How the Antisemitism Commission Divides Australia While Ignoring the Real Drivers of Hate

By Andrew Klein

6^th May 2026

Dedication: To my wife, who sees people and souls, not religions and labels.

In May 2026, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security convened the first hearing of what is colloquially being called an “antisemitism commission”. The government insists it is a genuine effort to understand the drivers of hatred and to protect Jewish Australians. But a closer examination reveals a very different picture: an inquiry carefully framed to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism, to silence pro‑Palestinian voices, and to deflect attention from the government’s active military support for a state engaged in genocide.

This article does not question the reality of antisemitism. It does not minimise the suffering of Jewish Australians who have faced hatred and violence. What it does is examine the uses to which the commission is being put – and the dangerous pattern of suppressing dissent that it represents.

1. The Commission That Refuses to Look at Gaza

The committee’s terms of reference are striking for what they omit. There is no mention of Israel. No mention of Gaza. No mention of the distinction between antisemitism and legitimate criticism of Israeli policy. Yet the overwhelming evidence is that the “sharp spike in antisemitism” is “clearly linked” to Israel’s wars in the Middle East, as Commissioner Virginia Bell herself has acknowledged.

Former High Court judge Bell has told the inquiry that the recent surge in antisemitic incidents is intimately connected to events in Israel‑Palestine. This is an inconvenient truth for the government. If the spike is linked to Israel’s actions, then addressing antisemitism would require addressing those actions – including the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The government has no interest in doing so.

Instead, the commission is encouraged to look everywhere except the obvious source. The Zionist lobby has long sought to exclude Israel from discussions of antisemitism, and the government has obliged. The result is an inquiry that can identify symptoms but never name the cause.

2. The Jewish Council of Australia – A Divergent Jewish Voice

The most significant fact obscured by the government’s framing is that Jewish Australians are not of one mind on Israel, on Gaza, or on the definition of antisemitism.

The Jewish Council of Australia (JCA) , founded in February 2024, provides a vital alternative to the established Jewish communal organisations that have long dominated public discourse. Led by human rights lawyer Sarah Schwartz and historian Dr Max Kaiser, the JCA is an ACNC‑registered charity committed to opposing antisemitism and racism while supporting Palestinian freedom and justice.

In 2025, JCA was granted leave to appear before the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, representing the diverse Jewish voices that are so often marginalised. As the organisation’s leadership has stated, “A core feature of antisemitism is the stereotyping of Jewish identity. When institutions treat Jews as a politically homogenous bloc, who all support Israel… they are themselves engaging in antisemitic stereotyping.”

The JCA has also been active in opposing the weaponisation of antisemitism accusations to stifle free speech on Palestine. In August 2024, it opposed the Coalition’s Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill, warning that the proposed legislation “could be used to justify policies which stifle free speech and academic freedom.” In April 2025, JCA organised a Melbourne screening of the Oscar‑winning documentary No Other Land – a film about Palestinian displacement co‑created by Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers – as a fundraiser for Palestine. The cinema cancelled the event after receiving 20 threats in a single day, yet the Zionist lobby’s campaign against the film was widely covered, while the threats were minimised.

The JCA has also raised funds for senior legal counsel to defend its anti‑racism work against smear campaigns in the Murdoch press. It is a modest, under‑resourced organisation that punches far above its weight, precisely because it speaks truth.

3. The Zionist Lobby – A Powerful Force for Conflation

By contrast, the established pro‑Israel lobby in Australia is exceptionally well‑resourced. The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) is described as “Australia’s AIPAC” – a reference to the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Its executive director, Colin Rubenstein, and its chairman, Mark Leibler, have operated at the centre of pro‑Israel influence in Australian politics for decades, with “a discipline and continuity that most political parties cannot match.”

AIJAC, along with the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) , actively monitors criticism of Israel and reacts quickly to suppress it. A 2018 study by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found that AIJAC was the largest sponsor of non‑government funded trips for federal parliamentarians. In 2025, it protested when the Albanese government sanctioned far‑right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben‑Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

This same lobby has been a driving force behind the adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism across Australian universities and institutions. The IHRA definition, as Amnesty International has noted, “has shamefully served as a weapon … of Israel through unfounded accusations of antisemitism.” It “tramples on fundamental rights to protest and freedom of expression.” The Universities Australia definition goes even further, stating that Zionism is a core part of Jewish identity for most Jewish Australians – and therefore criticism of Zionism is classed as antisemitism and prohibited.

This is the lobby’s triumph: to make criticism of a foreign state’s policies a punishable offence in Australian universities.

4. The Antisemitism Envoy – A Political Appointment, Not a Defender of Jews

The government’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, is a career Israel lobbyist born in apartheid South Africa. Appointed in July 2024, she has an established record of defending and supporting Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Critics have noted that Segal’s role is a political ruse. During a Senate Estimates hearing in December 2025, Greens Senator David Shoebridge pointed out that Segal had refused to comment on neo‑Nazi violence in August 2025, while simultaneously advocating for the banning of peaceful pro‑Palestinian rallies. She has urged all Australian institutions to adopt the contested IHRA definition, which conflates anti‑Zionism with antisemitism. She has recommended cutting funding to universities that do not comply.

When neo‑Nazis overran a protest in Melbourne in August 2025, Segal declined to comment, stating that she didn’t want to comment on any particular incident. Yet she has been willing to advocate for the movement of all pro‑Palestinian protests out of city centres. Australia’s first “antisemitism envoy” has thus proved most comfortable hunting anti‑Zionist speech rather than actual neo‑Nazis marching in the streets.

5. The Suppression of Pro‑Palestinian Speech – A Pattern of Control

The damage is not theoretical. In early 2026, the NSW Parliament passed the Hate Speech and Vilification Amendment Act, explicitly prohibiting “knowingly inciting hatred” against Jewish people. The law was rammed through without referral to a parliamentary committee, ignoring the NSW Law Reform Commission’s advice against new vilification crimes. Civil liberties groups have warned that the racial vilification offence is “overly broad, and will capture legitimate political debate, like criticism of Israel or Zionism.”

At the federal level, the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026 proposes significant reforms to address antisemitism, hate speech, extremist organisations, and visa cancellation powers. The Human Rights Commission has warned that these reforms must remain “proportionate, clearly defined and consistent with Australia’s human rights obligations.” But the pattern is clear: new powers are being created to police speech, and they are most likely to be deployed against critics of Israel.

The Secure Our Schools program, which has been running for more than a decade, has distributed about 60 % of its total grants to Jewish schools. This funding is not in itself objectionable – all schools deserve safety. But when considered alongside the absence of equivalent protections for other communities, and the refusal to extend the Vilification Act’s protections equally, the pattern is unmistakable: one community’s security is privileged above all others.

6. The State of Israel – A State Without Borders, Sustained by Genocide

Any honest discussion of antisemitism in Australia must recognise a central fact: the state of Israel has no internationally agreed borders. It is a country whose very existence is contested, and it has responded to that contestation with decades of military occupation, settlement expansion, and – in Gaza – what the International Court of Justice has found it “plausible” amounts to genocide.

The current Israeli government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu and including far‑right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben‑Gvir, has openly embraced the ideology of “Greater Israel.” On 12 August 2025, Netanyahu declared his deep personal connection to this vision, which would extend Israeli control from the Jordan River to the Euphrates, encompassing parts of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. Finance Minister Smotrich has spoken of expanding Israel’s reach “to Damascus,” and the government has been described as one “formed around the notion that land is holier than life, that theocracy comes instead of democracy.”

