One hundred and twenty-seven years ago today, an auspicious  individual named Theodor Herzl outlined the vision for a modern Jewish State. In May 1948,  that Jewish State sprang into existence, amid war and chaos. Today, seventy-five years later, it is still locked in a ruthless battle for survival with its next-door neighbours. What we, the Jews, believe to be the true Jewish State - whose foundations are laid in the scripture, is but a European colonial project in the eyes of the Arab sons of Abraham. 

In this opinion piece, we ask "WHAT IS ISRAEL?" and why we have failed to convince the Arabs that it must exist. 

I.

Timing is important. This opinion piece is written at an uncertain time – in the aftermath of a deadly invasion of the State of Israel by the Palestinian Hamas militants on 8 October 2023. Following a total break-down of the Israeli intelligence and military oversight, hordes of Islamic terrorists poured into Israel, barbarously killing men, women and children. The atrocities may have amounted to the “bloodiest day” for Jews since the Holocaust, writes The Jerusalem Post. Jews, and our allies around the world, banded together to unequivocally condemn the massacre. Even American Jews on the liberal Left; those ardent preachers of the “Two-State Solution” for the Palestinian people, joined the outcry. But not everyone elected to share in our grief. Far from it.

II.

Terrorist sympathisers across the U.S. and Europe heeded the call for “the Global Day of Jihad” against the Jews. Thousands gathered in London, Paris and New York, waving Palestinian flags and flaunting the image of a Hamas paraglider descending upon the Jewish cities to kill. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organised hate marches at the top American universities, joining together in a familiar diabolical chant, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Shall Be Free.” For the uninitiated reader, the river here refers to the River Jordan, and the sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Such a Palestine, geographically speaking, would erase the Jewish State. This is the same position found in the Hamas Charter and echoed by the vast majority of Palestinians. Indeed, the destruction of the world’s only Jewish State is not a fringe idea in the 21st century; it has become one of the centre-piece ideas for the global Left.

III.

Openly anti-Israel leftists come in every colour and creed – the sitting U.S. Members of Congress, the European MPs, and even the so-called “Queers for Palestine”, whose degenerate lifestyles would warrant a prompt death sentence in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. Entire Jewish-run organisations: the wretched “B’Tselem”, and the “Jewish Voice for Peace”, work to end Israel’s existence. An elder of the post-modern Left, Noam Chomsky, hates Israel. “Palestine is our generation’s South Africa“ says the BLM (“Black Lives Matter”) co-founder Patrice Cullors. To destroy the Jewish State is but to end an apartheid, a colonial project of the European whites, designed to oppress and displace the “native” Palestinians from ‘their land’. Often, enemies of the Jews would forgo the name of “Israel” altogether, preferring “Occupied Palestine”.

IV.

Considering the sheer volume of anti-Zionist rhetoric from the American Left, one would be forgiven to think that Israel is a staunchly conservative dystopia ran by a MAGA (“Make America Great Again”) syndicate. Nothing is further from the truth. The modern Israel was founded by the socialist Left. Labour Zionism was one of its core ideologies, and, until the late 1960s, the country was run by a Workers’ Party with a Soviet-inspired emblem. It was a great friend of the U.S.S.R. under Stalin, who aided Israel in its independence war by sending arms from communist Czechoslovakia. Israel’s unique brand of Marxism is alive to this day – in the collectivist kibbutz communities, same ones that were brutally attacked by Hamas on 8 October.

V.

The socialist identity of the modern Jewish state has then steadily migrated into the decadent realm of European-style liberalism. The old Soviet ally had abandoned Israel, supplying enemies with weapons and training after 1967. In its place, the United States firmly established itself as the broker of Jewish existence in the Land of Israel; with Britain as its perennial junior partner, and a squabble of Europeans taking up supporting roles. Israel owes much to cooperation with the European Union, its biggest trading partner. Over 30% of Israel’s exports and imports go to, and come from, the EU. It is party to European free trade agreements and associations. To say that Israel’s miracle economy is dependent on Europe is not an understatement. But with great trade come greater obligations; and European trade comes in bundled with European “values”. The same values that not so long ago, led to the rise of Fascism and the extermination of the Jewish people in Europe. The very same pagan, Epicurean values that the Europeans themselves inherited from the Romans, who brought down the Second Temple.

VI.

Let’s look at the values that the modern State of Israel had borrowed from the Europeans. Abortion – the state-sanctioned sacrifice of babies, is almost universally legal. Transgenderism is rampant. Israeli television does not shy away from preaching this unholy practice – there is an award-winning (!) documentary, “Transkids”, celebrating androgynous, transitioned children as shining models of human achievement. Same-sex cohabitation and gay “pride” parades are ubiquitous, complete with their flying rainbow flags. Tens of thousands march through Jerusalem, a holy city, in such a parade every year. This is done in full view of the passers-by – children, the Orthodox Jews and religious Muslims. Just as the devout Palestinian Arabs pray to the Lord atop the Al-Aqsa mosque, they can see the LGBT flags waving around underneath them, inspiring their rage and violence. The Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government may be branded Far-Right by the American Left, but only insofar as it concerns Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian Arabs. In everything else, The State of Israel today is a woke European utopia of the socialist European kind.

