11.02.26
Editorial Note
On January 26-27, the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism held the Second International Conference on Combating Antisemitism, titled “Generation of Truth.” The global event in Jerusalem addressed contemporary manifestations of antisemitism, Holocaust denial, and the challenges posed by evolving political and social dynamics in Europe and North America. Participants included academics, policymakers, parliamentarians, and media professionals.
Among the themes discussed were the rise in antisemitic incidents in several Western countries, the relationship between contemporary political movements and antisemitic rhetoric, and the growing debate over the boundaries between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitism. The question of how migration patterns in Europe intersect with antisemitic incidents was explicitly raised, reflecting data published by European security services and independent monitoring bodies documenting significant increases in reported antisemitic attacks in recent years.
In this context, Professor Judea Pearl has proposed the term “Zionophobia” to describe hostility directed specifically at the Jewish state as a collective expression of Jewish self-determination. In his recent volume, Coexistence and Other Fighting Words: Selected Writings of Judea Pearl, 2002–2023, Pearl argues that contemporary hostility toward Israel often reproduces classical antisemitic motifs in updated political language. Whether or not one adopts his terminology, the conceptual distinction between antisemitism and political opposition to Israeli policy remains central to current academic and policy debates.
The question “How did immigration to Europe lead to a rise in antisemitism?” is based on statistical reports of a dramatic increase in antisemitic attacks in several Western European countries — security services and academic studies have found that individuals from Muslim backgrounds have carried out most of the assaults on Jews. This demographic, mostly younger men, has been influenced by radical Islamist narratives or intense identification with the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. It should be emphasized that Islamist propaganda incorporates antisemitic tropes, including variations of the notorious fabrication, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. For instance, the British Jewish Community Trust recorded 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the first half of 2025, many linked to the Israel-Gaza conflict, including assaults, threats, and harassment of Jewish individuals. In Western Europe and the United States, Muslim background students played a large role in harassing Jewish and Israeli students.
The Jerusalem conference itself became the subject of critical coverage by Middle East Monitor (MEMO), a London-based outlet frequently described as aligned with Qatari perspectives. In its reporting, MEMO characterized the conference as an effort by European leaders to “scapegoat migrants and Muslims.” MEMO wrote, “Austria, a country with a documented role in the Holocaust, is now promoting the claim that anti-Semitism in Europe is largely… driven by migrants and left-wing groups.”
MEMO also portrayed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism as “highly controversial.” It stated that President Isaac Herzog “used the conference to urge governments to adopt the highly controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism. The IHRA has criticized for conflating anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of Israeli policies.”
However, the IHRA Working Definition, adopted by numerous governments and institutions, explicitly states that criticism of Israel comparable to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic. At the same time, it provides illustrative examples in which discourse about Israel may cross into antisemitism when it employs classical tropes, collective blame, or denial of Jewish self-determination. Scholarly debate continues regarding both the utility and the limits of this framework, yet its widespread institutional adoption makes it central to contemporary policy discussions.
MEMO reiterated that “Throughout the event, immigration and Islam were repeatedly framed as core threats to Jewish communities.”
Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based media network, has also published commentary highly critical of Israel’s demographic and security policies. In a recent analysis, Professor Neve Gordon argued that Israeli state policies reflect what he characterizes as a belief in Jewish exceptionalism and demographic engineering. Such arguments form part of a broader academic discourse that frames Israeli policies within paradigms of settler-colonialism and racialized governance. Critics, however, contend that certain formulations risk aligning with IHRA examples concerning denial of Jewish self-determination or the application of double standards. Whether one agrees with this critique or not, the debate illustrates the contested terrain between academic analysis and political advocacy.
Gordon suggested, “The glue holding all of the demographic strategies Israel deploys together is the belief in Jewish exceptionalism and supremacy. The genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank are justified through the dehumanization of Palestinians; the neglect of the murders and crime in Palestinian communities within Israel is informed by racial discrimination that has been ongoing since 1948; and Israel is weaponizing racism against Jews to curb negative migration. The ultimate objective is to guarantee the racial-religious character of Israel as exclusively Jewish, while the dream is a pure Jewish state.”
