“Every anti-Israel demonstration,” writes Dave Rich, “features countless placards comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, Israeli politicians to Hitler, and Gaza to Auschwitz.” In 2014, the historian Martin Kramer already commented on the ubiquity of such Holocaust inversion in Mosaic.

But the phenomenon has taken on a new, more insidious, and more highbrow form in two articles by the Indian-born novelist and essayist Pankaj Mishra, whose literary prestige (he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature) gives him the authority to hawk his intellectual wares in the London Review of Books and Foreign Policy. In an essay titled “The Shoah after Gaza” and a more recent one, “How Gaza Shattered the West’s Mythology,” Mishra attacks Jews for stripping the Holocaust of its moral signficance, and “dynamiting the edifice of global norms built after 1945.”

Rich explains:

We live in a time when, especially but not only on the political left, victimhood is revered as the highest moral status that can be attained. . . . It is important to remember that this veneration of those who suffer is not a modern invention of the political left, but ultimately derives from Christian theology and Jesus’s suffering on the cross.

But that is not the end of it. If Israel—and with it the majority of diaspora Jewry that adheres to Zionism—has relinquished its moral standing as custodian of the Shoah, then somebody else has to step into Israel’s place and take up the weighty task of “redeeming the memory of the Shoah.” And who is it that Mishra nominates for this lofty role— who in his view has the “moral responsibility for the weak and persecuted” that is required for this task? It is none other than the protesters who fill Western cities every week to march for Gaza. That’s right: those same marches . . . that are aligned with the political goals and slogans of Hamas, a violently anti-Semitic organization.

It is an argument with unavoidable echoes of replacement theology. The idea that Israel is a fallen people whose sinful behavior delegitimizes its hold on Shoah memory has an obvious parallel in the much older idea that the Jews, through their sins, betrayed their covenant with God and, as punishment, were superseded as the elect by more worthy others.

For more than a year, the Iran-backed Houthis have been launching drones and missiles at ships traversing the Red Sea, as well as at Israeli territory, in support of Hamas. This development has drastically curtailed shipping through the Suez Canal and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, driving up trade prices. This week, the Trump administration began an extensive bombing campaign against the Houthis in an effort to reopen that crucial waterway. Burcu Ozcelik highlights another benefit of this action:

The administration has a broader geopolitical agenda—one that includes countering China’s economic leverage, particularly Beijing’s reliance on Iranian oil. By targeting the Houthis, the United States is not only safeguarding vital shipping lanes but also exerting pressure on the Iran-China energy nexus, a key component of Beijing’s strategic posture in the region.

China was the primary destination for up to 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports in 2024, underscoring the deepening economic ties between Beijing and Tehran despite U.S. sanctions. By helping fill Iranian coffers, China aids Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in financing proxies like the Houthis. Since October of last year, notable U.S. Treasury announcements have revealed covert links between China and the Houthis.

Striking the Houthis could trigger broader repercussions—not least by disrupting the flow of Iranian oil to China. While difficult to confirm, it is conceivable and has been reported, that the Houthis may have received financial or other forms of compensation from China (such as Chinese-made military components) in exchange for allowing freedom of passage for China-affiliated vessels in the Red Sea.