The streets of Israel are teeming with hundreds of thousands of people protesting the proposed changes to the country’s judicial system. It is a global lesson in democracy.
An Education About The Supreme Court
The current protests are not about the price of cottage cheese (there actually was such a protest in Israel!), raising the age of retirement (as in France), or about changes to police enforcement (as in the USA), but about how the country’s Supreme Court is elected and functions. Something seemingly so nuanced and esoteric as to be beyond the interest of the masses, yet they’ve come out to protest for weeks and months to argue for compromise.
The proposed five changes are seemingly small but the impact is potentially large. As people delve into the details, they are getting a civics lesson about the checks-and-balances that maintain a healthy democracy.
Elections
The bedrock of democracy is the rights of citizens to elect their leaders. Israel is so focused on the will of its citizens, it remarkably held five elections in four years! It sounds preposterous, especially in the middle of the illiberal Middle East which has leaders for life with either no or sham elections.
Israel obviously did not do this intentionally, as governments are intended to sit for several years. However, the country’s parliamentary system enables coalition members to withdraw and thereby dissolve its majority position. In slim majority coalitions, a single upset member of parliament can bring about a collapse of the majority and calls for a new election. The Prime Minister can do little about it, other than negotiate, beg and plead to keep his coalition together.
Israeli citizens watch this theater in real time, and get to choose the next chess pieces to place on the board. It is a thoroughly engaged, active – and yes, oftentimes dysfunctional – democracy. As Winston Churchill said “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
Despite the flux and hysteria, the people of Israel voted in peace and the transition of power happened without violence.
Checks and Balances
The Kohelet Policy Forum which drafted the proposed changes to the country’s judicial process, is just as sensitive to the checks-and-balances of power as those protesting the changes. Those for and against the rules do not want any branch of the government to have unlimited control of society. An election won is not a certificate to overhaul every aspect of society and civil protection, and unelected judges chosen by unelected officials should not be able to trump laws and the government willy-nilly.
Both the protestors and those backing the judicial overhaul are debating a crucial principle of creating and maintaining a healthy society.
Majority Rule And Protection Of Minorities
The democratic process of choosing a government via elections is meant to empower the will of the majority of voters. However, it is a liberal democracy that enshrines protections of the minority through laws.
Israel has many groups who could be considered minority groups. Israeli Arab citizens number about 1.6 million and about 2 million including those with permanent residency status. There are about 160,000 Ethiopian Jews and 1.3 million ultra Orthodox Jews. They got to vote and make their concerns heard, and also count on the legal system to protect their basic rights.
Which is part of the interesting dynamic in Israel. The country does not have a constitution and relies on Basic Laws for fundamental rights and protections. People are appreciating the role of the parliament and judiciary in such a situation, and considering whether enacting a constitution would be beneficial.
Peaceful Protests
Israelis of all walks of life have made their feelings known. Professional lawyers, doctors and bankers rallied in squares. Laborers and workers blocked highways. Military personnel refused to serve. CEOs took their monies out of the country.
All peacefully.
Tens of thousands of Israelis protest against the government’s judicial overhaul moves, in Tel Aviv on March 4, 2023. (Gili Yaari/Flash90)
This is in sharp contrast to the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ protests in neighboring Arab countries.
In Egypt, 846 people were killed in protests, which saw the head of the country get thrown out and put in jail, followed by an election in which the people chose a radical Islamist, who was in short order thrown out of office by the military.
Reporters run for cover during clashes between Muslim Brotherhood supporters of Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi, and police.(photo: MOSAAB EL-SHAMY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
In Syria, the protests led to a brutal crackdown by its leader with over 2,500 people killed in the first months. It soon turned into a full civil war with over 500,000 killed and many millions displaced internally in Syria and as refugees abroad.
Syria men carrying babies in Aleppo, Syria in 2017 (photo: AFP)
In Yemen, 2,000 civilians were killed in the first few months of their protests, which became a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia once the ruler fled the country. The estimate of the dead now stands at 150,000. It has become the world’s worst failed state.
The violence continued throughout the Arab world, including in Tunisia (estimated 338 dead), Sudan (over 200), Bahrain (120) and Saudi Arabia (24). In Libya, the United States helped the rebels kill its leader, and the resulting tumult has led to as many as 20,000 killed. The country is now a haven for terrorist groups including ISIS and al Qaeda.
In the middle of this Middle Eastern firestorm of anger and bloodshed, the Jewish State has sit ins, fighting for the rule of law while protecting and believing in it.
What can be more democratic than: open, fair and repeated elections; the smooth transition of power from one government to the next; ensuring checks-and-balances in the government; and the ability to protest peacefully to those in power?
Israel is giving a basic civics lesson to the entire world about the importance and mechanics of proper courts of justice, the seventh of the Noahide Laws. It should be proud.
‘Wokeness’, the idea that problems are rooted in ‘toxic masculinity’, ‘male chauvinism’ and ‘White privilege’ is becoming mainstreamed, even at the United Nations. The secretary-general, himself a White and Christian male, has comically tried to discuss it using statistics.
On March 13, 2023, UNSG Antonio Gutteres gave remarks to the Women’s Civil Society Town Hall in New York, in which he rejected ‘Male Chauvinist’ domination of the technology sector, and called for an overhaul of ‘Patriarchal Structures’. His examples were problematic at their core.