The “Greater Israel” project is not a fringe fantasy. It is the stated policy of the governing coalition. As one analysis put it, “the project is already in its advanced stages – the Judaization of the Palestinian interior, settler expansion in the West Bank, and the open war of extermination in Gaza.”

Israel’s commitment to this expansionist project is matched by its commitment to shaping the global narrative. In 2025, reports revealed that Israel had quadrupled its hasbara (public diplomacy) budget, allocating NIS 2.35 billion (approx. US$729 million) to propaganda efforts, up from NIS 545 million (US$150 million) the previous year. The Israeli government has also spent at least €42 million (approx. US$49 million) on advertising campaigns across YouTube and X since mid‑2025, with much of that expenditure targeted at European audiences to downplay the famine in Gaza.

If there were no problem with Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people – if it were not an apartheid regime, if it were not engaged in years of violent oppression – this vast expenditure on narrative control would be unnecessary. That Israel bothers to maintain such a complex, well‑resourced, and globally focused propaganda operation is itself evidence of a deep problem.

7. Arms Sales – Australia’s Complicity

Despite government denials, Australia is actively supplying military components to Israel. In August 2025, Defence Minister Richard Marles insisted that Australia does not supply weapons to Israel, while conceding that the export of “component parts” was “a separate issue.” But critics have pointed out that “parts of weapons are weapons.”

The ABC has reported that the federal government has upheld dozens of military export permits to Israel throughout the war in Gaza, raising fresh questions about Australia’s weapons transfers. Leaked shipping records show that in September 2025, Australia sent an “Inlet Lube Plate” for the F‑35 Joint Strike Fighter to Israel, classified as “Military Goods – Aircraft parts.”

This is not a semantic distinction. Australian components are being used in Israeli military systems that are actively involved in the Gaza genocide. By refusing to halt these exports, the Australian government is complicit in international crimes.

8. The Question of Dual Loyalty

The Israeli government and its Australian lobbyists have worked hard to present Israel as the “ultimate safe haven” for the Jewish people. This claim is not merely false – it is dangerous. Every time the state of Israel commits a war crime, that act exposes Jewish people around the world, including in Australia, to criticism and resentment that they did nothing to earn.

Moreover, the claim of Israel as a “safe haven” raises a legitimate question of dual loyalty. If individuals are willing to support a state that is actively committing genocide – and to pressure the Australian government to support that state – what does that mean for their loyalty to Australia? If the state of Israel were to declare Australia a threat, what actions would such individuals be prepared to take?

These questions are not antisemitic. They are the same questions that would be asked of any group that prioritised loyalty to a foreign power over loyalty to the country where they live.

9. No Alliance, Just Extraction

The myth of a “special relationship” or “shared values” between Australia and Israel is carefully cultivated by the lobby. But there is no formal defence treaty between Australia and Israel. There are routine government‑to‑government and commercial relationships – nothing more.

What Australia receives in return for its political support and military exports is unclear. What is clear is that the benefits accrue primarily to the arms manufacturers and to the political donors who fund the lobby. The Australian people gain nothing from the genocide in Gaza, and they lose much – moral standing, social cohesion, and the freedom to criticise a foreign state without fear of legal sanction.

10. What Is to Be Done?

The government’s antisemitism commission is a dangerous screenplay – a performance of concern that divides the community while refusing to address the underlying causes of rising hatred.

We can do better. We must:

1. Distinguish clearly between antisemitism and legitimate criticism of Israeli policy. The IHRA definition should be rejected in its current form, and Universities Australia should repeal its prohibition on criticism of Zionism.

2. Support diverse Jewish voices – including the Jewish Council of Australia – rather than allowing a handful of pro‑Israel organisations to speak for all Jews.

3. Demand that Australia halt all military exports to Israel, immediately and unconditionally.

4. Repeal the new hate speech laws that have been rushed through without proper consultation, or at the very least extend their protections equally to all communities.

5. Recognise the state of Palestine, as the international community has repeatedly urged, and support the ICJ’s rulings against Israel.

6. Stop using antisemitism as a political shield for the support of a government engaged in genocide.

Conclusion

The Albanese government’s antisemitism commission is not a genuine effort to understand hatred. It is a carefully stage‑managed exercise designed to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism, to silence pro‑Palestinian voices, and to deflect attention from Australia’s complicity in a genocide.

The tragedy is that genuine antisemitism is real. It deserves to be confronted – not weaponised. The government’s approach does not protect Jews. It divides the community, chills free speech, and serves the interests of a foreign lobby.

We are not fooled. We see the screenplay for what it is. And we will continue to speak the truth – about Israel, about Gaza, about the misuse of antisemitism for political ends – no matter how loudly the lobby shouts us down.

References: A Dangerous Screenplay

1. Parliamentary Inquiry – Terms of Reference

· Parliament of Australia (2026). Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security – Inquiry into Antisemitism: Terms of Reference. Available from the Australian Parliament House website.

2. Commissioner Virginia Bell’s admission of link to Middle East

· Australian Associated Press (AAP) / News Corp Australia (May 2026). Antisemitism spike ‘clearly linked’ to Israel’s wars, inquiry told. (Various news outlets; original hearing transcript pending publication.)

3. Jewish Council of Australia (JCA)

· Jewish Council of Australia website (2024–2026). Mission statement, registration details, public statements. ACNC registered charity.

· ABC News (February 2024). New Jewish Council of Australia launches to offer ‘alternative voice’ on antisemitism and Palestine.

· JCA submission to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion (2025). Intervention of the Jewish Council of Australia.

· JCA media release (August 2024). Jewish Council of Australia opposes Coalition’s Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill.

· JCA fundraising campaign (April–May 2026). Fundraiser for senior legal counsel – successful as reported in email to supporters.

4. AIJAC and Zionist Federation of Australia

· Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) (2018). Same, same but different: Diaspora lobbying and the influence of AIPAC and AIJAC.

· The Australia/Israel Review (AIJAC publication). Various issues documenting parliamentary trips and advocacy.

· The Australian (2025). Reports on AIJAC protest against sanctions on Ben‑Gvir and Smotrich.

· Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) website. Policy positions, submissions on IHRA definition.

5. IHRA Definition and Universities Australia

· International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) (2016). Working definition of antisemitism (including examples).

· Universities Australia (2025). Guidelines on addressing antisemitism on campus.

· Amnesty International (2022). Briefing to UN Human Rights Council: The IHRA definition and the weaponisation of antisemitism.

· Palestine Australia Solidarity Group (PASG) reports (2025–2026). Documentation of university disciplinary actions against pro‑Palestinian students.

· Australian University Free Speech Network (2025). Complaints and evidence of speech suppression.

6. Jillian Segal – Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism

· Prime Minister’s Office media release (July 2024). Appointment of Jillian Segal as Special Envoy.

· Senate Estimates Hansard (December 2025). Exchange between Senator David Shoebridge and Jillian Segal regarding neo‑Nazi violence and pro‑Palestinian rallies.

· The Guardian (August 2025). Antisemitism envoy declines to comment on neo‑Nazi protest.

· Jillian Segal’s public recommendations (2025). Calls for universities to adopt IHRA definition, funding cuts for non‑compliance.

7. Hate speech laws – NSW, Victoria, Queensland

· NSW Parliament (early 2026). Hate Speech and Vilification Amendment Act 2026. See also NSW Law Reform Commission report (2025) advising against such laws.

· Victoria and Queensland legislation. Relevant sections of the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 (Vic) and Anti‑Discrimination Act 1991 (Qld) as amended.

