Hey Jew (the antisemite’s song)

I have been carrying in my head the idea for ‘Hey Jew’ – a sad spoof of Hey Jude by The Beatles for several years now, long before the tragic events of October 7th. I came up with a draft of first two verses and the chorus around 2018 but didn’t really do anything with it for a couple of reasons – I thought it’s too pungent and over the top in its grievances (particularly the analogy in the first verse), I was busy getting my master’s in teaching Chinese as a second language, and on top of all that I didn’t have the right platform for it. So instead, I just put in a drawer in my head and sort of forgot about it.

That is until October 7th of last year and everything that has unfolded since – especially the response of a significant part of the world to the atrocities committed on that day. The third verse and final chorus came to me in the weeks that followed, and I even tried reaching out to some people and asked for their help in producing a clip out of it, but it was to no avail in this chaotic year.

Since staying silent when you have something important to say is one of the main reasons why Israel (and the West in general) ended up where we are, I figured publishing it as is here would better than keep keeping it to myself. All the more so since it has already been a year. So here it goes – I think the lyrics pretty much speaks for themselves, but for those of you who are interested, I will also break it down and give you my thoughts and takes for each verse, along with some illustrations.

Hey Jew (the antisemite’s song)

Hey Jew
Don’t make it bad
Close your eyes and bend over
Remember
You’re only making this worse
So shut up and let it happen

Hey Jew
Don’t be afraid
It’s not terror when it’s against you
Remember
You are only a guest
Even in your historical homeland

And every time you feel the pain
Hey Jew refrain
Don’t try to protect yourself or something

Because you know that it’s insane
To keep you gain
You better just give it all for nothing

Hey Jew
Don’t let me down
Pay for my sins so I won’t suffer
Remember
You are always to blame
Even when I am the perpetrator

So give it up and let me in
Or I’ll begin
To rally a whole mob against you

‘cause every time you get ahead
I’ll want you dead
So don’t even try to stall or argue

No no no no no no no
no no no no
no Jews….

Writer’s Notes

Verse 1

Hey Jew

The song was initially titled ‘Hey Jews’ and this is how I sang in my head for a long time. But eventually, after a lot of back and forth, I decided that ‘Jew’ is better because it more appropriately conveys the good old-fashioned antisemitism that sees “the Jew” as the boogieman. Also, this way it has the same vibe as the original song, which also speaks to one person, and it corresponds better with other lines in the song.

Don’t make it bad

Making things bad for ourselves is a human pathology that anyone can relate to. It is also a very genuine line, and I think the original song opened with it for a good reason. Here however, it serves as a double-cross and a misdirection to the rest of the song.

Close your eyes and bend over

I think it is quite clear what kind of heinous act this line refers to. Prior to October 7th, it was an analogy (no pun intended) meant to describe how the world treats Israel and expects her to take everything lying down. Sadly, on October 7th it became a painfully real in the most literal sense possible.

Remember

The word ‘remember’ appears three times in the original song as well, and I thought it would only be very fitting to keep it in a song about Jews.

I know it’s true for any culture, but I think memory plays an exceptionally larger part in Jewish culture. Even the word Hebrew comes form the shoresh ע-ב-ר (Ayn-Bet-Resh) from which also get the word עבר (avar) meaning the past. Call me biased, but I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to claim that for the tiny minority that they are, Jews have a huge role in the collective memory of humanity.

You’re only making this worse

‘You’re making things worse’ is a “nice” way of telling someone to stop fighting, and it is under the pretense of “making things worse” that Israel is always required to show restraint and not retaliate.

The funny thing is that no matter how worse things get for the enemies of Israel, and how much pain and suffering their actions bring upon themselves and onto others, no one expects Hamas, Hizballah, or any other player to do the same. Their behavior is just a fact of life. You know, terrorists be terrorizing.

So shut up and let it happen

This line is not just to complete the rape analogy (though it captures it perfectly). It is also meant to point out why the erosion of freedom of speech that we are currently witnessing in the West is so dangerous. Shutting up actually means letting it happen.

Verse 2

Hey Jew
Don’t be afraid
It’s not terror when it’s against you

This is one of my favorite lines in the whole song. First, it ties in beautifully with the ‘don’t be afraid’ line which was not changed from the original. Second and most importantly, it highlights the most critical reason this conflict has not been (and never will be) resolved, and that reason is double standards.

