"It's Israel's war," our collection of smooth-brained podcast class declared as they rushed to pump out as much propaganda as possible in the aftermath of the joint American-Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic of Iran. The range of arguments we're seeing from this less-than-serious crowd is impressively broad. Some argue that this war is entirely unjustified, as if Iran never hurt a hair on an American's head. Some argue that this war will only incite further terrorism, implying that we should just accept terrorism in order to escape terrorism. Then there are those frothing at the mouth over the idea that Israel dragged the United States into this war.

Yes, according to these knuckle-draggers, Israel manipulated President Donald Trump (of all people) into launching a military assault on a country whose slogan just happens to be "Death to America" and is responsible for the death of hundreds, if not thousands, of American citizens since 1979.

Trump, the man who has spent his entire life doing precisely what he wants, where he wants, and when he wants, no matter the consequences, was manipulated by Israel into doing something he didn't want to do?

How absurd.

Not only that, but if Israel is so monumentally powerful in its talents of manipulation that they managed to drag Trump and the United States military into war ... why did they wait so long? After all, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has wanted to destroy the Iranian regime for his entire political career, but he waited until Trump's second term — after his third election — to start calling the shots?

And why bother waiting for Trump's second term when they had President Joe Biden — a corpse with a facelift who couldn't remember his own name — in the White House for four years? Is Israel so all-powerful that they can treat Trump like a puppet, but so totally weak that they couldn't get Biden to fire off a few missiles?

At its core, intentionally or otherwise, all of this is built on one thing: anti-Semitism. Yes, Jew-hatred is the motivation behind the patently ridiculous claim that the Jewish state of Israel is dragging Trump kicking and screaming into war.

This reminds me of a speech by the late Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, Jonathan Sacks, during a speech on anti-Semitism:

"It seems to me that if you actually ask, 'What is anti-Semitism? What do anti-Semites believe?' you will immediately see that the answer is a series of contradictions. Jews were hated in the 19th century because they were rich and because they were poor, because they were capitalists and because they were communists. Because they kept to themselves, and because they infiltrated everywhere."

This same contradiction has returned, under the guise of anti-Zionism, in which Israel is both powerful and weak at precisely the same time.

By all means, oppose this war. There are plenty of valid reasons against it — including the support of Congress which, yet again, has been ignored — but if your argument is built on the premise that we Jews are dragging you and your children into yet another war? All you've done is recycle a centuries-old hate that is as nonsensical now as it was then.

To find out more about Ian Haworth and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Mohammed Ibrahim at Unsplash