The most difficult choice a politician must ever make is whether to be a hypocrite or a liar.
-Unknown
I’m sure most people know the fable of the boy who cried wolf. It is a universal lesson about known liars who, at some point, do eventually tell the truth but are not believed. The moral of that story is relevant to current events.
Since October 7th last year, anyone legitimately criticizing Israel for its genocidal response to the Hamas attack on Israel have been smeared as antisemitic. Nobody has been spared, not even Semitic people themselves, who include Jews and Palestinians.
While the antisemitism smears originate from Israel and its zealous propaganda machine, high-ranking politicians in the West and the mainstream media have shamelessly amplified and perpetuated them. The weaponization of antisemitism as a tool to counteract justifiable criticism of Israel has become alarmingly conventional.
Just recently, the US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a distinctly unlikeable woman who has become infamous for vetoing ceasefire resolutions, couldn’t contain her urge to employ the smear. She posted a repulsive tweet on X, smearing UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestine Territories, Francesca Albanese, as antisemitic.
Thomas-Greenfield has become known since last year as the black faces of imperialism, together with her colleague, Robert A Wood, for not only vetoing ceasefire proposals but their enthusiasm for supporting some of America’s most atrocious foreign policies, which include constant warmongering. Predictably, the thousands of responses to her tweet were mainly scathing.
Francesca has been doing sterling work in compiling reports and awareness on the genocide unfolding in Gaza. It’s no surprise that she’s become the target of an orchestrated smear campaign to sabotage the work she is doing. However, Francesca is no shrinking violet. This gutsy lady can put up a mean fight, though. On her current visit to the US, she absolutely eviscerated two compromised journalists who not only attempted to interrogate her at a press conference but failed to make the smears stick.
Antisemitism is a very real and disturbing prejudice. It should not be tolerated. However, when abused by corrupt people with ulterior motives, it becomes devalued. There were warnings about its weaponization long before October 7th. In 2019, Ofer Waldman, the Chairman of the New Israel Fund in Germany, warned about the effects its politicization and abuse will accrue.
Unfortunately, this warning was ignored because its weaponization has gone off the charts since October last year. It remains to be seen if it will ever be used in its appropriate sense again.
lenny unencumbered 