vainglory

Here's the problem:

When we speak, we're accused of propaganda.

When we mourn, we're accused of manipulation.

When we stay silent, we're called complicit.

When we ask questions, we're told we are gaslighting.

When we cite facts, we're told to stop 'doing hasbara.' .

This isn't hyperbole. This is the experience many Jews have today when we speak. Especially if we're defending ourselves. Especially if we're defending Israel's right to exist.

The structure of the trap is pretty familiar to Jews. Every word of defense becomes proof of guilt and even silence gets read as a confession.

It's a Kafka trap.

In a Kafka trap, denial of an accusation is taken as proof of the accusation.

Try to explain? That's exactly what a liar would do!

Don't respond? You must have something to hide!

It's a classic cult maneuver and a common abusive relationship tactic. And now, apparently, it's a feature of daily discourse for most Jews I know on North America.

The Kafka trap doesn't try to prove you're wrong. It starts from the assumption that you're guilty and frames your every move from that assumption.

When it comes to Jews in progressive political spaces, the trap has a favorite word: hasbara.

In Hebrew, hasbara simply means "explanation."

For decades, it referred to Israel’s public diplomacy efforts. These were mostly bureaucratic, sometimes tone-deaf, sometimes deeply flawed, but not some sinister conspiracy. Just a country making its case on the world stage, like every other country does.

The Western Left, as they have so many times, decided to make up it's own definition of our Hebrew word.

Today, the Western far Left uses "hasbara" as a smear. It's used to dismiss anything a Jew says in defense of Israel (or even in defense of themselves) as coordinated propaganda. It doesn't matter if it’s true. It doesn’t matter if it's personal. It doesn’t even matter if it's painful. If it threatens the dominant narrative, it gets rebranded as hasbara, which means it can be ignored or actively condemned as deceptive. (Those tricky, sneaky lying, Jews.)

The word doesn't describe what is being said,it just signals who is saying it...and what they are presumed to be.

It has become shorthand for:

This Jew is lying

This Jew is manipulating

This Jew is not grieving, they're performing

This Jew is not arguing, they're strategizing

This Jew is not human

It's a rhetorical equivalent of "shut up, Jew."

Anything you say is treated as propaganda.

Accurately describe the contents of the Hamas charter? You're fearmongering, you islamophobe.

Quote UN resolutions that contradict "apartheid" claims? You're cherry-picking.

Say anything after October 7? You're using Jewish trauma to justify genocide.

If you stay silent, it’s complicity.

Didn't post a ceasefire square? Complicit.

Not visibly protesting Israel on campus? Proof of indifference.

Grieving your murdered relatives quietly? Suspicious.

And if you cry out in pain or fear, it's performance.

Jewish emotion is rarely granted full humanity anymore. We're accused of centering ourselves, derailing, or manipulating.

Jewish fear? Privilege.

Jewish mourning? PR.

Jewish trauma? Hasbara again.

Mentioning Hamas's use of human shields? Justifying war crimes.

Referring to international law? Legalese in defense of apartheid.

Saying Israel is not a settler colony? Whitewashing colonial violence.

Providing context? Genocide denial.

Every possible Jewish expression, whether fact, feeling, silence, or sorrow...is preemptively framed as evidence of guilt.

This isn't just disagreement, this is dehumanization.

The redefinition of "hasbara" as "Jewish propaganda" discredits Jewish identity itself.

Once the label is applied, it doesn't matter what you say or why you say it. Your words are stripped of intent and interpreted only through suspicion. Your grief is strategic. Your arguments are scripted. Your voice is foreign.

You're not a person anymore. You're a function.

A symbol. A proxy. A problem.

This is why the the derisive, disparaging use of "hasbara" hits so hard. It doesn't critique messaging or truth, it refuses to believe you're a real person.

None of this is new.

The same tropes keep resurfacing over the centuries.

The cunning Jew

The manipulative Jew

The powerful Jew behind the curtain

The emotional Jew as threat and a deceptive performance

But there's uodated phrasing for modern libels.

Instead of saying "you control the media," it's "your narrative is hegemonic."

Instead of 'international Jewish conspiracy," it's "coordinated hasbara machine."

Instead of "your tears are fake," it’s "you’re weaponizing trauma."

Same ideas, different words.

You're not heard. You're categorically denied your humanity. You're denied debate, your complexity is flattened, you're denied participation in the discourse. All you get is accusation.

So maybe you withdraw, self-censor, or collapse into shame. Maybe you internalize the message that your speech is poison, and your pain is violence.

You are only allowed to speak if your pain is politically useful to someone else.

When Jewish speech is pre-framed as aggression, when Jewish grief is mistranslated as manipulation, and when every defense is re-coded as offense...what remains?

If everything a Jew says is dismissed as "hasbara," if our facts are propaganda, if our mourning is performative, and if our silence is complicity...what the fuck do you want from us?

What would we have to do to earn the right to speak, to grieve, to disagree, to survive?

What would it take to be believed when we say we're in pain?

One of my friends in high school changed his named as soon as he turned 18, so that the ethnic name his family gave him was finally the name reflected on all of his paperwork. He told me that he understood why his parents had given him an “English” name, but that he felt that if he needed to assimilate in order to succeed, then that was a type of success that he didn’t want.

When I was on my way home from the courthouse after changing my own name, I got into a conversation with my rideshare driver, who was extremely interested once I told him what I was in court for, and wanted to know how I’d done it, how much it cost, was it difficult, etc. It turned out that his girlfriend had chosen the name “Yo-yo” when she came to the United States, unaware of how rare that was as a name, and that she was frequently made fun of because of it. Neither one of them had realized that a name change was so easy, and he told me he was excited to let her know that she had options.

There was an intern at a summer job I had once, who changed her name to be the same name, but a different spelling. She said that she had no idea why her parents had spelled her name so oddly to begin with, and suspected that it was just an honest mistake either by them or by some nurse, but it had been a headache for her entire life, and it was a huge relief to not need to be correcting people’s spelling on important documents anymore.

One of my exes legally changed his name to have an exclamation point, because he liked to sign his name with an exclamation point.