Ramadan approaches. As usual, Islamist-Palestinian leaders are openly threatening to murder Jews, over century old belief that the world must submit to their version of monotheism, follow sharia law, and infidels should be taxed and abused. They are often described as moderates, even when begging their following to behead Jews worldwide.

Islamic Rule is integral to the “neo-Palestinian identity.” Amongst all Palestinian political parties—if you can even call them that—few recognize Christianity or any other religious claims to the land. None recognize Jews. This is not lost in their party/militant naming conventions, with names not limited to Islamic Jihad, Al-quds Martyr’s Brigade, Salafi-jihadis, etc. It’s even mentioned at the top of their governing documents: Palestine is about Islamist rule only.

Still the media loves to misrepresent this identity. It’s what some call “West-splaining,” turning end time prophecies filled with violence into a shapeshifting ideology for all sorts of regressive political ideologies to get behind.

The rhetoric games, when it comes to discussing Jews, gets even worse.

Jews were once Israelites. Then Palestinians. Then Semites. Now Jews are called Zionists.

Jews were a nation. Then not a nation. Then killed for not being Christian. Then Nazis insisted all Jews, regardless of their skin color, were not white. And a half century later, ironically, the regressive left began to insist all Jews were white, again, regardless of skin color.

Jews can never just be “Jews, minding their own business” to their haters.

Every day I hear of a tragic murder around the world. And Israel aside, the victims are granted the right to self identify.

When a school shooting happens in US, CNN never writes, “Man killed 10 Constitutionalists.”

When a stabbing happens in France, Le Monde never writes, “Teen stabbed an Existentialist.”

No, for some reason (cough cough antisemitism), whenever a Jew is killed in Israel, the world erupts with headlines like, “Palestinian kills Zionist.” We act like this is normal, to insist on ideology over birthplace, to give labels to justify death.

And if that isn’t enough, when Jews want to identify as Jews, they’re told they’re not “real Jews.” No, it’s the hate groups and the people who converted out the religion who count, not those with ancestral ties, carrying on the tradition.

Could you imagine this with any other group? I can’t. I have never seen a lunatic with the audacity to rant about “Fake Christians” or “Fake Hindus.” But I expect the refusal to call Jews “Jewish” when it’s convenient.

I expect that when a Jew dies, their views on the war and Israel come up. Were they a Bibi fan? I don’t expect it with anyone else. I don’t expect a Chinese person to die and the debate to be around if they’re deontological or utilitarian. I don’t expect Free Palestine members to die and there to be debate over their Flat Earth stances. I expect every other group to identiy as they please, all while Jews are subject to interpretation.

“Fake Zio-Jews.” “Khazars.” “Mossad.” “Actors.” Bizarre conspiracies always come out with Jewish suffering, unchecked.

This is exactly why there is so much attention to adopting or not adopting the IHRA definitions. Because Jews are the only ones who are told, “You kykes don’t decide what’s antisemitic.” And so when we try to say what offends us, Free Palestine jumps in to insist they know better.

Jews are never Jews when it is inconvenient for our haters. We are Jews when we commit crimes. Bernie Madoff and Jeffrey Epstein, they get to be Jews. But Einstein? He’s a German-American or a Zio.

During Operation Entebbe, terrorists tried to separate Jews from non-Jews. Well they tried to play it off as seperating Israelis, but of course, that meant Jewish. One victim showed their Holocaust tattoo to their capturs. But to the terrorists and their Free Palestine sympathizers, the Holocaust survivor could not be a Jew. They were ‘Zionist Israeli Euro-colonizers who pinkwash the apartheid blah blah blah.’ Of course, Israeli or not, they were just Jews, facing the same threats.

It’s alleged the German terrorist replied to the Jew, one who had their family murdered by Germans, “I'm no Nazi! ... I am an idealist.” But the German terrorist was no Jew. In the end, the headlines described the terrorist as “German,” not “Idealist.” Yes, even terrorists are identified by their state and religion.

A Zionist and an antizionist Jew walk into a bar. The Nazi/Free Paletine bartender says, “We don’t serve Jews here.”

