Rafael Castro is a Yale- and Hebrew University-educated independent political analyst. An Italian Noahide, Rafael can be reached at [email protected]

On LinkedIn, my profession is described as “independent political analyst and consultant". A nice title that means everything and, just as much, nothing.

Since I have no issues embellishing myself, yet hate to lie, I need to find evermore creative ways of making a good impression while being truthful.

When potential professional partners probe into my actual work and livelihood as an “independent political analyst and consultant," I state that, “I facilitate trustworthy connections between business and political leaders across cultures and continents."

And this is factually true, because telling Dummkopf Jo that Jimmy Jo in another country is the right person to talk to does indeed facilitate “trustworthy connections between business and political leaders across cultures and continents."

The problem is that business and political leaders aren't very impressed if your biggest success story involves sharing the email address or forwarding the Whatsapp number of Jimmy Jo to Dummkopf Jo.

One needs to be credibly concrete.

And this is where antisemitic canards are inordinately helpful.

Suppose I am asked who are the business and political leaders I know in, say, Italy.

If I am truthful, I can boast of the cappuccino I bought for the mayor of my grandma’s village in Piedmont, who then made sure that - contrary to normative procedures - I could speedily secure a second Italian passport unblemished by a Zionist stamp.

I could also take pride in Giovanni, my good friend and a great entrepreneur, who runs the best bakery in the same lovely corner of Piedmont - the village of Gavi Ligure.

But a former mayor, later indicted for embezzlement, and the village baker don’t yet cut it internationally.

Nor do all the German friends, or business, religious and political contacts who I involuntarily, yet very reliably, manage to annoy.

So, where does my salvation reside?

My salvation resides in mentioning to non-Jewish partners that I contribute columns to the most important religious Zionist news site (you are on it if you are reading this) and that this “opens doors in the Jewish world."

Once I say this, no one, literally no one, probes any further.

Note that two crucial elements are involved here:

1. I must say, “opens doors in the Jewish world", rather than “opens many doors." Why? Because if my journalism opened "many doors," this would imply that the Jewish world is like any other world. And while it would be amateurish to claim that one’s op-eds “open doors in Germany," or “open doors in Italy," it works wonderfully well when talking about "the Jewish world."

And this is so for exactly the same reasons that it would be amateurish to boast about the “many doors" one opens in the Freemasonry, Colombian cartels, at Davos, or in the Mafia.

"Many open doors" are prized in circles and environments that are not viewed as secretive. But the "Jewish world" is viewed, subconsciously by even the most philosemitic yet poorly-informed Gentile, as an entity close in essence to an invisible blend of the Freemasonry, the Catholic Church, and Cosa Nostra.

2. Note that only one Jewish term works: “Jewish world". Were I to state, “I open doors in Israel and among Israelis," concrete names and positions would be requested.

It would be foolish to vaunt about one’s ability to open doors in “the Christian world," “the Islamic world", or “the Chinese world." And numbers are not the issue. Stating that one "opens doors" in “the Bahai, Sikh or Allawite world" would also sound ludicrous.

But evidence of access to influential politicians and businesspeople is not expected from consultants with access to circles viewed as invisible, ethereal and wielding power and influence far above what nature and numbers alone justify: the Freemasonry, the Catholic Church, Cosa Nostra, the Bilderberg Forum, or the “Jewish world."

I don’t want this text to sound like another cri de coeur against antisemitism. Nor do I want to second or support claims that goyim are inherently antisemitic, and that efforts to communicate and explain reality to them are futile.

This attitude, albeit historically understandable, is counterproductive and incorrect.

My first years around Jews were not just motivated by love for bagels and affection for Jewish beauty and intelligence. They were also spurred by an immense thirst to understand how, as I had reasoned myself into assuming, 15 million people were able to run the world.

The more I learned and understood the riotous Jewish tribe, the more I realized that a nation that can barely run the so-called "West Bank" (or, for that matter, a heated Knesset session) is quite unlikely to deviously pull the strings behind everything happening between Anchorage, Denpasar and my next visit to the barber shop.

The main reason a shady Jewish cabal controlling everything is absurd is not lack of genius or excess of morals. It is that so much scheming, manipulation and colluding requires virtues and talents most Jews lack: the ability to keep quiet, never complain, and murder rather than fall out with friends, colleagues and partners over trivial differences.

A cabal needs not just smarts, international connections, and access to money. It demands members who love to kill rather than criticize and who’d rather work with people they can’t stand, and not jump the gun to start a crowdfunding campaign for the umpteenth new one-(wo)man NGO with the same mission and the same radically new approach peddled by 6-7 competing NGOs. Let alone political parties.

And in this regard, the best historical illustration of the unique political genius of Jews is documented in The Life of Brian, a movie worth more than a university seminary to understand the true conspiratorial talents of the Jewish people.

In addition to antisemitic propaganda and intergenerational cultural prejudice, the fearsome image of the “Jewish world" is fueled by:

a) Projection - people interpret dynamics and reality according to their own cultural canons and personal experience. When, say, an average Italian sees that 3 of the senior executives at a major investment bank have Jewish-sounding names, he assumes they scratched each other’s back and helped each other climb the greasy pole together. The reason he knows this is because this is what Italians would do under such circumstances. And by no means is it only Italians who do this!

Bernie Madoff could not have been Italian. Not because of financial acumen. But because Madoff primarily bankrupted fellow members of his Jewish club in Florida. An Italian-American banker named, say, Jimmy Malizia would never opt to chiefly cheat fellow Italian-Americans.

And I think the same is true about almost any other hyphenated American identity.

For analogous reasons, there is no Basque, Ukrainian, Kurdish, or Tibetan figure comparable to Israel-hating Peter Beinart, Gideon Levy, or Judith Butler.

Ditto, no German-American ever argued, “as a German" before and after World War II that “in light of Nazism and the Holocaust, the German people have forfeited their right to a sovereign homeland."

b) Cosmopolitan Accomplishments - in the developed world, out of 100 churchgoers not more than 20-30 hold academic degrees. The percentage among mosque-goers is probably lower.

In the case of non-Haredi synagogues inside and outside of Israel, at least 70% of under-50 congregants will hold academic degrees, and a high number of them will possess medical, legal, and accounting degrees.

The high concentration of highly-educated professionals coupled with the fact that most Jews have relatives and close friends residing abroad, transforms synagogues and Jewish community centers into natural hubs for after-prayer networking and business connections

These networks and connections create the impression that Jews have access to rich and influential people. This is true, yet it is also true and far more relevant to add that rich and influential Jews are only easy to come across twice a year at Reform temples.

And that even then, whether you are circumcised or not matters little: if your idea is bad and you’re dumb, it makes no difference whether your grandfather was a grand rabbi or whether he hated Jews and drank whiskey with Father Coughlin.

c) Religious Institutions and the Impact of Names on Public Relations - There appears to be an extremely high number of Jewish organizations aspiring to reach, impact, and influence the “world". When the two other Abrahamic religions have around one “world" organization for every 120-140 million followers, whereas the Jewish people have one for every 800,000 Jews, the impression made is not always that Jews (collectively) want to contribute goodness and light to the world. Unjustly and most unfortunately.