Israel Haters: Not Too Swift
No one ever accused them of being bright.
One of the things that drives me the craziest about the current state of society is the amount of hypocrisy which is excused constantly. If there are consequences at all, they happen only because those consequences are valuable to those carrying them out.
Integrity is no longer a factor.
Super Bowl weekend contained two examples.
A centerpiece of the halftime show was a performance by Alicia Keys who may, or may not, have tacitly praised the Hamas attack of 10/7 with a social media post about paragliding.
Another, more visible, focal point was Taylor Swift. This is the same Taylor Swift who, following Hamas’ animalistic, soulless attacks on Israel, attended a fundraiser for Gaza. Not Israel, or the Israeli victims of the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, but Gaza, home to those who carried out those attacks. Home to a population that elected Hamas, and who still openly support Hamas. In fact 80% of Gazans say that they support wiping Israel off the map.
The charity that Swift (who I find utterly average, and whose adoration seems bizarre to me) supported that night is called American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA). The organization has a long history of demonizing Israel while supporting almost any Palestinian narrative that comes its way.
According to the Jerusalem Post, ANERA “President Peter Gubser in reports, according to NGO Monitor, has also failed to acknowledge Palestinian attacks against Israel and only looks at Israeli military response.”
Unsurprisingly, they lie a lot.
At the event, and to the best of my knowledge since, Swift has not raised a cent for the Israeli victims of Hamas or expressed any concern for safe return of the hostages.
I don’t care what Taylor Swift does/says/thinks. She’s a vapid ditz in my opinion (And yes, I know that she “writes her own songs” - so do millions of other people). But, what would the reaction have been if anyone at the center of a Super Bowl broadcast had recently gone to a fundraiser for white supremacists?
We all know what the reaction would be: instant banning, shunning, and canceling.
The NFL plays “Lift Every Voice And Sing” (also known as the “Black National Anthem”) before every Super Bowl, and has done so since 2020. During the BLM hysteria, endzones had “anti-racism” slogans, and players’ helmets were emblazoned with similar messages. Players routinely knelt during the (actual) National Anthem, supposedly protesting racism.
Would an organization like that tolerate the type of attention that Swift received if that person had been linked to white supremacy (no matter how tenuously)? Of course not.
Apparently when you are linked to Jew haters, it’s not only ok, but it’s ignored completely.
Why do we continually tolerate the hypocrisy? Why do we behave like we are accustomed to the double standard when it is applied to us instead of blacks, gays, women, transgender people, etc.?
Why do we still have a golut (exile) mentality that tells us not to “make trouble” when we are not granted the same status as any other minority in America?
The double standard is even more true at a time when the number of antisemitic incidents seem to be increasing by the day in this country.
For the record, what Taylor Swift does, and for that matter what the NFL does, does not matter to me. At all. What does matter is that the standards of our increasingly identity obsessed society are never applied equally to Jews. That is wrong, and right vs. wrong always matters.
There was another connection between antisemitism and the Super Bowl.
During the “big game,” an ad ran during airtime purchased by Israel.
You can see it here.
The ad itself would be lauded and praised except for one thing: it’s about bringing home Israelis kidnapped by Hamas.
The antisemites don’t like that.
The ad’s narration:
“To all the dads, including “the funny ones, the silly ones, the strong ones, the adventurous ones…To all the dads held in captivity by Hamas for over 120 days, we vow to bring you home.”
That was followed by #BringAllDadsHome.
If you’re a Jew like me, the ad tugged at the heartstrings, and almost caused some kind of watery discharge to come out of my eyes.
What can a decent human being possibly object to in an ad like that?
What could possibly upset anyone at the idea that children, wives, families, want their fathers brought home?
How could images of kids playing with their dad offend any human being?
Who could deny that Hamas still has 136 hostages in captivity, and that they were kidnapped, and are being held, by Hamas?
You know who.
Abed Ayoub is the national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. He claimed that 10,000 people filed complaints with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) because of the Israeli Super Bowl ad.
Laughably, Ayoub asserted that “the ad “undermines the integrity of broadcasting standards” and “misleads the public by not providing necessary context about the ad’s origins.”
His little complaint totally ignored the fact that, prominently displayed at the end of the ad, is a version of the Emblem of Israel (סמל מדינת ישראל). If you haven’t seen it, it’s a menorah with the words “State of Israel,” in English, displayed prominently beneath it.
