I realize that many, if not all, of you are puzzled by the title to this post. What victory could I possibly be referencing? The final storming of the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza? The fact that the United States, including the White House itself, has admitted that Hamas is using the facility as a military base, an actual war crime? The wonderful and deeply-moving, peaceful, pro-Israel, pro-America rally that brought nearly 300,000 Jews and our supporters to Washington? While all of these are victories of a sort, my reference in the title is to a victory that I believe many want to celebrate but which is for a battle that is far from over, much less won. Specifically, I am referring to the greatly exaggerated claims of victory over anti-Semitism and what those who seem to celebrate it are thus motivated to say, do and believe.
As we have seen repeatedly, and to the great dismay of so many of us, some of the most visible and vocal anti-Israel voices that have emerged in the days and weeks since 10/7 are, in some fashion or another, fellow Jews. These individuals, who are hopefully (and maybe even most likely) motivated by good intentions, seem to be of the belief that Israel and what it stands for are not what the rest of us view as reality. To those Jews who are inimical to Israel, the State of Israel, and its government in particular, are the 800-pound gorillas of the region. In their understanding of Israel and its neighbors, the Israelis (by which they mean the Jews, not the Arab Israelis), are conquerors, land-stealers, and bullies. The Israelis, as they would state it, are not interested in peace, a two-state solution or even the most basic of human rights for the Palestinians. These Jews, in the view of the anti-Israel crowd, are just another manifestation of Western dominance and disregard for those that are historically viewed as lesser and, importantly, not white. Consequently, they eschew our warnings of anti-Semitism as typical Jewish hand-wringing and seek to disengage themselves from the complexities that are the reality of Israel, its politics and its people.
It would be an easy matter to dismiss these Jews with such differing views, but they do have some powerful ammunition at the ready. For one thing, there are Holocaust survivors that these Jews can count among their numbers. And if there is anything that is – and should be – sacrosanct amongst Jews it is the respect that these survivors deserve. No one – no one – can understand suffering and anti-Semitism more acutely than those who suffered so much unspeakable torture at the hands of the Nazis. As if that was not enough, there are of course many Israeli Jews themselves that are extremely critical of Israel, the IDF and its policies generally. From the perspective of an American Jew, here too we must give some degree of deference to those who are there living what we only can talk or read or learn about second-hand.
Yet, deference and experience do not confer automatic unassailability on people or their views. Having survived or continuing to survive hardship demands a place in the discussion. What it does not demand, nor should it, is agreement.
Israel is a country of approximately six million Jews. Worldwide, our numbers are only about 16 million, which is still, nearly 80 years later, below our worldwide population prior to the Holocaust. Surrounding and within Israel are a combined 14 million Palestinians, of which they are a part of the larger Arab world comprised of over 460 million individuals. Those nearly half-a-billion people are the residents of 22 countries surrounding Israel, with only ones that can be counted on one hand even cooly recognizing Israel’s right to exist. And this does not take into account other unneighborly neighbors such as Turkey (85 million people) or Iran (88 million individuals), which is led by Holocaust deniers who repeatedly publicly state their desire – and intention – to eradicate the Jews from Israel. Despite Israel’s military might, which contrary to popular belief, is greatly a product of Israel’s historical self-reliance and determination, this tiny state is simply no match for the forces that could be arrayed against them. And given these hostile nations’ own internal political issues – i.e., complete repression of their citizens resulting in misplaced anger – there remains every reason to believe these countries when they say that Israel should go.
It must also be stated that whatever one thinks of Israel’s current government (or, at least, its government as it existed on 10/6), the right did not take power for no reason. Repeated efforts by left-leaning Israeli governments to exchange land for mere recognition of a right to exist have always – without exception – been rejected by the Palestinians’ leaders. Even the great statesman, Yitzak Rabin, who many believe would have been able to conclude a peace deal but for his unspeakable assassination, was beginning to contemplate withdrawing from peace talks with Arafat due to the refusal of the Palestinians to live up to their promises. Thus, anyone who wishes to claim that the reason there is no peace is because of Israel, its settlements, its views on Jerusalem or any other canard needs to brush up – or learn for the first time, more likely – the great lengths that Israel has gone to time and time again only to have its efforts rejected. Clearly the logical conclusion one must reach from this is that the Palestinians, and their Arab and other Muslim (i.e., Iranian) instigators, have solely the goal of the elimination of Israel entirely.
And yet, the problems Israel faces are not limited to the Middle East. For years, even a few decades, in the United States Jews have lived a rather charmed existence. We stopped believing that anti-Semitism was a threat largely because, outside of thankfully infrequent incidents, it seemed that such was the case. Jews felt freer to assimilate more than at any time in our history and, with that assimilation, to discontinue the education of our young about the history of our people. That history shows us beyond any doubt that our resilience has been in our willingness to embrace our traditions – whether one is religious or not – and to have a unity of purpose and an unbreakable sense of community. Yet the downside to assimilation is that there is no pressure to remember, much less practice, these essential traits that have sustained us for two millennia. We became complacent. And that complacency has led to our ignorance.
But while we may have forgotten about the lessons of our past, those who would do us harm have not similarly forgotten their hatred for us. In recent years, the anti-Semites of the world have been emboldened to come out from underneath their rocks once again. First, it was the far right fringe in places like Charlottesville and Pittsburgh. Now, we are seeing – what those who have paid attention to the progressives have known for some time – that the far left is just as determined in their detestation of us.
Since assimilated, uninformed Jews are sadly unlikely to know better, it is incumbent to remind them that this is nothing new. While the fascists in Italy and Germany were seeking to destroy us, the communists in the Soviet Union and other parts of eastern Europe were also plotting against us. And even our so-called friends in western Europe were in no great hurry to help us – refusing Holocaust -fleeing families entry into their countries and returning them to certain death. This is not, I repeat, a new chapter in human history. It is only new to those who have willfully neglected to learn it.
The fate of Israel should matter to all Jews. Because it is not just their destiny that is at stake. It is all of ours. It is acceptable – even encouraged – to criticize Israel. We are, after all, famous for our disagreements. But in times of crisis – and virtually none of us has seen an existential crisis of this magnitude in our lifetimes – we must come together with purpose, understanding, support and determination. The unity of the Jewish people has sustained us for thousands of years. We need it today as much as ever.
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