The global intifada – the killing of Jews, Zionists, those who support Israel – is now a “justifiable” act, met with silence, shrugs, or applause. You don’t need me to list the daily, growing, global Jew hunting, latest killing, mainstream media’s echoing blood libels. You don’t need me to ask what comes next after you are a colonialist oppressor, an apartheid subhuman Jew. But you do need someone to offer a concrete plan for our survival.
Is there any moral difference between Hamas burning children’s legs to mark them, and the Nazis tattooing numbers on Jewish children’s arms? “Hamas took every child on a motorbike, put their legs on the exhaust, so they have a burn and will be marked if they run, if they escape, so they can find them” (Times of Israel, Dec. 1, 2023). I never thought that in 2023 I would be sobbing with rage and grief for Jewish Israeli children literally torn apart, Israeli soldiers beheaded, women raped, their naked, dead bodies stomped on, the dead paraded like war trophies, families trapped, their charred remains found. At least the Nazis gassed us before cremating us, although toward the end, as the Allies were descending, they threw Jewish children alive into the ovens.
We need Jews, wherever they gather, to form proactive groups to combat mainstream media’s falsehoods by calling, writing, flooding their offices and our campuses with easy-to-digest “Myths vs. Lies” pamphlets. Reach young people by flooding social media with the truth and beauty of Israel. Fund organizations that practice lawfare, suing those who practice institutionalized Jew hate and intimidation. Each and every Jew needs to become as relentlessly active as are our enemies.
We don’t need more empty laments, hand wringing, or impotent bemoaning. We need Jews – from little ones to old ones, Jewish men and women – to be fully trained, equipped, and comfortable with using a full range of legal items for self-defense. We need Jews who fight back, who will take down an attacker swiftly and with ease. And make it known to the world that we will not go down quietly.
If you need role models, look no further than the IDF’s brave men and women. Or emulate the fearless Bielski brothers whose raw, relentless courage saved hundreds of Jews from the Nazis. “The brothers believed that the group needed to be feared if it had any chance of surviving in such a hostile environment,” their biographers wrote in the Tuvia Bielski: Rescue is Resistance Study Guide.
Diaspora Jews are quickly becoming used to being victims and are beginning to act like victims. Do we need to be reminded that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior? When I was in France in 2015, all Jewish institutions were guarded by armed French soldiers because of assaults on Jews and Jewish institutions. If we learn anything from our history, it should be that we can never depend upon others to save Jews. We have to protect and save ourselves. We have to become safe through strength.■
Ginette Weiner is a published commentator in Jewish and mainstream newspapers, has an MSW and certification in Understanding Media Bias & Israel Advocacy, HonestReporting’s 23rd Mission to Israel.