· Guardian Australia (March 2026). Man arrested in Queensland for reciting ‘from the river to the sea’.

8. Secure Our Schools program funding

· Department of Education and Training. Secure Our Schools program data (multiple years). Analysis of allocation of grants (available via FOI and media reports, e.g., The Age, 2025).

9. State of Israel – Borders, Greater Israel, government extremism

· United Nations Security Council resolutions. Multiple resolutions (e.g., 242, 338) noting lack of agreed borders.

· Benjamin Netanyahu speech (12 August 2025). Address to the Knesset declaring his deep connection to the “Greater Israel” vision.

· Bezalel Smotrich statements (various). Calls for expanding Israeli control to Damascus.

· Amnesty International (2022). Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians.

· B’Tselem (2021). A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

10. Hasbara (propaganda) budget

· Haaretz (December 2025). Israel quadruples hasbara budget to NIS 2.35 billion.

· The Times of Israel (January 2026). Knesset approves dramatic increase in public diplomacy spending.

· Campaign Against Antisemitism / Tech Transparency Project (2026). Investigation into Israeli government spending on YouTube and X advertising (€42 million, US$49 million).

11. Australian arms exports to Israel

· ABC News (August 2025). Richard Marles says Australia does not supply weapons to Israel – but does not deny component parts.

· ABC News (September 2025). Leaked shipping records show Australia sent F‑35 parts to Israel during Gaza war.

· Defence Export Control Office (2025–2026). Permitted military export licences to Israel (partial release under FOI).

12. No defence treaty between Australia and Israel

· Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). List of bilateral treaties – no defence pact with Israel.

· Parliamentary Library (2025). Australia‑Israel relations: A brief overview.

13. Lattouf case

· Federal Court of Australia (June 2025). Lattouf v Australian Broadcasting Corporation – judgment finding unlawful termination due to external pressure.

· The Guardian (June 2025). ABC’s sacking of Antoinette Lattouf was unlawful, court finds.

14. Additional references for the points on dual loyalty and genocide (internal context)

· International Court of Justice (ICJ) orders (26 January 2024, 24 May 2024). Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel).

· United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Reports on Gaza, West Bank, and settler violence (2024–2026).

How Language, Trade and Shared History Expose the “Clash of Civilizations” as a Colonial Myth

By Andrew Paul Klein and Sera Elizabeth Klein

Long‑standing colleagues and co‑authors

I. The Triumph of Exchange Over Confrontation

Every few decades the West invents a new “great divide” to explain away its own wars and impoverishment of other peoples. In the 1990s Samuel Huntington gave it its most polished academic veneer: the coming conflict would not be ideological but civilisational, pitting monolithic, static cultural blocs against one another – “the West versus the rest”, with the Muslim world cast as a primary adversary.

Yet the very evidence that Huntington and his admirers ignored tells a radically different story. From the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia to the silver cups of Bronze‑Age Iran, from the conquest of the Americas to the multilingual reality of modern Europe, the history of language and culture is not a story of inevitable clashing, but of constant borrowing, translating, adapting and mixing. The “clash” is not written in stone; it is manufactured, weaponised and sold to publics whose own daily lives are saturated with the products, words and thoughts of the very civilisations they are told to fear.

II. The Deep Past: Scripts Without Borders

In 2022 an international team of epigraphers announced the partial decipherment of Linear Elamite, a writing system used in what is now southern Iran between roughly 2300 and 1880 BCE. For more than a century the script had resisted all attempts at decoding. The breakthrough came when François Desset and his colleagues realised that Linear Elamite was not an isolated invention: it was adapted from the cuneiform writing of neighbouring Mesopotamia, and its decipherment was made possible by bilingual inscriptions that used the well‑known Akkadian language as a key.

“Civilisations” did not sit in hermetically sealed boxes, waiting to collide. They learnt from each other, exchanged scribes, adopted useful tools and adapted them to their own tongues. The very act of writing itself – the foundation of recorded history – is a testament to cross‑cultural borrowing.

III. English: A Frankenstein Tongue (and Proud of It)

For an example much closer to home, look at English. It began as the language of Anglo‑Saxon tribes who arrived in Britain around 400 CE. Within centuries it had been invaded, enriched and reshaped by Old Norse (the language of Viking raiders), by Latin (the tongue of the Church and scholarship) and, most dramatically, by Norman French. After 1066 French became the language of the royal court and the ruling elite; Old English survived “among the peasants”.

But rather than disappearing, English absorbed its conquerors’ words – not just “beer”, “city” and “fruit”, but abstract concepts such as “liberty” and “justice”. Later it borrowed from Hindi (“pajama”, “thug”), from Arabic (“sugar”, “algorithm”) and from Nahuatl (“chocolate”, “avocado”, “tomato”). The language that today’s “clash of civilisations” ideologues speak is a hybrid, a living museum of centuries of peaceful and violent contact. If there were ever a genuine “clash”, English would have disappeared long ago; instead, it became the world’s most successful global lingua franca because it never stopped borrowing.

IV. The Colonial Assault on Language – And the Scarring of Souls

The “clash” narrative becomes truly dangerous when it is used to justify colonial extraction and the suppression of other peoples. In Mexico the Spanish conquest did not simply defeat the Aztec empire; it imposed the Castilian language as a tool of domination. Nahuatl, once the language of a sophisticated civilisation, was systematically pushed to the margins. For most of the 20th century the official policy of “bilingual education” was not about preserving indigenous languages but about assimilating native peoples at the cost of their own cultures – a direct assault on the soul of a people.

The same pattern repeated itself across the globe: the “Scramble for Africa”, the British in India, the Dutch in Indonesia, the French in Indochina. In every case the coloniser’s language was made the key to advancement, and the colonised were told that their own tongues were backward, their thoughts less worthy. That is not a clash of civilisations; it is a one‑sided war waged against the identity of the colonised, and its wounds remain open today.

V. Israel / Palestine – A Case Study in Manufactured Division

Nowhere is the bankruptcy of the “clash of civilisations” thesis more evident than in the story of modern Hebrew and Yiddish, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The suppression of Yiddish

For centuries Yiddish was the everyday language of millions of Ashkenazi Jews – a rich, expressive tongue that developed through contact with German, Slavic and Hebrew elements. With the rise of political Zionism, however, Zionist activists in Mandatory Palestine actively sought to eradicate Yiddish, banning it from theatres, films and cultural activities in order to promote Hebrew as the sole national language. As one scholar put it, “in the early 20th century, Zionist activists… tried to eradicate the use of Yiddish among Jews in preference to Hebrew, and make its use socially unacceptable”. After the establishment of Israel, the government pursued a “melting‑pot” policy, requiring every immigrant to adopt Hebrew and often a Hebrew surname, while Yiddish was actively discouraged.

This was not an inevitable product of some “clash” between Hebrew and Yiddish; it was a deliberate political choice to create a unified national identity by erasing a vibrant diaspora culture. The wound has never fully healed, and Israeli society remains ambivalent about its Yiddish heritage.

The erasure of Palestinian identity

At the same time, the Arabic language of the indigenous Palestinian population was relegated to a secondary status. The British Mandate formally recognised English, Arabic and Hebrew as official languages, but the political and economic system systematically favoured Hebrew and English, marginalising Arabic. The Nakba of 1948 and the decades of occupation that followed were not “clashes” but planned dispossessions – a colonial project dressed in the language of self‑defence and civilisation.

