Just over a century ago, a forged document called the Protocols of the Elders of Zion accused Jews of secretly plotting to enslave the world. It was fake — but it worked, because it took real ambitions the document's own authors held and projected them onto the group they wanted to get rid of in order to enslave the world. The Nazis used it to devastating effect.

Because Jews were the target of that terrible lie in the early 20th century, many Jewish and pro-Israel voices today are understandably cautious about accusing any other group of harboring similar ambitions. But there's a real difference: unlike the forged claims about Jewish conspiracy, there are genuine, openly stated calls for global religious conquest coming from real extremist preachers and organizations today — not hidden, not forged, often published and broadcast without pushback.

Take for example, the issue of genocide. In mainstream coverage, the word 'genocide' gets applied almost exclusively in one direction — toward Israel — while the openly stated, well-documented ambitions of groups like Hamas to commit genocide get little to no airtime or scrutiny. This isn't unique to this conflict, either: the same trick — accuse your victims of doing exactly what you're doing to them — has shown up in other genocides in modern history. It's an effective, still underrecognized pattern.