Consider Gutters’ comment about the war in Ukraine: “and while men still largely make those decisions, women and girls often pay the price. Ninety percent of refugees from the war in Ukraine are women and their children.” He said that men make the decisions to go to war but that women and their children pay the price.
Yet the United Nations flips the suffering to the women who are afforded the ability to flee to safety.
Gutteres made similarly ridiculous comments about the COVID-19 pandemic when he said “The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over for women who lost their jobs, and girls who lost their chance of education. The cost-of-living crisis is hitting women and girls first and worst.” The basic fact is that men LOST THEIR LIVES while women lost their jobs. The death rate for men in the pandemic was 1.6 times that of women.
Yet the United Nations flipped the pain to the women who survived in much greater numbers than men.
This was akin to Gutteres rebuking rich and White European countries for prioritizing administering vaccines during the pandemic to their own citizens, saying “I am particularly concerned about the African continent.… we must tackle the devastating social and economic dimensions of this crisis, with a focus on those most affected: women, older persons, youth.” But barely anyone from the African continent died from COVID. It was mostly older White men, not Black women. (As of this writing, there were 15 deaths per million in Nigeria, compared to 5,076 per million in Hungary). Who was really most affected?
It’s amazing what can be done with selectively choosing statistics to burnish a particular narrative.
And the leader of the United Nations has a very specific and woke narrative: “Many of the challenges we face today — from conflicts to climate chaos to the cost-of-living crisis — are the result of a male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture, taking the key decisions that guide our world. And while men still largely make those decisions, women and girls often pay the price.” Men only do harm. They don’t contribute to the good of society – developing vaccines, building infrastructure, providing security, etc. – they are simply the cause of problems.
And the women suffer from this “male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture.”
The wokester-in-chief is offering simplistic and deceptive lines of toxic misandry which are making people angry at the growing extreme left-wing infecting politics and culture. The reaction to these smears is sometimes to elect the very right-wing misogynists that Gutteres is calling out, to stem the tidal wave of male criticism.
Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Gutteres
There are good and bad men and women, as well as good and bad White and Black people. Those are simple facts. The vilification of one group over-and-again has names – racism, sexism, ageism, etc. – and politicians must stop fanning the flames of hatred and division.
I know that you have been following matters in the Middle East and likely have access to materials and insiders that many do not. You may have concluded that while the Arab-Israeli Conflict is complicated, the thorniest issue is Jerusalem, and in that tinderbox the most sensitive is the al Aqsa Mosque / Jewish Temple Mount.
I reach that assessment based on your support of a position that the ban of Jews praying on the holy site should continue, a position known as the “status quo.”
It is likely based on comments from the leader of the Palestinian Authority who said that Israel is “playing with fire” if it allows Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, something he called allowing “settlers to desecrate holy sites.”
The leader of Hamas made similar comments, that there would be a “bloodbath” if Israel makes changes to the rights of Jews. He warned that “the action of the occupation targeting the Islamic and the Christian Holy sites in Jerusalem and Palestine, and specifically the Al Aqsa Mosque, brings about the angry Palestinian reaction.”
To avoid such bloodshed, you possibly decided to overlook the basic human rights of Jews to pray at their holiest site.
You may have convinced yourself that the only Jewish visitors who want to pray at the site are right-wing extremist “illegal settlers”, to further rationalize your position.
So let me ask you, do only Christian fanatics visit and pray at the Vatican?
Do you understand that Judaism is a particular religion, with no desire to convert or dominate anyone? That while Christians and Muslims fought crusades for over one hundred years over the holy land, and expelled the others, and converted their mosques to churches and churches to mosques, Israel did no such thing when it took control of the Temple Mount in 1967? Instead, it handed administrative control of the site to the Jordanian Waqf.
Jerusalem’s Arabs who have been living under Israeli administration for decades have slowly internalized that Israel has no plans on the al Aqsa Mosque. In a December 2022 poll of Jerusalem’s Arabs, they showed that they have a greater fear of accessing the holy site if eastern Jerusalem was under Palestinian sovereignty (63%) than Israeli (41%).
This year is the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Article 18 states “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” Article 2 underscores the point that this relates to religious rights in disputed land: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.”
This clearly includes the rights for Jews from around the world to pray at their holiest site of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”
So it is with the status quo ban on Jews. It is morally wrong and a disgrace, and the world has blindly let it continue.
I ask that you stop facilitating the trampling of the fundamental human rights of Jews and vote to reverse the anti-Semitic “status quo” edict, and condemn the incendiary remarks and false accusations which block Jews from praying peacefully at their holiest site in their holiest city in the holy land.
The Arabs living in eastern Jerusalem are in a unique category compared to other Arabs in the region for two principle reasons: from the international perspective, they are not Palestinians, and from the Israeli perspective, they are Israeli. That is not true for any other Arab in the region.
The United Nations in 1947 had sought for all of greater Jerusalem and greater Bethlehem to be an international “holy basin”, but the 1948-9 Arab-Israeli war divided the region into Israeli-controlled and Jordanian-controlled territory. It’s why most countries do not recognize even the western part of Jerusalem as Israeli and move their embassies there, as they want the Holy Basin to be divided through negotiations. The same holds for the eastern part of the city.
