Thomas Friedman is a regular Op-Ed writer for the New York Times. He authored a recent piece titled "The Israel We Knew Is Gone." Like Myers and Sokatch, Friedman is extremely unhappy with the recent election results in Israel. Based on the rise of the religious right-wing parties, and the likelihood (now a reality) of members of those parties serving in the Netanyahu government, Friedman asks this question: "...a fundamental question will roil synagogues in America and across the globe: 'Do I support this Israel or not support it?'"
As a Jew, I will never understand that question. Of course I support Israel. My support is not contingent upon whoever may be in control of the government. That is no different from my support for, and love of the USA, regardless of which party is in power. Friedman acknowledges being told by an Israeli columnist that "there has been a dramatic upsurge in violence - stabbings, shootings, gang warfare and organized crime - by Israeli Arabs against other Israeli Arabs, and Israeli Arab gangs and organized crime against Israeli Jews, particularly in mixed communities."
The November 19 edition of the New York Times had a news article with this title: "Ruinous Electoral Failure Has Israel's Left Groping for a Vision and a Future." Says the author: "The waning of the left began in the 2000s, when a wave of Palestinian violence was interpreted by many Israelis as a rejection of efforts to peacefully resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." What the author does not say is that in the year 2000, Yasser Arafat started the "Second Intifada," sending waves of suicide (homicide) bombers into Israel in order to blow up Jews (civilians) on buses, in malls and restaurants, and even at a Passover Seder. What the author does not say is that many Israelis saw that as one of many rejections of efforts at peace.
Israel continues to face enormous threats - from Hamas, from Hezbollah, from Syria and from Iran. And sadly, from terrorists within. But, all of these threats notwithstanding, Israel remains a thriving democracy. Elections are free. People may protest the government's policies, as they often do. And, contrary to the Myers and Sokatch piece, the LGBTQ community in Israel is alive and well. Of course, none of these things can be said about many of the surrounding Arab countries, or about life in Gaza under Hamas, or life in the Palestinian controlled areas of the West Bank under Abbas. But none of that is ever the concern of the Left.
The author spoke with an Israeli woman, who is described as a senior member of the management team of an Israeli kibbutz. After saying that she "...held out hope for the creation of a Palestinian state side by side with a Jewish one - obviating the need to dilute Israel's Jewish character," the article quotes the woman as follows: "If that's no longer possible, 10 years from now, it'll be better to have a democratic state than a Jewish state." At the risk of upsetting some of my readers, I could not disagree more with that woman.
Israel must remain a Jewish state - a safe haven for the Jewish people, and historic home of the Jews. Would I like to see the Arabs living in peace with the Jews? Of course. Who wouldn't? But this effort to destroy the one Jewish state in the world has been going on for 76 years. On black Friday I purchased the book "Bibi, My Story," an autobiography by Benjamin Netanyahu. In it, he quotes his brother Yoni, who fought in the Six Day War of 1967. Yoni: "I want peace very much. I don't like to live by the sword, a life of killing and trying not to be killed."
Then Yoni wrote this: "I see with sorrow how a part of our people still clings to unrealistic hopes for peace. Common sense tells them that the Arabs haven't abandoned their basic aim of destroying the state. But the self-delusion that has always plagued the Jews is at work again. They want to believe, so they believe. They want not to see, so they distort (reality). It would be comic if it wasn't so tragic." (Book by Threshold Editions, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2022.)
May Israel always remain the home of the Jewish people. The people of Israel live! Am Yisrael Chai!
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