It has never been a secret that the Jewish nation is a despised lot in the eyes of the rest of the world. For close to 2000 years, and some would say far longer, we have had to live in the midst of a world that simply couldn't wipe us out fast enough, where grudging tolerance was a prize to be sought after, and where massacre was more often the rule.
Theodor Herzl, and many before and after him, saw this clearly enough, and understood that the only answer was a Jewish state and a Jewish homeland. Today, the State of Israel fulfills that dream. But for the State of Israel to act merely as a refuge for Jews, for it to seek to be merely another state in a world of states, is simply not enough to justify its existence.
Israel is the one place in the world where Jews can be Jews without reference to "others". It is the one place where we, the Jewish nation, get to determine what "Jewish nation" means, and it is the one place where we have the right, the obligation, and the dignity to defend ourselves, our interests, and our existence.
In 1975, the United Nations showed that the world is not about to change its tone toward the Jews. The greatest ideological movement of the twentieth century was dragged through the dirt of vitriol and the hate of would-be oppressors who found new expression for their anti-Semitism. Simply desiring a place where Jews could take care of their own destiny was now branded racist and given the stigma of the unwanted.
Nine months later, Israel responded. Yesterday we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Entebbe Rescue, the most monumentally heroic act of defending Jewish interests in recent memory. In the space of 16 hours, Israel showed that when the rest of the world chose to turn a blind eye to pure anti-Semitic hatred, the State of Israel could extend its reach to protect Jews wherever necessary.
Twenty-five years later, Israel celebrates the heroism of that day. Partially it is because Entebbe represents one of the founding missions of the State of Israel, to defend Jewish interests against those who would oppose our existence. But partly, it is because there is nothing else for Israel to celebrate this week.
The new resolution is, in fact, nothing new. The world is simply going through its motions again, complaining about how awful the Jews are, and doing so in such a way that right-thinking people will be forced to agree. What is new, though, is that there is no heroism left in Israel with which to respond.
Three more Jews have been killed in Israel this week, simply for being Jewish. And our hero-Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, has made three decisions of note. He has decided to keep the fiction of a cease-fire in place while his citizens are being murdered all around him, he has decided to remove outposts constructed in an effort to increase security in Judea and Samaria, and he let it be known that he might be willing to entertain the idea of running on a joint list with Labor in the next election.
The first of these decisions shows just how much of a hero Sharon really is. He has gone the way of heroes before him such as Yitzchak Rabin, Binyamin Netanyahu, and Ehud Barak, all three of whom could not defeat the biggest anti-Semite in the world between them. Sharon's spinelessness is all the more galling since he was elected with the single purpose of bringing an end to the violence that is claiming Jewish lives daily. Instead, he hides his head in the sand of a non-existent cease-fire.
The second decision sends a strong message to those who elected Sharon that he is not interested in keeping his promises, that he is more interested in making friends with those who would rather abandon the Land of Israel, and that he is powerless to protect Jews in Israel, which alone is reason enough to force him from office.
The third decision is the most remarkable. After seeing diplomats worldwide condemn Israel, lambaste Israel, and claim that Zionism is racism, Sharon has decided it might be a fine idea to join Likud and Labor together to lead Israel. Labor is led by a clique of Shimon Peres, Yossi Beilin, Avraham Burg, and Haim Ramon.
Of these, Peres is the godfather, the ranking leader and ideological icon. He has made a career of hobnobbing with these diplomats around the world, and is by now complicit in their condemnation of anything Jewish or Israeli. That Peres is also the author of Oslo is not so surprising, falling in line as it does with his alliances among these anti-Semitic diplomats.
Of late, even American diplomats have taken part. There was the Mitchell Commission, whose entire mandate was to find fault with Israel in its handling of the current violence. There was the Tenet Plan, born of the Mitchell Commission's findings. Both claim that Israeli settlement of the Land of Israel lies at the heart of the issue, and that if the Jews simply weren't there, there wouldn't be a Jewish Problem in Israel. Sounds vaguely familiar.
Sharon's policy is fully in line with Mitchell's findings and Tenet's recommendations. His proposed alliance with Labor is therefore the next logical step. But if you take the Zionist out of Zion, Israel disappears. And if you take Zion out of the Zionist, Judaism disappears with it.
Israel needs again to take care of its own, to defend itself and its citizens, to pay little heed to its enemies, whether those enemies are blatant like Arafat or latent like the UN, Mitchell, and Tenet, whether those enemies are from outside Israel, or from within such as Peres, Beilin, et al. Only then can Israel honestly celebrate the commemoration of Entebbe. Only then will Israel truly fulfill the Zionist dream.
Copyright 2001. Yehuda Poch is a writer living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