From the Israeli perspective, they took the western part of Jerusalem in a defensive war in 1949, and then Bethlehem and eastern Jerusalem in another defensive war in 1967, making the acquisitions completely legal (reacquisitions actually, as all the land was part of the Palestine Mandate). Israel annexed eastern Jerusalem and extended the borders into a new municipality. All Arabs who have not been convicted of terrorism are allowed to apply for Israeli citizenship and thousands have done so.
The trend towards favoring Israel continues to grow.
There were 22 areas in which the Arabs thought that their daily lives improved, compared to only five in which they deteriorated (and two of them were about taxes). Access to the al Aqsa Mosque (+11%), retirement benefits (+11%), access to travel throughout Israel (+12%), access throughout the West Bank (+21%), overall standard of living (+21%), and obtaining a passport and flying out of Ben Gurion Airport (+22%) are just some examples.
The improvements are directly related to Israel’s governance. When asked to whom they turn when they have an issue, almost no Arab turned towards the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian NGOs or international NGOs which pepper the landscape. Almost everyone turns to either a family member or the Israeli government exclusively.
That is not to say that everything is good and people are satisfied with the Israeli government’s administration. The vast majority of Jerusalem’s Arabs are still angered by the Security Barrier and checkpoints which cause delays (89% and 87%, respectively). The perception of level of crime dropped significantly (from 84% in 2010 to 63% in 2022) as did the perception of corruption of Israeli officials (from 78% to 66%). However the levels of perceived intimidation increased, from border guards (54% to 65%), Jewish civilians (51% to 61%) and Palestinian groups (20% to 29%).
As the Palestinians consider holding presidential elections this year as announced in October 2022 as part of the Algiers Declaration endorsed by the United Nations, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas is likely to raise a commotion about having Arabs in Jerusalem participate. According to the PCPSR poll, only 6% of the eastern Jerusalem Arabs said they would vote. Abbas uses Israel’s refusal to allow Jerusalemites to participate in Palestinian elections as an excuse to not hold them, when in truth, he knows that Hamas would trounce him, as shown in numerous PCPSR polls.
Significantly, when asked what they would like to see in a final settlement, the preference among Jerusalem’s Arabs is for being part of Israel TRIPLED, while only one-third would want to see Jerusalem become part of a Palestinian state, down from half.
Not surprisingly, the number of Jerusalem Arabs who would welcome being Israeli citizens over becoming a citizen of Palestine jumped as well.
The immediate reaction to the findings is perhaps surprise, as Jerusalem is considered the thorniest issue to resolve in the conflict. But Jerusalem’s Arabs are finding that becoming Israeli and part of a stable economic powerhouse is preferable to being under corrupt Arab rule.
As it relates to the most difficult of the thorniest issues, the Jewish Temple Mount / al Aqsa Mosque, the polls findings were shocking. Arabs believe that their access to al Aqsa will be BETTER under Israeli sovereignty than Palestinian sovereignty!
Perhaps that is the reason Abbas, Hamas and even the Jordanian king are actively trying to stoke anger about the Old City of Jerusalem and the al Aqsa Mosque: they see that the local Arabs are embracing Israel.
Jerusalem’s Arabs appreciate the benefits of being under Israeli administration and are increasingly showing their preference that all of Jerusalem should be under Israeli sovereignty.
One manifestation is that despite the country’s enormous size, it has only two bordering countries. One of them, Canada, is so closely tied to the U.S. in terms of language, culture, trade and military reliance, people often joke that it can be viewed as the 51st state, with 90% of its population living within 100 miles of the U.S. border.
In sharp contrast, small Israel is surrounded by several entities, all of which have gone to war to destroy the country within the last decades. Two of them – Lebanon and Syria – are broken and broke states, with Syria still engaged in its own civil war.
The small sliver of a country has 1,068 kilometers of boundaries with adjacent countries and territories. The breakdown is as follows:
region
boundary (km)
percentage
Lebanon
81
7.6%
Syria
83
7.8%
Jordan
307
28.7%
Egypt
208
19.5%
West Bank
330
30.9%
Gaza
59
5.5%
Length of Israel’s boundaries
To apply these percentages with the United States’ lower 48 state’s 9,560km land border with Canada and Mexico, would yield the following map:
Imagine such a neighbor for the states of Washington and Idaho!
It doesn’t get better.
Syria has even a longer border with Israel – it would equivalently cover the Montana-Canadian border. Syria’s genocidal leader slaughtered over half a million of his own citizens, in a civil war that has seen millions of people flee the country and millions of others internally displaced. The destructive leader attempted to build a covert nuclear weapons facility with North Korea a few years ago. The country remains in an active state of war with Israel, as it has been since the modern Jewish State came into existence.
At least not that many people in Montana!
Much of the rest of America’s northern border would be with two countries with a cold peace, Jordan and Egypt. While not at war, little economic activity or tourism exists, and the two countries almost always vote against you at the United Nations. A far cry from friendly Canada.
At America’s southern border, there is strain of millions of migrants coming into the country from Central America. They are coming looking for a better life than they had in Mexico, Nicaragua and elsewhere. They are not looking to upend the United States and overthrow it.
Not so with Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas-ruled Gaza. Hamas is actively looking to destroy its neighbor from its vantage point south of California and half of Arizona. The Palestinian Authority pays its people who kill its neighbor’s citizens and claim the country as its own.
