Born in the German city of Mannheim in 1654, Johann Andreas Eisenmenger spent nearly two decades studying the Talmud and other rabbinic texts with members of the Jewish community of Amsterdam, to whom he presented himself as a prospective convert. Then, in 1700, he published one of the best researched, and most influential, works of anti-Jewish slander. Henry Abramson writes:

Spanning 2,000 pages over two brick-like volumes, Entdecktes Judenthum (“Judaism Unmasked”) is an exhaustive survey of every possible passage from the Talmud that could be distorted to reflect badly on Jews and Judaism. Its verbose subtitle thoroughly describes his intent, which was to prove how “the stubborn Jews frightfully blaspheme and dishonor the Holy Trinity . . . . and despise and curse to the uttermost extreme the whole of Christianity.” He also promised “ridiculous and amusing stories” to boot, “written for the honest information of all Christians.”

Eisenmenger’s purpose and even his methodology were hardly new. Jew-haters have been mining the Talmud for talking points since the 13th century, when the apostate Nicholas Donin first denounced it before Pope Innocent III. Few, however, were able to penetrate the depths of this massive, ancient text written in a mixture of highly coded Aramaic and Hebrew.

Eisenmenger began his lifelong deception in 1680 at the age of twenty-four. By the time he was ready to bring his malicious book to print, he could count many rabbis among his teachers, including the prolific David ben Aryeh Leyb of Lida [in modern-day Belarus]— then chief Ashkenazi rabbi of Amsterdam.

For the past three centuries, from John Peter Stehelin’s [1748 English-language abridgment] to the ugliest parts of the Internet, anti-Semites have relied on Eisenmenger’s [perverse] research to promote hatred. Eisenmenger strove for accuracy in citation and translation, but criminally distorted the meaning of the passages in context with unacceptably tendentious commentary to promote awful lies like the infamous blood libel.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.