When Terror and Disinformation Collide

With the Gaza war in full swing, the world is witnessing a shocking wave of anti-Semitic violence and intimidation – but is it all real?

Since HAMAS launched its unprecedented terrorist attack on Israel one month ago, killing many hundreds of civilians and reopening the next Middle Eastern war, the world has witnessed public displays of anti-Semitism not seen in the West since the 1940s. In a manner which has shocked and dismayed many, Western cities and campuses in recent weeks have experienced angry denunciations of Israel and Zionism including calls for genocide. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democratic member of the U.S. House and a notorious pro-Palestinian firebrand, was censured by her colleagues this week, making her the twenty-sixth Congressmember ever to face censure, over her intemperate language towards Israel, including calling for the abolition of the Jewish state.

There have been physical attacks too, in several European countries, while in California, a 69-year-old Jewish man died this week following an altercation between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters. Major terrorist incidents against Jews in the West have not yet occurred, but such attacks may only be a matter of time. In Indianapolis, an angry but comically inept Palestinian woman drove her car into what she believed to be a Jewish facility, in support of HAMAS, but she rammed instead a building belonging to the Black Hebrew Israelites, an African American extremist group that is also highly anti-Semitic. Nevertheless, the 34-year-old driver is now facing felony charges.

More seriously, on Wednesday, Brazilian police in São Paulo arrested two affiliates of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shia terrorist group, following nearly a dozen search and seizure raids that were executed in São Paulo, the capital Brasília, and the state of Minas Gerais. The Israeli government, including MOSSAD, were quick to amplify this counterterrorism success by stating that the arrests came thanks to help from Israeli intelligence and other international partners. According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the plot which was happily stopped “left of boom” was ultimately orchestrated by Iran, the not-so-hidden-hand behind Hezbollah, moreover the terrorists were part of a “extensive network” that was also operating “in additional countries.”