Ritual Drama in Taybeh

By Sha’i ben-Tekoa | July 23, 2025

 The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism is well-intentioned but a cumbersome 37 words long.

I prefer my own three-word definition: “Antisemitism is… lying about Jews.” That is all one needs to explain this behavior of telling and believing in lies about Jews that often lead to homicidal violence against them.

Last week, a delegation of Christian divines and representatives of some 20 countries made a solemn pilgrimage to Taybeh, a village of Christian Arabs in Judea, to mourn over the damage they believed that fire had done to an ancient church.

 The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa was there and the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, the Patriarch Theophilos III who said, “Radical Israelis from nearby settlements intentionally set fire near the town and the church of St. George. This is not a violation of property but a targeted attack on a community that has been long a symbol of coexistence and peace.”

In his mind, the Jews don’t want coexistence and peace, and I say this is a splendid, laboratory specimen of anti-Jew intellection in action. Here are these high priests claiming to be the successors to the rabbis of the Jews who lost their special covenant because they killed their messiah (who also happened to be God Himself) lying about Jews, when lying is one of the negative Ten Commandments Christians claim they believe in too.

 Long story short, this was a religious exercise by these gentlemen acting out the age-old smearing of Jews with guilt — when the truth rapidly came to light that there was not an eye-dropper’s worth truth to the alleged arson by “radical settlers.”

 Versus the reality of the pogrom in Israel 2021 by Arabs with citizenship who murdered a Jew and during which at least one synagogue was vandalized, Torah scrolls ripped apart; and that was not the first time in the 14-century history of the relationship between Jews and Muslims when the latter desecrated synagogues and tore up Torah scrolls.

What took place last week in Taybeh was a textbook exhibition of age-less Jew-hatred, something like the medieval passion play reenacting the crucifixion of Jesus in which the Jews were smeared with lies about their guilt, which has led to bloody horrors in every generation.

 Today’s top smear is that the Jews stole Palestine from the Palestinians and are doing to them today what the Nazis did to them.

Today Jews everywhere in public are being confronted with dangerous Jew-haters on fire with these fantasies; news items of Jews being stabbed and shot at. An Israeli cruise ship this week docked in Cyprus whose thousands of vacationers aboard were prevented by a mob from coming ashore.

 On Rhodes too, Israeli teenagers ran in fear from goyim chasing them with knives.

 With Israel being an unwitting accomplice in its own persecution by endlessly playing along with the lie that Hamas is a “Palestinian” organization, and the Palestinian Authority is another “Palestinian” body, when there is nothing Palestinian about these Muslims who, conventional wisdom also dictates, are entitled to welfare from Israel, the target of their satanic cruelty on October 7, 2023.

I fear our otherwise estimable prime minister has a weak spot for pleasing our gentile friends. He was just appealed to by representatives of bereaved families to halt the humanitarian aid to Gaza and cut off the enclave’s electricity and water.

 In response, in writing, he replied, “Our actions are consistent with international law.”

 But surely that is not true. Where in international law is it written that a nation, call it Country X, may have the right to self-defense after being attacked by the homicidal savages in neighboring Country Y, but it also must take care not to harm the innocent civilians in Country Y who allegedly had nothing to do with the aggression? Where does it say that?

 Worse, where in international law does it say that Country X, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken preached to Israel, must have as its first priority not targeting the perpetrators of the demonic cruelty done to it but protecting the enemy’s “innocent civilians”?

I don’t think Prime Minister Netanyahu is conscious of the antisemitism of this demand to which he has kowtowed. Siege warfare is the least damaging military tactic in blood and property. No shots are fired, no one is killed or wounded. Deny the enemy food and water, nature will take its course, and he will eventually come out with his hands up.

 It is nothing short of antisemitic, this denial to the world’s only tiny besieged state, the right to siege warfare.

 And, in any case, whatever is written in international law, Israel has no obligation to respect, because the other side does not. By their evil behavior on Oct. 7, they cannot subsequently claim the protections of civilized legality. They are beyond human society and law, and Israel has the right and even obligation to obliterate this community for what it did on 22 Tishrei, 5784, a.k.a. October 7, 2023.

 Israel owes the Muslims in Gaza nothing.

 Sha’i ben-Tekoa’s PHANTOM NATION: Inventing the “Palestinians” as the Obstacle to Peace is available at Amazon.com in hard cover or a Kindle ebook. His podcasts can be heard on www.phantom-nation.com.