The Tyrant’s Playbook
It’s not all that complicated.
Every two-bit tyrant who seeks to persecute a minority understands one thing: Before you can convince people to tolerate persecution, you have to convince them there’s a good reason for it.
The playbook isn’t complicated. History’s victims have not only been Jews of course. But in the case of Jew-hatred and hatred of Israel, the pattern can be remarkably easy to recognize.
Stage 1: Turn a minority into the villain. Repeat the accusations often enough so that suspicion begins to sound like and feel like common sense. As in the targeting of “Zionists” today. In many ways described widely at this point, New York City appears to be well into this stage.
Stage 2: Exploit — or manufacture — a crisis to justify extraordinary measures. Kristallnacht, for example, followed the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath, a crime the Nazi regime exploited as the pretext for a nationwide pogrom against Jews. This is in no way a direct comparison but I do worry Mamdani threatening to arrest Netanyahu smacks of “crisis manufacturing” — it can trigger a showdown and turn violent.
Stage 3: Once the public tolerates one outrage, escalate. Each act that goes unanswered makes the next one easier to justify. After October 7, Yahya Sinwar, encouraged by the celebration of the massacre among Hamas supporters and others, vowed to repeat it again and again. Thanks to the IDF allying with the U.S., more evil intentions were thwarted… for now, at least. They have not and may never be fully erased.
History doesn’t repeat itself in exactly the same way.
But decent people — and principled leaders — can interrupt the pattern.
They can refuse to accept the scapegoat. They can explicitly condemn scapegoat tactics to their constituents. They can also condemn discrimination and worse early and often — not after or only if it becomes politically convenient.
The true measure of a just society is not how it treats its majority, but whether it has the courage to protect its minorities before it is too late.
Today’s betrayal of Jewish communities also raise a troubling question: if regimes like Nazi Germany had been more successful at influencing foreign societies — through propaganda, infiltration, or financial leverage — could they have shifted public opinion enough to change the course of history?
Food for thought but also a window into what a difficult situation we find ourselves in today.