Gordon, originally a peace activist, was sponsored by Prof. Nezar AlSayyad to produce his 2005 anti-Israel book, Israel’s Occupation. In the book, Gordon had some obscure observations. Under the title “Setting up the Means of Control in the Occupied Territories,” Gordon listed Israeli efforts to improve the standards of living of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza after the 1967 victory. He wrote, “In the health field practices were introduced to encourage women to give birth at hospitals (a means of decreasing infant mortality rates and monitoring population growth) and to promote vaccinations (in order to decrease the incidence of contagious and noncontagious diseases). Palestinian teachers were sent to seminars in Jerusalem, where they were instructed in methods of ‘correct’ teaching. A series of vocational schools were established to prepare Palestinians who wished to join the Israeli workforce, and model plots were created to train farmers. Many of these controlling devices aimed to increase the economic productivity of the Palestinian inhabitants and to secure the well-being of the population.” For Gordon, these were all negative means of control.
Gordon, a former professor at Ben Gurion University who now teaches at Queen Mary University of London School of Law, has been in high demand among those who try to delegitimize Israel in the international community. By being Jewish, he deflects accusations of anti-Semitism. Not surprisingly, Gordon is a bitter critic of the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism, since, as noted, he is considered an antisemite according to the Definition.
Recently, Qatar has come under criticism for its decades-long anti-Israel campaign on American campuses. The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) has published multiple reports and data analyses linking foreign funding from Qatar (often through foundations such as the Qatar Foundation and the Qatar National Research Fund) to patterns of campus politics and rhetoric that critics say have aligned with anti-Israel sentiment.
Their project “Follow the Money” documents large, sometimes undisclosed, donations to U.S. universities and argues these funds correlate with shifts in discourse and campus dynamics.
Taken together, these developments point to an increasingly interconnected ecosystem: rising antisemitic incidents; contested definitions of antisemitism; media narratives that challenge or reinterpret those definitions; and the role of foreign state funding in shaping academic and public discourse. Whether described as antisemitism, anti-Zionism, or “Zionophobia,” the debate underscores the importance of careful conceptual distinctions, empirical rigor, and institutional transparency.
Sustained scholarly engagement—grounded in evidence rather than polemic—is essential. Equally important is regulatory clarity concerning foreign funding in academia, ensuring that commitments to academic freedom coexist with transparency and accountability. Only through such measures can institutions preserve both intellectual integrity and public trust.
REFERENCES:
The International Conference on Combating Antisemitism – Generation of Truth is the leading global event dedicated to confronting antisemitism and Holocaust denial in today’s world.
Held for the second consecutive year in Jerusalem, the conference convenes international policymakers, parliamentarians, academics, and media professionals to discuss core issues and explore innovative ways to confront antisemitism and preserve the memory of the Holocaust.
Join us for the conference at Jerusalem’s Binyaney Ha’uma Conference Center on January 27th, 2026, as well as other mind-provoking and inspiring sessions and events.
The 2026 international conference on combating antisemitism features a series of events, meetings, and discussions for designated target audiences, such as parliamentarians and policymakers, academics, media, and influencers.
This year’s agenda will address the most pressing challenges in the global fight against antisemitism, such as:
• Why has Holocaust denial become unexpectedly accepted, and how can we fight both the conversation and its dangerous effects?
• Can we eliminate antisemitic conspiracy theories that thrive in the rhetoric of political movements?
• How did immigration to Europe lead to a rise in antisemitism, posing a serious threat to Jewish communities?
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International Summit “Generation Truth” to Convene in Jerusalem to Combat Global Antisemitism
Dozens of world leaders, diplomats, and heads of Jewish communities will arrive via an “airlift” for the second international conference led by Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli
Type:
News
Publish Date:
22.01.2026
Dozens of world leaders, diplomats, and heads of Jewish communities will arrive via an “airlift” for the second international conference led by Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli.
Prime ministers, ministers, and lawmakers from around the globe will land in Israel next week for the “Generation Truth” conference. The summit, scheduled for January 26-27, coincides with International Holocaust Remembrance Day and is part of a strategic government decision to lead a global, open, and unapologetic fight against antisemitism.
The conference will include a state gala attended by the Prime Minister, a day of discussions in the presence of the President of the State, and a special day of proceedings at the Knesset with the participation of the Speaker of the Knesset.
