British Iranians are showing up in large numbers to support Israel and the attacks on Iran. Arman Yachui has been cheering on Israelis. Regarding the pro-Palestinian protesters, he says, “There are so many of them, and they have no idea what is really going on. They are supporting terrorism and don’t even realize it. Israel is bombing the Islamic Republic, they are not bombing our country.” Iranian-born Niyak Ghorbani has been arrested 11 times by British police for simply carrying signs that read “Hamas are terrorists.”

When I write about the double-standard form of antisemitism directed at Israel, criticism in response mischaracterizes me as someone who hates Muslims or does not care about Palestinians or does not understand the diversity of thought within Jewish circles despite the fact that I have addressed all of these themes. I do not apologize for pointing out that Hamas started the war and could end it and that anti-Zionism is antisemitism.

The depth of hatred against Jews has been revealed throughout the recent exchange of bombs and missiles between Iran and Israel. Those protesters who think Israel somehow attacked an innocent country are indeed supporting terrorism. They fail to acknowledge that Iran attacked Israel in April and October last year with over 220 ballistic missiles, calling the mission “Operation True Promise I and II.” They fail to understand that the Islamic Republic in Iran has an overt goal of totally destroying Israel by 2040 and that an actual doomsday clock in Tehran has been on public display for years. Prior to Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, Israel and Iran were trade partners.

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib is a Gaza native who wrote an article for The Atlantic entitled “Pro-Palestine Activists Fell for Iran’s Propaganda.” He notes that it is predictable in a sense that the so-called “pro-Palestine” groups who rush to criticize the Israeli military action “offer succor to a ruthless theocratic regime that has ground its heel upon its own people and brought misery to the entire region for nearly half a century. By backing various regimes and militias in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Gaza, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been responsible, directly or indirectly, for the death of hundreds of thousands of Arab and Muslim people in the conflicts it has fomented.” Will my critics dispute Alkhatib as well despite the fact that he is a highly regarded political analyst who very much cares about the rights and future of Palestinians?

United States allies who have been harshly critical of the Israeli/Gaza war were notably silent when Israel attacked Iran. Western leaders understand Iran’s threat to democracy everywhere. It seems Israel is doing the heavy lifting at great risk. Will those protesters see the breadth and reality of the problem now?

Finally, I feel a duty to respond to a recent column filled with falsities regarding the history and practice of antisemitism and Zionism. No, Israel is not “ruled by Jews alone.” It is the only democracy in the middle East. Jews are a majority while other demographics share equal rights. What about the 50 Muslim-majority countries throughout the world? Many of them are theocracies. Should we question their right to exist?

Antisemitism as a term was created in the 19th century, while hatred against Jews predates Christianity and the presence of Jews in Europe. Antisemitism is not limited to any one part of the world. Pogroms have been more likely at times and in places where visible Jewish communities lived. Jews predate Muslims as a religious demographic and as indigenous to Israel.

It is well-documented that several Arab leaders collaborated with Hitler with a shared notion of doing away with the Jews. The unfortunate legacy of that is the use of Zionist as a common slur from many Arab countries rather than the actual definition of Jews simply returning to their homeland after centuries of horrors experienced in the diaspora. I can’t think of any other return to homeland movement that has been met with such scorn and hatred.

In 1947 and at least four times since, serious offers of peaceful states side by side have been on the table only to have Arab countries — most recently Iran — refuse to allow Israel to be legitimate in any way (see Alkhatib’s article). In 1948, Arabs tried to destroy the new state of Israel, and 750,000 either left or were expelled (if they were threats to the new democracy). In short order, over 900,000 Jews were expelled from all of the surrounding Arab countries. In most cases, they had lived in those countries for generations and they were given a few days to leave and their assets were seized.

Today, over two million Israeli citizens are Arab-Israelis. This does not include the Arabs who identify as Palestinians in Palestinian-governed territories. Hatred against Jews predates the modern state of Israel by centuries, but make no mistake, Israel is the latest excuse for it.

An Israeli friend told me that as a left-leaning Zionist Israeli, she supports the actual rights of Palestinians she has worked with for decades while she is outraged that the western world protesters think they are doing anything other than making things worse for Palestinians by propping up Hamas and Hezbollah. She is puzzled that Israelis are hated when they have more per-capita NGOs working in African countries to end poverty and starvation than any other country. Once again, I must state that Israel is not an apartheid, genocidal regime. The truth revealed with the deeper facts demonstrates that Israel is David to the Goliath forces that have continually tried to destroy it.

J.M. Sorrell is a feminist and activist combatting antisemitism.