The Choices We Have & The Choices We Make When It Comes to Israel and the Jews

In a world where moral clarity appears increasingly elusive, the choices we make about Israel and the Jewish people reveal more about us than we might care to admit.

Yesterday six bodies of hostages were found, deep inside the Hamas terror tunnel network, having been executed in what is thought to be the last couple of days. Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino, may their memories be a blessing; endured almost 11 months of the most hellish incarceration only to be put to death, as the IDF closed in on their position.

To be clear, they were not killed, they did not die in captivity, they were not caught in a crossfire. They were summarily executed, shot multiple times at point blank range.

They were executed by the very same people who are allegedly, negotiating (in good faith) a hostage release and cease fire deal with Israel. How exactly does that work?

This happened in Rafah, the same Rafah where the world’s anti-Semites, feigning concern for ordinary Palestinians, encouraged us to focus our eyes, the same Rafah the world did not want Israel to enter, no matter what, the same Rafah used for the smuggling of weapons and people into and out of Gaza, the same Rafah where Sinwar and his murderous cohorts were hiding out and holding hostages.

330 days have passed since the mass rape, torture, mutilation, wholesale slaughter and kidnap, committed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad on October 7th.

We now learn how students at Columbia University, that elite institution, and bastion of liberal higher education, are planning not just to mark, but to celebrate the slaughter of October 7th. So too, at the University of Maryland. One must expect that this macabre phenomenon of terror worship will be repeated in universities across the US and Europe. Young, supposedly intelligent students will fulfill their role as useful idiots, as rebels without a clue, rationalizing, justifying, supporting, and romanticizing the barbaric butchery of Jews by a genocidal death cult, openly committed to the eradication of the Jews State and the genocide of the Jews.

And they are not alone. The UN, The European Union, The International Courts are all complicit in encouraging this macabre perversion of facts and rabid antisemitism. The UN recently marked their International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism. Yet on this auspicious day, not one mention of October 7th, which relative to population, is perhaps the largest terrorist attack in history.

There is not one mention of Palestinian terrorism against Israelis and Jews, of which there is no shortage of events to choose from. Did anyone say Munich Olympics?  As far as the UN is concerned there has been no terror against Israel or Jews. Perhaps for Secretary General Guterres, when it comes to Israel and the Jews, terror doesn’t happen “in a vacuum”, or for the “guardians” of higher education in the US, terror against Israel and Jews is a matter of “context”.

For the international courts, it is no longer a matter of international law, rather a matter of political and diplomatic agendas. The courts no longer feel a need to rely upon factual evidence and the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”. There is one law for the international community and a wholly different application of said law towards Israel. The ICC affords itself jurisdiction where it has none, and relies upon falsehood and propaganda from questionable sources, to justify its blatant perversion of international law when it comes to Israel. Decisions and rulings by the ICJ are misreported and manipulated for and by the media.

The international press is also complicit. Whether it is their refusal to refer to Hamas, a genocidal death cult that, not only attempts actual genocide on Israelis and Jews, but also oppresses, exploits and “sacrifices” ordinary Palestinians; as a terrorist organization, even when it is designated as such by the UK, US and The European Union. Hamas started out as the Palestinian chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood, which itself is designated as a terrorist organization throughout the Middle East.

Incredibly, the international press is happy to accept and quote verbatim information and statistics supplied by Hamas, despite knowing it to be unverifiable and more often than not, wholly untrue. Since when was a terrorist organization considered a “reliable source” by reputable reporters?  

Reports from Gaza all too often present a disingenuous, biased and factually incorrect picture of events. So called journalists in Gaza have been revealed as Hamas operatives and supporters, even as those who took part in the October 7th massacre or held hostages. Yet, seemingly reputable news organizations, such as the BBC, CNN, and others happily employ such individuals and engage them as “credible” commentators.

Prominent reporters and news casters unashamedly portray bias in their reporting and commentary, with the express intent of demonizing and delegitimizing Israel, in the process rationalizing and justifying the worst possible acts of terror, and perhaps ironically, ignoring the brutal exploitation and cynical abuse of ordinary Gazans by Hamas, in the course of this war. Despite flagrant breaches of their editorial policies and standards, news organizations refuse to hold these individuals to account.

And then there is the wider public, perhaps your good self, your friends and colleagues, the ordinary folk, the ones with so much concern for ordinary Palestinians yet nothing but contempt for ordinary Israelis, be they Jewish, Muslim, Christian or whatever. Yes, many Israelis are not Jewish, and many of the victims of October 7th were not Jewish. Many were not even Israeli.

You set out on marches chanting “from the river to the sea”, while many of you know not which river, nor which sea. You choose to ignore the fact that the chant itself calls for the eradication of the State of Israel and the genocide of Jews. You choose to romanticize terrorists and demonize a strong, albeit imperfect liberal democracy. You choose to forget the medieval brutality of October 7th, and the hundreds of hostages, men, women, children and babies, languishing in the Hamas tunnel network. You choose to ignore the key fact, that if Hamas were to release all hostages and lay down its arms, the war in Gaza would end tomorrow.

You choose to ignore the fact that while you are out there showing your solidarity with the Palestinians and chanting your chants, many of which are blatantly anti-Semitic and genocidal, and which you would surely condemn were they made regarding any other minority or country; you are actively inciting hatred and violence against Jews.

