< Más Articulos : Antisemitism Should Be Irrelevant (Times of Israel - Feb 15 2026)
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Antisemitism Should Be Irrelevant (Times of Israel - Feb 15 2026)
It is a simple demographic fact: Jews are a tiny fraction of humanity.
The global Jewish population is approximately 15–16 million in a world of more than eight billion people. That means Jews represent roughly 0.2% of the human population , about two out of every thousand people.
If hostility followed demographic logic, antisemitism should be proportionally marginal.
But it is not.
Consider the scale. Around the world there are several ethnic groups with populations between 10 and 20 million: Kazakhs, Sindhis, Bhils, Khmers, Assamese, Uyghurs, Gonds, Roma (Romani), Copts, Zulus, Shona, Hui, Tajiks, and Catalans. Jews belong numerically in this same demographic category.
Now ask yourself: in the past year, how often have you seen these people dominate international headlines? How often have their internal conflicts, political disputes, or humanitarian crises become the central moral obsession of global discourse?
For most of them, the answer is simple: rarely.
Yet the Jewish people, one of the smallest populations in this demographic range, occupy a uniquely disproportionate place in global attention, scrutiny, and hostility.
Why?
Why are Jews so visible? Why are Jewish actions judged by standards rarely applied elsewhere? Why does criticism so often cross the line into demonization, delegitimization, and, increasingly, open hatred?
The security dimension makes the question even more striking.
Across the Middle East and beyond, several powerful non-state armed groups explicitly identify Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, as a primary enemy. These include Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Houthi movement. Elements within Iran-aligned militias in Iraq and Syria have also declared their willingness to join a broader confrontation with Israel. Transnational jihadist organizations such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda affiliates likewise incorporate Israel and Jews into their ideological targets.
Few, if any, other peoples of comparable size face such a concentration of organized armed hostility across multiple countries and theaters.
This is the core of the paradox.
The Jewish people are one of the smallest nations on earth, yet they generate a level of attention, obsession, and animosity usually reserved for great powers or major civilizations.
The question is not whether criticism of Israel should exist. Every nation is subject to scrutiny. The question is why the intensity, frequency, and moral absolutism directed at the Jewish state, and often at Jews worldwide, so dramatically exceed what demographic reality would predict.
History offers one explanation: antisemitism has never followed the normal rules of prejudice. Jews have been portrayed, at different times and in different societies, as simultaneously weak and powerful, marginal and dominant, foreign and controlling. The size of the population has never mattered. The myth has always outweighed the math.
Today, in an age of instant communication and global amplification, that ancient pattern has found new platforms. The surge of antisemitism following the October 7 massacre and kidnappings demonstrated how rapidly hatred can spread across digital networks, often in real time and on a global scale.
Two-tenths of one percent of humanity should not occupy such a large space in the world’s anger.
And yet, once again, it does.
The paradox deepens when one considers the Jewish contribution to humanity. Jews have been awarded over 20% of Nobel Prizes despite representing only 0.2% of the global population. Their impact spans science, medicine, technology, economics, culture, and human rights.
From Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity and Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine, to Sergey Brin and Larry Page’s Google, Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, Hedy Lamarr’s communications technology, Milton Friedman’s economic theory, and Daniel Kahneman’s behavioral economics, Jewish innovators have helped shape the modern world. Advances in medicine, computing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, communications, and life-saving therapies bear the imprint of Jewish minds.
This pattern extends to global business and innovation. Among the world’s wealthiest individuals are several Jewish entrepreneurs, including Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Ellison , founders and leaders behind companies that transformed how humanity communicates, works, and lives.
Success does not justify hatred. But it raises an uncomfortable question.
That being said, even if I haven't even mentioned Jews are considered the Chosen People.
At times, antisemitism appears to draw not only from prejudice or conspiracy, but also from resentment, a reaction to visibility, achievement, or influence disproportionate to the group’s size.
If envy plays a role, then antisemitism may never fully disappear.
That reality does not mean it should be accepted. It means it must be understood, and managed with clarity, resilience, and moral confidence.
For a people that represents just two-tenths of one percent of humanity, irrelevance would be logical. However, history has chosen otherwise.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/antisemitism-should-be-irrelevant/
( Por: Yehudi Sabbagh , 15/02/2026 )
