MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY ... THE JEWS ARE ABOUT TO CONQUER THE WORLD

The fear of Jewish success

As Israel succeeds and continuously defeats its enemies one by one, a fear arises among many non-Jews that the Jewish people are getting too powerful. 

 

By Rabbi Uri Pilichowski 

 

JNS

Jul 7, 2025

 

Israeli F-15I fighter jets fly toward Iran during "Operation Rising Lion” in June 2025.

 

Even before the war with Iran started, Israel’s opponents, enemies and even friends have criticized Israel more than ever in recent months. What has brought on this increased criticism?  

One week before Israel’s war with Iran started, the U.N. Security Council held a vote on a resolution calling for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the release of all the hostages and unhindered aid access across the enclave. It was well-known that America would veto the resolution, and it would fail, so why did Israel’s enemies and friends bother with it?

In June, the leaders of Spain, France and Italy voiced criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza and called for a ceasefire—one that would inevitably leave Hamas in power. Then the United Kingdom, France and Canada warned Israel they would take “concrete actions” if it continued an “egregious” expansion of military operations in Gaza. Then the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia and Canada imposed personal sanctions on Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich and Minister of Internal Security Itamar Ben-Gvir. 

As Israel began its war with Iran, voices began calling on Israel to restrain itself and questioning the justification for Israel’s attacks. Just as Israel began to win in Iran, French President Emmanuel Macron called on Israel to “urgently end strikes which are increasingly targeting targets unrelated to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic-missile program.” 

It is dangerous to generalize about large groups of people. Making sweeping statements about any group of people runs the risk of inaccuracies. These types of conclusions can also be highly offensive, especially if they are accusatory or derogatory suppositions. At the same time, there are consistent phenomena that express themselves by large groups of people that are impossible to ignore.

After 21 months of a steady stream of criticizing Israel, the intensified level of criticism by world leaders this month is curious. The increased level of criticism can be explained in different ways. One theory suggests that there is latent global antisemitism that is always present. This widespread antisemitism is always a factor, but mostly never reveals itself. There are times when it rears its head in public displays.

The Jewish sages taught about this phenomenon, declaring Eisav sonei es Yaakov, meaning the “descendants of Eisav” (Esau)—gentiles—will always hate the descendants of Yaakov (Jacob). The meaning of the sages’ teaching isn’t that all gentiles hate all Jews all the time, but rather, antisemitism is a factor that is always present among some gentiles. 

Part of this suppressed antisemitism is a fear of a Jewish takeover of the world. Gentiles have always noticed the Jewish tendency to historically succeed in finance, science and technology. Many non-Jews have had a long-standing fear that Jews have the skills and ability to conquer them. This is the source of the writing and success of publications such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which capitalize on this fear and exploit it. Most non-Jews aren’t conscious or aware of underlying antisemitism within them, although many certainly do and embrace it. 

As Israel succeeds and continuously defeats its enemies one by one, a fear arises among many people that the Jewish people are getting too powerful. The nations all maintain Israel can exist and defend itself, but as soon as it begins to succeed, that latent fear of Israel conquering the world comes to the fore and expresses itself in calls for restraint, ceasefires, and accusations of occupation, apartheid and genocide. Israel must learn to simultaneously ignore those accusations while assuring the world that its sole goal is the security of its people. 

This latent antisemitism can explain another criticism levied against Israel that has been seen more recently. In Israel’s recent war with Iran, voices that had a long history of supporting Israel and calling for an attack on Iran suddenly changed their minds and became critical of Israel’s attack and opposed America’s support of Israel. It was at the point where Israel was experiencing its greatest success that these voices became unjustifiably critical, if not slanderously accusatory. Of course, the historically anti-Israel voices also came out against Israel’s attacks. 

Those opposing the war used buzzwords like “constitutional issues,” “America first,” or “anti-war.” These are normally legitimate concerns, but in the case of Israel’s attacks on Iran and America’s support for them, they were being used as smokescreens. Holocaust survivors, scholars, and educators frequently teach the Nazis’ method of cloaking their hate in “respectable” excuses. When it comes to criticism of Israel, those same tactics, disguised but unmistakable, are being employed by today’s antisemites.

The Israel critics are quick to argue that comparisons to Nazi Germany are exaggerated and disproportionate, and they trivialize the Holocaust by unfairly equating modern anti-war activism with Nazi ideology, but when the same phenomena present themselves, it’s irresponsible to ignore them. 

These same critics might argue that the charge of antisemitism to those who oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran and the other fronts of the wars of the past 21 months unfairly lumps all anti-war advocates together, implying most or all opposition to American support of Israeli military conflicts is antisemitic.

They could point out that legitimate concerns about war, such as loss of life or economic costs, don’t necessarily stem from anti-Israel bias. The answer to those opponents is true, but again, when the exact same phenomena present itself, it’s irresponsible to ignore it. 

Some people challenge the assertion that, in general, opposing Israel’s actions and policies equates to antisemitism. They argue that criticizing Israel’s policies or its role in these conflicts is a political stance, not inherently a hatred of Jewish people. That can be true, but not when a pattern develops among the same group of politicians and pundits of reflexive criticism of Israel. 

No one should ever claim that every anti-war stance is antisemitic. But when the same crowd consistently and reflexively demonizes Israel in an almost knee-jerk reaction while staying silent on other global conflicts, the double standard alarms that alert Israelis to claims that extend past hypocrisy to outright antisemitism. 

It’s important to recognize the people who are reflexively anti-Israel for what they are—antisemites or self-hating Jews. These people are obsessed with Israel because it’s the Jewish state, and they have a latent fear of Jewish conspiracy theories coming true. It isn’t comfortable attributing normally valid criticism and viewpoints to antisemitism, but when patterns develop, it reveals itself to be the reality.