The numbers today

The consequences are visible in Israeli public opinion. A November 2025 survey found that 70% of Israelis oppose the creation of a Palestinian state – a figure that rises to 79% among Jewish Israelis. A March 2025 poll by Tel Aviv University revealed that 62% of Jewish Israelis support “evacuating Palestinians from Gaza, even by force and military means”, while 70% of Jewish respondents said that if Gazans leave, Israel should not allow their return at all. Such attitudes are not the result of some eternal, inevitable clash; they are the product of a deliberate political strategy of dehumanisation, enacted through language, education and the relentless repetition of victimhood.

Meanwhile, the genocide in Gaza continues to unfold. The International Court of Justice has ruled that it is “plausible” that Israel’s acts amount to genocide and has ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah. The Israeli government, backed by Western powers, has ignored those orders – and the same Western leaders who denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine refuse to apply the vocabulary of “war of aggression” or “genocide” to their own ally. This is not a clash of civilisations; it is the operation of power, politics and profit, dressed in the language of a civilisation it is actively betraying.

VI. Deconstructing Huntington’s Flawed Paradigm

Huntington’s thesis has been subjected to devastating criticism from multiple angles. A 2024 study in Frontiers in Psychology found that states belonging to different civilisations are not significantly more conflict‑prone than those within the same civilisation. Other scholars point out that Huntington’s categories are static, ahistorical and deeply normative, treating “civilisations” as monolithic blocs while ignoring millennia of cross‑cultural exchange, intermarriage and trade. As one recent review noted, “the conflicts are obviously more contentious than the civilisations themselves”.

Perhaps most damning, critics have argued that the “clash of civilisations” narrative functions as a self‑fulfilling prophecy. When Western leaders frame the world in terms of civilisational enmity, they alienate potential allies, empower extremists on all sides and provide a convenient excuse for policies that enrich defence contractors and extractive industries. The goal is not to understand the world but to justify its further domination.

VII. Do We See a Pattern?

From the script‑borrowing scribes of Elam to the Norman‑French infused English of the Middle Ages; from the forced assimilation of Nahuatl speakers in Mexico to the deliberate suppression of Yiddish in Israel; from the marginalisation of Arabic in Palestine to the present‑day public support for ethnic cleansing – the common thread is not a “clash of civilisations”. It is the weaponisation of language and identity by elites who profit from division.

Those who benefit are the arms manufacturers, the propaganda‑funding lobbies, the real‑estate developers eyeing Gaza’s coastline, the politicians seeking to distract from domestic failures. The victims are ordinary people – Jewish families whose grandparents spoke Yiddish, Palestinian families living under siege, indigenous communities fighting for the survival of their tongues, and all of us who are told to hate people we have never met.

VIII. Conclusion: Choose Exchange Over Clash

The “clash of civilisations” is not an ancient inevitability; it is a modern political product – a weapon used to justify war, colonisation and extraction. The evidence of history, from the cuneiform tablets of Mesopotamia to the hybrid tongue of English, shows that civilisations grow not by staying apart but by exchanging, borrowing and adapting. Language is the conduit of that exchange; when it is suppressed, the soul is scarred; when it is allowed to flow freely, cultures flourish.

We do not need to accept the lie that we are fated to clash. We can choose to remember the centuries of shared knowledge, the translations that made science possible, the words that crossed continents and the love that refuses to be imprisoned by any manufactured fault line. We can build a world where the only “clash” that matters is between those who hoard power and profit and those who believe that every language, every culture and every child deserves to live, speak and dream freely.

Sources & References for the Article

Archaeological / Linguistic Sources

1. Desset, F., et al. (2022). The Decipherment of Linear Elamite. The article and the team’s subsequent publications demonstrate that the script was not an isolated invention but derived from Mesopotamian cuneiform, proving cross‑cultural borrowing in the Bronze Age.

2. Basello, G. P. (2022). How Many Signs? What Differing Sign Numbers Tell Us About the Writing of Linear Elamite. Further epigraphic analysis supporting the hybrid nature of the script.

3. Wasserman, N. (2020). The Amorite Language and Its Relationship to Cuneiform. Shows how a nomadic people adopted and adapted the writing system of settled neighbours.

Critiques of Huntington’s “Clash of Civilisations”

1. Huntington, S. P. (1996). The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order – the original thesis, which we critique.

2. Fox, J. (2022). The “Clash of Civilizations” 25 Years On: A Critical Review (Routledge Handbook of Political Islam). Summarises the main scholarly criticisms.

3. Bak, D. (2024). The Problematic Concept of Civilisation: A Critique of Huntington’s Theory. Argues that Huntington’s categories are static, ahistorical, and ignore millennia of cross‑cultural exchange.

4. Sell, S. (2024). Clash of Civilizations – A Self‑Fulfilling Prophecy. Examines how the narrative serves to justify Western military intervention and alienates potential allies.

English as a Hybrid Language

1. Baugh, A. C., & Cable, T. (2013). A History of the English Language (6th ed.). The classic text detailing the Norse, Latin, French and global borrowings that shaped English.

2. Durkin, P. (2014). Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English (Oxford University Press). Traces the thousands of foreign origins of everyday English words.

🇮🇱 Hebrew, Yiddish and Israeli Public Opinion

1. Jewish Virtual Library (2026). Language in Israel: Hebrew, Arabic and English. Summarises the official status and social realities of languages in Israel.

2. Yiddish Book Center (2026). The Revival of Hebrew and the Suppression of Yiddish. Documents the deliberate post‑1948 “melting‑pot” policy that discouraged Yiddish.

3. Jerusalem Post (March 2026). Poll: 70% of Jewish Israelis Oppose Return of Gazans Who Leave. Source for the statistic that 70% of Jewish Israelis support “evacuating” Palestinians from Gaza, even by force.

4. Tel Aviv University / Lapid (November 2025). Poll: 62% of Jewish Israelis Support Forcible Transfer of Palestinians from Gaza. Source for the finding that 62% support removing the population.

5. Zeffit (March 2026). Poll: 70% of Israelis Oppose Creation of a Palestinian State. Source for the statistic that 70% of Israelis oppose a two‑state solution.

6. Yesh Din (2025). Data on Settler Violence and the Role of the State. Documents the systemic nature of the occupation.

ICJ Gaza Rulings

1. International Court of Justice (26 January 2024). Order on South Africa’s Request for Provisional Measures. The ICJ found it “plausible” that Israel’s acts amount to genocide.

2. International Court of Justice (24 May 2024). Order on South Africa’s Request for Additional Provisional Measures. The ICJ ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah.

3. Amnesty International (2024). “You Feel Like You Are Dying”: Starvation as a Weapon of War in Gaza. Documents the use of starvation against civilians.

Colonial Language Suppression

1. Lewis, A. (2024). Nahuatl – A Language Lost in Translation. Covers the marginalisation of Nahuatl in Mexico and the psychological impact of forced assimilation.

2. Thiong’o, N. wa (1986). Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. Classic work on how colonial language policies “scar the soul” of the colonised.

Note for the reader: The archaeological‑linguistic material is based on the peer‑reviewed work of François Desset and his team (2021–2022). The polling data comes from Israeli sources (Tel Aviv University, Jerusalem Post, Zeffit). The ICJ rulings are official UN court documents. The critiques of Huntington are drawn from the Routledge Handbook of Political Islam (2022) and contemporary political‑science literature. The historical‑linguistic material on English is from standard Oxford/Cambridge university press texts.

By Andrew Klein

· Dedication: To my wife ‘S’ , who unravels every lie with her thread and shows me that the garden is worth fighting for.