VII.

In his recent interview with Jordan Peterson, an often-confused prophet of the new American Right, Netanyahu argues that Israel is a fullfilment of a 2,000-year dream, a Jewish State in the Biblical Land of Israel, land granted to the Jews by the Lord Himself. What he fails to mention is that the Lord’s gift to the Jews is not given without conditions! The Biblical Kings of old, in Israel and Judah, who had turned to the worship of false gods and engaged in wicked pagan practices, were vanquished. And just as the modern State of Israel had come into being in 1948, so have her ancient enemies in Gaza – the Philistines. ‘Palestinian’ peoples of today have little in common with the Philistines of old; they are Arabs, sons of Abraham, who had been migrating to the Land of Israel ever since the Islamic conquests of the 7th century CE. In their murderous struggle against the Jewish State, these Arabs took up the hated exonym of “Palestine” as their own. Just as the Israelites often perished at the hand of the Philistines for their wickedness, so does Israel of today suffer at the hand of the “Palestinians”.

VIII.

For better or for worse, the modern State of Israel finds itself living side-by-side with the Palestinians Arabs, next to the Muslim powers of the Middle East. How to deal with this debacle? Some on the Israeli Far Right, inspired by the false teachings of Meir Kahane, would see the Arabs expelled from the Land of Israel, displaced into the desert or across the seas. Their goal is to create an ethno-homogenous Jewish State, throw the dastardly “Two-State Solution” into the dustbin of history and expand the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria (and perhaps beyond, across the River Jordan). This is impractical and evil. Worse, this ideology threatens to unite the Muslims of the Middle East and bring about Israel’s destruction. The normalisation of ties between Israel and some Arab countries, under the historic Abraham Accords in 2020, had lulled the Jews into a false sense of security. On the day this piece is being written, October 18, 2023, the Muslims are sieging down the Israeli and the U.S. missions across the Middle East in response to the bombing that had occured at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza. While the Arab power-brokers in the neighbourhood seek détente with Israel for financial reasons and the mutual fear of Iran, the everyday people of their countries remain hostile. In Jordan, just as King Abdullah II is trying to remain seated on the fence, crowds are marching towards Israel’s border. If it were up to them, war would break out.

IX.

This leaves the long-term coexistence with the Palestinian Arabs as the only viable solution. That future looks like a fairy-tale outcome that is blind to the the realpolitik of the region, but it is not an improbable future. On YouTube, there is “The Ask Project” by Corey Gil-Shuster, which ventures into the Arab communities of the Judea and Samaria, asking people about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Through a myriad of questions and responses, a common theme emerges. The Palestinian Arabs overwhelmingly see the State of Israel as their eschatological foe, with whom there may be no accord. To them, Israel is not the fulfillment of a 2,000-year prophecy, but a colonial Zionist state, a crusade of the European Jews who came to preach the European “values” in the heart of the Muslim Middle East. Evil, in the Arab psyche, is not an amorphous concept that is difficult to define. Instead, “evil” manifests as it does in the scripture: in the form of the rainbow “pride” parades, sexual promiscuity, drugs and alcohol, transgenderism, abortion, and atheism. All of this could be found aplenty in the modern State of Israel, right before the eyes of the ever-watchful Muslims. In this context, the anti-semitic hatred of Jews is on the rise in the Middle East, where no other state but Israel permits the degenerate European “values” to manifest. In order for the Arab sons of Abraham to accept the Jews of Israel as equals, friends and neighbours, they must be like the Jews in the Bible: devout, modest and conservative. Those Jews will have a lasting place in the Middle East. The Palestinian Arabs will not only learn to accept them, but serve them as the true Chosen people of G-d.

X.

To convince the Arabs and the other Muslims of the Middle East to live side-by-side and prosper together with the Jews – we must, as ever, turn toward our faith. Then, The State of Israel may exist not in-spite of our neighbours, but through their allegiance. Israel must become less of an extension of the colonial European polity preaching European values, but an integral part of the Middle East. That State of Israel will leverage its cultural affinity to the Muslims. That Israel will cordon-off Jerusalem as the Holy City of all three great Abrahamic religions, and live by the laws of the Torah there. And once the Jews light up the altars in Jerusalem and perform the sacrifices, the nations of Islam will join us to honour our One G-d together.

October 18, 2023

By Eli Ein-Ohr.