Sometimes, a fabricated story can sway more minds than the truth. We are moved by a good story. You can speak to your friend, an intelligent person, and they wholeheartedly believe the story being told by known liars and manipulators! Anti-Semites used to have to think about what story to concoct in order for it to be credible and to gain traction. Today, they have perfected the formula, simply take the horrific and inhumane acts committed by themselves and apply it to the Jews. The world eats it up.
I was horrified by what occurred on October 7th. However, it was not surprising, since I had read the Hamas Charter and was well aware of their intentions. But what happened on October 8th astonished me entirely, that after such a heinous act, thousands of students would start marching in support of Hamas. This, I could not believe.
The illogical history of Antisemitism has a particular clue that might give us some insight and hope. The Torah tells the story of one of the first antisemites, Pharaoh. If you read the story in Exodus, he seems entirely unreasonable. Plague after bloody plague, he maintains his position. But even before Moses goes on his journey to redeem the Jewish People, G-d tells him: “When you go to return to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in your hand; but I will harden his heart, so that he shall not let the people go.”
Pharaoh's illogical and unbelievable position was rooted in something much deeper. G-d had a glorious plan of salvation. And the precursor to that salvation was this illogical antisemitism that seemed to be a disservice not just to the Jewish people, but even to Pharaoh and his country.
The absurd narrative is simply a setup for amazing things to come. Right now, it is hard to stomach. But we know the end of the story: “May they who dwell isolated in a woodland surrounded by farmland, graze Bashan and Gilead as in olden days. I will show him great wonders as in the days when you went out from the land of Egypt.” (Micha 7:14-15)