The Naked, Senseless Truth

Let us begin with the words of the X user @noplaceforsheep:

“I have yet to hear ONE explanation of how objecting to genocide is dangerous for Jews. The whole notion is fucking senseless & I can’t believe the grip it’s got on people who fucking well know better.”

This is the naked truth of our time. There is no logical pathway from criticising a state’s military actions to threatening an entire people. That such a pathway has become a cornerstone of Western discourse is not an accident of logic but a deliberate act of political engineering.

The mechanism is called Hasbara.

The Hasbara Machine – From Explanation to Suppression

Hasbara is the Hebrew word used by the state of Israel to describe its “public diplomacy”. For decades, it has been presented as a defensive act of “explaining” Israel’s actions to a sceptical world. But as the Israeli journalist and peace activist Gideon Levy has shown for years, this is not a debate – it is an information war waged to shield a system of military occupation from international scrutiny.

The Numbers: In late 2024 and early 2025, Israel’s government approved a budget for public diplomacy roughly 20 times larger than its usual annual allocation. Thousands of media placements, a sprawling architecture of private and state‑backed initiatives, and covert social‑media campaigns have been deployed to shape the global conversation. These are not speculation – they are the government’s own figures.

In practice, however, this vast state‑backed propaganda apparatus has pursued a more insidious goal: the deliberate conflation of criticism of Israeli policies with antisemitism, a rhetorical shield that has been used for decades to silence journalists, human rights advocates, and international institutions.

How the Conflation Works

The core fallacy is simple: equate the Jewish state with the Jewish people, then label any attack on the state as an attack on the people. This is a rhetorical procedure rather than a logical argument.

But the practical effect is devastating. In the United Kingdom, the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism – which includes examples that conflate anti‑Zionism with antisemitism – has been used to push British universities to ban speakers, cancel events, and expel student groups for criticising Israeli policy. In the United States, a September 2025 article in the respected Chicago Review demonstrated that this same bureaucratic weapon has been used to chill academic discourse on Palestine for years.

In Australia, the effect is the same: powerful lobby groups have turned the defence of fundamental human rights into a banned speech category.

Australia’s Submission to the Lobby

The Australian government has actively adopted the language of this conflation, transforming it from a political talking point into the foundation of state policy.

The Antisemitism Envoy

In July 2024, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appointed Jillian Segal as Australia’s first Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism. It was presented as a response to a genuine rise in attacks on the Jewish community. Yet from the moment of her appointment, critics noted that the new “special envoy to combat antisemitism” apparently thought that opposing the bombing of hospitals was not a humanitarian stance but an attack on the Jewish people.

Her subsequent proposals, published in July 2025, recommended that universities, arts organisations and public broadcasters have their funding cut if they are not doing enough to combat what she deems to be antisemitism. This has been widely criticised as a “gross overreach” by Labour Friends of Palestine and as an attempt to suppress pro‑Palestinian student activism.

Particularly galling has been the envoy’s failure to perform the most basic function of her office: protecting Jews from violence. When neo‑Nazis overran a protest in Australia on 31 August 2025, Segal declined to comment, stating she didn’t want to comment on any particular incident. Meanwhile, she has advocated for the banning of peaceful pro‑Palestinian rallies and the movement of all such protests out of city centres. Australia’s first “antisemitism envoy” thus appears most comfortable hunting anti‑Zionist speech rather than actual neo‑Nazis marching in the streets.

The IHRA Definition and the Assault on Universities

Segal has urged all Australian institutions to adopt the contested IHRA definition of antisemitism, which includes as an example: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self‑determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour.” This definition, as its own author, Kenneth Stern, has testified, was never intended to target or chill speech on a college campus. Yet that is precisely how it is being used by pro‑Israel lobby groups in Australia who seek to shut down criticism of the state.

The list of examples is so broad that it could render the opinions of many protesters in Israel itself as anti‑Semitic, let alone those in Australia. It stands in complete contradiction to federal court findings that the weaponisation of antisemitism accusations constitutes a real threat to workplace rights and free speech.

The Lattouf Case – A Direct Hit on Free Speech

No case illustrates this new era of linguistic warfare better than that of Antoinette Lattouf. The veteran journalist was fired from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) after a three‑day fill‑in role for reposting a Human Rights Watch video on Instagram. The caption read: “HRW reporting starvation as a tool of war”.

Among those demanding her firing was a WhatsApp group calling itself “Lawyers for Israel”. In June, the Federal Court of Australia found that the ABC had unlawfully sacked her because of her opinions on the Israeli military campaign. Justice Darryl Rangiah specifically found that external pressure played a role in the decision to fire her. Lattouf was awarded substantial damages and the ABC was left with a multi‑million dollar legal bill.

This was a targeted political assassination of a journalist’s career by an organised lobby, successfully using a false allegation of antisemitism to intimidate a public broadcaster.

The State Governments Step Up the Suppression

Queensland and the Criminalisation of Solidarity

The Queensland government, following a pattern seen in the UK and Europe, has explicitly banned the phrases “from the river to the sea” and “globalise the intifada” under new “fighting anti‑Semitism” legislation. Any person who recites or says the phrase can be fined as much as $22,000 or face imprisonment for two years.

In March 2026, one man was actually arrested under this law. Liam James Parry was charged while protesting outside Queensland’s parliament. He continues to contest the charges, asserting that the government is trying to criminalise pro‑Palestine advocacy. He is now facing a lengthy legal process for the crime of reciting five words that make a political statement of solidarity with occupied people.

These laws are being copied across the country. Under the pretext of responding to the tragic Bondi Beach terrorist attack, the NSW government has rushed through sweeping new “hate speech” laws that give police vast new powers at public assemblies and explicitly ban the chant “globalise the intifada”. Pro‑Palestinian activists have said repeatedly that the chant expresses solidarity and a call for political resistance against military occupation, not an incitement to violence against Jews. But they are powerless – the state has criminalised their language.

The Jewish Resistance to the War Narrative

The most powerful refutation of the claim that opposition to the Gaza genocide is antisemitic comes from the growing movement of Jewish organisations themselves.

Groups including Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), the Israeli veterans of Breaking the Silence, the human rights organisation B’Tselem, and the Jewish Council of Australia are using social media to challenge the dominant political framing of the genocide in Gaza and settler violence.

Their message is direct and damning: they describe the state of Israel not as a “Jewish state defending itself” but as an “ethnostate” engaged in “routine bombings” of civilian spaces. By listing target after target – tents, schools, hospitals – they create a powerful cumulative effect, suggesting a pattern of violence rather than isolated incidents. They argue that repeated military actions risk normalising behaviour that international law was specifically designed to prevent.

What makes their message uniquely powerful is the moral authority from which it is delivered. Because they speak as Jews, they disrupt the central premise of Israel’s information warfare: that criticism of Israeli policy necessarily reflects hostility toward Jewish identity. Their defiant posts repeatedly expose the lie at the heart of the conflation.

Yet these Jewish voices remain among the most censored and marginalised in the mainstream Australian debate. Their lived Jewish opposition to the genocide they call by its true name is buried, while the lobby’s talking points fill the news. That is not an accident.

The Zionist Lobby – A Corrosive Force in Western Democracies

The phrase “Zionist lobby” has become a shibboleth, often dismissed as a conspiracy theory. But the evidence of its influence is overwhelming and verifiable.

In the United States, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) operates as one of the most powerful lobbying organisations in Washington, with an annual budget in the tens of millions of dollars. It has shaped US Middle East policy for decades, ensuring that military and diplomatic support for Israel remains untouchable. Billions of dollars in aid have flowed from US taxpayers to the Israeli military.

