The question is begging to be asked: Why does the liberal
Left globally, universally oppose Israel? On college campuses, the anti-Israel
activists aren’t isolating the settlements or demanding peace talks. They’re
calling for the end of Israel. At rallies they march and chant “From the river
to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Just to be clear, Tel Aviv and Netanya are
as much between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as Hebron and E1.
The anti-Zionists are waging a fullfledged ideological
war delegitimizing the Jewish state and the right for Jews to live anywhere in
Israel.
For years I dismissed these people as classic
anti-Semites who found attacking a Jewish state more politically available than
attacking Jews. Although I’m sure that there are a lot of good ol’ -fashioned
Jew haters in the mix, after speaking with many of these left-wing activists, I
realize that their orientation, aimed at undermining Israel, is rooted in a
basic flaw. The sad news: the flaw is our fault. The good news: we can fix it.
For example, the State of Israel has a protocol when
distinguished guests visit Israel. If a senator, diplomat or foreign president
comes in an official capacity, the first destination they are directed to is
Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial museum. The context is clear – the Jewish
state is a result of the Holocaust.
And therein lies our essential mistake and conveys a
deficient, even damaging message to the world that ultimately harms the State
of Israel.
Time and time again, we lean on the Holocaust, even if
only implicitly, to justify Israel’s existence. Laying on guilt and pulling on
heart strings may have been a useful tactic when the Holocaust was still a vivid
image in world consciousness. Today it’s not only ineffective, it’s harmful.
In an interview with Larry King a few years ago,
now-outgoing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad challenged, “Let’s say that
there was a Holocaust. Why does a tragedy in Europe justify the suffering of
the Palestinian people? A European problem should be solved in Europe, not the
Middle East.”
Although I’m not keen on agreeing with Iranian leaders of
late, his logic is more than compelling – what does a European problem have to
do with the Middle East? The current narrative on Israel is that a group of
Jewish Europeans savagely suffered under Nazi domination with little concern or
attention from the Allied forces. To compensate and perhaps avoid that moral
failure, the Jews were relocated by the West to British-controlled Palestine,
allowing for the establishment of the State of Israel. In that narrative, the
Jewish connection to Israel is historically shallow and almost random. Israel
is seen a foreign occupying force oppressing the indigenous people of the land.
In that narrative, “settlements” and “apartheid” (loosely defined) fit right
in. It is through that lens the liberal Left sees Israel, and as we continue to
confirm that narrative, we lose the battles for public opinion.
THE TIME has come for a total overhaul of Israel’s
messaging to the world. Our story must be told. The world must hear the story
of the Jewish people.
Jews are not a European people; we are a Semitic people
from the Middle East. Jews are not occupying foreign soil, we have returned to
our ancient homeland. We are called “Jews” not because of Judaism, but because
we once lived in Judea and Jerusalem was our capital. We lived as a people in
our land for millennia. We saw the fall of the great pharaohs of Egypt and the
rise of mighty Assyria. We suffered under the rule of Babylonia and our people
defeated the Syrian-Greek Empire.
While Socrates delved into the depths of the human mind
and Alexander the Great conquered the entire world, the Jews continued to live
as a free people in their land, Judea and Jerusalem.
Our story must be told now more than ever. The Jewish
people alive today are another link in a 4,000-year-old chain that began with
Abraham and Moses, and continued through the biblical era of judges and kings.
The warrior priests known as the Maccabees and students of Rabbi Akiva aligned
with Bar Kochba fought for our freedom in Israel. And it was imperialist Rome
that ultimately conquered our land, destroyed our Temple and exiled us from our
homeland, scattering Jews to all corners of the world – including Europe.
We lived through 2,000 years of exile, persecution and
prayer. Every force known to humanity tried to extinguish the flame of our
people and our hopes to return to Zion. Against all adversity and all odds, the
Jewish people hoped to return to our land and rebuild Jerusalem.
No matter what happened the night before, whether a
pogrom or crusade, Christian or Muslim oppression, the next morning the Jew
dusted himself off, wrapped himself in a tallit, faced Jerusalem and prayed to
come home.
Our people never lost hope.
Today we are living the prayers of our fathers and
mothers as we walk through the land of our ancestors. Our connection to Israel
began long before the atrocities of the 1940s. It is time to transform the
dialogue around the Jewish claim to the Land of Israel. If we hope to win the
hearts and minds of people around the world, we must speak not only as modern
Israelis but as Jews.
It’s time for the world to hear our story.
The writer is a filmmaker, Israel advocate, educator and
journalist. He is the deputy director of the World Mizrachi Movement.
Contributed by Nurit Greenger
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