Hate is the new love

I woke up this morning, with friends of mine sending photos they had taken of posters on the Sea Point promenade showing the faces of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas in Gaza.

It was, to my mind, such a tragic but powerful gesture to put names and faces to the blunt number of 222 people.

It showed us the babies, the children, the men, women, and elderly, who must be terrified out of their minds, given the sheer depraved horror they saw while being kidnapped. And the orgy of excitement and delight, as reported by some survivors, who literally hid under the dead bodies of their friends to witness this joyous barbarism.

And then, less than an hour later this morning, I was sent pictures of some of these posters having been torn down, like we have also witnessed around the world.

It simply adds insult to injury. Why would anyone tear down photographs of hostages?

The hatred you must have for Jewish people must be all consuming.

That’s why I say that perhaps “hate is the new love”. That in order for people to sympathise or empathise with one group means that today, in 2023, you need to hate others as part of your “compassionate” state.

Is the new expression of solidarity wishing death on others?

If you live in Sydney, and support Palestine – not Hamas according to many – is shouting, “Gas the Jews!” the best way to express one’s humanity?

This saying obviously means, “Give us another Holocaust.” Something that occurred in many of our parents’ lifetimes and most certainly all of our grandparents’ lifetimes.

There are those still in our communities with their concentration camp numbers tattooed on their arms. Imagine their horror and disbelief to hear these horrific words chanted again within their lifetime?

And endless videos of students in America and across the world on campuses shouting for the elimination of Israel “from the river to the sea”. If they don’t know what this ditty means, we need to add the crime of ignorance to that of passionate, blind hate.

The fact that people are already pulling down these brand new and freshly applied posters of Jewish hostages begs another key question.

How long was Israel, the Jewish diaspora, or non-Jewish, good, decent, and caring humans around the world allowed to mourn those 1 400 murdered or the 222 missing?

The answer is two days.

For just two days, Israel and the global community could watch in disbelief and horror as “never again” became “yet again”.

The latest chapter in the continuation of the tragic history of the Jewish people. A people so small in number, yet so high in hateful sentiment towards them.

After just two days, and bearing in mind the formal mourning period is an initial seven days of shiva, then 30 days of mourning, followed by another 11 months of saying the prayer for the dead daily, the Jewish people were given two days.

Why do I say two days?

Because the moment Israel retaliated against these murders and hijackings, the sentiment of the mainstream media started to turn.

The well-funded and well-oiled (pun intended) hate machine against this global speck of land, the great and enormous Israel, displacer of billions of people, yet factually smaller than the Kruger National Park, began to run into overdrive.

The world began to demand pictures of actual beheaded babies because the ones of shot and burnt infants weren’t enough proof for them that an actual horror of unimaginable proportions had taken place.

The other rinse-and-repeat strategy, taken out of this well-hashed mainstream media and their enablers’ playbook, was not to normalise any form of retaliation.

What would be obvious and absolutely expected, demanded even, was denied to the only Jewish country in the world. And Israel is in every way “the Jew of the world”.

How often do we hear “we like Jews, we just have a problem with Israel”, which is what gets that speck of land 40 times more condemnation at the United Nations than North Korea; Russia – even currently; China – with all the poor Muslims in Xinjiang internment camps, which seems to have everybody else unfazed.

Israel suffers more condemnation than Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. Combined and multiplied.

So, with this frenzied backdrop and the ghoulish and bloodied demand for headless baby pictures, the media rushed to the entirely fake news that Israel had obliterated a hospital with rockets in Gaza.

I watched in dumbfounded disbelief that before any proof was put forward, and with my distraught wife literally in tears next to me, how the media condemned Israel outright. With no proof, and believing the very organisation that calls for the total annihilation of Israel and all her people, as the credible, objective source.

Then, as suspected tons of evidence emerged, verified now by independent countries and news sources, that in fact Islamic Jihad/Hamas had accidentally blown up their own hospital.

But the facts don’t suit the narrative, and so the outrage continues in spite of it not being Israel.

Imagine the madness one must have, the levels of hatred, to still believe something in spite of knowing that it’s false. It’s beyond comprehension.

Where is the anger in the Arab world towards the actual perpetrators of this crime? Are those 400 people no longer dead because it wasn’t Israel?

Will there be no justice? Will Iran and its proxy, Hamas, succeed in destabilising growing peace between the Arab world and Israel? Be sure, the Arab world absolutely understands what Iran and Hamas are doing. So if it allows this lie and horrific attack on Israel to scupper peace, it’s only because it wants this. For no other reason.

I feel desperately sad for the innocent Palestinians caught up in this war. The situation on the ground is utterly heart breaking.

And my heart continues to ache for the murdered Israelis and other nationalities, and for the hostages. It’s a horrific situation. War is incredibly cruel.

I have the capacity, like any normal and compassionate human being would, to be able to simultaneously hold two truths.

What happened and is happening in Israel is horrific. What innocent Palestinians are going through, as Israel targets Hamas terrorists and seeks to bring back 222 hostages – assuming many are still alive – is also truly heart breaking.

To be a decent person is to feel for all people. Not just some. And yet, what I’ve seen in the marches and rallies in London and around the world in favour of Palestinians, with nary a thought or concern for more than 1 400 people murdered less than two weeks ago, says everything. It’s sick. It’s horrific. It’s unconscionable. Nothing less than a lost generation.

A generation which, because of social media, propaganda, and society, can express true sadness only for one people by wishing death on others, regardless of whether 1 400 of them were murdered first, and in spite of five attempts to have a two-state solution thrown in the bin so far.

I pray for peace. I pray for life and light.

For now, the world has truly lost its way. The question we now need to start asking is how did this happen? Because it’s clear this antisemitic campaign has been well strategised, funded, and promoted, while Jews around the world just tried to rebuild their lives after the last attempt of their genocide. Can’t we just love each other rather?

• Mike Abel is the founding partner and executive chairman of M&C Saatchi Group South Africa.