Israel is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago.
After World War II, at an elite prep school, classmates of former US Ambassador John Loeb said, when shown images of concentration camps, “Well, we don’t like Hitler, but at least he killed the Jews.”
As repugnant as those words are, they’re not as abhorrent as Holocaust denial, a refusal to even acknowledge that Hitler killed Jews.
Today we are facing a similar scourge of disinformation. We are now hearing people say that it was the Israeli government who killed 1,200 Israelis on October 7. Whether they believe their outrageous statements is unclear. What we do know is that ignorance about the history of the Jewish people and Israel abounds.
In recent years, ethnic studies classes have sprung up in schools across the country. These classes focus far too much on the oppressor/oppressed narrative, assigning a binary classification to every group of people.
In a plot twist no one could have foreseen, the Jewish people, the most oppressed people of all time, have now been classified as the biggest oppressors.
In a plot twist no one could have foreseen, the Jewish people, the most oppressed people of all time, have now been classified as the biggest oppressors. This new label has fueled much of the antisemitism we are now seeing, especially on college campuses.
In order to dispel the lies that have infested the minds of students, it is time to demand that Jewish history be part of the ethnic studies curriculum. Facts have a way of leading the way out of the darkness.
No, Israel is not a European colonist state. Only approximately 30% of Israel’s population is of European origin. European Jews who immigrated to Israel were not colonialists. They did not represent a foreign power and never embraced any European connection.
Endless pieces of archaeological evidence show that Jewish people are indigenous to Israel and have lived there for over 3,000 years. Jewish presence in Israel preceded Muslim presence by at least one millennium.
The late Charles Krauthammer said, “Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity: It is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago. You dig the soil and you find pottery from Davidic times, coins from Bar Kokhba, and 2,000-year-old scrolls written in a script remarkably like the one that today advertises ice cream at the corner candy store.”
No, Israel is not a racist or an apartheid state. Arabs represent 20% of Israel’s citizens and have equal rights. They are part of the Knesset and the Supreme Court. They have a notable presence in universities, hospitals, and the entertainment industry. In fact, Arabs who have Israeli citizenship have more rights and opportunities in Israel than they would have as citizens in any Arab country in the world.
Israel may be the only nation that has airlifted Africans to its country, giving them citizenship.
According to Democracy Index published by the Economist Group, in 2022 Israel’s Democracy Index ranked higher than that of the United States. It is particularly noteworthy that Israel’s democracy is considered stronger than the United States’, given Israel’s unique challenges fighting terrorists in its midst.
No, Israel does not engage in ethnic cleansing. In 1948, the Arab population in Israel was 156,000. Today it is 2,100,000.
Conversely, in 1948, the Jewish population in Muslim countries was close to 1,000,000. Today it is under 12,000.
No, the Jewish people are not a privileged group. For 2,500 years, Jews in Europe and Northern Africa were persecuted wherever they lived, facing expulsions, pogroms, and genocide.
In the United States during the first half of the 20th century, Jews were discriminated against and not permitted to work in many fields of employment. They were also not allowed to own or rent certain properties. Jews were not accepted as members of many clubs and organisations, and were excluded from resort areas. Many resorts would post signs such as, “Always a view. Never a Jew.”
Colleges and universities enforced quotas to restrict the number of Jewish students and professors.
These laws and policies were eventually overturned, but unfair treatment of Jews continued and certainly still exists today. That the Jewish people were able to succeed despite the many hurdles placed before them should be a source of Jewish pride and an inspiration to others who believe they face injustices and inequities today.
No, the Jewish people, a mere one fifth of one percent of the world population, do not control the world, but they do punch above their weight in many metrics of academic and financial success, by factors of five, 10, 25, 50, 100 times and more, depending on the metric. We should not shrink from our success, nor should we apologise for it or defend it.
We are the ones who are always accused of the most absurd crimes. No, we did not poison wells to spread disease. No, we did not kill Christian children to use their blood to bake matzah. No, we were not responsible for the 9/11 attacks. No, we did not create Covid-19. No, we did not use laser space beams to start wildfires.
Don’t let others define you
For far too long, we have let others define who we are. It is time for us to tell our own story.
We are the ones who march peacefully, proudly waving our flags, and singing with hopefulness. They are the ones who scream, harass, and burn flags, calling themselves progressives when in fact they have regressed into the world’s oldest hatred.
They are the ones who tout freedom of speech, when for years they have shouted down any pro-Israel speaker during college campus events, denying them their right to speech.
We’ve extended our hands in peace numerous times, only to be met with total rejection without any counter offer, and renewed violence.
They are the ones who have been utterly silent about the 350,000 people killed in the Syrian war, and the 377,000 killed in the Yemen war. The lives of innocents killed during war seem to matter only if they can blame Jews.
We are the ones who have extended our hands in peace towards the Palestinians in 1947, 1948, 1967, 1973, 1994, 2000, 2008, and 2019, only to be met with total rejection without any counter offer, and renewed violence.
When offered a land of our own, a land consisting mostly of seemingly worthless desert, we are the ones who grabbed it with both hands and made that desert bloom.
We are the ones who created a modern, democratic, multiethnic country in an area where only repressive, monocultural regimes existed.
We are the ones whose mission is to repair the world.
Amidst our utmost sorrow, we are the ones who dance with unbridled joy in the streets of Jerusalem.
Throughout 2,500 years of exile, we are the ones who looked eastward towards Jerusalem.
We are the ones who fulfilled Theodor Herzl’s seemingly impossible words, “If you will it, it is no dream.”
Ours is the greatest story. We need to broadcast it to the world.