The Netanyahu Bogeyman: How Israel’s Enemies Hide Behind One Name

There’s a cynical playbook at work in the campaign against Israel, and it starts with two words: Benjamin Netanyahu. For those who seek to delegitimize the Jewish state, Netanyahu has become the all-purpose villain: A convenient bogeyman onto whom every grievance, every accusation, and every call for Israel’s destruction can be projected while maintaining a thin veneer of respectability. “We don’t hate Israel,” they insist. “We just oppose Netanyahu.” It’s a lie, and it’s time to call it what it is.

The strategy is as transparent as it is dishonest: Meld the man with the nation, reduce a vibrant democracy of ten million people to a single face, and then demonize that face until the public can no longer distinguish between opposing a politician and opposing a country’s right to exist. When activists on college campuses chant for the elimination of Israel; when members of Congress lamentedly vote to strip the Jewish state of security aid; when protesters wave signs calling for Intifada… none of that pompous righteousness is about one prime minister’s policies. It’s about Israel itself. Netanyahu is simply the mask they wear to make it seem palatable to the persuadable masses.

What makes this........

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