Opinion
Nicole Lampert

The grotesque lie regarding Israel and canines

Orwell asserted that ‘one of the marks of antisemitism is an ability to believe stories that could not possibly be true.’

Palestinian detainees held behind fencing at the IDF’s Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel. Photo: Wikipedia
Palestinian detainees held behind fencing at the IDF’s Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel. Photo: Wikipedia

Yes, we are living in a new age of insanity. The ‘ongoing genocide’ that isn’t. The calls for war on ‘peace marches’. The mainstreaming of antisemitism in the ‘anti racist’ Greens, and the ‘false flag’ claims every time Jews are hurt.

But sometimes, even now, something is alleged that truly takes your breath away.

Training dogs to rape.

This latest conspiracy emerged via a Geneva-based, Hamas-adjacent NGO called Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which first published a report alleging that dogs were being used to sexually assault prisoners and detainees in Israeli facilities.

The conspiracy was fanned by fringes of the far left – with Owen Jones writing on his Substack last month, ‘there is overwhelming evidence that the Israeli ministry is raping Palestinian detainees with dogs’.

But now it is in the New York Times, once considered a paper of record. In a comment piece titled “The Silence that Meets the Rape of Palestinians”, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof, wrote that a Palestinian journalist he interviewed described how he had been mounted by a dog. ‘He tried to dislodge the dog, he said, but it penetrated him,’ the piece said.

The article continued that other Palestinian prisoners had cited similar reports of police dogs being ‘coached to rape prisoners’. This isn’t the only problem with the article: Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he had been misquoted when it appeared he had agreed with some of the most egregious claims in the article, saying: ‘The positioning of my quotes after pages of such allegations misrepresents my views.’

Numerous experts have come out and said it is technically impossible to train dogs to rape men. I’ve read some of them and now know more than I could have ever wished about the private parts and mating habits of dogs. Such is being a Jew in 2026.

The New York Times has refused to take the piece down.

In 1945 George Orwell wrote an essay about antisemitism which is as relevant today as it was 81 years ago.

Quoting people from varied walks of life, who all had issues with the Jews while insisting they weren’t antisemitic, he concluded: ‘Antisemitism is an irrational thing. The Jews are accused of specific offences which the person speaking feels strongly about, but it is obvious that these accusations rationalise some deep-rooted prejudice. To attempt to counter them with facts and statistics is useless, and may sometimes be worse than useless. People can remain antisemitic while being fully aware that their outlook is indefensible.’

He was inspired partly by a tragedy in 1942 when more than 100 people were crushed at Bethnal Green tube station amid a rush to hide from bombs. He recalls: ‘The same day it was repeated all over London that ‘the Jews were responsible.’’

He posits the idea that while Brits were fighting Hitler, it was socially unacceptable to be antisemitic. So people had to find ways more palatable reasons to hate them.

Orwell asserts: ‘One of the marks of antisemitism is an ability to believe stories that could not possibly be true.’

Thus, it is not bad enough that Palestinian prisoners are likely to be treated brutally in Israeli prisons, as is likely under Ben Gvir. But this brutality has to have a demonic monstrousness to it. It can’t just be bad. It has to be the worst imaginable.

To quote Owen Jones, this behaviour shows: ‘A level of depravity which is beyond the imagination of any decent person – you will wonder to yourself, what level of evil could come up with such crimes.’

Both Jews and now the Jew among the nations –  Israel – can’t just be bad. But have to be beyond evil. Genuine devils.

If I could take myself out of my body, out of my here and now, I would say that on a psychological level this is fascinating.

Just as people 800 years were willing to believe that Jews really did want to kill Christian children and use their blood for our matzah, and just as 120 years ago they believed in a worldwide Jewish conspiracy to take over the world, and 100 years ago they blamed Jews for the defeat of Germany in World War I, and in the Soviet era communism failed only because of a supposed Zionist conspiracy, today we are seeing new conspiracies take shape and form, even though no one writing today could claim ignorance about the danger this could lead to.

Already we are targeted at apartheid-loving baby-killing genocide deniers and now dog rapists: if this wasn’t all quite so concerning, so frightening, I would demand to know, what will they come up with next?

The views expressed are the author's own and not necessarily those of Jewish News.
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