Full article: On the Roots of Antisemitism and the Asymmetry of the Israel–Hamas Conflict – Yehuda Bauer | tandfonline

After the horrific events of October 7, what we face today are, basically, two completely different worlds. One is exemplified by Hamas—a fundamentalist Islamic movement with genocidal intentions. The other is the Jewish State. To be sure, Israel is a democratic country, but one riddled with internal conflict and controversy. There is a segment of the Jewish public and certain institutions, including a few under state auspices, which are fanatically religious, but they and their Jewish brethren of varying degrees of religiosity do not aspire to spread the Jewish religion globally as Hamas does with Islam. As a result, there can be no overarching common platform on which to conduct a dialogue. Hamas seeks the destruction of the Jewish State and the elimination of its society basically by annihilating those who do not convert to its credo. Israel is, as we well know, a very complicated society, but in that sense it is hardly unique; most—perhaps all—democratic societies are.