Israel is the only nation in history accused of starving those it feeds

Let’s be clear: the suffering in Gaza is real. And both the international community and Israel must do more – everything possible – to end that suffering as swiftly as possible.

At the same time, everything stated above is factually accurate. While Israel may be on the verge of defeating Hamas militarily, it has long since lost the war of images and information – aided and abetted by the failure of Western journalists and politicians. As Ulf Poschardt, editor of the German daily Die Welt, recently observed: the West is being poisoned – above all by the media’s growing acceptance of Hamas propaganda. The accusation – or rather, the lie – that Israel is starving Palestinians or committing genocide has now become mainstream.

It’s a tired cliché, but it holds true: the first casualty of war is the truth. Since the October 7 massacres, the world has seen the return of age-old antisemitic conspiracy myths. Once, people falsely claimed that Jews murdered Christian children to bake matzah with their blood. Today, the updated lie is that Israel – the “Jew among nations” – is actively starving Gaza’s children or arbitrarily executing civilians to steal their land. The new rule seems to be: the more absurd and obscene the accusation against the Jewish state, the better.

The essayist, resistance fighter and Holocaust survivor Jean Améry once observed that modern antisemitism no longer presents itself as such. On the contrary, when challenged, it denies its nature, claiming: “I’m not antisemitic – I’m just anti-Zionist.” Today, even that fig leaf is gone. Now everything is allowed. All barriers have collapsed. Jew-hatred is now expressed openly and without shame.

Europe is currently being swept by a storm of antisemitism more intense than anything seen in decades. Antisemitic incidents are skyrocketing. More and more Jews in Berlin are considering emigration. In Austria, Jews are being thrown out of restaurants and campsites simply for being Israeli. In France, a rabbi is beaten. In Spain, Jewish teens are forced off a plane – for singing in Hebrew.

“Resist the beginnings”? Too late. Instead, we hear: “But international law!” “But the supposed genocide in Gaza!” Enough is enough. This is no longer tolerable.

And our politicians? French President Emmanuel Macron has once again capitulated to the Muslim vote and now plans to recognise a Palestinian state this autumn. Many in the Muslim communities in France were celebrating when Macron announced in late 2023 that he wouldn’t attend a major anti-antisemitism rally in Paris – citing “public order concerns.” Translation: if he goes, the banlieues will burn.

So Hamas gets its reward: mass murder pays off. For the killing of over 1,200 Israeli babies, children, mothers, fathers, and Holocaust survivors, the group will now be gifted a state of its own. For 77 years, Palestinian leaders have passed up every opportunity to make peace – and now, suddenly, they’re to be granted a state without negotiations, free of charge.

Last month, a news item barely registered amid the constant genocide accusations against Israel: the US pulled its negotiating team from Qatar in frustration. Hamas, said special envoy Steve Witkoff in visible irritation, does not want a ceasefire.

What a shock. Of course Hamas doesn’t want peace. It will continue to torment Israeli hostages and its own population. It will do anything to cling to power – no matter the cost.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his foreign minister Johann Wadephul, both from the centre-right Christian Democrats, are constantly calling out and criticising Israel in public. It is, of course, entirely legitimate – and at times necessary – to criticise the Israeli government, as one would any other. The deep and long-standing German-Israeli relationship can withstand that.

But increasingly one must ask: why the one-sidedness? Why, for weeks, was there almost no mention of the hostages’ suffering – including several German citizens – at the hands of Hamas? Why is there still no sustained international pressure on Hamas and its backers in Iran and Qatar to release the remaining captives and compel Hamas to surrender?

Let’s state it plainly: both the Chancellor and the Foreign Minister, like so many of their Western counterparts, have abandoned the hostages, held like animals in chains in Gaza’s tunnels, abused and starved for weeks. And they are now increasingly abandoning Israel itself.  In an unprecedented move, the German government announced that it is halting exports to Israel of arms that can be used in Gaza.

Both now sound like former Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock from the Greens, whose disastrous Middle East policy they so rightly criticised in parliament for 18 months after October 7. The Christian Democrats are selling off their foreign policy crown jewels.

This is not hyperbole. It’s not cheap polemic. It’s not relativisation. It is, rather, a grim truth: thank God there were no live tickers or TikTok in the 1940s. Why? Because the Nazis would have spun the Allied bombing campaigns as genocide – and much of the world would likely have demanded peace with the Nazi regime.

At the core, the truth is simple and obvious: Israel has every right to defend itself against Hamas’s terror. Every right to free its kidnapped citizens. Every right to prevent future attacks. And every right to live in peace and freedom with its neighbours.

No other country on earth would tolerate a heavily armed neighbour hell-bent on its destruction. So why is Israel expected to? Why is Israel vilified? Why is the Jewish state denied the support it deserves – support essential for its survival?

Philipp Peyman Engel is editor-in-chief of the Jüdische Allgemeine, Germany’s most important Jewish newspaper