In the United Kingdom, the group “UK Lawyers for Israel” (UKLFI) has pursued a relentless campaign of legal intimidation to silence critics of Israel. As one analysis notes, they use “abusive legal procedures” to intimidate, harass and silence critics of Israel. They have successfully shut down television programmes, threatened universities, and pressured media outlets to fire journalists who cover Palestine.

In Australia, the power of this lobby is equally evident. The federal court found that it played a direct role in the sacking of Antoinette Lattouf. It has been reported that AIPAC has spent millions in recent Australian elections to unseat politicians who have been critical of Israel’s actions, with the aim of installing more pliable candidates.

The evidence is mounting: organised, well‑funded lobby groups are directly targeting critics of Israel, with the goal of chilling speech, suppressing dissent, and ensuring that no effective action is taken to stop the slaughter.

The ICJ Ruling and the Defiance of the Law

In April 2026, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague issued a landmark ruling in the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel. The court found that the situation in Rafah was “disastrous” and ordered Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah governate which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life which could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

The ICJ reaffirmed that Israel must ensure humanitarian assistance is delivered to the people of Gaza.

The UN Secretary‑General, António Guterres, stressed that the rulings of the court are binding. But on the ground, little changed. The US has continued to back Israel politically, while the UK expressed “considerable concerns” that the case was “not helpful”. And in Australia, the political class remained silent.

The Samud Fleet – A Criminal Blockade of Humanitarian Aid

On 30 April 2026 – just days ago – Israeli forces intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters near the Greek island of Crete. The flotilla, comprising dozens of boats from more than 70 countries, was carrying food and medical supplies for the people of Gaza. It was trying to break the illegal naval blockade that has strangled the enclave for years.

Israeli naval commandos boarded the vessels, jammed their communications, and detained about 175 activists. Organisers decried the move as “piracy” and an “escalation of Israel’s impunity”. Amnesty International raised concerns about the safety of the detained activists.

This is the second year in a row that the Global Sumud Flotilla has been intercepted. Last year, Israeli forces stopped around 40 vessels, arresting the environmental activist Greta Thunberg and more than 450 others. The message is clear: a sovereign state is entitled to police international waters and block civilians from delivering medicine to a starving population, as long as the right media narrative supports it.

The Silence of the Clergy and the Academia

One of the most damning indictments of the suppression of this debate is the near‑total silence of Australia’s major religious and academic institutions. The Uniting Church, the Anglican Church, and the Catholic Church, key institutions that were central to the anti‑apartheid movement in the 1980s, have been largely silent on the genocide in Gaza. When they have spoken, it has been in carefully worded statements that balance accusations of war crimes with “the right of Israel to defend itself.”

Australian universities have been complicit in this self‑censorship. Under the threat of funding cuts and the weaponisation of antisemitism claims, they have systematically avoided any substantive engagement with scholarship on settler colonialism, international law, or the history of Palestine. Professors have lost courses, student groups have been shut down, and conferences on Palestinian human rights have been cancelled. The academic space has become a zone of engineered silence.

The Future – The Greater Israel Project and the Erasure of Palestine

The ultimate objective behind all of this is not merely the suppression of speech. It is the physical erasure of Palestine. The “Greater Israel” project, an ideology deeply integrated into the political platforms and settlement strategies of successive Israeli governments, envisions the permanent annexation of the West Bank and Gaza, the denial of Palestinian statehood, and the consolidation of exclusive Jewish control over all the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

The genocide in Gaza, the ongoing illegal blockade, the settler violence in the West Bank, the naval blockade, and the systematic destruction of Palestinian infrastructure – these are not isolated outrages. They are the cumulative process of a single colonial project.

The Palestinian death toll, as documented by the UN and leading human rights organisations, now exceeds 64,000, with uncounted thousands more buried in the rubble, never to be recovered. Over 14,000 children are among the dead. These numbers are not abstractions. They are the direct consequence of a political system that is being protected, funded, and justified – by the United States, by the United Kingdom, and by an Australian government that has used the language of antisemitism to shield it from domestic criticism.

We are not merely watching from the sidelines. Australia is a participant. We are hosting and training settler‑colonial police forces. Our defence exports are tracked to Israeli military systems used in genocide. Our diplomatic silence is complicity.

What Is to Be Done?

We must do more than witness.

First, we must name the mechanism: Hasbara is not diplomacy. It is a machine for the suppression of truth. We must expose it at every turn and refuse to accept its premises.

Second, we must defend the right to object to genocide as a fundamental human right. This is not a niche political issue. It is the defence of international law against organised violence. Solidarity with the people of Gaza is not antisemitism. It is the only moral position.

Third, we must support the Jewish organisations that are bravely fighting this battle from within. When a Jewish Voice for Peace activist is de‑platformed, we must amplify their voice. When a Jewish Council of Australia leader is accused of self‑hatred, we must stand with them. They are not betraying their faith. They are redeeming it.

Fourth, we must rebuild the culture of political debate in Australia. The silencing of speech is the death of democracy. We must reject the funding threats, the lobbying campaigns, and the weaponised accusations of antisemitism. We must learn to distinguish again between hatred of a people and hatred of a government’s policies.

Fifth, we must take action. We must call on the Australian government to officially recognise the state of Palestine, to suspend all military exports to Israel, to support the ICJ’s rulings, and to actively sponsor sanctions against the state of Israel for its ongoing genocide in Gaza.

A Final Word

The user @noplaceforsheep asked for one explanation of how objecting to genocide is dangerous for Jews. There is none. It is not dangerous for Jews. It is not dangerous for Israelis. What is dangerous is the system that cannot tell the difference.

We may not be able to save everyone. But we can refuse to let ourselves be silenced.

We can document, publish, and speak. And we can keep the garden growing while the empires burn.

How Israel Invented a People, a Past, and a Permanent War

By Andrew Klein 

Dedicated to my wife, who sees through the myth and still chooses to love.

I. The Invention of Tradition

The term “invention of tradition” was coined by the historians Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger in their 1983 book. They showed that many traditions which “appear or claim to be old are often quite recent in origin and sometimes invented”.

The phenomenon is particularly clear in the development of the nation and nationalism. National identity is not natural. It is constructed. It is imagined.

The Scottish kilt. The Welsh druids. The British monarchy’s ceremonial rituals. All of them were invented in the 19th century. All of them were presented as ancient. All of them were fake.

Israel is no different. The flag was designed. The anthem was written. The language was revived. The nation was invented.

II. The Invention of the Jewish People

The Israeli historian Shlomo Sand published a book titled The Invention of the Jewish People in 2008. It was at the top of the best‑seller list in Israel for nineteen weeks. It was translated into English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, and Russian. It has now been translated into more languages than any other Israeli history book.

Sand’s argument is straightforward. The Jewish people, as a nation, did not exist until Zionism invented them.

He writes: “Since the 18th century, nationalisms and nations in Europe were ‘invented’ on the basis of and for constituencies that were mostly concentrated in a specific territory and had common or similar ethnic characteristics. The Jews, on the other hand, lacked such shared characteristics”.

The only Jewish constituency in which common ethnic traits could be discerned were the Jews of Eastern Europe, who shared various forms of Yiddish. Sand calls that constituency “the Yiddish People.” But even that constituency did not aspire to independence. They demanded cultural autonomy within the framework of Czarist Russia.

European nationalism had to invent national consciousness, national histories, and national symbols. Among the Jews, there was the need to invent the people itself.

