Why They Hate Us

Why do they hate us so much?

Over the past year and a half, Candace Owens has dismissed the horrors of Dr. Josef Mengele’s medical torture as “bizarre propaganda,” defended Hitler’s domestic policies, mocked Jewish outrage over Kanye West’s antisemitic tirades, and recycled tired lies about Jewish control of Hollywood and Israeli persecution of Muslims. This isn’t just marginal internet chatter. These are views with traction and applause in corners of the American Right.

And it’s not just words. It’s not just her. It’s Iran. Hezbollah. Hamas. Regimes and terror groups that would rather see their own people suffer than allow the Jewish people to live in peace. They strap bombs to their children and fire rockets at ours. Their guiding principle is hatred for Israel.

Why do they hate us so much, beyond all logic and reason? Believe me, I know Jews aren’t perfect, but is there really so much to hate?

The Bible gives us insight through the story of Balak and Balaam. Balak, king of Moab, watched Israel defeat the Amorites and panicked:

Yet Balak had no reason to fear an attack. God had explicitly commanded Israel not to harm Moab: “Do not distress Moab, and do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of his land as an inheritance” (Deuteronomy 2:9).

So what was he afraid of? Why the deep revulsion and dread?

The key lies in the language. The verse doesn’t just say Moab feared Israel’s military. It says vayakotz Moav, which means the Moabites “dreaded” the Israelites, but can also be translated as they were “disgusted” by the Israelites. Balak’s hatred was not about territory or survival, but about something more fundamental. Balak feared the very existence of the people of Israel, a people with a divine calling. The children of Israel represented something he couldn’t tolerate: a nation walking with God, on a mission. A nation like Israel isn’t merely a political threat. It’s an existential one. If Israel truly was what it claimed to be, God’s chosen nation, then everything Balak believed in was at risk. Israel’s very presence was a living contradiction to Moab’s worldview. It exposed the moral and spiritual emptiness of his own people. That’s why the hatred ran so deep. 

This hatred isn’t about what Israel does. It’s about what Israel is. The Jewish people, returning to our land and living by the Torah, represent a challenge to the moral frameworks of other nations. Our existence forces a reckoning. They don’t want to ask what it means that the people of Israel endure, that the words of the Bible are coming to life in our days. So they lash out. They invent crimes. They accuse us of every evil under the sun. They transfer their own historic guilt of enslavement, colonization, and persecution onto us.

Still, Balak couldn’t rally others with theology. So he crafted a political pretext:

In other words, Balak claimed that Israel must be stopped or it will devour the entire region. This wasn’t true, but it sounded urgent. Propaganda always does. When hatred is irrational, it needs rational-sounding excuses. Numbers. Land. Stability. Anything but the real issue.

To reinforce the lie, Balak turned to Balaam – a prophet and a man of influence. His mission wasn’t to defeat Israel in battle. It was to curse them; to turn public opinion against Israel and distort their image. Balaam didn’t need facts. Instead, he used emotions, fear and rhetoric to whip up hatred against Israel, cloaking hatred in high-minded speech. 

The same pattern continues today, as modern Balaks and Balaams demonize the Jewish state with polished language like “justice,” “liberation,” and “decolonization.” It is a spiritual and ideological war, dressed up as moral righteousness. And the West, desperate to ease its own conscience for generations of antisemitism, buys the lie.

So what is our task? It is not merely to respond with facts or defend Israel’s policies. Our job is to say what Balak feared most: the people of Israel have returned to their land, not as refugees or guests, but as children coming home. This is not a colonial project. This is covenantal destiny. Israel’s presence in this land is not a problem to be solved. It is a promise being fulfilled.

We must say this without apology. We must stop trying to explain away Israel’s identity or reduce it to security interests. The truth is bigger than that. The Jewish people are a nation, not a religion. The children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob returned to the land promised by God to build a society rooted in the Torah.

Yes, Israel’s mission is a threat to nations like Moab, which have built their civilizations on empty idols and moral compromise. Israel’s very existence demands a reckoning. But that threat is not military or political. It is moral and spiritual. And it is not meant to destroy. It is meant to inspire. Israel is not here to conquer or condemn the Moabs of the world, but rather to model a different path; a national life of purpose and closeness to God.

The antisemites of the world don’t fear Israel’s weapons. They fear Israel’s example. And that example is exactly what we must now embrace. Now, more than ever, Israel must live that example with strength, pride, and clarity—so the nations see not only who Israel is, but who they, too, can become.