This ugly theoretical snapshot of America’s neighbors were based on keeping America’s huge water boundaries. If one were to use Israel’s actual percentage of coastline, the map would look like this:
Lebanon would cover almost all of America’s northern border. Syria would wrap Maine’s land and water boundaries. Jordan would abut the New England states down to Virginia, while Egypt would extend southward to Georgia. The Palestinian Authority would envelope all of Florida and the Gulf states and the terrorist enclave of Gaza would border much of Texas. The balance would be coastline.
Now further imagine that instead of a large, tall and wide country that is the USA, it was flattened into a pancake with those same neighbors.
If you think Texans like guns now, imagine if they had Hamas digging tunnels under their homes and firing rockets at their schools!
This is Israel’s reality every day. Terrorist-led broken countries and territories surrounding a small sliver of land, attempting to destroy the only Jewish state through a variety of means, including militarily, economically, legally and via public opinion.
Modern Zionism, which began at the end of the 19th century, has three basic components:
That Jews are a people who originate in the land of Israel
That Jews should have self-determination and sovereignty in their homeland
That such homeland will be a safe haven from anti-Semitism and a base from which to combat it
Zionism is without question a Jewish movement, as seen by the three items above. Despite the clear connection, people have debated whether anti-Zionism is necessarily anti-Semitic. Below is a review of various aspects of anti-Zionism together with a consideration of whether it is rooted in Jew hatred.
1. Against the Premise of Zionism
The 19th and 20th century goal of Modern Zionism was to recreate a Jewish State in the Jewish homeland. While Jews had always prayed to, yearned for, moved to and lived in the land of Israel, the idea that Jews should have self-determination and sovereignty in the land was once viewed as far-fetched. Dominant and powerful religious groups believed that the ‘Wandering Jew’ without a home was their curse for killing Jesus thousands of years ago or not following the Islamic prophet today. A Jewish home countered embedded anti-Semitic beliefs in some religions.
There are many ways in which anti-Zionism has become shaped in people’s thinking due to the way Israel is covered in the media and the United Nations, which are deeply anti-Semitic.
2. Manifestations of Anti-Zionism
The anti-Semitism embedded in almost every manifestation of anti-Zionism is both obvious and odious.
Denial Of History
The assertion that Jews are “colonialists”, “interlopers” and “invaders” is a denial of Jews’ 3,300-year history in the holy land. Imagine denying that African-Americans were slaves in the United States or the history of the royal family in the United Kingdom. It is simultaneously absurd and outrageous.
The rejection of Israeli history is specifically targeted against Jews and not the one-quarter of Israelis who are not Jewish.
Denial Place To Live
All people should be allowed to live anywhere and everywhere. No one says that Hindus cannot live in Egypt or gays should be denied citizenship in Norway. So how does anyone have the temerity to say that Jews should banned from living in Gaza or Bethlehem, or think that such a ban should be supported because the local Arabs demand it?
Israeli Arabs are free to relocate from Jaffa to Jerusalem or Jericho without being labelled as illegal “settlers.” The parameters of defining illegal “settlers” is specifically about religion and ethnicity, not nationality.
Denial Right To Pray
Jews, and only Jews, are denied their right to pray at their holiest location. The world has branded the people who demand such basic human right as “extremists,” rather than the jihadists who threaten those Jews with violence.
The invective is attached by anti-Semites / anti-Zionists to any Jew from around the world ascending the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, no such call is made about Israeli Arabs who visit the site.
Refusal To Call Out Anti-Semitism
The refusal to accurately label the blatant anti-Semitism of anti-Zionists is also anti-Semitic.
This outrageous sentiment is not reported by the mainstream media or at the United Nations. All pretend that Arabs are merely “resorting” to violence because they are “frustrated” by the lack of a state, not that they seek a state free of Jews.
Calling Israelis “Nazis”
The disgusting smear of calling Israelis “Nazis” is specifically designed to paint Jews in the blood of their murderers. It attempts to brand Jews, the victims of the worst modern genocide of a government against its own citizens, as the new oppressors in the vehicle of a Jewish State. The invective is tied toward Israeli Jews and the Jewish State, not Israeli Arabs.
Charges of “Ethnic Cleansing” and “Genocide”
Anti-Zionists defend Palestinian Arabs who went to war with the Jews who had just survived a genocide in Europe in 1948-9. They defend the five Arab armies who ethnically-cleansed Jews from the western bank of the Jordan and eastern Jerusalem by never talking about it. They skip the disgraceful anti-Semitic Jordanian Citizenship Law of 1954 that gave Arabs citizens and denied giving it to any Jew.
While ignoring the actual ethnic cleansing of Jews, anti-Semites / anti-Zionists claim that Jews are ethnically cleansing Arabs when in fact, the Arab population under Israeli rule has jumped faster that the population of both Jews and Arabs in surrounding countries. Like the absurd charge of “Nazis”, anti-Semite / anti-Zionists are specifically targeting Jews in the attack.
Simultaneously Calling For Two States And Undermining The Jewish One
The call for “two states for two peoples” – for Arabs and Jews – goes back to the 1930s and 1940s. It specifically called for one of the countries to be a Jewish state.
But the United Nations has endorsed the Arab demand that millions of Arabs go to the Jewish State under a “right of return”, while also demanding that the Arab state be Jew-free. That’s 1.5 countries for Arabs and 0.5 for Jews, awarding local Arab sovereignty with purity, while stripping Jews of self-determination.
It’s a direct attack on Jews, not Israelis.
