To explain both the perniciousness of anti-Semitic thinking and the rapidity with which it seems to spread, many have reached for metaphors of infection. While acknowledging the usefulness of such imagery, Eve Garrard observes that it also has its limitations: most notably, that diseases can’t “ever choose or be held morally responsible for anything.” She suggests an alternative: addiction.

First, and most importantly, there is the fact that anti-Semitism is enjoyable: it gives its bearers pleasure to criticize, deride, blame, and condemn Jews and their behavior. For some it has the added frisson of being a transgressive pleasure, disapproved of by more conventional people, so that there’s the extra enjoyment for the anti-Semite of feeling bold, original, swimming bravely against the mundane everyday tide. Given that anti-Semitism is a source of pleasure (though only for the anti-Semite, of course), it isn’t surprising that it becomes deeply embedded; people usually want to continue or repeat enjoyable activities.

Secondly, drug-taking is habit-forming, and so is anti-Semitism: the more often a person voices it, the more likely he is to do so again. It becomes easier and easier to take that stance, to find Jews a bit objectionable in a particular context, and then objectionable in a wider range of contexts, until . . . the Jews become the standard locus of blame for whatever problem strikes anti-Semites as currently important.

Another very noticeable point of similarity with addiction is the desire not merely to repeat but also to increase the stimulus dose. What used to give sufficient pleasure is now not quite enough: a bigger dose is needed. Where once they (falsely) complained that Jewish immigrants to Israel had stolen land from Arab inhabitants, now they (falsely) claim that Israel is deliberately and intentionally committing genocide against all Palestinians.

Further pleasures currently offered by ant-Semitism include the satisfaction of believing that you’re on the right side of history, and even more of contemplating your own courage in telling truth to power.

Yesterday, the beepers used by hundreds of Hizballah operatives were detonated. Noah Rothman puts this ingenious attack in the context of the overall war between Israel and the Iran-backed terrorist group:

[W]hile the disabling of an untold number of Hizballah operatives is remarkable, it’s also ominous. This week, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant told reporters that the hour is nearing when Israeli forces will have to confront Iran’s cat’s-paw in southern Lebanon directly, in order to return the tens of thousands of Israelis who fled their homes along Lebanon’s border under fire and have not yet been able to return. Today’s operation may be a prelude to the next phase of Israel’s defensive war, a dangerous one in which the IDF will face off against an enemy with tens of thousands of fighters and over 150,000 rockets and missiles trained on Israeli cities.

Seth Frantzman, meanwhile, focuses on the specific damage the pager bombings have likely done to Hizballah:

This will put the men in hospital for a period of time. Some of them can go back to serving Hizballah, but they will not have access to one of their hands. These will most likely be their dominant hand, meaning the hand they’d also use to hold the trigger of a rifle or push the button to launch a missile.

Hizballah has already lost around 450 fighters in its eleven-month confrontation with Israel. This is a significant loss for the group. While Hizballah can replace losses, it doesn’t have an endlessly deep [supply of recruits]. This is not only because it has to invest in training and security ahead of recruitment, but also because it draws its recruits from a narrow spectrum of Lebanese society.

The overall challenge for Hizballah is not just replacing wounded and dead fighters. The group will be challenged to . . . roll out some other way to communicate with its men. The use of pagers may seem archaic, but Hizballah apparently chose to use this system because it assumed the network could not be penetrated. . . . It will also now be concerned about the penetration of its operational security. When groups like Hizballah are in chaos, they are more vulnerable to making mistakes.