There’s just something about the Jews. (I’m Jewish, so I can say that.) For thousands of years, from the Romans to the Nazis to Kanye West, we have possessed that je ne sais quois that drives people mad. To paraphrase Regina George, “Why are you so obsessed with us?”

In the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and Israel’s subsequent retaliation, the American public, too, has developed an outbreak of this ancient malady.

Black Lives Matter Chicago shared an image of a Hamas paratrooper, a direct nod to the Oct. 7 killers, with the text, “We Stand with Palestine.” On college campuses, students have torn down posters of the Israeli civilians held hostage by Hamas. Prominent American poets circulated an online petition of Hamas apologia called Writers in Solidarity With Palestine, which mentions Oct. 7 as a day when “some Gazans stepped foot outside their besiegement for a moment.” One wonders if they would also describe 9/11 as a day when some aviation students went on a skyline tour.

What could drive a person to shred the photos of kidnapped women and children, or to erase the massacre of 1,400 people? To become useful idiots for a brutal, fundamentalist terrorist group? Goyische opponents of Israel often claim its proponents cry anti­semitism to shut down criticism. Certainly, some do. These opponents might consider, though, sometimes they are accused of antisemitism because they are being antisemitic.

Rage at the Israeli occupation of Palestine is justified. Any person with empathy and humanitarian principles must oppose it. Yet Nancy Drew herself would be stumped by the mystery of progressives siding explicitly with Hamas, a government that violently suppresses dissent within Gaza and restricts the rights of women and LGBTQ Palestinians.

Our girl detective might find a clue in leftists’ failure to look beyond the lens of American racial politics. The fight over the Levant, therefore, cannot be a land dispute between two closely related Middle Eastern groups, but a white colonialist oppressor (Israel) committing what activist Bree Newsome Bass called the “mass expulsion of brown people (Palestine).” This is the same logic that has led X/Twitter users to claim that “Anne Frank had white privilege.” Sure, it’s ahistorical nonsense, but who needs facts when you can have internet clout?

Meanwhile, the usual right-wing war hawks who led us into Iraq are now gleeful to reenact the Crusades and defend the Holy Land. Sen. Tom Cotton went on TV to salivate over “bouncing rubble off Gaza.” Many evangelical Christians fervently support Israel because they believe Jerusalem must be in Jewish hands for Jesus to return. At which point they will be raptured to heaven, and the Jews will burn for all eternity in hell.

So much for allies.

Is it any wonder many Jews see lust for our destruction all around and believe we must circle the wagons? But Jews, too, have fallen into our own collective delusion: that continued war in the Middle East will somehow lead our people to a peaceful future. The Zionist movement arose in the 1800s from world Jewry’s vital need for a safe haven after centuries of pogroms. The Holocaust increased its urgency. But 75 years of Israel, the nation-state, has hardly brought security for Israel, the tribe. What real peace offers the Iron Dome, if it must constantly be used? What redemption leaves a person with blood-soaked hands?

The vile Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and the desperate plight of Gaza, means we all must face reality. Jews need to have hard conversations, amongst ourselves and with the world, about the failure of the Israeli dream, and what comes next. Progressives must contend with the increasing antisemitism and pro-terrorist radicalization in their ranks, and ask whether these are compatible with social justice. (They are not.)

The Middle East continues to unravel, and the frenzy that has overtaken us will surely not abate anytime soon. What can be done to treat Jew Derangement Syndrome? That favorite line of academic journals: More research is needed. A free Palestine is a moral imperative. The world must make it happen. But for Jews, and antisemites, I’m afraid, the ancient story will go on.

Rebecca Saltzman’s writing has been published in The New Yorker and McSweeney’s.

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