The three central events will be conducted under the leadership of the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism and produced by the Prime Minister’s Office, the National Ceremonies and State Events Unit.
The conference will open on Monday morning, January 26, with an official event at the Knesset of Israel, led by Minister Amichai Chikli, in the presence of Speaker of the Knesset Amir Ohana, and with the participation of members of parliament from more than 15 countries from Europe, Latin America, North America, and additional countries, including Austria, France, Poland, Spain, Brazil, Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Romania, Cyprus, Albania, and Portugal.
The conference will include roundtable discussions dedicated to the central challenges in the global fight against antisemitism, including legislation, Holocaust education, and addressing foreign political interference.
A state gala will be held on Monday evening, January 26, at the Jerusalem International Convention Center (Binyanei HaUma), in the presence of Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli, with the participation of hundreds of senior officials, diplomats, members of parliament, and Jewish leaders from around the world.
At the center of the event, the traditional “Government of Israel Award for Combating Antisemitism,” previously awarded to British author Douglas Murray two years ago and Australian journalist Erin Molan last year, will be presented by Minister Chikli to Leo Terrell, head of the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism in the Trump administration.
In addition, a special award of recognition will be presented in memory of Charlie Kirk to Rob McCoy, his personal pastor, to preserve the memory of Kirk’s work and to recognize McCoy’s efforts on behalf of truth and the fight against antisemitism.
The evening will also include a memorial torch-lighting ceremony for victims of antisemitic attacks worldwide, with the participation of Rabbi Ulman of Australia, who lost his son-in-law and many members of his community in a terrorist attack in Sydney approximately one month ago, and the parents of Yaron Lischinsky, who was murdered together with his partner, Sarah Milgram, of blessed memory, in a terrorist attack at the Israeli Embassy in Washington.
The evening will be hosted by Shiri Givati, an activist in the field of Israeli public diplomacy on the global stage.
The main conference will take place on Tuesday, January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, at Binyanei HaUma in Jerusalem, led by Minister Chikli and with the participation of President of the State of Israel Isaac Herzog, who will deliver remarks.
The conference will include sessions, panels, and closed-door discussions aimed at developing operational tools and international cooperation to combat antisemitism.
The conference will focus on addressing three central branches of modern antisemitism:
- Violent Islamist antisemitism, which views Jews and the State of Israel as legitimate targets for attack
- Progressive antisemitism, which adopts the language of human rights while in practice working to delegitimize Israel, exclude Jews from the public sphere, and legitimize boycotts
- Far-right antisemitism, which has intensified in recent years and gained renewed legitimacy, at times also from opinion leaders and influential platforms
Among the central guests expected to attend are: Edi Rama, current Prime Minister of Albania; Sebastian Kurz, former Chancellor of Austria; Scott Morrison, former Prime Minister of Australia; Mariano Cúneo Libarona, Minister of Justice of Argentina; János Bóka, the current Minister for European Union Affairs in the Government of Hungary; Flávio Bolsonaro, Brazilian senator and presidential candidate; Mike Huckabee, U.S. Ambassador to Israel; and Gad Saad, researcher and author—alongside leading thinkers and senior representatives from Europe, Latin America, and North America.
The conference will take place against a grave global reality: since October 7, there has been a sharp and unprecedented rise in antisemitism and violence against Jews worldwide. In 2025 alone, 20 people were murdered in antisemitic terrorist attacks, including a mass-casualty attack at a Hanukkah event in Australia, as well as murders outside synagogues and in public spaces in the United States and Europe. At the same time, university campuses have become arenas of incitement. According to data from the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, 78% of Jewish students reported that they had concealed their Jewish identity at least once, and more than one-third know a peer who experienced a physical threat.
The fight against antisemitism and delegitimization is supported by broad governmental action. Since October 7, the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism has led unprecedented activity, including the operation of a national command center for monitoring antisemitism and incitement, which has issued thousands of early warnings; the publication of dozens of in-depth research reports on organizations, incitement networks, and delegitimization efforts; international campaigns with hundreds of millions of views; strengthening the communal resilience of Jewish communities; training senior security officials and police leadership from around the world in combating antisemitism and terrorism; advancing new regulation against international organizations found to have ties to terrorist entities; and cooperation with civil society organizations to combat antisemitism.
