By Cory Franklin | October 28, 2024

Last week, two billboards on the highly travelled Interstate 294 spur off the Edens Expressway displayed the following messages for more than 90 minutes during the busy evening rush hour commute: FUCK ISRAEL and DEATH TO ISRAEL. The backdrop for both billboards was a Palestinian flag.                                                 

Given the timing and the location of the billboards – between Northbrook and Deerfield, two suburbs with substantial Jewish populations – it is clear the obviously antisemitic messages were designed for maximum impact. One resident’s comments were a clear indication the billboards had their intended effect, “I couldn’t believe a message like that was so visible, especially in the place it was. This community in Deerfield, borderline Northbrook, is a predominantly Jewish area in the North Shore. How do you explain that to younger children? That sign was visible. Someone that’s a 13 or 14-year-old that sees that, they’re going to know and they’re going to ask questions, and it breaks my heart.”                                                  

The company that owns and operates the billboards disavowed any responsibility, and the signs were quickly taken down. The messages appear to be the work of a hacker, or hackers, still unknown as an investigation continues.                                                       

OK, that’s what actually happened. The incident speaks for itself. But some of what happened afterward bears scrutiny and provides three lessons. 

(Editor’s Note: The headline of this column referencing “Burma-Shave” shaving cream addresses a different time in America before antisemitism and hate of Israel became mainstream Democrat Party ideas.)                                                                                

1.The power to decide whether to cover an event is far more important than the decision of how to cover the event:                

It was notable that media coverage of the antisemitic billboards was basically local. Except for Newsweek, which did an abbreviated account, no national outlet carried the story. A google search of The New York Times, Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal revealed no mention of the incident. The national electronic media did not cover the story. Essentially, the story of blatantly antisemitic billboards seen by thousands in a major metropolitan center was not deemed worthy of coverage by newspapers and linear media, otherwise willing to expend untold words ad infinitum on campus protests, university professors’ offhanded remarks or corporate employees’ intemperate e-mails. Interestingly, The Chicago Tribune, with the largest readership in the Midwest, did a 1200-word article on how the last local Chuck E. Cheese family restaurant phased out its animatronic band, but made no mention of the Northbrook billboards. Any questions about priorities?                                                                                        

2. The concept of hate speech makes no distinctions. And when anything can be considered hate speech, nothing can be considered hate speech.                                                                    

After the billboards come down, the Northbrook Village Board duly issued a statement including the following: “The Northbrook Village Board unequivocally condemns antisemitism and all acts of hate speech.”                                                                                              

Someone might have pointed out to the Board that there weren’t any other acts of hate speech here – but hey, nothing says virtue signaling like intersectionality. Nothing special about these billboards. This has become reflexive: after any instance of antisemitic speech, the responding entity – whether a university, a corporation, or a government body – must add the obligatory “other acts of hate speech” (in this case, considering the Palestinian flag backdrop the standard inclusion of “Islamophobia” might appear slightly outré.)                                                                                                  

No matter that antisemitic acts in America are rising rapidly and are vastly disproportionate to this population compared with other groups – according to the FBI 10% of all hate crimes were antisemitic (likely an undercount), with just 2.5% of the population being Jewish. And forget that antisemitic acts have a long, centuries-old tradition, interspersed with some, shall we say, notable historical episodes – any official statement just can’t have those Jews feeling special. Of course, when intersectionality and virtue signaling mean lumping together all forms of hate speech at every turn, then in the words of Inigo Montoya in the movie Princess Bride, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”                           

 3.Remember how they used to say you could be anti-Israel or anti-Zionist without being antisemitic? As Gilda Radner would say, “Never mind.”                                                                         

Some of the accounts of the billboard incident called it anti-Israel, attempting to draw a distinction between a political statement and a flagrantly antisemitic one. This is, needless to say, bollocks – those billboards were intended for, and more important, meant Jews. It has always been possible to criticize some aspect of Israel – the military, the political leadership, the food, the fashions – without criticizing all Jews. But the October 7 Hamas massacre revealed that the vast majority of criticism of Israel is a smokescreen for criticizing “the Jews.” Those signs on campuses and street protests made it clear that Israel and Zionist were code words for … well, you know.                                                                      

 Can anyone seriously doubt that the call to eliminate Israel is not antisemitic? Take the statement “Death to Israel” at face value for a second. Israel was founded in 1948 as a result of a UN resolution (how strange that seems today) and a response to British colonialism in the Middle East (for all those who call Israel “colonialist”, it was actually anti-colonialist.) Pakistan was founded at roughly the same time, also as a response to British colonialism (and the establishment of Pakistan resulted in more than a million deaths of Muslims and Hindus.) 

Has anyone called for Death to Pakistan? Or Death to Malaysia, Singapore, Tanzania or Puerto Rico? All of which were created or changed by UN resolution. Only Israel doesn’t have the right to exist.                                                               

And no matter that the media can trot out Jews who are critical of Israel, often to the point of saying it should not exist. Every political war has its useful idiots and fellow travelers. If you have any doubt what the billboards FUCK ISRAEL and DEATH TO ISRAEL really mean, substitute “The Jews” for “Israel.”                                     

Occasionally, some group will eliminate the middleman and say exactly what they mean: “Jews go back to Germany (or Poland)” or “Hitler had the right idea.” As Samuel L. Jackson’s character in Pulp Fiction would say such statements provide a “moment of clarity.”                                                                                                                

In his must-read new book, After the Pogrom, British columnist Brendan O’Neill writes, “No more justification for Israel’s existence is necessary than the fact that so many wish to bring Israel crashing down… The aftermath of 7 October exposed the irrationalism of Israelophobia. It confirmed that today’s burning hatred for Israel is fundamentally a manifestation of the moral disarray and drift into unreason of the West itself.” 

Update: Last Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, in the Orthodox section of Rogers Park a gunman shot a Jewish man, who was on his way to synagogue. When first responders arrived, the gunman shouted “Allahu Akbar” and fired on them before he was disabled by return fire from the police. The incident is under investigation.

Nothing to see here…move along.

 

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About the author:

Cory Franklin, physician and writer is a frequent contributor to johnkassnews.com.

He was director of medical intensive care at Cook County Hospital in Chicago for more than 25 years. An editorial ng the pathologists who studied it intently but had no idea what body part it could be. This was before it was known as trolling.)

There is a lesson here. The next time someone tells you, with unmistakable conviction, that he believes in “the science,” gladly offer to discuss science with him over a sandwich. Give him a choice, chorizo or perhaps kosher salami. board contributor to the Chicago Tribune op-ed page, he writes freelance medical and non-medical articles. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Jerusalem Post, Chicago Sun-Times, New York Post, Guardian, Washington Post and has been excerpted in the New York Review of Books. Cory was also Harrison Ford’s technical adviser and one of the role models for the character Ford played in the 1993 movie, “The Fugitive.” His YouTube podcast “Rememberingthepassed” has received 900,000 hits to date. He published “Chicago Flashbulbs” in 2013, “Cook County ICU: 30 Years of Unforgettable Patients and Odd Cases” in 2015, and most recently coauthored, A Guide to Writing College Admission Essays: Practical Advice for Students and Parents in 2021.