Anti-Semitism: The Reason for Israel
By Anabella
Amid the recent exchange of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, anti-Semitism is once again rearing its ugly head around the world, most disturbingly in the United States. Cities with large Jewish populations, such as LA or NYC, are now hotbeds for anti-Jewish hate crime. Jews are being berated and attacked publicly, synagogues are being defaced, and dangerous rhetoric reminiscent of the twentieth century is resurrecting. Jews are anxious for their safety. Anti-semitism has been justified as a way to hold Israel accountable for its supposed human rights atrocities committed against the Palestinian minority. But the great irony of the global surge in anti-Semitism is that it is the reason Israel was founded in the first place.
The Jewish state was meant to be a safe haven for the world’s Jews. A refuge for the Jewish race from persecution, pogroms, diasporas, exile, and genocide. Constantly fleeing with no sense of belonging, the Jews yearned to return to their ancestral homeland in Judea, the biblical real estate designated for them by God in the Old Testament. The Jews are secure in Israel today, but enemies still surround them. Since it won its war for independence in 1948, Israel has navigated countless existential crises, foreign invasions by rogue states hellbent on its [Israel’s] erasure, and foreign-funded domestic unrest.
The Palestinian authority in the Gaza Strip recently launched thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians for nearly two weeks straight. The only thing preventing absolute carnage in Israel was its Iron Dome anti-ballistic missile defense system, which intercepted most of the incoming rockets. As Ben Shapiro pointed out last week, the rockets were fired indiscriminately, with the intention of killing as many Jews as possible. The attacks did not target military installations or points of infrastructural weakness; they were fired in the general direction of the innocent civilian population. Israel retaliated in self-defense, strategically targeting Hamas weapons stockpiles, military command centers, and underground tunnels sheltering terrorists.
Yet the familiar refrain echoed throughout social media, Hollywood, and corporate media: Israel is a ruthless apartheid state and murderer of Palestinians. Despite the fact that Israel was not, and rarely is, the original aggressor, Israel receives disproportionate blame and condemnation, now especially from the political Left. Some Democrats no longer feel any shame expressing anti-Semitism. It’s becoming a mainstream position in the party that’s rarely met with resistance.
Inflammatory tweets from prominent Democrats, such as Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, go unchecked. Other Democrats fraternize with and outwardly support known antisemites such as Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton. The party has yet to officially condemn anti-Semitism in any tangible way, sending a message that this behavior is condoned by the party that controls the executive and legislative branches of government. This, in turn, emboldens attacks on Jews. For a party that relentlessly accuses the Right of “dog-whistling,” the Democrats do their fair share.
Democratic legislators have shown apathy for their Jewish constituents time and time again. This past week, House Democrats rejected an amendment that would allow Israel to replenish its Iron Dome system. Last year, 70% of House Democrats voted against an amendment that would protect Jews from antisemitism. This trend is not confined to Congress. Even Leftist movements, such as BLM, have turned their back on Jews, encouraging many of their followers to despise the Jewish people.
Despite the home that anti-Semitism has found among the Left, it’s perplexing that the party that claims to be an ally for minorities consistently leaves Jews out of its advocacy. Hashtags like #StopAsianHate and black squares posted for BLM took Instagram by storm, yet as anti- Semitism spreads, Instagram is AWOL. I’ve seen no “support Jewish businesses” posts, no socially- mandated infographic forced onto everyone's feed. There is an undeniable lack of defense for the Jews, and it is unjustifiable. If the Left is going to peddle its brand of identity-obsessed politics, it should start with a group that has been persecuted for two millennia and faced the mechanical annihilation of its people less than 80 years ago.
This is especially offensive as the Jewish people have always lent their voices to those facing discrimination or oppression because it is something the Jews have experienced since the dawn of time. Targeted and neglected by the countries in which they dwelled, the Jews learned the hard way the importance of standing up for others. Today they are determined to ensure that no other group faces the same hardships they did. Therefore, it is unspeakably disheartening that the world remains silent when the Jews are attacked.
Many attempt to cloak their antisemitism as anti-Zionism, contending that Israel as a nation should not exist because it forcibly removed the original Palestinian inhabitants from their land when it was created. But anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are one and the same. One cannot be a simple critic of Israel and pretend not to see the physical and verbal assaults on Jews that result when conflict erupts in the Middle East. By targeting Jews in the diaspora, the case for Israel’s existence becomes stronger. Antisemites unintentionally prove the need for a Jewish state.
When will anti-Semitism be recognized for what it is? When will it be denounced as strongly as violence against other marginalized groups? The truth is that anti-Semitism is always given a free pass. In the age of virtue signalling and armchair activism, defending Jews against anti-Semitism is as easy as ever. There’s no excuse not to.
Yet, such support is sparingly voiced on social media and rarely comes from users who are not Jewish themselves. Antisemitism ought to carry the same weight of any other form of discrimination or hate crime. But as evidenced by the dismal lack of acknowledgement on the internet, we are far from this goal. We are closer to repeating history’s evils against the Jews once more.
