel.

The New York Times has made a bet with the Kristof libel: That their readers need this. That they will forgo real journalism in exchange for incitement against Jews. That they’ll sacrifice truth on the altar of the Progressive movement.

I know the New York Times is wrong about Israel. God help us I hope they’re wrong about Americans too.

When I first told my husband (Israeli. Served in the IDF like most Israelis) about the article, he laughed. He really thought I was joking.

Because he respects Americans and it never occurred to him that any significant number of them would believe such a ridiculous lie. Israelis are accustomed to the wild and ridiculous smear fantasies that come out of the Arab language press regularly. We laugh at them because they’re usually so insane that it’s hard to imagine even a child believing them. In fact when I told my husband about the rape dog claim, he assumed it came from the Egyptian media - they came up with the spy sharks trained by the Mossad. Surely no self-respecting journalist would put that in front of American readers and expect their reputation to not be instantly destroyed. Right?

Maybe Americans don’t realize this, but this kind of conspiracy theory - a weirdly large proportion of which involve animals - is actually completely normal in the Arab-language press across the Middle East.

I remember about 20-ish years ago, watching the news in Israel… the news presenters snickering as they reported the Saudi headline warning people not to buy melons - apparently Israel was exporting melons to Arab countries that had been “injected with AIDS”.

Then there were the Mossad-trained sharks who were not just spies the Jews also trained them to eat Egyptians. This was seriously reported in Egyptian papers.

The Palestinians have claimed Israel trained wild pigs to make scary noises and dig up Arabs’ trees. Have questions? Don’t worry - the Palestine Press Agency explained it - the Jews trained the pigs to distinguish between Arab and Jewish farms. So it makes sense.

Just 2 weeks ago, Fatah claimed that there are unusually large rats and mice in Gaza have been engineered and trained by Israel to attack people. It’s hard to believe that Fatah officials don’t know that The Princess Bride is Israel’s ultimate cult movie, but apparently they don’t.

In 2015, Hamas claimed that Israel trained dolphins fitted with cameras to spy on the organization and to attack them.

The Palestinians also came up with the Zionist “sex gum” conspiracy in Gaza - it was causing the youth to behave unbecomingly. That’s right - caught your teen having sex? The IDF air-dropped “sex gum”, what else could possibly explain this shameless immorality?

An Israeli-trained spy vulture was captured and detained by Saudi Arabia in 2011.

Of course there are all the old go-to’s like Jews did 9/11, Jews did the Boston Marathon bombing, Jews are behind every incident of a Quran being burned, Jews “spread homosexuality” in order to control the world (not sure about the logic there). Yawn. Everyone knows about these.

They don’t publish this “news” because it’s true. It’s not satire. They don’t publish it because they are trying to convince people of something (it would need to be less crazy if that were the case).

They do it because their audiences want it. In fact they need it to be true. One of the most dangerous possibilities in the dysfunctional mess of corruption that is most Arab dictatorships is this: what if all this isn’t because of the Jews?

It’s not about a crazy story here or there. When an entire society’s self image is fragile and teetering - for example when you’ve been raised to believe that the Jew is the lowest form of humanity and then you start and lose 5 wars against them - the steady drum beat of blame deflection is how you keep your ego intact. It’s how you reconcile what you think you deserve with a reality that is wanting. The momentum must be maintained. There needs to be a steady rhythm of “It’s the Jews”. A cadence without enough space in between beats for someone to entertain the thought that god’s unfulfilled promise of your supremacy might have something to do with you. No no - it’s not that. It’s just that sometimes, Jew things happen to good people.

I believe the colorfulness of the stories - all these brilliantly trained animals - this is just to give the “victims” of these plots a feeling of self-importance. Why would your enemy go to such extreme and elaborate lengths to hurt you? You must be a serious badass to get your own dedicated department of the Mossad. (which paradoxically is some sort of zoo in the Islamist imagination)

If you’re having trouble relating to this, here’s a version that’s more familiar to the Western palate: Try to imagine a Jimmy Kimmel monologue that doesn’t talk about Trump. Try to imagine a Fox News broadcast that doesn’t mention “woke ideology”. There is a rhythmic repetition of a theme and it becomes an expectation - to the point that its absence would almost be jarring. It would be like walking into a McDonalds and seeing a salad bar.

This is what antisemitism is in most Muslim countries. It’s not just the licensed grievance, it’s affirming, it’s what’s normal and predictable, it’s not extreme, it’s an organizing principle. So these stories keep coming. Whether they’re needed to explain something horrible like 9/11 or not. Even if the content is crazy. It’s a kind of norm-setting. It’s virtue signaling that has been going on for over 1000 years.

We all suffer from the need for stories to follow a certain arc and portray us in a way that affirms our sense of who we are. And those stories do change. 80 years ago, the white American story that excluded black people from the same spaces as whites was morally normal. Today, that story evokes visceral shame for all but a fringe of people we consider racists.

The story of the American Left is being changed. The Free Palestine industrial complex is here and they really like their prominent position of calling the shots of the progressive movement. They want to scream. But the war is over. What are they supposed to do? Work with Palestinians to create a civil alternative to Hamas? Help deradicalize young people so a two state solution would be possible? Apparently that’s not what the encampment crowd came for. Their war isn’t over. “Free Palestine” is just a slogan. The Palestinians are the front line in their war - which is against Israel.

The disproportionate coverage of - even obsession with - Israel of the last 2.5 years has become a drum beat, the train of anti-Israel accusations in steady rhythm, with not enough time between beats to actually analyze claims. The fact-checking standards slowly edging downwards (because why bother - this isn’t about truth anymore). The Kristof article represents a step-change into a new realm - knowingly publishing unchallenged propaganda.

It’s not surprising. Every test the Times performed indicated they should keep going. Falsely claiming Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza - it’s what their readers wanted. Photos falsely claiming a child with severe incurable cerebral palsy was being starved to death by Israel - it’s what their readers wanted. Misapplication of the term genocide - even before it would have been physically possible to determine if it was true - and continuing to hammer on it even after the ICC prosecutor admits it can’t be sustained - it’s what their readers wanted. False reporting of starvation blamed on Israel (Egypt’s border with Gaza isn’t even a minor logical inconvenience for the intelligent Times reader) - it’s what their readers wanted. So why not just take the plunge into complete erasure of journalistic standards when it comes to Israel? The Times has discovered what every Egyptian news paper has known since the 1950s: Truth doesn’t matter when it comes to Jews.

The Kristof libel is another test. Understand what it means about what the New York Times thinks of its readers: That they need this. That they need their daily doses of Israel-focused outrage - even if that means antisemitic libel - it doesn’t even matter if the content is too ridiculous for even a child to believe. That without it, the paper is irrelevant to their lives. The New York Times has made a bet: That their readers’ need to Jew hatred more than they need real journalism.

I know the New York Times is wrong about Israel. God help us I hope they’re wrong about Americans too

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