Far too often Israel and its many supporters believe that
when we hear insidious lies being told in the media that we don’t have to say
anything. We think, no reasonable person would believe such lies, so we say
nothing. I often think this way but recently I have come to realize that this
is simply not the case, no matter how much I wish it to be. If these lies are
not confronted many people will believe them. It is for this reason that we must
all engage in this battleground for the mind.
My friends I do not wish to bombard you with information
about the Arab-Israeli conflict but I also feel compelled to speak out and
fight the lies I too often hear directed at the only Jewish state and at my
people so I say this: I am a Jew, a member of an ancient, noble race who for
1000’s of years has sought to improve the human condition. In 1948 after 2000
years of exile we reestablished our state in our historic homeland and ever
since have fought to keep that dream alive. Israel is far from perfect. However,
Israel is a pluralistic democracy where 6.5 M Jews, 1.5 M Arabs and ½ M
Christian, Druze, Baha’i, etc. live in relative peace and prosperity. It is
surrounded by despotic regimes that have no tolerance for any ideas outside of
their own extremely narrow Islamist worldview and it is fighting for its life.
I can tolerate criticisms of Israeli policy. I too disagree
with many of its governments policies – I do not think everyone who raises such
concerns is an anti-Semite. However, when anti-Israel protests across the globe
turn into firebombing synagogues, telling Jews to go to the gas chambers,
stabbing and pepper spraying random Jewish people, and terrorizing entire
communities, I am forced to conclude that current Israeli actions are revealing
anti-Semitism not causing it.
After WWII many people asked the question ‘how could the
Jews have just let the Nazi’s line them up and march them into the gas
chambers?’ Post WWII when Israel takes action in a defensive war against a
terrorist organization that does not recognize its right to exist somehow it is
doing so without restraint. In answer I have this to say. With the creation of
the state of Israel the Jewish people decided that we would never again be
victims. That we would defend ourselves by the same moral code that any ethical
democratic society would apply to itself, but we would never go back into those
gas chambers again.
Therefore I ask you my intelligent, thoughtful friends if
you are confronted with such ideas do not remain silent – speak out against
them so that one day we can fulfill the words of the prophet Isaiah when he
said “they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into
pruning hooks; nation shall not lift the sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war anymore.”
