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Source: https://www.jns.org/stop-fighting-antisemitism-like-its-a-pr-problem/
Stop Fighting Antisemitism Like It's a PR Problem
(JNS) Daniel Winston - For generations, Jews have been told that antisemitism can be defeated through explanation, education, dialogue and moral appeal - that ignorance is the real problem, that it is primarily a misunderstanding. It is not. At its core, antisemitism is not a problem of insufficient information. People don't cling to bigotry and hatred because they have not yet encountered the right educational brochure. They latch on to it because it offers moral simplification, group bonding, grievance and permission. It hands people a villain onto whom frustrations may be projected. It is a pathology that cannot be permanently disarmed by messaging because its function is not to describe reality, but to relieve the antisemite of reality. Education has its place. Historical knowledge matters. But education is not a shield. Awareness is not deterrence. Naming hatred is not the same as stopping the hater. What works instead? Situational awareness works. Hardened security works. Trained self-defense works. Lawful civilian preparedness works. Serious policing works. Clear and unwavering consequences work. Unapologetic exercise of national sovereignty works. The visible capacity and will to fight back work. This is not cynicism. It is adulthood. The mature response begins by abandoning the sentimental belief that all hostility is merely wounded confusion awaiting therapeutic engagement. Jewish survival has never depended chiefly on acceptance. It has depended on clarity, cohesion, memory, strength and the refusal to surrender reality to those who hate us.