Amichai Chikli, Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism: “Over the past year, antisemitism has crossed a red line, as dozens of people around the world have been murdered simply for being Jewish. It is time to stop focusing solely on defense and move to offense- an offense against the enemies of the free world, first and foremost radical Islam. Israel is committed to and will continue to fight antisemitism without compromise, but it cannot do so alone. This is precisely the purpose of the conference, which will host dozens of strong leaders from around the world: to form an international coalition of partners who see reality clearly and understand that antisemitism is a murderous ideology that endangers the entire free world. Together, we will fight this threat – with determination, courage, and without apologies.”
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Ignoring their Nazi past, European leaders use Israeli anti-Semitism forum to scapegoat migrants and Muslims
Austria, a country with a documented role in the Holocaust, is now promoting the claim that anti-Semitism in Europe is largely an imported phenomenon. Speaking at an Israeli government-hosted anti-Semitism conference in Jerusalem, former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz alleged that Europe faces a wave of “newly imported anti-Semitism” driven by migrants and left-wing groups.
The remarks were made during the second annual International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism, held on International Holocaust Memorial Day and organised by Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry. The event, which took place at the International Convention Centre in Jerusalem, drew government officials, diplomats, religious leaders and political figures, with a notable presence of European nationalist and far-right representatives.
According to Haaretz, Kurz referred to the phenomenon of anti-Semitism as “totally new” and warned of an alliance between Muslim migrants and progressive movements such as “Queers for Palestine”. He previously governed in coalition with Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ), a far-right group known for its Nazi origins and controversial history.
READ: Weaponising anti-Semitism: MEMO in Conversation with Rachel Shabi
The FPÖ emerged in 1955, initially drawing much of its support from former National Socialists (Nazis) after World War II. Its first leader, Anton Reinthaller, had been a senior officer in the SS, Adolf Hitler’s paramilitary organisation, and other early members were former Nazis.
Kurz’s remarks were echoed by Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats, a party founded by neo-Nazis. Åkesson claimed that anti-Semitism was “accepted” in Sweden by the political left and blamed immigrants for promoting hate. However, data shows that anti-Semitic hate crimes are attributed to a range of actors, with far-right groups consistently responsible for a significant portion of incidents.
Hungarian EU Affairs Minister János Bóka described anti-Semitism as stemming from cooperation between “radical political Islam” and the “woke movement”. Belgian MP Sam van Rooy, from Vlaams Belang, a party with fascist roots, claimed Muslims were replacing Jews in cities like Antwerp. Polish MEP Dominik Tarczyński of the Law and Justice party advocated for “zero illegal migrants” entering Europe.
These positions align with the widely discredited “great replacement” theory, which has been linked to violent white nationalist attacks globally.
READ: Islamophobia unites Israel and Europe’s far-right
In a video message, Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders claimed a “new Holocaust is in the making” due to what he called rising Islamic anti-Semitism. Wilders pointed to Islamic texts and communities as the source of the threat, though monitoring reports from European bodies highlight far-right movements as a major and consistent driver of anti-Semitic incidents.
President Isaac Herzog used the conference to urge governments to adopt the highly controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism. The IHRA has criticised for conflating anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of Israeli policies. Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli said “Islamist fanaticism”, which he claimed is influenced by Nazi ideology, is today’s main threat to Jews.
Other speakers included former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who called for stricter regulation of Islamic institutions; Brazilian senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who accused Brazil’s president of anti-Semitism; and U.S. ambassador Mike Huckabee, who described the UN as “the largest anti-Semitic organisation in the world”.
Throughout the event, immigration and Islam were repeatedly framed as core threats to Jewish communities. However, studies by institutions such as the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights continue to identify far-right actors as key sources of anti-Semitic violence.
Jerusalem Post editor Zvika Klein, who moderated a panel featuring far-right European figures, commented, “We need all the allies we can get”.
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Israel invites Western far-right figures to conference on combatting anti-semitism
March 16, 2025 at 9:17 am
Israel is inviting Western far-right figures and parties to a conference against anti-semitism, amid Tel Aviv’s ongoing grooming of the political conservatives.
According to Israeli media outlets, the ‘International Conference on Combating Antisemitism’ being held in the occupied city of Jerusalem this month – organised by Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry – has invited far-right and conservative figures from across Europe and the West for attendance.