Clear Arab Anti-Semitism in Anti-Zionism
For decades, Palestinians and their sympathizers made no attempt to hide their contempt for global Jewry, not just Israeli Jews. Blowing up a Jewish Center in Argentina, shooting Jewish worshippers in a synagogue in Turkey, or separating Jewish passengers from everyone else during the hijacking of a plane to Entebbe, Uganda was an accepted agenda. The world understood and condemned the noxious anti-Semitism in the Muslim attacks on Jewish civilians around the world.
With the Oslo Accords of the 1990s, Palestinian terrorist groups and leadership pivoted their violent actions more locally to garner global support for their cause. The Arabs were no less anti-Semitic but their strategy demanded global pressure on Israel, because defeating the Jewish State militarily proved unachievable.
While the Arab terrorist attacks of the “Second Intifada” raged in Israel, the Muslim world re-launched the “Zionism is Racism” slur at the 2001 Durban Conference. It called upon the world to isolate, boycott, divest and sanction the Jewish State as a racist enterprise. It inverted their own anti-Semitism as being warranted, because the Jews are the real racists. No longer was the matter simply about two people fighting about a small stretch of land, but one of them – the Jews – were depicted as evil.
The Evil Spiral From Desiring A Palestinian State
It is understandable that many people want to see the Stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs) have self-determination. While having a country is not an “inalienable right” the way the United Nations claims uniquely for Palestinian Arabs, the vast majority of Arabs already have self-determination via the Oslo Accords.
The anger at the failure of creating a Palestinian State is directed at the Jewish State, rather than the Arabs themselves who have refused peaceful coexistence for a century. The desire for a Palestinian State morphs into anti-Zionism by blaming the Jews for the plight of the Arabs. Once the Jews are blamed, they are accused globally and stripped of their basic human rights and dignity.
Global Manifestation of Anti-Semitism in Anti-Zionism
People around the world have ingested the anti-Semitism / Anti-Zionism. THEY come for the Jews actively and passively when they are angered by Israel. THEY have taken up physical / economic / moral arms against Jews in their hometowns, while the Arab jihadists wage war in the holy land.
In 2014, mobs in Germany and France came after local Jews in their synagogues during the Hamas War from Gaza. In 2021, anti-Zionists attacked Jews in the kosher restaurants in the United States. These attackers did not protest before an Israeli embassy, but came for local Jews because anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are fused as one.
3. Goal of Anti-Zionism
Israel is not a theoretical entity but a thriving democracy with millions of people. It is the most liberal country in the entire Middle East / North Africa (MENA) region, with rights for the 25% of non-Jews who live in the country.
Despite (or because of) the success of the Jewish State, anti-Zionists want to see it destroyed. They either want to strip the Jews of sovereignty or want them to be expelled from their homeland (like senior White House correspondent Helen Thomas urged).
Anti-Zionism is anchored in antagonism against Jews.
4. How To Break From Anti-Semitism In Anti-Zionism
Many anti-Semites become anti-Zionists as an extension of their Jew hatred, such as Neo Nazis. Many anti-Zionists are anti-Semites because of their anger at Jews coming to Israel and the lack of a Palestinian State.
While the Palestinian cause need not be anti-Semitic, the hatred has been encouraged by Palestinian leadership and echoed at the United Nations. The path to peaceful coexistence is to break the systemic Jew hatred that is currently embedded in the goal of creating a Palestinian state.
Some examples:
Allowing Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount. The current blatantly anti-Jewish edict banning Jews from praying at their holiest location is outrageous. That the United States and the United Nations insist on the “status quo” requested by fanatical Muslims is pathetic and demonstrates the power of 1.8 billion Muslims and trillions of dollars of oil wealth have over the world. The U.S. and U.N. should work with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to reverse this anti-Semitic demand.
Reverse UNSC Resolution 2334. The idea that the United Nations passed a law that bans Jews – and only Jews – from living somewhere, let alone in their holiest city and homeland is disgusting. One would imagine that Nazis drafted the legislation. A Palestinian state can exist just fine with Jews living there, just as Israel has thrived with millions of non-Jews.
Amend the Palestinian refugee discussion. One cannot simultaneously argue for two states – one Jewish and the other Arab – while arguing for millions of Arabs to go to Israel and no Jews should be allowed in Palestine. The matter of refugees should clearly be articulated as to be settled only through financial payments, and should cover all descendants who lost homes in 1948, not just those living under the UNRWA umbrella.
Adopt the IHRA definition of Anti-Semitism. The IHRA definition has been adopted by thousands of municipalities and organizations. It lays out examples of anti-Zionism which are clearly anti-Semitism. It does not squash free speech as critics claim, but gives a template for people and organizations to understand what is hate speech.
Speak up for Jewish history and rights when discussing Israel. It is disgraceful that the media and United Nations undermines Jews and Israel consistently. For example, only calling the Temple Mount the al Aqsa Compound is an insult to Jews. Saying that the holy land is inherently and only Arab is an insult to Jews. Saying that Jews are not indigenous to their homeland is anti-Semitic. Equating the ‘Naqba’ to the Holocaust is disgusting and anti-Semitic. Demanding that Jerusalem maintain its ‘demographic character‘ achieved after Jordanian Arabs ethnically cleansed all Jews from the city is repulsive and reeks of Jew hatred.
