Following the current discourse surrounding the Gaza War, it's striking that the majority of criticism is directed at Israel. Why is this? In July 2025, the podcast platform Bibletunes released an interview with Middle East expert Assaf Zeevi. The following discussion draws on key statements from this interview. A summary by Dr. Tobias Krämer, Head of Theology and Community at Christians Standing with Israel (CSI).
By Dr. Tobias Krämer
If you follow the reporting on the Middle East over the long term, one observation becomes inescapable: In the end, it is always Israel that is pilloried. This is evident again these days. A large number of European states are putting pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza. Strangely, hardly any are putting pressure on Hamas to surrender and thus pave the way for peace.1
This approach is surprising because the results are predictable. If Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip, Hamas will survive, rocket fire into Israel will resume, and October 7th will inevitably be repeated. Not a good prospect. But if Hamas surrenders, the Palestinian people will finally be free, the hostages will be released, a new chapter will begin, and ultimately, freedom, prosperity, and peace will prevail in Gaza. A great opportunity—one that Europe seems uninterested in.
This doesn't mean that one shouldn't question Israel's day-to-day politics. Of course one can, and there is reason to do so. But the underlying pattern mentioned is striking. Why does the tide so often turn against Israel and Jews worldwide? Why is this the case? The following observations address this.
First: Identification with the weak and oppressed
People in the West instinctively identify with the weak and oppressed. They want to help them. In the Western narrative, the Palestinians are seen as the oppressed. Israel is viewed as a powerful military force, the Palestinians as the weak ones who cannot stand up to it. The fact that Israel is often the victim – nearly 20 years of rocket fire from Gaza, assassinations, terrorism, October 7th, and so on – is barely acknowledged. The suffering on the Israeli side receives only scant media coverage; the constant fear and threat faced by Jews falls through the cracks of public perception.
What we see, however, are images of a powerful Israel – and a weak Palestinian. Real images, but also fake ones. They practically invite people to rise up against Israel. Anyone who now takes a vocal stance against Israel on social media is seen as a champion of the cause and receives applause. This can be achieved with just a few clicks and leads to a flood of anti-Israel posts. The result: Israel loses the media war and is stigmatized as the scapegoat.
Secondly: Black-and-white thinking
People like simplicity; they dislike complexity. And what could be simpler than the widespread black-and-white thinking that Israel is essentially "the bad guys" and the Palestinians "the good guys"? The Middle East, however, is a highly complex entity that cannot be understood (if at all) with simple explanations and catchphrases. Here, two groups are struggling for homeland, dignity, security, and a future. Behind them lies a convoluted history of right and wrong, differing perspectives, and conflicting historical narratives. Neither side has ever had the chance to resolve their conflict (and potentially end it), because the international community has constantly interfered, often to little avail.
Few conflicts are as complex as this one. The Western narrative, with its perpetrator-victim dichotomy, offers simplistic explanations. The motto: Israel must change, then everything will be alright. This is how people believe they can sum things up. But such simplifications lead to misjudgments, because the key to peace does not lie in Israel's hands – it lies in the hands of its Islamic neighbors.
Thirdly: moral superiority
The desire for simplification is intertwined with another need: moral superiority. People love to be better than others. Therefore, there is a certain appeal to feeling morally superior to Israelis and supposedly being able to tell them how things should be done. Added to this is our Nazi past. Germans committed unspeakable crimes against Jews. Every German knows this; some feel bad about it, others resist it.
Doesn't this then seem like a special opportunity to brand the Israelis as evil and portray oneself as good? This extends to the absurd comparison that Israel is doing the same thing in Gaza as the Nazis did in Auschwitz. This comparison is shockingly wrong. The same applies to the accusation of genocide. Israel is definitely not committing genocide in Gaza (if one uses the word in its lexical sense) – that much is clear. But such distortions certainly serve the purpose of moral outrage.
Fourth: Jews as a collective
In an almost mysterious way, Jews are treated as a collective and held jointly responsible for the policies of the State of Israel. For example, a few weeks ago an antisemitic incident made headlines. A Jew was attacked by a German man and called a "child murderer." The (false) accusation that Israel is murdering children in Gaza was transferred to this Jew, who was in reality an innocent man. This "displacement action" is absurd, but it happens.
In other conflicts, this isn't the case. For example, Russians generally have nothing to fear on German streets, even though Putin is waging war in Ukraine. It's understood that the Russians here have nothing to do with the politics there. The situation is different with Jews. Jews are harassed and insulted worldwide, bookings are canceled, and they are denied entry to hotels – simply because Jews are Jews, and seemingly everyone involved must be held accountable.
Fifth: Anti-Semitism seems morally legitimate
Antisemitism has succeeded in whitewashing itself: Jew-hatred appears morally legitimate. Once Israel has been assigned the role of evil, everything that was once considered antisemitism suddenly seems justified. Extreme bias, distorted portrayals, omission of facts, reversal of perpetrator and victim roles, and the reversal of cause and effect now appear to be legitimate means.
Antisemitic thought patterns are projected onto Israel and thus justified. A prominent example is the recently published "Declaration on Palestine and Israel" by the World Council of Churches. It contains nothing but the one-sided BDSideology, without even mentioning October 7th (as we reported). The three classic characteristics of antisemitism are consistently found in contemporary hatred of Israel: demonization, delegitimization, and double standards. Israel is portrayed as the seat of evil, whose right to exist is denied (directly or indirectly), and to which moral standards are applied that one would never be willing to meet oneself or that one does not apply to other states.
Anti-Israel sentiment as the order of the day – that's the latest development. This development became possible because the massacre of October 7th is interpreted as a "liberation struggle against imperialist Israel," and any form of resistance is declared legitimate. Consequently, Hamas is allowed to slaughter Jews without much objection – and indeed, it isn't. The result: The world turns its criticism on Israel, but Hamas gets away scot-free. This distortion is taking place constantly and systematically
The danger is real
Islamism has a powerful ally in the West: the latent antipathy towards Jews and Israel, which invariably leads to Israel being vilified. In the long term, this can create a growing global hostility towards Israel, which is already underway. This hostility towards Israel could lead to a lack of resistance when Israel is one day attacked by Islamism with the aim of annihilation. For if this trend continues, the world will perceive Israel's destruction as morally right and justified. And it will blame Israel for its own downfall: opportunity lost, game over. The foundations for this horrific scenario are being laid in our time.
Footnotes:
- Only since the UN conference on Gaza at the end of July this year does a change of thinking seem to be manifesting itself; this is suggested by a demand signed by 17 states – including Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar – calling, among other things, for the removal of Hamas from power. ↩︎
- “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)” is an international campaign that aims to put pressure on Israel through boycott, divestment and sanctions, thereby improving the situation for the Palestinians. ↩︎
