William Choslovsky is a Harvard Law School graduate and lawyer in Chicago.
(Oct. 13, 2026 / JNS)
Before a company launches a product, it does a basic thing: It identifies its target audience. Yet when it comes to fighting antisemitism, people and organizations devoted to the fight often fail to do this basic, threshold task.
So, in that spirit, I ask: Who is our target audience? That is, who do we need to concentrate on to fight antisemitism and cultivate support for Israel?
To answer this, we must begin by identifying who is not the target audience. It is not Jews. Jews comprise a whopping 0.2% of the world’s population. We are barely a rounding error. For those Jews who don’t get it—or worse, do get it but prefer to be woke or virtue signal—they are mostly irredeemable.
Muslims are not the target audience either. Muslims comprise about 25% of the world. Translated, for every Jew, there are 100 Muslims. They are not the target audience because their viewpoints are largely cemented. Though most are against Jews and Israel, there are exceptions, hence the Abraham Accords. Remember, in numbers, the biggest victims of militant Islam are moderate Muslims and Christians, not Jews.
To be sure, Jews and Muslims can be courted and should be educated, but they are not the “target” audience. They will not be the “deciders” in this “war.”
By my math, that leaves 74.8% of the world that is neither Jewish (0.2%) nor Muslim (25%). They are the target audience—the ultimate swing vote that will determine who wins and loses the fight over antisemitism.
So, the question becomes: Why should the 74.8% of the world that is neither Jew nor Muslim care about antisemitism and Israel, let alone support Jews and Israel? If they see it as irrelevant, they are unlikely to care or get involved.
Most people support a product only when it aligns with their own interests
Let me begin by noting why they won’t support us.
They won’t support us because we’re “nice Jewish boys (and girls).” They also won’t—and frankly shouldn’t—support us because of economic coercion. Offering or withholding our business—our own version of BDS—will not work when the other side’s economic resources rival or exceed our own.
Much effort is put into teaching others that 1) the Jews are the indigenous people of the Land of Israel; 2) Israel is a sliver-sized country and the only democracy in the Middle East; and 3) there are 57 Muslim-majority, mostly despotic, countries more than 1,000 times Israel’s size. Best-selling books lay out these arguments, like Judge Roy Altman’s recently released Israel on Trial. But as good as they are, they suffer from the false premise that if only we educated the ignorant, then they would support us.
While I strongly support education—beginning with American Jews, many of whom are unfamiliar with the basic facts of the conflict—its impact is limited. For instance, despite a civil war in Myanmar that has claimed more lives in the past five years than the conflict in Israel and Gaza, this conflict remains largely unknown. Moreover, even if you knew all the facts about Myanmar, you likely wouldn’t be motivated to act or choose a side because it simply doesn’t feel relevant to you.
The bottom line is that there is only one reason why the 74.8% will get involved and care enough to support any team: because it is in their self-interest to do so.
To win the hearts and minds of the 74.8%, they need to realize that, in supporting Jews and Israel, they are actually supporting themselves. They need to realize and believe that the Jews are on the front lines fighting their battle. They need to realize and believe that the Jews are the canaries in the coal mine of Western civilization.
Then, and only then, will they enthusiastically support Jews and Israel because they will see them as the tip of the spear in a common fight for Western civilization.
On Oct. 7, in front of the Acropolis in Athens, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave a grand speech speaking to this: “We are at an inflection point not only in the history of my nation but an inflection point in the whole of our civilization. Either we choose to act now or lose the choice to act at all. We want to win together; we must win together.”
In supporting Jews and Israel, Rubio understands that America is fighting not only for its values but for the ancient Greek values that are the pillars of Western civilization: democracy, civic duty, rationalism and logic, individualism, the pursuit of excellence, and balance and moderation.
Most people support a product only when it aligns with their own interests. If you cannot explain to an ally how supporting you benefits them, they are unlikely to remain an ally for long.
Finally, when you actually do have an ally, like evangelical Christians, simply say “thank you” and accept their support.