Call out the anti-Semites hiding behind anti-Israel propaganda. When people like Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) talk about Jews behind the curtains making money off of racism from Gaza to Detroit, she should not be excused because she is a Muslim woman. She, and others with similar attitudes, must be condemned by everyone, including other Democratic politicians.
It is time to stop being polite on this subject and articulate clearly that anti-Zionists are anti-Semites, and should be called out and treated as such.
Ahasuerus’s banquet for his kingdom’s courtiers Made absolutely no mention of armed warriors. A curious start to a tale of genocide With elaborate feasts instead emphasized.
The king’s big party for the fortress Shushan Was a show of unity and included everyone. Ahasuerus’s generosity focused on wine With a specific order that no request be declined.
But amidst the partying and perceived unity Queen Vashti refused a summons; a perceived mutiny. The king’s advisers worried her refusal would be echoed By women throughout the kingdom; misandry bellowed.
“An affront to the king is a rebellion to the kingdom,” So his advisers pushed broad laws of questionable wisdom. Unanimity amongst the ruler’s dozen for the unity of provinces, Feasts and flowing wine blinding and bribing all grievances.
So begins the story of Purim, with feasts and a refusal A forum for opportunist Haman to gain power through an accusal. The non-conformity of a solitary person condemned all of Mordecai’s kind Since collective guilt disorder was heretofore enshrined.
While the story continues, this poem’s lesson is made: Individual actions can be judged harshly during a drunken purity crusade. Unity and non-conformity can coexist best When the people who surround you are kind and beloved guests.
Feasts and banquets which are made as a show of wealth, Including parading one’s spouse is not a picture of mental health. Instead, make your meals with friends; mix up your chocolate bark, Welcome beloved guests and the off-color remarks.
Very few countries in the world have a position in the government for descendants of the country’s original inhabitants who live abroad. Only one also has non-governmental organizations to combat the hatred of those persecuted members in the diaspora.
Israel.
The Jewish State of Israel was founded on three central beliefs of Modern Zionism: that Jews are a people who originate in the land of Israel; they have a right to self-determination and sovereignty in their homeland; and that their country will not only be a safe haven against Jew-hatred, but will combat noxious anti-Semitism around the world.
Today, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs is Amichai Chikli. Born in Jerusalem, he is the son of a Tunisian Conservative rabbi. His governmental position is to strengthen the bonds between Israel and Jews of the diaspora.
Israeli MK Amichai Chikli (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Outside of the government, the World Zionist Organization promotes Zionism, and is a vehicle for world Jewry to interface with Israel. Nerya Meir assumed the head of the Diaspora Department and Raheli Baratz-Rix heads the WZO’s Department for Combatting Antisemitism. Last year, Prime Minister Yair Lapid appointed the actress Noa Tishby to a new position of Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and Delegitimization.
This letter is for each of them.
To Israel’s leaders to Diaspora Jewry,
We know that Israel is very busy with countless issues, and the roles each of you play to ensure a strong bond between the Jewish State and Diaspora Jewry is always appreciated.
We are keenly aware of how the nature of our relationship has changed since the re-establishment of the Jewish State in 1948: from a nascent struggling country fighting for survival seeking bodies and funds from diaspora, to a thriving democracy in the heart of an illiberal Middle East with the greatest concentration of Jews anywhere for the first time in almost two thousand years. The modern state welcomes Jewish immigrants, visitors and investment, while it no longer feels they are critical to its survival.
There are a few things to keep in mind as we enter this stage of our relationship.
The United States
Since 1948, the Diaspora has changed remarkably. In 1948, at the country’s founding, there were 34 countries with over 25,000 Jews. Today there are only 17, half that number. To put that in context, the 15 non-U.S. diaspora countries with over 25,000 Jews stands in contrast to 27 U.S. cities with more than 25,000 Jews.
Two countries – Israel and the United States – account for roughly 85% of world Jewry, with the U.S. accounting for 73% of the Jewish diaspora. While the U.S. does not define the diaspora, it is the most significant country by a very wide margin.
There are eight other diaspora countries which have over one percent of diaspora Jews living there, but only two of them – France and the United Kingdom – are also significant trading partners with Israel and members of the United Nations Security Council. Some of the other countries – like Argentina and Russia – have declining Jewish populations and should be viewed as countries for Israel to target for aliyah, rather than as significant long-term outposts of global Jewry.
Diaspora Anti-Semitism and Terrorism
Historically (the 1970s through 2010s), anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist attacks occurred in world capitals such as Athens, Rome, Istanbul, Paris, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Mumbai and London. Fanatics burst into synagogues, Jewish community centers and kosher restaurants and killed as many people as possible.
While the scourge has not left major international cities, the current trend in violence is more prevalent in American cities such as Pittsburgh, PA, Colleyville, TX, Jersey City, NJ and Poway, CA. It shouldn’t be a surprise: there are three times as many Jews in Pittsburgh (42,000) than in all of Turkey (14,300).
The same is true for Jews living in the Israeli territories east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL). While there are 25 countries in the world with over 10,000 Jews (including the U.S. and Israel), there are nine cities (and growing) in E49AL with such totals. Almost all have experienced attacks.
The facts above have been true for many years but have not penetrated the minds of most people. Part of the reason is attacks on Jews in European cities and E49AL is almost always tied to anti-Zionism, easily triggered in societies with centuries of ingrained anti-Semitism. This is in contrast to attacks in the United States which arise from anti-Semitism in a country established on the basis of religious freedom.
