Thomas Wictor

By Racheli Ben Yehuda. Reprinted with permission.

Hi Thomas.

Let me start by saying THANK YOU (if I could shout it I would).

I have been following you since the start of Operation Protective Edge, and the daily articles you posted gave me a lot of confidence. I have a Pinterest account and was using it to pin the regular everyday things like recipes, home design and art. I never looked at it as a political venue until the war broke out and I encountered numerous Pallywood pins.

Dead Syrian babies became victims of IDF in Gaza, kids with shattered legs from IEDs in Iraq became victims of the IDF in Gaza, fake quotes, fake photos (some I even believed until searching them on Google), people re-pinned them like crazy and I knew I had to dive in.

Racheli means photos like these.

That’s eight-year-old Nesreen Hash’hash, injured during an Israeli military operation in El-Fawwar, Hebron, on March 28, 2006.

She has nothing to do with Operation Protective Edge.

And a rubber bullet didn’t cause that injury. She has fragmentation wounds, the result of a live round striking cement near her head. My guess is the IDF didn’t shoot at her. I can’t find any information on the March 28, 2024 operation, but several arrests were made.

March 28, 2006, was a milestone in the history of terrorism in Gaza.

And Nesreen Hash’hash received medical treatment immediately.

But that goes against the narrative, so the information must be suppressed.

Back to Racheli.

I didn’t get much sleep during the month of the ground war, debating this conflict and debunking Pallywood pins. The more I debated, the more I was drawn into it.
The comments I got were never to the point, never concrete historical or other evidence—always nonsense and lies. Every debate ended with slurs, allegations and even threats. It’s a bottomless pit, but I dive in every chance I get.

I became more professional at it (if that’s a good term to use here) and began challenging / correcting / commenting only Pinners with European / American / Asian names that have more than X amount of followers, knowing that challenging a guy from Egypt who has thirty followers is a waste of time, since from experience I learned it did not affect them no matter how much proof I provide. I found a few others who did the same, and we “helped” each other on issues.

After weeks of debating with people on Pinterest I think I can actually construct the profile / manual to the Jew-Israel hater debater:

STAGE 1 - Honey Trap

Being friendly and polite (most skip this stage).

STAGE 2 - Invent Them All!

Lie, invent, and distort reality / history in order to gain sympathy. Don’t be deterred by history books and actual facts; most people won’t check. Don’t forget to add some Pallywood pictures from Chile, Syria, Iraq and even Israel and claim they were taken in Gaza. Also refer to all kinds of false massacres and especially to YouTube videos that were edited, cut, staged, etc.

STAGE 3 – ?!

Ask a lot of questions and add the term “war crimes” as much as possible, but be careful – DO NOT under any circumstances try to answer questions you were asked. To any question your counter-debater asks, just answer with another question. (Start that question with, “What about…” After a while it will become second nature.)

STAGE 4 - Daisies and Lollypops or The Miss World

Ensure everybody around you knows that you are kind and humane. Your only dream is of world peace. Your true wish is that the babies of the world are safe. (Of course not those Zionist babies, but don’t let them know that’s what you think…)

STAGE 5 – Bleeding Hearts

Ask the person you are debating if he has no heart, point to the babies of Gaza (Who were killed by Hamas, but never mind that now!) and refer, if you can, to the Holocaust and the Nazis as much as you can. (Jew-haters love using the Holocaust and Nazism.) If you can, accuse them of being Fascists. (Even if you don’t know what it means).

STAGE 6 – Zionism and Unicorns (What?)

Don’t be shy, pull out the ZIONIST Card often and don’t forget to act suspicious as the counter-debater is probably being paid by some benefactor of some sort who also rides a unicorn.

STAGE 7 - Fight or Flight!

FLIGHT: If all above fails, leave the room “gracefully” mocking the other side as fools with low IQs; also say, “I will not waste more of my precious time here. Goodbye.”

Or

FIGHT: If you have any spirit left in you - FIGHT!!! Do not let them get away with debunking your Pallywood lies! Their historical documentation and other factual proof have nothing on you! Curse and humiliate the other side until they are overwhelmed.

(One already wrote me that I was a “Zionist whore who needs a —- in her mouth.” I responded that as a free woman, living in a democracy and a free modern society, I reserve the right to have or to not have a —- anywhere I wanted to without being executed…)

I use your excellent articles a lot as reference. The article you wrote “Now we’re getting propaganda from space” was the one that really blew my mind because it brought me to the realization that the hatred for the Jews really has no borders.

Yes, here’s a view of war-torn Spain and Portugal from space.

“Dis foto,” says Alexander Gerst, “it is de saddest of mein journey in de rocket machine. Now we dance!”

Rachelli returns.

You ask in one of your articles why Israelis and Jews don’t do more when it comes to exposing the truth. It reminded me of a guy who commented on one of my comments and said, “The Jews always hand the knife to those who want to hurt them. This is something I don’t understand.”

But I do.

We are simply used to it. We’re dammed if we do and damned if we don’t. No matter what we do, we will be damned.

The first account of antisemitism recorded in history is the biblical story of Daniel in the lion’s den. Since then we were subjected to pogroms, persecution, riots, Dhimmitude, and diaspora. We were almost completely annihilated only 70 years ago. Three thousand years of hatred have been printed in our DNA, and we have realized the best thing to do is just “walk between raindrops,” trying not to stir things up too much. You see, we are the embodiment of the elephant in a china store. We tread lightly, extremely lightly.

We realize that traditional antisemitism has a new comfortable blanket called anti-Israelism.

People, even highly educated, wrap themselves in it with comfort and warmth and are braver than ever. It offers them a legitimate venue to hate us without shame or blame.

But we also know we are nothing short of a miracle.

From the conquest of Nebuchadnezzar, the Romans, the Turks, to the Europeans, Nazis and Arabs - the nation of Israel survived it all. My ancestors left Spain 500 years ago, willing to die in an unpaved journey rather than denounce their heritage and beliefs. The Jews of Ethiopia, Yemen, Morocco, and Poland kept traditions identical and alive for centuries.

We gathered from the nations among which we have been scattered and returned to live in the land of our ancestors. Every tree holds their breath, every clod of dirt holds their ashes, and every stone holds the prayers of millions who died on this journey. A place that is more than a land but a thing we prayed for, cried for, dreamed of for thousands of years. A place where we are free, free to practice not a religion but a way of life.

We survived it all, and we will survive things to come.

I allow myself to speak in the name of so many others, friends and family by saying to you this: We are grateful for your work, I know it’s hard. There is a lot of ignorance about this conflict and the truth of things, even among us. Please know you are appreciated.

*By the way, the fake picture of an airport in Gaza that shows a tower with a point sticking out of it is (I think) from Iran.

Addendum

The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed; and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished.

The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind.

All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains.

What is the secret of his immortality?

—Mark Twain