Such figures include Jordan Bardella, the leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, Argentina’s president Javier Milei, MEP Hermann Tertsch from Spain’s far-right Vox party, MEP Charlie Weimers from the far-right Sweden Democrats party, French MEP Marion Maréchal, and MEP Kinga Gál from Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party.
Also invited are right-wing religious figures and thought leaders, including the UK’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy.
READ: Zionists have captured Jordan Peterson and are hijacking western conservatism
Scheduled to take place at the end of this month, on 26 and 27 March as part of Diaspora Week, the conference on combatting anti-semitism also consists of a program providing activities such as a choice of guided tours to either Judea and Samaria or the Gaza border, a gala evening at the Israeli president’s residence, and roundtable discussions and panels on a variety of topics.
The Diaspora Affairs Ministry’s invitation of the far-right figures and parties to the conference notably comes at a time when Israel continues with its campaign to attract, collaborate with, and co-opt conservative movements throughout Europe and the wider West, apparently viewing them and their supporters as viable supporters of Israel and Zionism.
The list of those figures has even reportedly caught Israel’s president Isaac Herzog by surprise, with the outlet Haaretz being told by the president’s residence that it was “surprised to hear who the invitees are”, particularly due to the conference focusing on combating anti-semitism.
Dark hours ahead: Why Europe’s far-right supports Israel
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Here’s why Israel is allowing record murder rates in its Palestinian towns
Israel is tolerating violence against its Palestinian citizens to push them out, while weaponising anti-Semitism to pull Jews in.
By
Neve Gordon is Professor of International Law at Queen Mary University of London.
Published O 5 Feb 2026
While the international media has rightly focused on the genocide and enormous displacement in Gaza alongside the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, the 300 murders inside Israel in 2025, 252 of whom were Palestinian victims, garnered little to no media coverage outside Israel. Yet last year marked the deadliest year on record for murders among Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up 21 percent of Israel’s population but sustain 80 percent of the murders. That is one murder every 36 hours.
The international media have also covered the rise in anti-Semitism across the world, even as there has been little to no media coverage of how Israel has been exaggerating and instrumentalising a Zionist notion of anti-Semitism to create moral panic among Jews everywhere. Indeed, when I speak to Jewish friends in Israel, they often ask how I, who live in London, cope with anti-Semitism. As consumers of Israeli news, they can be forgiven for thinking that Jews across the world are in imminent danger.
These two phenomena – the crime epidemic within Palestinian communities inside Israel and the weaponisation of anti-Semitism to amplify Jewish fear – might seem totally unconnected. Yet there is a clear thread linking them, and it is called demographic engineering.
The foundational acts
Demographic engineering has been at the heart of the Zionist project. During the 1948 war, about 750,000 Palestinians were displaced in what Fayez Sayegh called “racial elimination”. As part of this process, Palestinian cities were depopulated, and about 500 Palestinian villages were destroyed. By 1951, the Palestinians who had become refugees had been “replaced” by a similar number of Jewish immigrants, both Holocaust survivors from Europe and Mizrahi Jews from Arab countries, thus transforming the state’s racial composition without altering its overall population size.
In the wake of the war, Israel not only disregarded United Nations Resolution 194 affirming the right of Palestinians who had been made refugees in 1948 to return to their homes, but in 1950 it passed the Law of Return, bestowing “on Jews worldwide the right to enter Israel and obtain Israeli citizenship regardless of their countries of origin and whether or not they can show links to Israel-Palestine, while withholding any comparable right from Palestinians, including those with documented ancestral homes in the country”.
Over the past two years, a number of Israeli politicians and influencers have characterised what Israel has been doing in the territories it occupied in 1967 as completing the job left undone in 1948: “A second, real Nakba, to finish [former Israeli Prime Minister David] Ben-Gurion’s work,” one journalist quipped. Simultaneously, within Israel, a different kind of demographic strategy is unfolding, even as the overall objective remains the same.
Crime as an impetus to leave
Itamar Ben-Gvir is surely not the first minister of national security to have allowed criminal gangs to terrorise Palestinian communities. But on Ben Gvir’s watch, the murders have reached record levels. And 2026 seems to be following the trend, with 31 more Palestinians murdered during the first month.