This is changing.
While the Israel-Gaza war in 2014 saw a sharp rise in anti-Semitic attacks in Europe, there were virtually none in the United States. Not so for the eleven day skirmish in May 2021, when gangs assaulted Jews all over the country. Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL said during that time that “the brazenness, the audacity of these assaults in broad daylight. We have seen people basically say, if you are wearing a Jewish star, you must be a Zionist and you should be killed…. we have unhinged, fictionalized conspiracies about Israel, that somehow the Jewish State is systematically slaughtering children or committing genocide. And then that leads to real-world attacks on Jewish people in the streets of America, on our campuses, in our communities.”
It is in the streets of dozens of American cities that the danger of anti-Semitism is now the most pressing, and the scourge is increasingly tied to anti-Zionism.
America’s Jewish Cities and Universities
The 27 cities in the United States with over 25,000 Jews are not only in the biggest states which are solidly Democratic as popularly believed. While many are found in New York, New Jersey, California, Massachusetts and Illinois, a growing number are in Florida, Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
As shown in the table above, fifteen of the top 27 U.S. cities are located in solidly Democratic states per the 2020 presidential election. Seven cities were found in Republican states and five were in swing states.
Beyond these major Jewish population centers, are cities with universities with significant Jewish populations, many of which are suffering from anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist violence and rhetoric.
Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism have also spread to universities with significant Jewish populations in cities with relatively few Jews. Those include Brown University in Providence, RI (14,200 Jews) and Duke University in Durham, NC (12,000).
As an example, in February 2022, Duke passed a resolution which condemned anti-Semitism which included using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism which covered anti-Zionism. This was likely in response to vile anti-Semitic and anti-Israel speakers at the campus in 2019 as covered by a Ami Horowitz video. However, by March 2022, the Duke Student Government was sponsoring Student for Justice in Palestine events featuring noted anti-Zionist and anti-Semite Mohammed El-Kurd. The AMCHA Initiative has long tracked how universities with an SJP chapter are much more likely to have anti-Semitic incidents on campus.
College campuses have become fertile ground for extreme fundamentalist governments including Qatar and Saudi Arabia to pour over $1 billion to influence the next generation of students. Leading schools which have taken their money include Columbia University, Tufts University, the University of Southern California, George Washington University, NYU, MIT, Harvard, Georgetown and Carnegie Mellon. The Arab states have used their oil wealth to export the demonization of the Jewish State and Jews around the world.
And the impetus for exporting their hatred onto American shores is their hatred for Israel. Killing the Jewish State’s strongest supporter is a key aim of anti-Zionists.
Israel’s Fight Against Anti-Semitism in America
It is noble and appreciated that Israel is taking up the fight against global anti-Semitism.
Minister Chikli, you talked about the diaspora community and suggested that small communities might be best served by making aliyah to Israel, and plan on investing a good portion of your 500 million NIS budget in the education of the larger communities. This is wise. While it will be difficult for Israel to match the dollars of the Muslim Gulf states going into America’s leading universities, it can invest in the middle and high schools of the United States’ largest Jewish cities.
America’s Jews and communities are mostly well-off and well-organized. We have numerous Jewish schools, synagogues, community centers and Israel advocacy groups, especially compared to the other countries in the diaspora. But there are things that must come from Israel to the various cities listed above to help fight the rising anti-Semitism. Here is the start of a list:
Israelis and Israeli products in the schools and markets
Collaboration between American universities and companies and those in Israel
Eloquent and well versed Israelis on news channels
Establish pro-Jewish narratives
Bi-partisanship, connecting with all streams of Judaism
Open and clear communication between Israel and U.S. Jewish leaders
Israelis and Israeli products in the schools and markets
Getting young Israelis into cities across the United States with programs like shinshinim should be expanded. The Israelis get a better appreciation for America, and Americans get a first-hand account of what is happening in Israel, not from the news or textbooks, but from young Israelis living in the Jewish State.
The BDS (boycott, divest and sanction) movement against Israel should not only be fought legally but on the ground. Getting lots of Israeli products and brands into stores should be a priority of the Israeli government, not just the Israeli companies.
Collaboration between American universities and companies and those in Israel
Israeli universities and companies are in a good position to continue to leverage their leading research and technological prowess to collaborate with American institutions. An active bi-lateral flow of human and financial capital can cement positive long-term relationships.
Eloquent and well versed Israelis on American media
Israel must develop a comprehensive team of fluent English speakers who are adept at public relations on a range of topics. The most glaring problems are when Israeli spokespersons cannot handle basic questions on television when Israel is in a conflict. The government must have a team of people in constant dialogue with the full range of American media on political, economic, cultural, religious, historical and scientific matters.
Establish pro-Jewish narratives
It is very important to establish and correct information that is being propagated in the media and on campuses, but the Israeli government must do more to craft the narratives. For example, not only should the statistics about the Arab population in Jerusalem and Israel be laid out to dismiss the ridiculous charges of genocide and ethnic cleansing, but stories of real people should be featured. The world loves a good story, and Israel is more than capable of humanizing the liberal country it has built in the heart of the illiberal Middle East.
Bi-partisanship, connecting with all streams of Judaism
As described above, there are Democratic and Republican Jews and they live in a range of cities. It is imperative for Israel to maintain good relations with both parties, ESPECIALLY as the divide in the country grows.