More important, at least for you, given your concern for ordinary Palestinians, as you march in the streets and pitch your tent on campus, what you are actually doing is strengthening Hamas and ultimately harming ordinary Gazans who suffer terribly under the terrorist regime. Oh, the irony! Tell me, other than incite hatred against Israel and Jews, how exactly have these marches and encampments benefitted ordinary Gazans, in any way whatsoever?  How has this “activism” improved their reality on the ground?

Moreover, when you compare Zionists to Nazis you insult those who truly suffered at the hands of the Nazis while displaying a woeful and moronic grasp of history. In the same manner. you insult those who suffered actual apartheid in South Africa when you accuse Israel of apartheid. And then of course, there is the accusation of genocide. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in 2019, the Palestinian population had grown by a factor of nine since 1948. The population has only increased since then. Pray tell how can such population growth possibly be described as a genocide?

These scurrilous accusations have zero basis in fact. They represent a gross manipulation of the facts, along with a cynical use of evocative language for no other reason than to incite hatred and loathing. Yet so many of your lap it up gleefully. Why is that?

Then there is Zionism… Do you even know what Zionism is? I doubt it. I suggest you read the translation of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

Do you know there are Arab, Bedouin and Druze soldiers fighting in the IDF? Do you know that pretty much half the medical staff in the Israeli healthcare system are Arabs, many in the most senior positions? Do you know that an Arab Supreme court judge in Israel imprisoned a Jewish Prime Minister for corruption and a Jewish president for rape?

But perhaps the real question is do you care? And if not, why not? Think carefully where your disdain, even hatred of the Jewish State comes from. Is it based upon what you know, or does it come from what you have heard, what you have been told, or is it just about what you feel. Maybe you’ve just gone with the crowd. They can’t all be wrong, can they?

On the flip side, why the concern for the Palestinians? Why them, more than Afghani women, or Southern Sudanese, or Yemenis, or Yazidis, or Uighurs, or the Christians of Nigeria? What is it about the Palestinians of Gaza that make them more important than the Palestinians of Syria, or Lebanon, where they have been massacred in their thousands.

What makes Palestinians in Gaza and Judea & Samaria (the West bank) victim number one? Why do their leaders get a free pass? Why does the oppression, exploitation and violence Palestinians suffer at the hands of their own leaders not matter to you? Why is terror against Israelis and Jews of no consequence to you? I urge you to ask yourself and find answers to these questions. You may surprise yourself

How about the nonsense of Israel being a white settler colonizer state? Firstly, more than half of Israeli Jews are of Middle Eastern or North African origin, ergo, people of color.

Can you name a colonizer that did not have its own homeland to which it owed its allegiance? Can you name a colonizer that revived the original language of the region it colonized, as its own, while abandoning its “home country” language?  Can you name a colonizer that arrived at its destination to find artifacts and abundant evidence of its own history that permeated throughout the land. In all cases, no you can’t, because they do not exist!

Not only is Israel not a settler colonizer state, Zionism itself, is perhaps the most successful national liberation movement of an indigenous people in the 20th century.

Since its establishment, the modern State of Israel has sought peace with its neighbors, despite being rejected time and time again. Fact… There was no Palestinian nation when Israel was established in 1948. The Arabs of Palestine considered themselves to be part of Syria. After the war in 1948, Gaza was part of Egypt.

The West Bank was part of Jordan. It was named as such because it sat on the western bank of the Jordan river (BTW that’s the river they mean in the “river to the sea” chant). These territories were not deemed occupied by Egypt or by Jordan. There was no call to establish a new Arab state, to return the land to the Palestinians.

Did you know that 77% of Mandated Palestine, originally promised to the Jews, was gifted to the Hussein family to create Trans Jordan, now Jordan, where over 70% of the population are what today, we call Palestinians.

The Palestinian people/nation is a relatively recent invention, some 60 years old. It was created in 1964 when the Russian KGB enlisted an Egyptian to head the newly created PLO. His name was Yasser Arafat. There is so much more one could say. But enough facts. All the history and all the facts are out there for anyone who cares to find out for themselves. I would urge you to do so.

If you prefer not to, that is your prerogative. If you choose to pursue your irrational hatred and vilification of Israel, and as a result, are comfortable inciting against Jews and fanning the flames of antisemitism, which is itself a clear indication of a much wider malaise in society, you are free to do so. However, beware, as history teaches us that antisemitism never stops at the Jews!

And know this. Yes, Israelis and Jews are exhausted. We are in the midst of the longest war in the history of the modern State, while emerging from the greatest disaster to befall the Jewish people since the holocaust. We are hurting. We are angry. We are frustrated. We are struggling.

We are disappointed with the world, and the virulent resurgence of the oldest hatred, the one socially acceptable form of racism and bigotry.  Perhaps we should not be surprised. After all, anti-Semitism is a light sleeper. The world prefers its Jews as victims or compliant. It finds it hard to accept Jews as strong, independent and able to defend themselves

But today, we are all of these.

So too, we are resolute. We are resourceful. We are highly capable. We seek peace, but are prepared and skilled in war. We will no longer be victims. We will not sit around waiting for the next October 7th. We will defend ourselves and provide security for our people. We will not be intimidated. We will not “fall on our swords” and sacrifice our own, to satisfy the moral bankruptcy of the wider world.

We will retain our values and our humanity, despite the baseless accusations to the contrary. We will fight and we will win. Because ultimately, our greatest strength is the fact that we have no other choice.

You, on the other hand, do. Choose wisely!