If that’s not enough, that same screen had the words “Sponsored by the State of Israel.”
So….pretty hard to miss who made it. Obviously, the “ad’s origins” could not have been more obvious…unless it also contained the Lion of Judah, a Magen David, and maybe a falafel.
The real problem is that the originators of the ad are…wait for it…Jews!
In fact Ayoub also claimed that “CBS violated FCC rules by not making proper disclosures to the viewers across all platforms.”
Presumably that disclosure would have been something like: “CBS would like to warn you that disturbing content is about to appear on your screen. So, trigger warning, it’s….the Jews! Danger, Will Robinson, danger… Jews ahead!”
The statement, issued in a tweet, would not be complete without at least one progressive cliché.
Ayoub continued:
“The FCC must hold CBS and the NFL accountable. The American public has a right to know and be informed about the influence of foreign governments in our media, and this includes Israel.”
Because China, Qatar, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc. have no influence in our media. The only difference is that they hide it. Israel, as I described, could not have been more open about it. And how exactly would he like the Jews, I mean Israelis, to be “held accountable”?
Interestingly, the tweet claimed too that the “Israeli government aired” the commercial.
Obviously, that wasn’t the case.
So, is this guy subtly claiming that the Israelis (meaning: the Jews) run all media, so we are ultimately the ones running CBS and its affiliate platforms? Or is he just a dumbass who didn’t think about the crap he was writing?
My personal vote of for door number 1. But, he’s also a dumbass.
In another tweet, David Greenfield, former member of the New York City Council, and the head of several non-profits I have never heard of, but who has “Am Yisrael Chai” in his profile (which means he’s good enough for me), responded:
“So just to be clear: you filed a complaint because there was an ad that pointed out that innocent civilians, including Americans, are being held hostage in Gaza? Got it.”
He is absolutely right.
Predicably, Ayoub wasn’t the only slimeball person who whined about Israel attempting to “raise awareness” (a term progressives usually love) about the Jews still in Hamas captivity.
One fine specimen wrote (punctuation not my own):
“I’m sorry, is Israel seriously airing a SOB STORY PROPAGANDA AD during the SUPER BOWL while SIMULTANEOUSLY BOMBING THE REFUGEES AT RAFAH???????”
So victims of the Hamas attack are a “propaganda ad” while the IDF laying waste to the terrorist swine currently holed up in Rafah is some kind of problem for this person.
Typical.
It's runny. I don’t remember any of these complaints when Michelle Obama was pushing the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag in 2014 after 200 Nigerian girls were kidnapped. I do remember, however, the monumental amount of praise that was lavished on her for holding up a piece of paper. For the record, Michelle has still not been able to rouse herself to hold up anything with a #BringThemHome hashtag, or expressed any other form of concern for the Israeli hostages.
For the record, the reactions to Robert Kraft’s “Stand Up To Jewish Hate” ad were similarly repugnant.
Also on Super Bowl weekend, in an amazing operation, Israel rescued two hostages from Hamas in Rafah.
Hamas reacted by making up a story about a “massacre.” If they meant the terrorists killed during the hostage rescue, they misspelled “awesome, amazing, fantastic” etc.
I hope that the IDF gave them their own Super Bowl. The Super Bowl of pain.
Lastly, the weekend bombing of Rafah (which I like to call the “pre-game”), and the rescue of two hostages generated several bizarre antisemitic conspiracy theories.
The common theme to them all was that Israel waited until Americans were preoccupied with the game to bomb Rafah, so that those stupid Americans wouldn’t notice.
I’m an American and I seem to have noticed, so I guess that was yet another massive fail on their part.
A typical example (again, punctuation not my own):
“While Americans were distracted watching the Super Bowl Israel used that as an opportunity to kill 100’s of innocent women and children in Rafah”
So the Israelis came up with the dastardly plan of timing a campaign based on how many Americans, 10,000 miles away, who have zero to do with this conflict, would be watching football?
Now I know why Pearl Harbor was bombed on a Sunday.
These people have never been what anyone would label “swift.”
Never give in. Never give up.
Am Yisrael Chai.
This article originally appeared in Orange County Jewish Life.
Joshua Namm is a longtime Jewish community pro, passionate Israel advocate, and co-founder/co-CEO of Moptu, a unique social platform designed specifically for article sharing and dedicated to the principle of free speech.
Excellent article by Mr. Namm.
#AliyahNow #AmericaIsNoDifferent