I write what follows with a troubled mind and heavy heart—but also with hope for what is possible. For three years, hatred and vicious incitement against Jewish-Americans and Israel have steadily increased online and on the public airwaves. We are fighting multiple wars we did not want — one in Gaza, another in Iran, and a war of words with those here in the US who would see us demoralized, defeated, dead.
From an antisemitic song blasted loudly in a Jewish neighborhood in the Bronx; to conspiracy theories about a “dangerous” Hasidic Jewish group “taking over entire towns;” to lies about references to child sacrifice in the Talmud; to the amplification of white supremacist tropes; to falsehoods about secret Jewish groups orchestrating social crises; to ludicrous claims that Jews were responsible for the murder of Charlie Kirk; to attempted legitimization of targeted violence against individuals associated with Jewish and Israeli institutions — describing murder and terrorism as “resistance” — we have been repeatedly accused, attacked, assailed.
Alternative news outlets and commentators are levying accusations of “genocide” in Gaza, and public figures who have fallen under the spell are repeating them. Israel-hating activists are accusing respected American journalists of lies and cover-ups. An official publication of the Democratic Socialists of America refers to the conflict in Gaza as “a genocide carried out, defended, and authored by elite liberals and liberal institutions.”
I am glad to say the propaganda-pushing has finally sparked a widespread institutional response in the US. On Sept. 9, more than 5,000 prominent American public figures, academics, and entertainment executives signed a joint open letter published by Creative Community for Peace. It vehemently rejects the term in relation to Israel’s actions in Gaza. The signatories said that they were “outraged and sickened by the latest blood libel to be inflicted on the Jewish people,” noting that the difference between waging war and attempting genocide is intent — and accurately stating, as every Jew in Israel knows, that only Hamas has that intent.
I am less glad to note that a Sept. 13 report by The New York Post revealed that in the early stages of the war in Gaza, The New York Times repeatedly downplayed Israel’s casualties and minimized Hamas’ role in sustaining the conflict. In the 1,559 articles published on the subject between Oct. 7, 2023, and June 7, 2024, the NYT routinely omitted the number of deaths sustained by the Israeli military while including personal accounts of Palestinian suffering on its pages two out of every three days. We have Professor Edieal Pinker of the Yale School of Management, who published his findings in the Studies in Conflict & Terrorism academic journal, to thank for the revelation. For the record, 437 Israeli soldiers have been killed since Israel began its offensive in Gaza, along with dozens of police officers and Jewish civilians critically injured or killed in terror attacks.
I am grateful for those who have spoken out. It is time for all other truth-telling influencers, fact-reporting members of the media, and honest political and community leaders in this country to step up and also speak out — and then speak, and speak, and speak again until their voices drown out the detestable rhetoric of those who would see the Jewish people defeated, enslaved, or erased from this earth. I also believe public figures and editors should decline to speak or print the names of attention-seeking, Israel-hating individuals — as I chose to do in this message — and refuse to comment publicly on their depraved rants. It is time to separate the wheat from the chaff, and restore America’s public spaces to a state of civility and sanity.
As for you, our essential supporters, I encourage each of you to write to editors and broadcasters when you notice instances of anti-Israeli or pro-Hamas bias in reporting, analysis, and commentaries. Their email and mailing addresses can generally be found on the About or Contact page of their publications.
In closing, I would like to invoke a powerful and sacred ideal in our great tradition: Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh—near or far, we are all responsible for one another. Let us embrace our kinship, seek friendship where we can, and hold hope in our hearts for a day when Israel — and all nations and people — can exist in safety, prosperity, and peace.
Shana Tova!
Matthew Brooks is the publisher of inFOCUS Quarterly and the CEO of the Jewish Policy Center.
