, 03.11.2024 04:50 PM

My latest: the propagandist’s useful idiots

GENOCIDE IS NOT KOSHER.

That is what the sign said, all-caps.  If not for who was holding it, and if not for where it was being held up, the sign would have been the sort of casual anti-Semitism that is seemingly everywhere, these days.

And this needs to be said: the sign was objectionable not because it was critical of the government of Israel. Every single Jew this writer has spoken to, in recent months, is critical of the ultra-conservative government led by Benjamin Netanyahu.

All of them, publicly or privately, blame Netanyahu for permitting Hamas to flourish, and for being unprepared for Hamas’ barbaric assault on October 7.  Every one of them looks forward to Netanyahu being gone after the war. Polling in Israel overwhelmingly shows the same thing.

No, the sign was bad because it explicitly associated genocide (the most serious crime extant) with an important religious precept (the kashrut dietary laws of the Jewish faith).

And what made the sign even worse was this: it was being held up by a child, perhaps six or seven years old, a few feet from a cenotaph in Picton, Ont., this past Saturday. A cenotaph dedicated to those Canadians who gave their lives fighting Naziism.

Who does that? Who gives a child a sign like that – knowing full well that the child does not understand what is either genocidal or kosher – and tells them to stand in a scared place, in a driving cold rain on the Jewish sabbath, to act as a propaganda tool? Who does that?

And what about the actors who showed up at the Oscars, on the very same weekend, wearing pins with the bloody red hand? For them, that question would be different.  We know who decided to wear the pins: Billie Eilish, Jessica Chastain, Richard Gere,Cate Blanchett and Mahershala Ali. Others, too.

They are (arguably) adults, and they made the decision to wear lapel pins bearing the bloody red hand.  Being big stars, being paid obscene amounts of money to pretend to be someone else, we presume they were the ones who decided to display a hand covered in blood for all the cameras to see.

But did they all know what it means?  For those of us in the Irish diaspora, we know very well what it means: it is the symbol of a warrior, covered in the blood of the warrior’s vanquished enemy.  In Ireland’s North, the Red Hand is capitalized, and has been appropriated by both sides in serial campaigns of murder, for decades.

In the Israel-Gaza context, the red hand is an explicit reference to a photo from a lynching and bloody dismemberment of Israeli soldiers by Palestinians during the intifada in 2000. It is a celebration of murder.

Was that what Billie Eilish and others were celebrating? Did they – like the little kid with the anti-Semitic sign in far-away Picton, Ontario – know what they were saying?  Maybe, maybe not.  But the corrosive effect remains the same.

It is propaganda, yes.  But it is inarguably worse than that: it is holding something up to signal that someone else – in this case, Jews – are inferior.  Are bad.  Are worthy of detestation.

The holding up of awful signs, the wearing of awful pins, is happening a lot, these days.  And that is important.  Because, through repetition, hate is made routine.

In Sander van der Linden’s remarkable 2023 book, Foolproof: How Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity, that sad truth – how evil, per Hannah Arendt, is made banal – is discussed.  Writes van den Linden, a Cambridge social psychology professor:

“Belief in the truth of a claim goes up as a function of repetition.  In others words, the more often you hear a statement, the more ‘true’ it sounds.  This has become known as the illusory truth effect.”

So, real journalism gets dismissed, over and over, as “fake news.” Crowds chant “stop the steal” about elections that were free and fair.  Jewish civilians, wherever they are, however innocent they may be, get falsely accused of “genocide.” Over and over and over.

Hate propaganda becomes effective not when it is said just once.  It becomes effective when it is repeated, endlessly.

Just ask one of the pioneers of the most notorious anti-Semitic campaigns in history, Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels.  Like he said:

Repeat a lie often enough, and it becomes the truth.

11 Comments

  1. Warren,

    “Repeat a lie often enough, and it becomes the truth.”

    Does this mean this will become the motto of the next Trump White House? That would be a surprise to no one.

  2. Warren,

    From CTV News, Toronto

    A small win.

    Warren,

    “Nazi military monument removed from Ontario cemetery

    A monument commemorating a Nazi-led military unit of Ukrainian soldiers has been removed from an Ontario cemetery after years of controversy surrounding the site.

    The monument, located in St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Cemetery in Oakville, paid tribute to the First Ukrainian Division, a Nazi unit predominantly comprised of Ukrainians who fought in the Second World War.”

    • Fred J Pertanson says:

      Unfortunately, apparently it has been removed only temporarily.

      Kind of like Trudeau’s funding of UNWRA. Removed only temporarily, so much so as to not miss a single payment.

      • Jason says:

        I truly don’t understand the knee-jerk rush to end UNRWA. If it turned out that a group of Canada Post workers were part of a murderous cartel, nobody would be pushing to eliminate the prospect of anyone in the country getting mail ever again as a result and calling it “necessary for national security.”

  3. Sean says:

    Parents: Jail

    Kids: CAS

  4. Jason says:

    Jonathan Glazer hit the nail on the head at the Oscars. The existence of antisemitism is not a justification for further atrocity.

    Anyone cheering for dead kids, women, civilians- whether it be the ones who were taken on October 7, or those lost on March 12 – is no better than the monsters they campaign against. I’ll stand with none of them until decency prevails.

  5. Jason,

    Not an analogy I would use. I prefer comparing UNRWA to the Hitler Youth.

    It’s like arguing keeping the latter up and running post-1945 so the kids have somewhere to go after school.

    • Jason says:

      I can see how one would see that, if Israeli state reporting is the only source one is willing to accept info on. Basically the entirety of the global media, plus security agencies of Israel’s most prominent allies have called their evidence dubious at best. That should spark a few more questions here than it seems to.

      Given that the core of the Israeli government features Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich – seriously, just take 2 minutes to Google what the two of them have said and done over the years (better yet, take a look at what Ben-Gvir did YESTERDAY) – their state run media will not get the benefit of the doubt from me anytime soon.

  6. Jason,

    Well, I can’t say I disagree with Schumer’s statement. Coming from him, it will give Likud shock waves.

    I disagree with the war coalition and cabinet. It’s time for non-Likud ministers to divorce themselves from the rest. Netanyahu is a walking political time bomb whose actions do not reflect American and Western political interests.

    • Jason says:

      Ronald,

      In my view, certain people will only FINALLY start looking at this conflict rationally now that more prominent Jews are speaking out. Schumer and Jonathan Glazer were great examples this week.

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