The government is not to blame for global antisemitism - but it is fueling it | Lilach Sigan

Blessed is the person who missed the latest issue of New York Magazine. A journalist named Zaina Arafat signed off on a cover story describing the charm of Middle Eastern food in New York, under the headline "Habibi City".

25 years after September 11, it seems that New York has become a city that is fond of Islam, at least on a media level, and the infamous mayor is just an expression of the phenomenon. The truth is that being fond of Islam is not so terrible, unless it is accompanied by hatred of Jews. Only every time someone says something about it, they immediately pull out "Islamophobia", which must be avoided like the devil.

Here is a charming taste of some of the "Habibi City" quotes: "The menu includes a colorful map where on the land mass currently called Israel it says 'Discover Palestine'". Or "While Israel is geographically part of the region, the question is whether Israelis can claim to have a connection to it". To this is added a confession of a New Yorker, who once used to go to Israeli restaurants too - but stopped because of the "genocide". Another quote warns us not to be confused - "The abundance of beautiful Muslim culture does not mean that New Yorkers of North African and South Asian descent do not deal with xenophobia, Islamophobia and Zionism".

It is inconceivable that a newspaper allows itself to use the word "Zionism" as something dangerous to Americans, without being sued for it immediately by some Jewish organization. But the lawsuit has not yet arrived, even though it is a hair-raisingly antisemitic article.

"Islamophobia" has become a buzzword that goes with the phenomenon, but in the first half of 2026, 178 hate crimes against Jews were recorded in New York and only 21 hate crimes against Muslims or Arabs, according to the NYPD. FBI data points to a similar ratio of hate crimes in the United States as a whole. But when they warn against Islamophobia and make sure to pump that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism, the facts in the post-truth era are reversed. In short - who needs Al Jazeera when an American magazine distributed in the most Jewish city in the world expresses itself this way.

It is important to understand the big picture: newspapers such as The New York Times stopped calling Hamas a "terrorist organization" a long time ago, claiming that it is a "controversial" issue. And what is Israel doing? We ignored it when it was a small problem, and we are shocked that the small problem has become a big problem. Our mission is to make the countries of the world understand that the spread of modern antisemitism originates in antisemitic education, which, unfortunately, is too common in quite a few "South Asian and North African" countries. What to do, that is the truth.

Listen to Huckabee

Some of us roll our eyes at what we call "progressive journalism". But this week we came across a tweet by the US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a Republican and Baptist pastor, who is considered one of the leading and most determined voices of the Christian-Evangelical right in the United States and an enthusiastic supporter of Israel. Huckabee referred to the incident in the village of Kusra, and wrote that "it is mandatory to remove the Israeli terrorists". Just like that. Our Huckabee called Israelis terrorists.

Huckabee's tweet is related to what is happening here in parallel with "Habibi City". After all, the one who is supposed to deal with the riots in Judea and Samaria is the commander of the Central Command Avi Bluth. The same person who was humiliated on live broadcast by the Minister of Defense just a week ago, in order to flatter some political base. This is the same Minister of Defense who decided to cancel administrative detentions against Jews as a sign that he is "super-right" and advocates for "boom boom boom".

We have been saying for years that it is a handful of Jewish rioters, and that is even true. But a handful is supposed to be eradicable, restrainable, or controllable, which does not happen in practice. The result of this conduct is that we have no way to defend ourselves cognitively against phenomena of riots in Judea and Samaria. It makes headlines, dwarfs Palestinian terror, and simply looks like policy.

It is also worth knowing that the same besieged house in the village of Kusra belongs to a Palestinian-American from the state of Iowa, the home state of Vice President J.D. Vance, who is not suspected of excessive love for Zion anyway. In short, it seems that our Minister of Defense is trapped in an echo chamber where the audience expects him to use more and more and more force, and no one asks if it is worth using a little brain occasionally. That is the nature of echo chambers - they make those trapped inside them completely blind to a significant part of the picture, without seeing all of which there is no way to understand the situation and act correctly. There is no need to explain why responsible leadership simply cannot afford to act from within any echo chamber.

We are in an election period, but with all due respect to the propaganda messages intended to scare and influence, after October 7 no one in Israel really wants to return Judea and Samaria. As a country - we understood something very important about our neighbors, but we are failing miserably in establishing the argument that explains this matter to the world, even to those who support us. Without a good argument we will not win, no matter how much internal "boom boom boom" propaganda there will be here. There is no choice but to open our eyes - we are in a new world.

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Avoid a cognitive reversal

In this new world we are losing our ability to deal with terror, both from the left and from the right. Dealing with terror is first and foremost strengthening the perception that it threatens the whole world. Only from this perception can one appreciate the Israeli efforts to fight it. But we are witnessing a crazy trend of cognitive reversal. Hamas is no longer called a terrorist organization, many claim it is "just a political organization", while on the other hand voices against the Israeli terrorists and "genocide" are increasing, even in right-wing circles. Add to this the "boom boom boom" rhetoric of Israel Katz and the rhetoric of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, and you will understand that we are slowly digging our own cognitive grave.

In order to deal with terror in this new world, one needs the capability of creating the pro-Israeli argument that will speak to as many people as possible. At the moment, Arab terror is being whitewashed and legitimized in an inconceivable way. But our lenient policy towards Jewish terror in Judea and Samaria does not help Israel, but fuels the ugly phenomenon of cognitive reversal. It is impossible to blame the current government for antisemitism in the world, nor for the hatred of Jews in Arab countries that has trickled into Western countries. But its blindness definitely leads to the conclusion that it is to blame for the lack of dealing with the phenomenon, and also with its unconscious fueling with statements that simply must be eradicated.

We need to be perceived as fair. It is impossible to establish legal farms in Judea and Samaria without dealing with Jewish rioters. The attempt to be less tough works against us, not in our favor. The consequences are already here, they are not some abstract threat of a political opponent - they are reality. We all must understand the changes taking place around us in order to stop them. No one wants to reach the next cognitive stage where only Israel will be blamed for terror, while the Palestinians will no longer be blamed for it at all. The security of all of us depends on this, and in the post-truth era, to avoid delusional and shocking scenarios one must act - and occasionally use the brain too.