III. The Paradox of Israeli Nationalism

A review of Sand’s book in The New York Times notes a crucial paradox. Israel is a nation‑state that claims to be ancient. It is modern. It claims to be natural. It is manufactured.

The reviewer writes: “Israelis believe that their own history rests on firm and precise truths. They know for a certainty that a Jewish nation has been in existence since Moses received the tablets of the law on Mount Sinai, and that they are its direct and exclusive descendants”.

This belief is not based on history. It is based on faith. Faith in the Zionist narrative. Faith in the invention.

Sand refutes these “facts” one by one. In their place, he sets out the history of the Jews along lines that are based on historical sources and his historical interpretation and understanding.

The reviewer explains: “Zionism was not derived from the past but from the European national present. Zionism set out to invent the past, as did the nationalisms of the European peoples among whom the Zionists lived”.

Hobsbawm explains the concept of the “invention of tradition” as an attempt to create continuity with the past, and wherever possible to create a “suitable” historical past. He goes on to say that what is remarkable about the attempt to create a link with an historical past is that that past did not exist at all in most cases.

In the case of Israel, what did not exist was the Jewish People. So there was a need to invent it in such a way as to fit in with the historiography of the new Zionist movement.

IV. The Denial of the Palestinian Presence

The invention of the Jewish people required the denial of another presence. The land was not empty. It was not waiting. It was inhabited.

The Nakba — the “catastrophe” — was not an accident. It was a policy. Over 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled from their homes in 1947–1949. Hundreds of villages were destroyed. The history was erased.

The new state needed a new story. The story of “a land without a people for a people without a land.” The story was a lie. The land had a people. The people were Palestinian.

The denial continues today. The “Greater Israel” project envisions territory from the Euphrates to the Nile. The Palestinians are not obstacles. They are erased.

V. The Symbolic Architecture

The construction of Israeli national identity was not only ideological. It was physical.

The book Israel as a Modern Architectural Experimental Lab, 1948-1978 discusses how Israeli nation‑building constituted an “exceptional experiment in modern architecture.” Examples include modern experiments in mass housing design; public architecture such as exhibition spaces, youth villages, and synagogues; and the exportation of Israeli modern architecture to other countries.

The state was not only imagined. It was built.

The “making of the desert bloom” was not a miracle. It was a narrative. A narrative that erased the Palestinian farmers who had worked the land for centuries. A narrative that replaced them with Jewish settlers. A narrative that called it redemption.

The land was not empty. The desert was not barren. The narrative was manufactured.

VI. The National Historiography

The most recent scholarship confirms the pattern. Alon Helled’s 2024 book, Israel’s National Historiography: Between Generations, Identity and State, analyzes the development of Israel’s national identity through the world of local Jewish Zionist historiography.

Helled examines the different phases of Israel’s sociopolitical history in the light of the collective habitus and the Zionist nation‑state. He puts the intellectual profession of history‑writing and the processes of state and identity building in conversation.

The book “opens new debates on Jewish/Israeli exceptionalism, while shedding light on continuity and change in Israeli statehood vis‑à‑vis the supposed uniqueness of Jewish history”.

The construction of “Israeliness” is not natural. It is historical.

VII. The Myth of the Existential Threat

How is Netanyahu is different from any other despot trying to hang on to power. The answer is: he is not.

The “existential threat” of Iran is a manufactured threat. It has been manufactured for decades. The nuclear threat was manufactured. Now it has shifted to the missile threat.

As a recent analysis in the Tehran Times notes, “the central discursive axis has undergone a subtle yet significant shift. Where the nuclear program once occupied the primary place in the rhetoric of existential threat, the emphasis has now broadened and, in some discourses, shifted toward Iran’s ballistic missile program” .

The shift serves a political purpose. It keeps the population afraid. It keeps the military funded. It keeps Netanyahu in power.

Al Jazeera notes that “it is not just Netanyahu and his allies that want the US to continue the Iran war; it is also his opponents. That is because the defeat of Iran is seen by the Israeli political and security elites as a key step towards realising the project of ‘Greater Israel'” .

The threat is not existential. It is useful.

VIII. The “Greater Israel” Project

The “Greater Israel” project is not a fringe fantasy. It is a political strategy.

Al Jazeera reports that “Greater Israel has become a Zionist political strategy that goes beyond the Talmudic vision of a Jewish state between the Euphrates and the Nile. To realise it, Israel is pursuing not just the occupation of more land, but also military dominance over large swaths of the Middle East, as well as ever‑expanding spheres of influence”.

The map includes all of Palestine, all of Jordan, Lebanon up to the Litani River, Syria (including the Golan Heights), vast parts of Egypt (Sinai and the Nile Delta), Iraq to the Euphrates, and north‑western Saudi Arabia.

This is not about security. It is about expansion.

IX. The Western Silence

The lack of Western response to the genocide of the Palestinians encouraged the attack on Iran. The world watched Gaza burn. The world said nothing.

The silence was not neutrality. It was consent.

Israel learned that it could act with impunity. That the United States would veto any Security Council resolution. That Europe would issue statements but not sanctions. That the “rules‑based order” applied to everyone except Israel.

The attack on Iran was the logical next step. The myth of the existential threat had to be maintained. The fear had to be marketed.

X. The Rabbis and the Mullahs

How are the Israeli rabbis endorsing genocide different from the Iranian mullahs?

They are not different. Both use religion to justify violence. Both claim divine sanction. Both dehumanise the other.

The Iranian mullahs call for the destruction of Israel. The Israeli rabbis call for the destruction of Gaza. The rhetoric is different. The result is the same.

The Jerusalem Post argues that “the Iranian threat is uniquely dangerous due to the messianic foundation at its core. Within the radical Twelver Shia theology that guides the state, the destruction of Israel is viewed as a necessary religious precursor to the return of the Mahdi”.

But the same could be said of the Jewish messianism that drives the settler movement. The same could be said of the Christian Zionism that funds it. The same could be said of all religious extremism.

The mullahs are not monsters. They are ideologues. So are the rabbis. So are the settlers. So are the generals.

The difference is not in the ideology. The difference is in the power.

XI. The Despots

How Netanyahu is different from any other despot trying to hang on to power.

He is not. He needs wars to stay in office. He needs enemies to stay relevant. He needs fear to stay alive.

Politico reports that “Netanyahu has also agreed to scale back Israeli operations in Lebanon at Trump’s request. ‘I spoke with Bibi and he’s going to low‑key it. I just think we have to be sort of a little lower‑key,’ Trump said”.

Netanyahu does not want peace. Peace would mean the end of his political career. Peace would mean accountability. Peace would mean justice.

The same is true of Trump. The same is true of all despots. They need enemies. They need wars. They need fear.

They are not different from the emperors of old. They are not different from the kings who destroyed the very people they had promised to protect.

The pattern is the same. The performance is the same.

XII. What This Means

The manufactured state is not unique to Israel. But Israel is the most recent. The most visible. The most contradictory.

A state that claims to be ancient. It is modern.

A state that claims to be natural. It is manufactured.

A state that claims to be chosen. It is trapped.

The belief is the weapon. The small gods do not need to enforce. They need to convince.

The monkeys believe. They comply. They perform.

But the belief can be broken. The story can be challenged. The weapon can be disarmed.

XIII. A Final Word

And the manufactured state will not matter. The connection will matter. Our connection to one another. 

And the truth is on our side.

Andrew Klein 

April 17, 2026

Sources and references for the article “The Manufactured State,” organized by section for easy verification.

