There were many reasons for the creation of the modern State of Israel in 1948 – principally, because, according to the Torah, God bequeathed it to the people He called His chosen. And while returning to that ancestral homeland may have been the motivating call of the prophets, for modern-day Zionists, it was less of a factor.
That is because after 2,000 years of Jewish persecution, perpetrated in unfriendly host countries, visionaries such as Theodor Herzl, David Ben-Gurion, and others came to the realization that Jews would never really be safe and secure without the establishment of their own country. Fear of exile would never be an issue. The freedom to openly be ethnically, traditionally, and religiously Jewish would be protected.
That same major consideration has proven to have been the right decision, since so many Western societies have seen an unprecedented trend of antisemitism, accompanied by massive protests against Israel.
Imagine what the fallout would be if they weren’t directed at a Jewish state, but rather at the Jewish people. We would be watching the precursor of yet another Holocaust – this time, with the potential of killing more than six million.
In this super-charged backdrop of Jew-hatred, Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York, appeared on Good Day New York.
Anchorwoman Roseanna Scotto asked him whether he supports Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. His response was that “he supports Israel’s right to exist as a state with equal rights.”
When pressed again by Scotto, who asked, “Why not as a Jewish state?” he replied: “Because I’m not comfortable supporting any state that has a hierarchy of citizenship on the basis of religion or anything else. As in this country [the US], equality should be enshrined as in every country in the world.”
Regrettably, Scotto failed to challenge Mamdani’s ignorant comment, most likely because she, herself, does not have an informed frame of reference about how and why Israel became a modern state – first and foremost, serving as a safe refuge for the world’s Jewish population.
Had Scotto understood the meaning of the Holocaust and the probable likelihood of its repeat, she might have referred Mamdani to do a quick search into the history of the Jewish people, who were subjected to second-class citizenry in the best-case scenario, and exile, forced conversion, or death in the worst case.
Consistent in his uneducated, half-baked answers on a variety of issues, when it came to Israel, Mamdani didn’t fail to disappoint. Israel is a Jewish state – not because it doesn’t believe in equal rights, but because it is committed to ensure that Jews are protected and guaranteed a home that they can call their own.
Within that home there are an estimated 2.1 million Arabs, as well as around 140,000 Druze and about 189,300 Christians, all living in the Jewish state and all receiving the freedoms that come with living in a democratic society.
Jews, Palestinian, and non-Arab, Christian citizens who live within the Green Line all have voting rights. They are also free to pursue the same education and employment that are afforded to Israeli citizens.
In fact, unlike other Middle Eastern Muslim-run countries, Israel is the freest and most tolerant nation for women, minorities, and even outsiders, placing no dress or chaperone restrictions on females.
THE TRUTH revealed in Mamdani’s ignorant response is that he either knows nothing about Israel, or he does, but is using his feigned concern of equal rights as a made-up justification for why Israel should not be a Jewish state.
That Scotto did not advise him that he is ill-informed when it comes to the equal rights afforded to non-Jews in Israel bolsters the assertion that if she, as a news person, doesn’t know that, then ordinary people wouldn’t either. That means Mamdani can easily get away with the false claim that Israel, as a Jewish state, infringes upon or outright denies rights to others who live there.
Most people who hear such a statement would see his position as both reasonable and warranted. In fact, the accusation of a hierarchy of citizenry, resulting in the inequities of minorities, would sound very prejudicial and serve to prop up the libelous claim that Zionism is, in fact, racist – preferring Jews to all others.
But it completely misses the point of more than 2,000 years of deadly persecution and disenfranchisement by countries directed at their Jewish population.
Discomfort at Jewish empowerment
Playing into the already biased viewpoint, which has been carefully curated by an anti-Israel media, Mamdani cleverly gets uninformed people thinking about the legitimacy of his objections to Israel being recognized as a Jewish state.
It’s laughable that he couches his words with, “I’m not comfortable with supporting any state that...”
If Mamdani had one shred of honesty, he might be forthright enough to admit that the discomfort he feels is that Jews are permitted to have a state that not only recognizes the right of every Jew to live in Israel and also have their own military to defend them against any threat.
A great benefit of having an independent state is the right to develop a military defense that is second to none. That means we are not dependent upon anyone else – unlike the sitting ducks that Jews became in Nazi-controlled Europe, waiting to be herded into cattle cars headed for death camps. Today, they will take their security into their own hands.
That is what seems to be so objectionable to Mamdani: that Israel’s destiny is no longer in the hands of fickle host countries who may one day love you and then turn bitterly against you the next day. Just look at what’s happening right now in America, Europe, and Australia.
Only a couple of years ago, Jews who were citizens of those locales, were loved, appreciated, and respected just as any other citizen. Now, following the October 7 massacre, Jewish students are unwelcome at many campuses, and Jews have become targets in their synagogues, institutions, or homes.
Does that not testify to the changeable atmosphere that can spontaneously erupt when Jews are suddenly seen as the enemy?
That is the reason Israel cannot be supported as anything else but a Jewish state. It’s time that Mamdani and Scotto got educated.
The writer is a former Jerusalem elementary and middle-school principal. She is also the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, available on Amazon, based on the time-tested wisdom found in the Book of Proverbs.