There are two kinds of double standards – the higher and impossible standards held against Israel, and the much lower standards held in favor of those who are against Israel.

Honestly, nothing demonstrates the lack of moral clarity in western society better than the current state of the Mainstream Media. Not even college campuses.

Remember
You are only a guest

Jews don’t belong anywhere apparently. For over 2000 years of exile, no matter where they went, they were viewed as outsiders, strangers, parasitic guests living at the grace and mercy of their hosts. When they felt like being polite, those hosts simply yelled at Jews to go back to where they came from. When they didn’t feel like being polite, they did far worse things to them.

Even in your historical homeland

Eventually, Jews did go back to where they came from. But for some reason, maybe because you cannot simply shake off 2000 years of exile, they keep seeing themselves as guests.

Sadly, this mentality is also one of the main reasons the conflict is not yet resolved. Because when Jews concede that even in the land of Israel they are still mere guests, it validates the great lie at the core of Palestinian narrative and only emboldens their claims.

Chorus 1

And every time you feel the pain
Hey Jew refrain

Again, both of these lines are from the original song, and I didn’t think there was any need to change them. They fit perfectly.

Don’t try to protect yourself or something

It’s one thing to tell Israel not to attack. It’s a whole other thing to expect Israel not to defend itself. But some people find it very unjust that Israel does an outstanding job at protect its citizens (Jews and Arabs alike). Some people are even actively trying to prevent this from happening.

A more common way to subtly express this sentiment is to point out just how much lower the death toll is in Israel in comparison to that in Gaza, and to say that the Israeli response should be more “proportionate” and “accurate”. Well, after the pager attack on Hezbollah, I think it is safe to say they don’t really mean it and just use this type of criticism to delegitimize any sort of response.

Chorus 2

Because you know that it’s insane
To keep your gain
You’d better just give it all for nothing

These lines mainly refer to one major event in recent Israeli history – the unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

However, it also applies to the withdrawal from Lebanon in the year 2000 and the gas field deal sign in 2022, the Oslo Accords of the 1990s, and to some extent also the peace agreement sign with Egypt in 1979.

Verse 3 (and its significance)

Before I keep going, I just want to quickly say something about the third verse in general, and what makes it different than the verses that came before.

I can totally see how a person on the opposite side of this conflict, whether they be from Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, or any other place that supports them, can relate to each line in the first two verses and even the chorus. They see Palestine as their historical homeland while other people claim they don’t belong there; they are being brutally attacked and expected not to resist and just take it; and they believe Israel and the IDF should be labeled as terrorists as well. Why none of it is true is a whole different conversation I am always ready to have, and I even wrote about it extensively in this very website.

The third verse is different. It’s different because it is no longer about the conflict. Instead, it about how centuries-old antisemitic tropes and patterns, come into play in the global context of the conflict. That is something I don’t think the Palestinians can claim for themselves, though I am sure they’ll try nonetheless.

Hey Jew
Don’t let me down

I cannot tell you how much the fact I managed to keep the opening line of each verse of the original song makes me proud.

Pay for my sins so I won’t suffer

This line actually refers to two different phenomena. The first one is the guilt many young people in the progressive left feel about the past sins of their own country, culture or even race – such as colonialism, genocides, slavery, and more. It is that very guilt that fuels much of the global outrage against Israel, and it is the need for redemption fueled by the same guilt that drives them to force false equivalencies on the Israeli-Arab conflict and adopt the Palestinian narrative. This way they are given a second chance to do the “right thing”, make amends, and that the get to clear their conscience and ease their pain.

The other way to interpret this line is to view it from the perspective of a ruthless dictator of a failed state who doesn’t want to be held accountable for his corruption and misconducts. In his efforts to avoid facing the music he starts blaming the Jews, hoping to distract his people and shift their anger away from him. It’s a tale as old as time.

The first case is rooted genuine feelings and a legitimate desire to do good, while the second case is driven by malicious dishonesty and deception. However, that doesn’t mean it is less dangerous. In fact, it is usually quite the opposite.

Remember
You are always to Blame

It’s time to talk about one of the most common accusations thrown at Israel – colonialism. But let’s talk about it through the prisms of language.

