Western Hamasniks must come to terms with Israel’s existence

“From the River to the Sea” is a slogan we are all used to hearing – but the other half of the slogan, “Palestine is Arab”, is also becoming more common as people feel empowered to reveal their true objectives. “Palestine is Arab” is an ultranationalist slogan much like “Keep Britain White”, allowing a seamless segue from one racist fantasy to another.

We used to associate the slogan “go back to your own country” with the far right. But now people shout “go back to Poland” at Jews without any risk to their supposedly anti-racist credentials.

“One looks for love and passion and finds slogans” wrote the Central Association of German Jews in its 1925 newspaper review of Mein Kampf. Ironically, Western society has found that the way to cleanse its guilt about its anti-Jewish nationalist movements is by adopting the slogans of another nationalist movement that wants to remove Jews. Echoing the sentiments of those older movements, this is seen as fighting injustice.

This destructive urge against Jewish self-determination in the ancestral homeland is, of course, part of the very framework of Western civilisation, with ancient roots. In his Doctrine of Jewish Witness, Bishop Augustine created the idea that Jewish loss of self-rule in their homeland was evidence that Christians had replaced Jews – “supersessionism”. Society used this to measure its self-confidence and sense of supremacy.

Paranoia about Jewish self-determination returning emerged in medieval England with the blood libel. The monk Thomas of Monmouth created the template, fantasising that Jewish scriptures demanded the blood of children as a precondition for the return of Jews to their homeland and self-determination.

His conspiracy fiction about Jews undermining Christian supremacy turned people into homicidal maniacs all over Europe. And now in 2024 people across the Western world are again calling Jews “child killers”, empowered by a group who believe that the existence of a Jewish state undermines their Islamist vision. They disavow the previous incarnations of blood libel, but argue that it is legitimate this time because it is right and true.

Historically when diaspora Jews finally did get rights, there were conditions. Demands that they give up the part of their identity that defines Jewishness as a nation started with the birth of secularism in 1789.

The Deputy of the French Revolution, Clermont-Tonnerre, announced that Jews would be accepted if they conformed to the Christian ideal of having a solely religious identity, so France would “refuse everything to Jews as a nation”.

Clermont-Tonnerre’s diktat is being vigorously enforced today.

October 7 gave us a glimpse into a pre-Israel world – and the most likely scenario in the event of a post-Israel world. Before Israel existed, the majority of its Jewish citizens lived a precarious existence in the Middle East with inferior rights. Palestinians certainly aren’t going anywhere, but neither are Israelis because, unlike colonial communities, they are home and living in their motherland.

The West needs to come to terms with this reality. Until that happens, support for Hamas’ perpetual war of elimination will only get more Palestinians and Jews killed. Playing this zero-sum game is to play a dangerous game of denial.