On the one hand, Israel has used the soaring crime to portray Palestinian citizens as uncivilised and barbaric, extending the dehumanisation from stateless Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank to its own citizens. On the other hand, it has enabled criminals to terrorise Palestinian towns.
Indeed, the police have solved only 15 percent of the murders within the Palestinian community while doing little, if anything, to stop criminals from collecting “protection fees” from businesses – fees that extract an estimated two billion shekels ($650m) a year from the community.
On January 22, Palestinians launched the largest demonstration since 2019, waving black flags while chanting slogans accusing the police of total abandonment. The following day, the organisers called a general strike, with one of the organisers, Mohammed Shlaata, making it clear that responsibility for the violence lies with the authorities: “We are in a state of emergency,” he said. “We have a clear finger of accusation – we blame the police.”
Talking to Palestinian friends, some tell me they fear for their children’s lives and want them to leave the country, while others have packed their bags and left. Admittedly, the number of those leaving is low, but Palestinian citizens are reaching a boiling point.
Anti-Semitism and negative migration
At the same time that the government does nothing to quell criminal activity and lawlessness within Palestinian communities in Israel, it exaggerates and instrumentalises a Zionist notion of anti-Semitism to continuously reassert Jewish victimhood.
While much has been written on the use of a false notion of anti-Semitism – that conflates criticism of Israel and Zionism with anathema towards Jews – to silence Palestinian and pro-Palestinian voices, much less has been said about the mobilisation of anti-Semitism to address Israel’s problem of negative migration.
Since 2023, more Jews have been leaving the country than entering. In 2024, the number of citizens leaving Israel was 26,000 higher than the number of immigrants entering it; in 2025, the gap was about 37,000 Israelis. In other words, negative migration has jumped by more than 42 percent, and Israeli officials are worried that this trend is taking root and even accelerating.
Accordingly, both the Israeli public and the Jewish diaspora are told again and again that anti-Semitism across the globe has gone rampant. Jews are told that the horrific Bondi massacre in Australia is an indication of a new global trend, that in the United Kingdom anti-Semitism has been normalised, and that in Europe Jews are afraid to wear kippahs.
Anti-Semitism has undoubtedly soared over the past two years, and there is obviously a kernel of truth in these articles. But in contrast to the very real panic among Palestinian citizens, which the state has ignored, in the case of anti-Semitism, the state dramatically exaggerates and instrumentalises the evidence to produce a moral panic. The message is clear: Jews across the world should fear for their lives, and therefore those who live in Israel should be wary of leaving, while the only way diasporic Jews can be safe is by migrating to Israel.
Supremacy as glue
The glue holding all of the demographic strategies Israel deploys together is the belief in Jewish exceptionalism and supremacy. The genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank are justified through the dehumanisation of Palestinians; the neglect of the murders and crime in Palestinian communities within Israel is informed by racial discrimination that has been ongoing since 1948; and Israel is weaponising racism against Jews to curb negative migration. The ultimate objective is to guarantee the racial-religious character of Israel as exclusively Jewish, while the dream is a pure Jewish state.
