In a grim irony that history will not easily digest, it may be that the most antisemitic figure in modern political life is not a neo-Nazi, a QAnon conspiracy theorist, or a genocidal fascist—but a man who cloaks himself in the rhetoric of Jewish defense at every opportunity: Benjamin Netanyahu.
This is not said lightly. It is said with the gravity demanded by a world where antisemitism is real, rising, and increasingly manipulated by those in power for political survival. Netanyahu, in his decades-long pursuit of authoritarian control, has done more to endanger Jewish lives, flatten Jewish identity, and undermine global efforts to combat antisemitism than any other single figure in the last half-century. And he has done so while insisting, with grotesque persistence, that he is its greatest bulwark.
It is not his Jewishness that is in question—it is his abuse of it. To challenge Netanyahu is not to betray Jewish life—it is to defend it from being twisted into a weapon of propaganda, fear, and violence.
He Has Endangered More Jewish Lives Than Any Other Modern Leader
The October 7 attacks in Israel were the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. The intelligence and military failures that allowed those attacks to occur were not incidental—they were the direct consequence of years of Netanyahu’s policies: fomenting division within Israeli society, weakening the military with judicial overreach battles, propping up Hamas to divide Palestinians, and ignoring repeated security warnings. His administration was consumed with protecting his own political survival and shielding himself from corruption charges.
He not only failed to protect Israelis—he used them as pawns. And in the devastating war on Gaza that followed, thousands more were killed, displaced, and radicalized. The blowback was inevitable—and it came swiftly, not only in the region, but globally, where antisemitic incidents have surged.
More chilling still is Netanyahu’s tacit approval and operational command over the Hannibal Directive—a draconian military protocol designed to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers or civilians by any means necessary, even if that means killing the hostages themselves. This brutal doctrine, named after the fictional cannibalistic psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter, has led to the deaths of countless Jewish hostages during conflicts, with no regard for their lives beyond political or military expediency¹². Reports indicate that during the recent October 7 attack, frontline units were ordered to stand down while civilians and soldiers were captured or killed³⁴. This effectively turned them into sacrificial pawns in a deadly spectacle Netanyahu allowed to unfold. The decision—rooted in a warped prioritization of narrative control over human life—resulted in the deaths of more Jews at the hands of their own government than from any outside enemy in recent memory⁵⁶⁷.
This is the cost of his doctrine: treat every critique of the Israeli state as antisemitism, every Jew as a soldier of the state, every Palestinian as a target. The result has been a world more dangerous for Jews and Palestinians alike.
He Has Reduced Jewish Identity to Political Loyalty
Perhaps the most insidious aspect of Netanyahu’s rule is his relentless insistence that anyone who opposes him—or his vision of Israel—is antisemitic. This includes American Jews, Israeli protestors, Holocaust survivors, rabbis, journalists, historians, and human rights organizations—many of whom are Jewish themselves and speak from a place of deep ethical commitment.
This rhetorical maneuver flattens Jewish identity into a political monolith: to be Jewish, in Netanyahu’s view, is to be a Zionist, a nationalist, a supporter of occupation, and a disciple of his brand of right-wing power. To dissent is to betray.
But the Jewish tradition is defined by dissent. By study, by contradiction, by dialogue, by fierce ethical debate. Erasing that tradition—by painting all Jews with the same brush and using that brush to whitewash a violent regime—is itself a form of antisemitism. It is not just silencing opposition; it is silencing Jewish diversity, Jewish history, and Jewish moral depth.
He Has Weaponized Antisemitism to Protect His Power
In today’s political landscape, antisemitism is real—and it is also increasingly weaponized. Under Netanyahu’s leadership, the term has been stripped of nuance and wielded as a shield against legitimate criticism.
- When Jewish academics criticize occupation: they are called antisemitic.
- When Israeli protesters fill the streets against authoritarian reforms: they are accused of hating their own people.
- When Jewish human rights lawyers challenge unlawful military actions: they are dismissed as traitors.
This is not defense of Jewish life. This is political authoritarianism dressed in sacred robes. And it has a cost: real antisemitism becomes harder to fight, because its definition is muddied and deformed.
