Anti-Semitism today
Once, it was ‘Christian blood.’ Now, it’s ‘ongoing genocide in Palestine’
It keeps happening.
Attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions around the world.
To attribute it to “anti-Semitism” takes us nowhere.
To say “enough is enough” takes us nowhere.
There is no solution to a problem if its cause it not identified.
Anti-Semitism is millennia-old; its causes are complex. The IJN library has 19 books (c. 5,900 pages) devoted exclusively to anti-Semitism — just a start.
We offer here one contemporary cause, no doubt one among many, but one that Jews and all people of good can spot and can call out.
On Sunday, March 8, Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City hosted Mahmoud Khalil, a leader in the violent Columbia University anti-Israel encampment in 2024. He was arrested and later freed. While under arrest, his son was born — a major life event he missed.
Mamdani said:
“All of this for exercising his First Amendment rights in protesting the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”
Deconstruct that statement and you arrive at a disfiguration of the Jewish people. It is as consequential as the blood libels and other wicked myths that people acted on to kill thousands and millions of Jews.
Anti-Semitism begins with an idea about a supposed crime, committed by Jews, that calls out for correction. That “correction” comes in the form of the explusion of the Jews or their murder on a mass scale.
Deconstruct the anti-Semitism as it is caused today, in Mamdani’s words.
First, “Palestine.” When Khalil was arrested, Israel was at war with Hamas in Gaza, not with “Palestine.” Mamdani expands the supposed crime of Israel from Gaza to “Palestine” — to other territories that Israel was not at war with. Mamdani’s message is clear: Israel is a warmongerer. Israel is denied self-defense.
Deconstruct:
Second, “ongoing genocide.” Was Mamdani referring to the period of Khalil’s arrest in 2024, or to the date Mamdani spoke in 2026? Mamdani was creatively ambiguous. He could defend “ongoing genocide” as referring only to Gaza, yet his use of “ongoing” conveys the idea that Israel is guilty today — nearly six months after the Oct. 10, 2025 ceasefire in Gaza. Again, his message is: Israel is a warmongerer.
And Mamdani’s main point — crime itself? There is no crime. “Genocide” refers to the intentional destruction of an entire people. Israel is innocent, both before and after the Oct. 10, 2025 ceasefire. No dispassionate scholar of genocide in history can see it in Israel’s self-defense after Hamas’ atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023. But they can see the aspiration to genocide in Hamas’ charter calling for Israel’s destruction.
Yet, Israel’s association with the the genocide word is out.
The word is powerful.
The word is acid.
There is no crime worse than genocide.
The word catches fire.
The word spreads.
The word, spread by the head of the most important city in America and similar leaders, acquires legitimacy —the legitimacy of: of course. Of course Israel is guilty of genocide — and, to boot, of ongoing genocide. The word “genocide’ — repeated, amplified, inflated — is a major cause of anti-Semitism today.
“Genocide” associates Israel — the Jewish state — with the crime of genocide.
The word associates Jews anywhere with the crime of genocide. The distinction between Israelis and Jews living outside of Israel is a dangerous distinction because, whatever its inherent validity, it has no purchase in the fertile mind of the hater, the anti-Semite. For Jews to draw this distinction is a case of Jews talking to themselves.
Note: Mamdani issued a very short statement. One single sentence. Sixteen words. No need for elaboration. No need even for code. Anti-Semitism based on anti-Israel has acquired such credibility in certain circles that it need not be elaborated, need not be defended.
Need not be explained.
It’s become obvious — just like classic slanders of centuries past.
Jews kill Christian children to use their blood to make matzah —obvious in the minds of enough believers to move them to violence.
Jews poison the wells — obvious in the minds of enough believers to move them to violence.
Jews killed Jesus — obvious in the minds of enough believers to move them to violence.
Israel is guilty of ongoing genocide: obvious in the minds of enough believers to move them to violence against Jews and synagogues in the UK, the US, Australia — anywhere.
Which means:
It is not enough for Jews to cry out in pain, “enough is enough.”
It is not enough to plead for more funds from the federal government for security at Jewish institutions.
It is not enough to prosecute and convict criminals who are guilty of anti-Semitic violence.
All this is necessary — but not the essence of the battle.
Anti-Semitism is generated by an idea. Primarily, the idea today is: “Israel is guilty of ongoing genocide.”
Primarily, it is this idea that must be denounced, refuted, taken on, loudly rejected, in order to make a dent in anti-Semitism today.
It doesn’t matter who the articulator of the idea is: the mayor of New York, the protester in the streets, the social media ignoramus. The idea must be cleansed from discourse by being refuted with facts. It’s a long battle.
This is not a matter of piling on Mayor Mamdani. He reflects a much larger phenomenon: the legitimation of suspicion of Israel, of hatred of Israel, of the demonization of Israel. Mamdani is both a symbol and a propagator of this pernicious phenomenon.
The battle to victory must center on the malicious idea of Israel’s evil, encased in a few words: Israel’s “ongoing genocide.”
© IJN 2026