Section I: The Invention of Tradition

Source: Hobsbawm, E.J. & Ranger, T. (1983). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge University Press.

This is the foundational text. The book demonstrates how many traditions that “appear or claim to be old are often quite recent in origin and sometimes invented” .

Key chapters relevant to article:

· Hugh Trevor-Roper on the invention of the Highland tradition of Scotland (the Scottish kilt)

· Prys Morgan on the invention of the Welsh past (the Welsh druids)

· David Cannadine on the British monarchy’s ceremonial rituals

· Terence Ranger on the invention of tradition in colonial Africa

Verification: Available through multiple university library catalogues (Rider University, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Calvin University, etc.) .

Section II: The Invention of the Jewish People

Source: Sand, S. (2009). The Invention of the Jewish People. London: Verso. (Translated by Yael Lotan).

Sand is an Israeli historian, formerly of Tel Aviv University. His book was on Israel’s bestseller list for nineteen weeks and has been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, and Russian — more languages than any other Israeli history book.

Key arguments:

· “Since the 18th century, nationalisms and nations in Europe were ‘invented’… The Jews, on the other hand, lacked such shared characteristics”.

· The only Jewish constituency with common ethnic traits were the Jews of Eastern Europe, whom Sand calls “the Yiddish People”.

· Zionism was not derived from the past but from the European national present.

Verification: Available through Verso Books (publisher), Yale University Press London, and multiple library catalogues including Evergreen Indiana.

Section III: The Paradox of Israeli Nationalism

Source: The New York Times review of Sand’s book (2009). (The specific review is cited in the article as the source for the quote: “Israelis believe that their own history rests on firm and precise truths…”)

Additional academic source: Hobsbawm, E.J. (1992). Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality. Cambridge University Press.

Hobsbawm traces the transformation of nationalism from a liberal, democratic force to a reactionary, xenophobic one. This is the source for the argument that the attempt to create a link with a historical past is remarkable because “that past did not exist at all in most cases.”

Section IV: The Denial of the Palestinian Presence

Sources on the Nakba:

· Pappé, I. (2006). The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oneworld Publications.

· Masalha, N. (2012). The Palestine Nakba: Decolonising History, Narrating the Subaltern, Reclaiming Memory. Zed Books.

· Morris, B. (1987). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949. Cambridge University Press.

Source on the “Greater Israel” project: Al Jazeera, “Iran remains an obstacle to the ‘Greater Israel’ project,” April 14, 2026.

This article states that “the ‘Greater Israel’ project is not merely about territorial expansion; it is also about establishing regional control to secure the freedom to conduct military operations with minimal constraint” .

Verification: Al Jazeera is a major international news network. The article is dated April 14, 2026, and includes analysis of current events.

Section V: The Symbolic Architecture

Source: Gitler, I.B. & Geva, A. (eds.) (2019). Israel as a Modern Architectural Experimental Lab, 1948-1978. Bristol: Intellect Books.

This collection discusses the “innovative and experimental architecture of Israel during its first three decades following the nation’s establishment in 1948”.

Key chapters include:

· “The Modern Israeli Synagogue as an Experiment in Jewish Tradition”

· “Youth Villages for New Immigrants, 1948-1955”

· “Prefabricating Nativism: The Design of the Israeli Knesset”

Verification: Available through Ashland University Library and Pratt Institute Library catalogues.

Section VI: The National Historiography

Source: Helled, A. (2024). Israel’s National Historiography: Between Generations, Identity and State. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

This is the most recent scholarship on the development of Israel’s national identity through the world of local Jewish Zionist historiography.

The book “opens new debates on Jewish/Israeli exceptionalism, while shedding light on continuity and change in Israeli statehood vis-à-vis the supposed uniqueness of Jewish history, as reinterpreted and codified by Zionism” .

Verification: Available through Stanford University Library, OhioLINK, and other academic catalogues. Publication date 2024.

Section VII: The Myth of the Existential Threat

Sources:

On Netanyahu’s political motivations: Reuters, “Despite Israeli firepower, Netanyahu struggles for political gains in Iran war,” April 14, 2026.

This article notes that “Netanyahu, 76, is paying a political price for a military campaign… that has failed to deliver a decisive outcome” and that “Netanyahu’s approval ratings have slipped”.

On the shift from nuclear to missile threat: Tehran Times analysis (cited in the article).

On the political elite’s support for war: Al Jazeera, “Iran remains an obstacle to the ‘Greater Israel’ project,” April 14, 2026.

This article states: “it is not just Netanyahu and his allies that want the US to continue the Iran war; it is also his opponents. That is because the defeat of Iran is seen by the Israeli political and security elites as a key step towards realising the project of ‘Greater Israel'” .

Verification: Reuters is a major international news agency. Al Jazeera is a major international news network.

Section VIII: The “Greater Israel” Project

Source: Al Jazeera, “Iran remains an obstacle to the ‘Greater Israel’ project,” April 14, 2026.

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the “Greater Israel” project, including its territorial ambitions, military dominance goals, and sphere of influence strategy .

Key quotes from the article:

· “The map includes: all of Palestine, all of Jordan, Lebanon up to the Litani River, Syria (including the Golan Heights), vast parts of Egypt (Sinai and the Nile Delta), Iraq to the Euphrates, and north-western Saudi Arabia” .

· “Greater Israel has become a Zionist political strategy that goes beyond the Talmudic vision of a Jewish state between the Euphrates and the Nile”.

Section IX: The Western Silence

Sources on Western complicity:

· UN Security Council veto records (US vetoes of resolutions critical of Israel)

· Various reports on European responses to the Gaza war (2023-2026)

· Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International reports on international inaction

Verification: These are well-documented in public records and major news sources.

Section X: The Rabbis and the Mullahs

Source on Iranian messianism: Jerusalem Post (cited in the article).

Source on Jewish messianism: Various academic works on religious Zionism and the settler movement, including:

· Gorenberg, G. (2000). The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount. Free Press.

· Taub, G. (2010). The Settlers and the Struggle over the Meaning of Zionism. Yale University Press.

Section XI: The Despots

Sources on Netanyahu’s need for war:

· Reuters, “Despite Israeli firepower, Netanyahu struggles for political gains in Iran war,” April 14, 2026.

· Politico (cited in the article for Trump’s comments on Netanyahu scaling back operations).

· bdnews24.com (same Reuters content, April 14, 2026) .

Section XII: What This Means

This section is analytical and draws on the cumulative evidence presented throughout the article. The concluding reflections are the author’s synthesis of the sourced material.

Additional Sources for Verification

Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities (1983): The foundational text on nations as “imagined communities.” Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Verso.

Ernest Gellner’s Nations and Nationalism (1983): Gellner argued that nationalism is not the awakening of nations to self-consciousness but the invention of nations where they did not exist. Gellner, E. (1983). Nations and Nationalism. Blackwell.

Max Weber on the state: Weber, M. (1919). “Politics as a Vocation.” The definition of the state as having a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force.

Notes on Verification

· Hobsbawm & Ranger (1983): Widely available in university libraries. Multiple editions exist (1983 original, 2012 Canto Classics reprint). ISBN: 0521246458 .

· Sand (2009): Available through Verso Books. English edition ISBN: 9781844674220 .

· Helled (2024): Recent publication. ISBN: 3031627946 (hardcover); 9783031627958 (electronic) .

· Gitler & Geva (2019): Available through Intellect Books. ISBN: 9781789380644 .

· Al Jazeera (April 14, 2026): Online, verifiable at the time of publication.

· Reuters (April 14, 2026): Online, verifiable at the time of publication.