The Justice of Israel’s Cause

By Asher Zelig Fried

The threat facing Israel today is existential in nature and as severe as any in its near 60 year history. Iran proceeds unabated with development of its nuclear potential as it reinforces its conventional arsenal, and declares its intention to “wipe Israel off the map.”

Hezbollah rearmed to pre-war levels has repositioned itself in southern Lebanon while in Gaza; Hamas is newly fortified with advanced weaponry, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft batteries. Their training is now provided by Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

What is not readily acknowledged is a quiet and under-reported military buildup taking place both in Syria and Egypt. The regional balance of power is rapidly changing. Perhaps more ominously, while previous threats to Israel were met with unanimity founded on a belief in the justice of Israel’s cause, the country today is severely fractured. Its survival is dependent upon reunification behind its cause.

Israel was founded as a homeland for the Jewish people in the ancient land Israel. Its cause clear, Israelis, and indeed Jews around the world, understood it, internalized it, and proudly proclaimed its justice. When Israel was attacked at birth, its people fought valiantly to sustain their independence, and prevailed against forces far greater in number. The world then recognized Israel as the Jewish homeland and her international standing achieved its great heights.

Israel’s cause, and its very existence, was to be tested again in June of 1967. Five Arab nations aligned against her and positioned their armies to destroy her. Israel responded with unanimity of purpose and victory was swift. The heartland of Israel, Judea and Samaria, came under Jewish control for the first time in two thousand years. Jerusalem, Israel’s eternal capital was unified and its holy places liberated. Israel’s international standing sky-rocketed as there was never a time when the Jewish people was more admired, more respected, and more feared by its enemies, than in June of 1967.

The most harrowing threat to Israel existence occurred on Yom Kippur of 1973, as Egypt and Syria attacked simultaneously and prevailed in the initial battles of that war. With great desperation Israelis fought heroically as they understood their survival was dependent upon their actions. Their rallying point was the justice of their cause, the right of a homeland for the Jewish people in the ancient land of Israel.

There’s been much speculation as to why the justice of Israel’s cause has been so displaced, and why so diametric a change in Israel’s international standing has occurred. There is however widespread agreement as to the timing of the decline. It began most significantly in 1993, concurrent with the signing of the Oslo Accords, and has spiraled even more precipitously downward in the past several years.

The Accords introduced an entirely new narrative. It created the concept of an unjust Israel, and reversed the way many Israelis and the world perceived Israel. Pride of victory against sworn enemies was replaced by shame and defeat, as the government surrendered Jewish control over Jerusalem’s holy places and over Israel’s heartland to its enemy. Overnight Jews were branded “occupiers,” in their own land. The anomaly of Jews as occupiers of Judea, and of Jews occupying the Jewish city of Jerusalem was hardly questioned by the enlightened of western society.

The world, which once recognized Israel as the Jewish homeland and respected Israel for its ability to defend itself, was no longer certain as to who the land of Israel truly belonged. Further confusion reigned as to whether a united Jerusalem should or should not be part of the state Israel. It became difficult for even Israel’s staunchest allies to respect a people so ready to surrender their capital and much of their homeland to an enemy sworn to destroy them. World disdain for Israel began to incubate.

The most immediate result of the Oslo Accords, inconceivable in any context, was to bring back into the midst of Israel, the arch terrorist, Yasir Arafat and 7000 of his terrorist henchmen, many with Jewish blood on their hands. The government of Israel then provided these most vile and vicious murderers with massive quantities of weapons and ammunition. In their hapless delusion, the government declared this “The Peace Process.”

Arafat responded with a savage Intifada, deadly suicide attacks as Jewish families were blown apart, and the weapons that were provided to the terrorists were turned against the Jews. With the abject failure of Oslo still not apparent, then Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Arafat an independent Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, and possession of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, Judaism’s most sacred site. Arafat’s response was an escalation of suicide attacks against Israeli civilians and further accusation against Israel as an occupier of Arab land.

While Israel’s many detractors continue to work incessantly at perverting the Israel narrative, precious little is accomplished at refuting even their most contemptible lies. The European media, and now segments of the American media, regularly describe Israel as an occupying power harshly suppressing a poor and peaceful indigenous Arab population. Israel is portrayed as a militaristic threat, so much so that polls indicate a majority of Europeans consider Israel the leading threat to world peace. With Israel characterized as a “racist and apartheid state” and a “Nazi-like occupier” there is little sympathy for Israel’s battle against terrorism or compassion for her bloodied victims of suicide bombings. Israel’s international standing is in free fall.

Hardly a day passes without some denigrating accusation, new boycott, or divestiture announcement. Her most honored sons have been treated as common or war criminals, even by her closest allies. A debate now circulating within the European media and universities, unimaginable even a few years ago is whether the creation of Israel was an historic mistake. The debate now, in western society and even among “enlightened Jews,” is whether Israel should continue to exist. The battle for the hearts and minds of the civilized world, historically and overwhelmingly supportive of Israel as the David against Goliaths, is well near lost.

The cumulative impact of such widespread and overwhelming condemnation has been devastating to the country and is most evident among an increasing number of individual Israelis. For many, the “Battered Wife Syndrome” has taken firm hold. They reason that “if all these terrible things are happening to us, it must be because we deserve it.” Many now powerless to confront the unending chorus of orchestrated lies have internalized them, and in the process have discarded Israel’s most critical asset, the justice of her cause.

The strategy employed by Israel’s enemies is simple, effective, and Israel was forewarned. The prophetic words of the poet Nathan Alterman must now awaken us.

“Then did Satan say: ‘How will I conquer this beleaguered one? He possesses courage, ingenuity, resourcefulness, and tools of war.’ And then he said: ‘I’ll not rob his strength, nor bridle him, nor rein him in, nor enervate his hand. But this I’ll do - blunt his mind, till he forgets his cause is just.”

We are all witness to the return of the Jewish people to the land of their fathers after 2000 years of torturous and murderous exile. The world exists today with Christian countries and with Muslim countries, with Hindu and with Buddhist countries, and with 22 Arab countries. There is but one Jewish country and it exists on the ancient land of the Jewish people. This is Israel’s cause, and it is a just cause. It must again fill the heart of every Israeli, be proclaimed proudly and loudly, and unity will return and renewed pride will flower in Israel.