Similarly, it is important for Israel to connect with all the streams of Judaism which are much more common in the United States than in Israel and the rest of the diaspora. The Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative branches of Judaism are much larger than the Modern and Ultra Orthodox streams. Those liberals tend to be much more critical of religious and nationalistic actions by Israel, while the more Orthodox tend to be more likely to make aliyah. Israel needs to keep a good relationship with each community.
Open and clear communication between Israel and U.S. Jewish leaders
The last item on this short list is for good lines of direct communication. If the government of Israel is directly communicating with American Jewish leaders, hopefully it will prevent Jewish leaders from lobbying the U.S. government to take actions against Israel, as J Street did aggressively, in pushing the Obama Administration to allow UN Security Council Resolution 2334 to pass.
Israel is at a very sensitive moment in history with Iran on the verge of obtaining nuclear weapons capability, and the largest percentage of West Bank Arabs itching for violence against Jewish civilians in twenty years. At the same time, American Jewry is more divided as it faces growing anti-Semitism, a break from historic norms when Jews normally come together when faced with Jew hatred.
The global fight against anti-Semitism can be won with Israeli and American forces acting together with common purpose. We look forward to working together with you at this important time in history.
Anti-Semites around the world suffer terribly. Consumed by hatred for Jews, they often feel that their sentiments need a broader outlet. They seek the comradery of others who despise Jews, and public forums to attack those they believe are stains on mankind.
In February 2023 in Orlando, FL, Neo Nazis stood outside a Chabad house and taunted Jews with chants of ‘Heil Hitler’, and asked how many Jews could fit in a barbecue grill and how many Palestinian Arabs they killed. White Supremacist groups called for February 25, 2023 to be a ‘Day of Hate‘ to gather momentum for attacks on Jews.
Consider when Israel rebuilt the Hurva Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem in 2010 which the Jordanian army had blown up in 1949. Palestinians called for a ‘Day of Rage‘ with hundreds of Palestinian Arabs attacking Jews. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (I guess meaning only for Arabs) released a statement which “strongly condemns recent measures taken by Israel in East Jerusalem, the latest of which has been the inauguration of a synagogue in the old city. PCHR holds Israel responsible for the escalation of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.“
The sick symmetry.
Neo Nazis come for Jews in their houses of worship in the United States because they hate the presence of Jews in their goal of a purely White Christian society. Radical Islamists come for Jews in their synagogues in Israel because they believe the land is purely Muslim. Both sinister radical groups consider Jews to be vile whose basic physical presence is an affront to their sensibilities to be fought en masse.
David Duke, the Grand Wizard of the KKK reached out to radical jihadists like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to join forces against the Jews. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) invoked Nazi stereotypes about the Jews seemingly in an effort to reach out to Nazis.
The United Nations and global media have rightfully denounced the Neo Nazis but have pathetically rallied to support anti-Semitic Muslims. The Nazis and jihadists don’t care, and will bond together to attack the most persecuted minority in the world. Perhaps they will unite under the banner of radical jihadists, who have wrongfully gathered global sympathies with abundant resources.
At least until the Islamic State of Iran initiates its own genocide of Jews.
Neo Nazis (with no government and media support) and Islamic radicals (with tremendous government and media support) are rallying fellow anti-Semites to take on the Jews wherever they live and pray. White Supremacists have joined the global jihad against the same Jewish infidels while the world considers which dead Jews deserved it.
The Abraham Accords struck between Israel and several Arab Muslim countries including the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco in 2020, have continued to advance the cause of peaceful coexistence.
On February 20, 2023, the U.A.E. invited many Jewish guests to be part of the opening ceremony of the first new synagogue in a Muslim country in generations. The Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue is part of the multi-faith Abrahamic Family House complex in Abu Dhabi which also includes a mosque and a church. The three places of worship sit beside one another in an effort to show harmony between the different faiths.
Beyond the proximity of each house of worship, the architects took care in designing each building: the mosque faces the Islamic holy city of Mecca, the church faces east towards the rising sun, and the synagogue faces Jerusalem, Judaism’s holist city.
Abrahamic Family Complex in Abu Dhabi, UAE
On that same February day, the United Nations took the polar opposite approach towards religious coexistence as the U.N. Security Council issued a statement condemning Jews and Judaism.
The official statement was a litany of complaints on the presence of Jews in their holy land. It expressed “strong opposition” to Jews building homes east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL). It condemned Israel’s killing Islamic terrorists planning attacks on Jewish civilians. It demanded that Jews continue to be forbidden from praying at the holiest site on the Jewish Temple Mount. And it urged that Jews and Christians take a backseat to Muslims when the holidays of Ramadan, Easter and Passover overlap this year, prioritizing Muslim access to Jerusalem over believers of the other faiths.
Remarkably, the “most right-wing government in Israeli history” as portrayed in the media, acquiesced to the anti-Semitic proposals. The Israeli government said that it would keep the “status quo” of banning Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount and would ban Jews from the site during the last ten days of Ramdan. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also reportedly told the United States that it won’t authorize new Jewish towns in E49AL for the next few months and will limit incursions into Palestinian Authority towns to arrest terrorists.
While the United Arab Emirates works for religious coexistence, the United Nations works to foment religious animosity and segregation. If there’s a future for peace and coexistence in the region, it will run through the U.A.E. and not the U.N..
