Once again, I find myself in the unfortunate, but necessary position of justifying the existence of the state of Israel and Israel’s right to defend itself.
I write this as more Israeli Jews are injured and hospitalized by cars, knives and guns; as the new year ushers in the same old violence; as legitimate calls to avoid Islamophobia and combat racism in the United States are conflated with illegitimate calls to find compassion for “freedom fighters” injuring babies at bus stops and children on their bicycles; as the rest of the world’s war crimes go seemingly unnoticed while the vast majority of U.N. condemnations land on Israel’s shoulders; as the Jew once more cries in the face of a silent world.
Almost constantly throughout the past two thousand years, Jews have been scapegoated for the ills of society. There have been many instances of discrimination against the world Jewry throughout history, including the Catholic Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, Russian pogroms and the murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazi regime have all come from and fed into the hatred of the “dirty Jew.”
If you don’t believe that this prejudice still exists, consider a statistic from “The Atlantic” article by Jeffrey Goldberg, “Is It Time for the Jews to Leave Europe?” In 2014, Jews made up only 1 percent of the total French population, but 51 percent of the victims of religion-based hate crimes were Jews. German protestors, upset with Israel’s West Bank settlement policy, chanted “Jews to the gas” during rallies in 2014.
And make no mistake, this modern terrorism comes from a hatred of Jews. This is anti-Semitism in its purest form. Some Arab leaders call for the systematic extermination of Zionists, Israelis and Jews with no regard for any distinction between the three. With no regard for the fact that Zionism is merely the belief in a Jewish homeland, independent of any belief about bordering states. With no regard for the fact that some Israelis voted against the government policies that activists the world over use as an excuse for terrorism, when the terrorists themselves don’t even bother. In the most recent national election, the Likud party, current prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party and the major center-right party, won 23.4 percemt. However, left leaning parties — the Joint List, a political alliance of four Arab-dominated parties and Yesh Atid -— won a similar percentage of the total vote with nearly 20 percent when combined. With no regard, whatsoever, for the fact that a Jew might believe in a one- or two-state solution, cooperation or segregation, peace or violence, or any number of other concepts on which her Judaism has no bearing.
Cries of “occupation” and “justified resistance” echo loudly through the crowded halls of social media, relying on the assumption that whatever is said the loudest will be accepted as true.
Where else in the world is a contentious border between two historically opposed factions with a fraught and violent political history derided as apartheid? Certainly not between Iran and Pakistan. Not between India and both Bangladesh and Burma. Not between Northern and Southern Ireland, nor the Koreas, nor, notably, between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. It has become all too common to see Israel singled out as the world’s most egregious violator of civil liberties, when the measures it takes to protect itself are matched and even outstripped in other parts of the world. Demonstrate, please, one other country that treats neighbors who not only call for but act to hasten its destruction as well as Israel does the people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
To be very clear: just as I am opposed to the mindless Palestinian violence against civilians, I am opposed to any baseless denial of rights to an ethnic, religious, or cultural population. Excessive police violence against Palestinians must become a thing of the past. The despicable murder of the Dawabsheh family by a Jew, who by this act tarnishes the name of Judaism, is a terrorist act just as any attack against Israeli Jews is. But what many supporters of Palestine simply do not understand is that they can find valid points for the pro-Palestinian movement that do not rely on anti-Semetic tropes, fallacious arguments and an ingrained, violent opposition to any dissenting opinion.
One can easily look at this situation and immediately cast a hero and an enemy — or, if one prefers, an oppressor and the oppressed. But, one must resist the instinct to do just that and instead complete the more difficult task of contemplating the facts and nuances of the entire situation. We must strive to make our opinions well-informed no matter the conclusion. We must strive not to place a severely disproportionate number of the ills of the world on the head of the Jew. Not just for the sake of innocent Israelis, but for Jews worldwide who see clearly the specter of wrought iron gates proclaiming “Arbeit macht frei” (Work sets you free).