How many English-speaking countries are there in the world? The answer is almost 60. French? Nearly 30. What about Arabic? 26 countries. Spanish? About 20 countries. Each one of these languages covers about 10% to 15% of Earth’s total land area. Next on the list is Portuguese with nine countries and which cover about 7% of the world. Russian is a bit tricky – currently there are only three countries that officially speak the language (there used to be many more), but in term of size it is ranked first with 18% of the total land mass.

Closing the top 10 we will find Chinese which covers about 6.5% with five countries; Hindi with 2.5% occupying only parts of India; Farsi with 1.6% covering Iran and parts of Afghanistan and Tajikistan; and finally Bengali with 1.5% covering Bangladesh and parts of India. I could go on, but you get the picture.

Yet the vast majority of these countries and a significant number of the speakers of these languages, somehow have the hutzpah to claim that Israel is a colonialist state. Yes, the very same Israel which merely covers 0.015% of the world’s land mass and where the official language is Hebrew – a language which (unlike Arabic by the way) is native to that region. This is ridiculous. And it gets even more ridiculous if you look at it through the prism of religion.

Even when I am the perpetrator

There is a great quote by Vasily Grossman – a Russian author and journalist of Jewish descent. He was born in Ukraine in 1905 under the rule of the Russian Empire, and lived most of his life under the soviet regime:

I came across this brilliant quote in an interview with the great Douglas Murray, and though it pretty much sums it up, I would still add one more thing which is that in the context of the conflict, Jews are not only being blamed for something the people who blame them are consistently guilty of throughout history. The accusation itself is also what the alleged victims of the Jews wish they actually could do to them. Need an example? Look no further than the accusation of genocide made against Israel and compare it to the charters of Hamas and Hezbollah or to the rhetoric of the Islamic regime of Iran.

Chorus 3

So give it up and let me in
Or I’ll begin
To Rally a whole mob against you

Continuing the theme of the verse that came before it, the last chorus of the song also talks about “good old-fashioned” antisemitism and the violence it never fails to spark and fan its flames. Violent incidents which are also known as pogroms, and occurred not only in Medieval Europe, but also in many other places and times throughout history.

What happened on October 7th was a pogrom. Only this time the target wasn’t a Jewish village, Jewish homes, or Jewish-owned businesses. Instead, it targeted the Jewish state as a whole, but only hit in a very limited area – the villages which had the misfortune of being close to the border. But the actions, and more importantly the motives were essentially the same as in the countless pogroms that came before – and that brings us to the next and final part.

Chorus 4

‘cause every time you get a head
I’ll want you dead
So don’t even try to stall or argue

The great American economist and social commentator Thomas Sowell was once asked by an official working in one of the Jewish organizations in New York: “What can Jews themselves do in order to minimize the hostilities they face?”. He gave that man a one-word answer: “Fail”.

This, in a nutshell, is not only the story of the Jews in the diaspora, but also the story of the modern State of Israel. The country of Israel is a successful Jewish enterprise, and the neighboring counties, many of them did absolutely nothing with the same piece of land prior to the arrival of the Jews, are now jealous and look for an excuse to take it for themselves, violently if necessary.

In ancient times, the excuse used to be “Jews put the blood of Christian children in the weird bread they eat in one of their holidays”. Nowadays, the excuse is “the Jews are committing a genocide against the Palestinians and are stealing their land”. The fact that this place is the ancient homeland of the Jews is as inconsequential as the fact that the Palestinian national identity has ever truly existed only under the colonialism of the 20th century and Arabs initially rejected it.

That is exactly why there’s no point in arguing. It’s all just a charade; a trumped-up excuse; or if you will, the motions they have to go through before whatever it is they are about to do is seemingly justified, just like the motions in the UN in the clip above.

Because if Israel were a third-world country, or if this was just another conflict / crisis taking place in a failed state like perhaps Congo (over 5,000,000 deaths), Cambodia (2,000,000 deaths), Sudan (600,000 deaths), Syria (over 500,000 death) or Yemen (encroaching 500,000 deaths), you can rest assured that the powers that be you wouldn’t let you hear about it as much as they do now. You know what they say – no Jews no news.

In the era of social media maybe it’s better to say no Jew no news and no views.

Cover Image

The cover image for this post is painting by Judith Dazzio, depicting the Kristallnacht (night of broken glass).