The Pariah State Effect

Thomas Friedman's prophecy has come true. In the New York Times column titled “This Israeli government is a danger to Jews everywhere,” he warned that Israelis, diaspora Jewry and friends of Israel everywhere need to understand that the way Israel is fighting the war in Gaza today is laying the groundwork for a fundamental recasting of how Israel and Jews will be seen the world over.

This happened last month in the Greek resort town of Malia on Crete when Israeli tourists were chased into their hotel by a hostile mob. The tourists said their attackers shouted “F*** Israel” and “Free Palestine” and pursued them to the hotel. Some of the Israelis said they barricaded themselves in their rooms as the attackers entered the hotel looking for Israeli guests. One Israeli was reportedly shot in the head with an air rifle. Israeli citizens travelling abroad increasingly find that revealing their nationality can make them targets. Ordinary Israelis — and, more dangerously, Jews with no connection to the Israeli government — are paying the price.

Thomas Friedman warned about precisely this danger in a remarkably prescient column last year. He argued that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ugly, nihilistic policy in Gaza risked turning Israel into a global pariah. More ominously, he warned that Israel could cease to be seen by Jews as a safe haven from antisemitism and instead become “a new engine generating it.” He imagined a future in which Jews abroad would increasingly need security around synagogues and Jewish institutions and in which Israelis might prefer to emigrate to countries such as Australia and the United States rather than encourage fellow Jews to move to Israel.

What happened in Greece was not an isolated incident. In October 2023, in Dagestan, hundreds of people stormed the airport in Makhachkala after a flight from Tel Aviv landed, searching for Jewish passengers. The mob poured onto the tarmac and tried to identify passengers arriving from Israel. This was not simply a demonstration against Netanyahu or Israel's policy in Gaza.

A year later came the murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan in the United Arab Emirates. Kogan, an Israeli-Moldovan citizen and Chabad rabbi living in the UAE, disappeared in November 2024 and was subsequently found murdered. The circumstances were particularly disturbing because the UAE had been held up as a model of coexistence after establishing diplomatic relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords. The killing demonstrated how quickly the regional conflict could spill over into the lives of Jews living outside Israel.

Then came the scenes in Europe. In Amsterdam in November 2024, violence surrounding a football match involving Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters shocked Europe and revived fears about antisemitism. In Greece, the hostility has taken a different form. In July 2025, more than 150 pro-Palestinian demonstrators prevented Israeli tourists aboard a cruise ship from disembarking on the island of Syros. The protesters waved Palestinian flags and demanded an end to Israel's war in Gaza.

There is an important distinction here. Not every anti-Israel protest is antisemitic. Opposition to Netanyahu's government, condemnation of Israel's military campaign in Gaza and support for Palestinian statehood are legitimate political positions. They cannot simply be labelled antisemitic.

But when protesters move from condemning a government to targeting people because they are Israeli — or, worse, because they are believed to be Jewish — the distinction collapses.

That is what makes the Crete incident so disturbing. An Israeli family sitting in a Greek restaurant or a rabbi living in Dubai is not responsible for Israel's military decisions. Yet increasingly, the line between Israeli identity, Jewish identity and the policies of the Israeli state is being erased.

Today, Israel has become the object of global anger, while Jews abroad can be perceived as extensions of Israel irrespective of whether they support or oppose Netanyahu. Netanyahu's policies have created a painful dilemma for the diaspora.

That is the question Netanyahu should confront: Has his government made Israel safer in the long term, or has it made Israelis — and potentially Jews everywhere — more vulnerable to hatred?

Today, the Israeli passport is increasingly becoming a political identity rather than merely a nationality. That should worry Israelis more than another hostile vote at the United Nations.

A country can survive diplomatic criticism. It can survive angry demonstrations. It can even survive periods of international isolation.

What is much harder to survive is a world in which its citizens increasingly feel compelled to hide who they are.

Friedman's warning therefore deserves to be taken seriously because Israelis increasingly face the dilemma of whether it is safe to display their identity, speak Hebrew in public or tell strangers where they come from. To be Jewish in a world where Israel has become a pariah state has not only become a source of shame but has also made Jews abroad targets of anger.

Views expressed are personal