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Coexistence and Other Fighting Words: Selected Writings of Judea Pearl, 2002–2023, Forthcoming
Winter/Spring 2024–25 DRAFT: XIII (Final) 7/17/24
1 Introduction, or Why I Wrote This Book
What compels me, today, to share my writings of the past 22 years with readers troubled by the madness of 2024? The simple answer is that the madness did not start today, but at least 22 years ago. More specifically, as we are grappling with the worldwide surge in anti-Westernism, antisemitism, and anti-Zionism in the wake of October 7, we must understand the latent forces that had been fueling these convulsions for decades before they exploded into our view. Most people know me as the father of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and murdered by al-Qaeda terrorists in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2002. Danny’s horrific death, along with the last words he spoke in front of his abductors’ camera, captured the headlines and turned him into a symbol: millions of people worldwide came to see him as a true citizen of the world, an embodiment of Western values, and an icon of Jewish pride. As people became hungry to hear from Danny’s family about who he was and what we can learn from his tragedy, I, too, was thrust into the public eye as a speaker and writer for audiences outside of my usual scientific activities. In scientific circles, I am known as a computer scientist specializing in artificial intelligence (AI), human cognition, and the philosophy of science—three fields in which I have solved some longstanding problems, especially in reasoning about cause and effect. The tragedy of Danny’s death spurred me to step beyond algorithms and equations and directly examine the social and political forces that are shaping our troubled world. This pursuit has led me to produce hundreds of op-eds, essays, and talks covering a wide range of topics, including Jewish identity, the history of Israel, the war on terrorism, the intricate dynamics of East-West confrontations and dialogues, and the puzzling Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In this book, I present an edited selection of 45 of these writings, showcasing my principal thoughts on these subjects. The decision to compile these writings into a single volume was inspired by numerous requests from colleagues and friends, who observed that the language, perspective, and logic in my analyses deserved wider exposure to the many people who are trying to understand the complex and pressing challenges of our era. These challenges include the escalating menace of terrorism and extremism; the fundamental aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict; and the barbaric attack and aftermath of October 7. The book opens with “Hope from the Horror of My Son’s Murder” (2002), a personal article I wrote just six months after Danny’s murder. This piece echoes the camaraderie, humanity, and pursuit of truth that Danny embodied throughout his life, as well as the message his killing conveys to us globally. Ultimately, the selection culminates with “Oslo Failed Because It Never Started” (2023), wherein I identify Zionophobia—my preferred term for the obsessive rejection of a Jewish homeland—as the primary catalyst inflaming and prolonging the century-long Arab-Israeli conflict. I explore Zionophobia, its origins, logic, and consequences, in several chapters throughout my journey, because it is universally and unforgivably ignored—it’s the elephant in the room. We see this clearly today. Since October 7, many people have been shocked by the sharp rise of antisemitic incidents in America and Europe, failing to see the root cause: Zionophobia. The rejection of Israel’s right to exist has been gradually and clandestinely intensified in academia and other institutions of the West, and Zionism, the ideological expression of that right, has become synonymous with the most hateful legacies of colonialism. Coexistence and Other Fighting Words: Selected Writings of Judea Pearl, 2002–2023, Forthcoming Winter/Spring 2024–25 DRAFT: XIII (Final) 7/17/24 2 Naturally, Jews, as the organic carriers of Zionism, have become the direct target of this rising hate. Has my scientific background influenced my analysis of social and political issues? In many ways, yes. In the field of AI, we are trained to imbue brainless robots with human knowledge. This requires a precise language for representing knowledge and a rigorous understanding of its various components: how it is substantiated by evidence and how it should be used to guide actions and policies. This rigor extends to issues of evidence, knowledge, actions, and policies in social and political arenas. It enables AI researchers to precisely distinguish facts from theories, data from models, definitions from assumptions, and, crucially, causes from effects. This principled methodology helps avoid pitfalls and fallacies that often undermine social and political analysis. The logic of cause and effect is often the first victim in the absence of this methodology. My family experience, as well, has shaped these writings. Born to a family that escaped the Holocaust from Europe, and married into a family that fled a major pogrom in Iraq, I have been influenced by a generation of nation-building pioneers, driven by dreams and self-reliance. I witnessed the creation of the modern State of Israel, the Israeli War of Independence and its consequences, as well as Israel’s struggle for survival a decade later while serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). My efforts to foster peace and mutual understanding have led me to participate in dozens of dialogues with Muslim scholars and activists. Similarly, I have engaged with hundreds of Jewish communities across the U.S. and Europe, sharing insights and helping them fight rising antisemitism and Zionophobia in higher education. Most importantly, despite leaving Israel in 1960, I have remained intimately connected to the pulse of its people, the dynamism of its culture, and the ups and downs of its politics. Through my family, friends, teachers, and students in Israel, I have sustained a firsthand understanding of both their deepseated existential anxieties and their profound yearning for peace with their neighbors. So, to return to my opening question: what compels me to share my writings with readers now? To be honest, it is my confidence that these writings reflect a coherent, evidence-based, and compelling worldview that could guide fellow travelers, so many of whom are perplexed by our era’s slogans, doubts, conflicts, misinformation, and moral relativism. In particular, I find great joy in conveying the miracle of the Jewish people, the heroic narrative of Israel’s establishment, and my certitude in the rightness of her struggle for peaceful coexistence. I hope to make this joy contagious.
Judea Pearl Los Angeles, CA July 2024
israel-academia-monitor.com 