Imagine a gameshow where three Jews are placed side-by-side. One has green hair and facial piercings, one has the traditional black hat and robe, one is dressed just like you are dressed, right now.

Can you identify which is a Zionist or Israel supporter? No. Nobody can. We can just say they’re Jews.

It is not only the terrorists in Entebbe who struggle to differentiate Jew from Zionist or Jew from Israeli. The whole concept of “antizionist not antisemites” ignores the strong ties between Judaism and Zion.

In the last 75 years, there has never once been a murder of a Jew that started with, “Hey, Moshe. What’s your views on Zionism?” or “Hey Shmulik. I know you’re Jewish, but can you tell me your views on Ahad Ha’am?” Civilians that Nazis and Free Palestine target do not ask about our opinions on Jerusalem as a capital of Israel, nor one vs two state. But the insistance that bigots can magically identify “Zionists” keeps them comfortable. It helps them never feel guilt.

The faux-progressives and media must insist the victims are Zionists, not Jews, because otherwise they would have to examine themselves. They would have to say, “Are we the baddies?”

Ironically, the most fundamentalist, extremist Jews rarely support the State of Israel. And they’re the ones praised. The extremist Jewish sects hold beliefs that Zionism undermines, amongst other questionable beliefs.

Lev Tahor, for example, migrate around South America and Asia, banned from Israel. Neturei Karta, who are frequently championed by the #FreePal death cult, do live in Jerusalem (as well as London and Brooklyn), but refuse to acknowledge the state. Yes, the most extremist sects are all anti-Zionists, and worse, the extremists are often the only ones tokenized as “good Jews.” And, sure, they are Jews. I wouldn’t say otherwise. But why are they never asked about their beliefs on whether Palestinians should be living in that region, or, for that matter, their opinions on womens rights, on Iran, on LGBT+, on greed, and on all the other things that would show they’re the worst representatives of a “good Jew.”

All of these points above are obvious. Yet when bigot Sally Rooney promoted her latest book by announcing it would not be published in Hebrew, the world cheared, as if antisemitic takes improve shit writing. Sally claimed that she could not publish in Hebrew—the language spoken by Jews—because the publishers are Zionists. All of them!

The media went with it. I could not find one paper that questioned back, “What do you mean? You couldn’t just use the publisher you already use for other languages? You asked every single publisher? How is that possible?”

They knew it was a lie. They knew Sally Rooney was speaking to her hate for Jews. They just let her identify Jews as Zionists, and insisted that Zionism equates to speaking Hebrew.

Sure, there are Arab, Bedouin, Christian, Druze and many other non-Jewish Israelis who speak Hebrew. But could Sally Rooney, a woman who promotes her work by announcing a Jew boycott, turn to these groups?

Even the homes in our disputed territories (“The West Bank”) are defined solely by religious elements.

When Jews illegally create a home, it’s a “settlement.” When Arabs or Bedouin illegally create a home, it’s “occupied.”

It never matters that the Spanish of Morocco live in “protectorates,” and that Kurds, occupied by four states, live in “provences.” You will never hear of “Turkish-Occupied Northern Cyprus,” despite Turkey having no historic claim to Syria, as Jews do to Judea. The term “settlement” today either means you’re playing a board game, Catan, or refers to Jews, only Jews, living in a city Muslims got dibs on.

Even the thousands of antizionist settlers are still called settlers, because it means Jews.

In spite of all these rhetoric games, an Extentialist French is French. A Constitutionalist American is American. And a Zionist Jew is a Jew. I will let people identify as they please. I reject letting haters define identities so they can feel better about their hate towards a marginalized group.

Update from April 2023, when a man murdered a random Italian in Tel Aviv, media outlets responded like the image below, without a cause or autopsy. Til today, no “Palestinian orgs” have taken credit for the incident, but even NPR insisted it must be a resistance attack. Evidence points that it was likely a drunk driver or psychological breakdown, but no corrections are expected, because civilians in Israel being killed is something these papers celebrate.