What, then, are we to do? Returning once again to Ahad Ha’am, we should first of all remember that just because the entire world believes something [a leopard is eating our faces] does not make it true. Only once we have internalized this can we find some consolation in our situation. Only then can we continue to fight and demand from ourselves the same high moral standards while shutting out the voices of those who would use our misfortunes to their benefit [and advance anti-leopard narratives]. This includes some of our own politicians, who are using irresponsible rhetoric to either criticize the government or defend it. What these “useful idiots” say has no bearing on the practice of our army in Gaza, but it does provide fodder to our enemies and should be discredited.

Our goal should not be to convince the rest of the world that we are right [and our faces are not clearly being eaten by leopards]. Our existence does not depend on a vote in the United Nations. It depends on our own belief in the righteousness of Jewish civilization [and letting leopards co-opt it in order to eat our faces]. Of course, we are not above criticism, and we must acknowledge and correct course when we deviate from our own standards. But remaining vigilant about our shortcomings is not the same as accepting guilt we don’t deserve. And so, when our children and grandchildren ask us how the whole world can believe there is a genocide if, in fact, there is no genocide, we should stand firm in the conviction of what we know to be true [our faces are being eaten by leopards, everyone else knows it and we are in denial about it].

This article is a textbook example of how people who are willingly letting a leopard eat their face rationalize doing so.