Some Things Are Worth Losing Friends For
Antisemitism is one of them!
There’s a moment in every adult friendship when you realise you’re not just arguing over politics—you’re standing in a moral fork in the road, watching people you once respected gleefully goose-step down the wrong path, while calling it a “march for justice”.
For me, that moment came courtesy of two Polish friends I’ll refer to here as Isadora Brain-Fogłowska and her boyfriend, Marek Pantofel. Formerly charming companions in London house parties chats and Eurovision commentary, they have since pivoted into something far less amusing: the kind of people who’ll repost Holocaust-flavoured memes before their morning coffee, then insist they’re “just criticising Israel”.
Take a recent gem from Isadora’s X account (formerly Twitter, now Elon’s personal therapy journal). She reposted an image of a crying little girl and a US soldier, with the caption:
“I’M SORRY BUT DADDY NEEDS TO GO DIE IN A JEW WAR.”
Below it, the user who originally posted it referred to Senator Marco Rubio as “an AIPAC whore who’ll do anything his Israeli masters tell him to.”
Now, I know what you're thinking. Surely this is a parody? Some elaborate satire? Nope. Isadora thought this was worth sharing—completely unironically. You see, it’s not racism when you’re attacking Jews. Then it’s just “political commentary”.
When challenged, Isadora does what all self-righteous intellectuals do: she doubles down. You try to explain that reposting antisemitic tropes wrapped in edgy memes isn’t edgy—it’s repulsive. She responds with a shrug, maybe a smug “free speech, innit,” and carries on comparing The Jewish Chronicle to “Goebbels-level propaganda.” Yes, you read that correctly. A Jewish newspaper that actually did the unthinkable in modern journalism—printed an apology on the front page after getting a fact wrong—is now equivalent, in Isadora’s World of Historically Illiterate Hysteria, to the Nazi propaganda machine that helped exterminate six million Jews. Never mind that Al Jazeera wouldn’t apologise if it caught fire in the middle of a lie, or that the BBC would issue its mea culpa somewhere on page 86 under an ad for cat food. No, she singles out the one Jewish outlet that publicly owned its mistake—and uses that moment of integrity to brand it Nazi. Because nothing says “I’m totally not an antisemite” like calling Jews Nazis for correcting an error. At this point, she’s not a closet antisemite anymore. The closet door’s been flung open, disco lights are on, and she’s hosting a full-blown coming-out party—anti-Zionist drag, vodka, and a playlist of slogans she doesn’t understand but screams anyway. And of course, she also found time to attack Melanie Phillips—because when in doubt, shoot the messenger, especially if she’s Jewish and tells inconvenient truths.
I tried. Believe me, I tried.
I explained to Isadora and Marek what “from the river to the sea” actually means. Not in a Twitter-thread rant, but in conversations. With context. History. Maps. I unpacked why calling Israel “apartheid” is not just legally inaccurate, but intellectually lazy. I laid out, repeatedly, why “genocide” is not the correct term when Gaza’s population has grown exponentially since 1948, unless you think Israeli snipers are aiming exclusively at birth control.
Their response? More blank stares than a vegan at a barbecue. And a repeated question so offensively ignorant it deserves a frame:
“But like… are you saying every criticism of Israel is antisemitism?”
Sweetheart, I just walked you through the difference. Three times. If your brain’s still buffering, perhaps unplug the ideology and reboot.
But no. Instead, they accused me of being closed-minded. Marek—whose intellect has the elasticity of a wet sock—chimed in with “Zionism is political, not religious,” as if that settles it. As if centuries of pogroms, blood libels, and state-sponsored expulsions don’t count the moment a Jew flies El Al.
The final straw wasn’t even verbal. It was Isadora reposting that vile meme, and watching 2.5k people “like” it while she said nothing. No clarification. No apology. Just a digital thumbs-up to the idea that Jews start wars and get goyim killed for sport. The oldest, ugliest antisemitic trope in the book—repackaged for TikTok’s attention span.
At that point, I realised I wasn’t having conversations with people seeking truth. I was playing chess with pigeons. They knock over the pieces, shit on the board, then strut around like they’ve won.
So no, I’m not ending friendships because someone disagrees with me. I ended this friendship a while ago, when it became painfully clear that the disagreement wasn’t about politics—it was about morality. These weren’t people struggling to understand nuance. They were people comfortable wallowing in ignorance so long as it came with social validation and just enough faux-activism to tweet about. The recent repost of the “Jew war” meme wasn’t the trigger that ended the friendship—it just triggered this article.
And speaking of cognitive dissonance, here’s a perfect snapshot: after it was widely reported that one of the Israeli hostages had been held in the home of an Al Jazeera journalist—a fact that should shake any sane person’s trust in that outlet—I mentioned it. Isadora responded not with horror, concern, or even curiosity. No, she replied with a string of laughing face emojis. Because when it comes to Israeli suffering, nothing says “ally” quite like mockery.
There is a name for that. It’s not activism. It’s not allyship. It’s antisemitism. Dressed up in emojis, filtered through your outrage algorithm, and smeared all over social media like some grotesque digital blood libel.
So to Isadora and Marek: you are no longer my friends. Not because we disagreed about the Middle East—but because when it came to Jews, you chose propaganda over people.
And to anyone else wondering when criticism of Israel crosses the line? Here’s a handy guide:
Saying you disagree with Israeli policy = criticism.
Claiming Jews control the media, fund wars, and need to be taught a lesson = antisemitism.
Siding with chants of intifada and “river to the sea” = you’re not confused. You’re compromised.
I’m done playing explainer-in-chief to people who don’t want to understand. If your activism ends where Jewish safety begins, then your moral compass is as broken as your arguments.
Some bridges aren’t worth crossing. Others deserve to burn.