Essayists and a variety of writers are puzzling over the incredibly rapid rise in antisemitism, frequently, but not always, cloaked as anti-Israelism. “What is going on,” they wonder almost out loud? Bill Maher seems to be the only cultural icon speaking out against the plague of bigotry which is endemic to both the leftwing of the Democratic party and the rightwing of the Republican.

The plague does not begin and end with non-Jews either. Even one with a strong constitution should be sick to the stomach to see a podium with Bernie Sanders and a few of his Jewish lap dogs trashing the country and their own heritage. Are they really shooting up with the heroin of hatred or do they truly believe that neither Judaism nor Israel has a right to exist?

I have spent lots of time talking with my friend, Mike Moskow, about this. He is one of the most thoughtful and intellectually honest thinkers that I know.

Some see hatred against Jews as opposed to disgust for Israel as separate. It is okay to hate Israel, but not to hate domestic Jews. It should be no shock, however, that anti-Israel fanaticism is taken out against Jews anywhere, including Jewish businesses and Jewish politicians who are not necessarily on the extreme of the political spectrum. The enemies of decency make no distinction between Judaism and Israel.

There are those who believe that antisemitism will never die because it is so strongly ensconced within traditional religions of western civilization. The Jew has been characterized as being in league with the devil since the end of the First Century and, unfortunately, not much has changed over the two millennium.

Extremists create a God for themselves. The god of the left currently is Zohran Mamdani, the socialist mayor of the City of New York. His god is Bernie Sanders. The god of the right is Donald Trump along with a number of other notables.

The Nation of Israel was commanded to have no other gods except the one G-d of heaven and earth which knows no human form. The Ten Commandments, as they actually appear in the Bible and the Shema Yisrael are good places to start.

It surprises some to know that the Jews were specifically commanded to have no king. In fact, when the people demanded a king and the Prophet Samuel anointed Saul as the First Jewish King, the citizens were told that G-d was angry with the people. “They do not need any other king, except the King in heaven.” Israel was supposed to be governed by principles of law. The courts, judges, and an occasional prophet were all the people needed, so long as they adhered to the foundations of faith now so familiar to western tradition.

This Jewish resistance and resentment of kings have been demonstrated throughout history. Most of the kings of Israel did not fare well in the opinion of the Sages. The Talmud, the authoritative interpretive text of the Bible, notes that the three rulers of Israel who were to be afforded the greatest respect were King David, King Solomon, and Queen Shalom Tzion, the latter known to the world by her Greek name, Alexandra Salome. There were other righteous kings as well. However, there were many who served the nation in a way which was not beneficial to society.

Even King David came in for criticism because he sent a man into battle in order to marry the man’s wife. Solomon is noted for spending too much money, having too big an army, and having too many wives. He did not follow all the dictates found in the Torah as to the responsibility of a king.

The Jewish suspicion of kings was tempered by the requirement that the priesthood be kept separate from the kingship. This was done for many years, until the Hasmonean Dynasty in Israel. Fortunately, Queen Shalom Tzion reinstituted the separation between Church and State.

Jews have never been warmly disposed towards despotic rulers, who ignore the rule of law and in effect set themselves up as demigods. There is only one G-d who does not tyrannically rule over people.

Those on the far left and right of the political spectrum not only set themselves up as gods, but also as rulers who need not rely upon a judiciary, the rule of law, or the restraints of the court. They reject in whole the principles by which the Jewish people are supposed to live.

Look at Israel today. The very popular and long serving Benjamin Netanyahu heads a party that controls approximately 25% of seats in the legislature. The Prime Minister does not have a majority and hence must form a coalition government. That has been the history of Israel due to its fierce and competitive political environment. No one rules alone in Israel! It is not so jokingly said that Israel has as many prime ministers as it does citizens.

Nevertheless, for extremists in the United States, Prime Minister Netanyahu has become a demonic figure. There is no reason for this. The Prime Minister has become a stand-in for the eternally untrustworthy Jew. This is the Jew who seeks to be ruled only by G-d and resists the temptation to be led estray by earthly political manipulators.

Israel has become a whipping post for extremists in the United States and the western world because its citizens are Jews. There is no logical reason to hate Israel, given that it is one of the world’s historically most democratic nations on the planet. The make-up of the Knesset is representative of every imaginable faction. Muslim Arabs make up 20% of the population of Israel and, not surprisingly, they also are 20% of the Knesset. They are a formidable bloc. In Israel, universities, graduate schools, and places of work generally have at least the same number of Muslims as exist in the general population.

Israelis criticized and condemned for fighting its enemies in order to exist. A nation unwilling to protect its citizens from rockets, bombs, missiles, suicide bombers, and infiltrators who target civilians is a nation not worthy of existence. The fabricated stories found on the internet driving anti-Israel hatred are no different than the fake melodramas made up in the Middle Ages that Jews killed Christian children to make matzah with the blood of those children. While it may sound disgusting to the modern ear, it is a canard against the Jewish people which exists to this very day.

Conspiracy theories about Jews, the Rothchilds, the Mossad are all cut from the same narrative. The fabrication is to hate the Jewish people because of their fidelity, not to politicians, presidents, or kings, but to the external G-d of heaven and earth.

We must recognize that the detestable treatment that Jews have suffered in the Middle East and in the sewers of western civilization is based on a revolting fraud that refuses to die.

Clifford A. Rieders is a board-certified trial advocate in Williamsport.