In this way, Netanyahu has not fought antisemitism—he has fractured our ability to recognize it. And he has done so deliberately, to shield himself from scrutiny, even as bodies pile up in prisons, in hospitals, in rubble.
He Has Made Antisemitism More Global, Not Less
The policies Netanyahu has championed—ethnic supremacy, unaccountable military aggression, apartheid-like control over Palestinians—have made Israel a symbol of injustice for much of the world. Not because of Judaism, but because of his insistence that the state and the faith are one and the same.
By collapsing those boundaries, Netanyahu has ensured that global rage at state violence lands on Jewish communities everywhere. Synagogues are vandalized in Europe because of bombs dropped in Gaza. Jewish students in America are threatened because of checkpoints in the West Bank. Diaspora Jews are expected to answer for a state many of them do not vote for, do not support, and increasingly cannot even speak about.
This is not just collateral damage. It is the deliberate cost of a propaganda machine that uses Jewish identity to launder military violence.
In this light, it is not shocking but brutally logical to say: Netanyahu has done more to foment global antisemitism than any conspiracy theorist could dream of.
A Legacy of Erasure, Not Protection
To honor any people’s history—Jewish, Palestinian, or otherwise—is not to seal it in the vault of victimhood or use it as armor for power. It is to protect its complexity, its moral depth, and its capacity for compassion. Netanyahu has done the opposite. He has turned Jewish history into a weapon of coercion and Jewish identity into a uniform for state violence.
This was not a tragic accident. It is the result of a worldview built on division: Jew vs. Gentile, Israeli vs. Palestinian, believer vs. infidel, citizen vs. traitor. It is a worldview that feeds on conflict, because without it, such men cannot justify their authority.
And it must be named for what it is: a desecration—not just of Jewish humanity, but of our shared humanity.
Beyond Identity: The End of Being Used
If the most dangerous forms of antisemitism come not from outside, but from leaders who claim to protect Jews while sacrificing them, then perhaps the time has come to ask a deeper question:
Why continue pledging allegiance to identities handed to us at birth? Why bind ourselves to flags, to parties, to religions, to myths—when all too often they are turned into levers of manipulation by those who seek only power?
You cannot choose your parents. You cannot choose where you were born. But you can choose whether those accidents of birth become the walls of your cage—or the illusion you see through.
Every “ism” is a boundary. And every boundary can be exploited. Those who identify with any group, any nation, any tribe, become tools in someone else’s machinery—no longer thinking, only serving. That is the great danger. That is how Netanyahu, and others like him across the world, continue to rule.
There is greater freedom in un-affiliation. In compassion without labels. In solidarity without dogma. The less tightly you cling to the banner above your head, the harder it is for anyone to march you into war beneath it.
True care for Jewish life—or for any life—does not come from defending identity. It comes from transcending it.
And that, perhaps, is the most revolutionary act of all.
Footnotes
- Haaretz – “IDF Used Hannibal Protocol on October 7, Senior Defense Officials Confirm”
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-06-06/ty-article/.premium/idf-used-hannibal-protocol-on-oct-7-senior-defense-officials-confirm/00000191-c5e1-dfa4-afb3-e7ff4f750000 - +972 Magazine – “The Hannibal Directive: How the Israeli Army Justifies Killing Its Own Civilians”
https://www.972mag.com/hannibal-directive-gaza-hostages/ - Mondoweiss – “Israel’s Use of the Hannibal Directive Points to Intentional Killing of Hostages”
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/israel-used-the-hannibal-directive-during-october-7/ - Democracy Now! – “Israel’s October 7 Failures Were Known in Advance, Say Whistleblowers”
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/5/14/israel_oct7_whistleblowers - The Guardian – “Netanyahu Accused of Ignoring Warnings Before Hamas Attack”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/12/netanyahu-ignored-warnings-hamas-october-7 - The Intercept – “Netanyahu Knew of October 7 Threats but Suppressed Action to Preserve Coalition”
https://theintercept.com/2024/03/03/netanyahu-hamas-coalition-threats/ - Middle East Eye – “Israeli Generals Say Netanyahu Sacrificed Civilians to Justify Gaza Invasion”
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/netanyahu-sacrificed-civilians-october7-israel-army-generals