This hatred is not logical. It isn’t rooted in policy; it defies evidence. And yet, it pulses through international institutions, college campuses, Western media, and the streets of Europe’s major cities. It has become acceptable – even fashionable – to condemn Israel for defending itself, to brand it a colonial project, and to campaign not for coexistence but for its erasure.
Still, Israel endures. And not only does it endure; it excels. Despite relentless pressure, it builds, innovates, absorbs, defends, and creates. That is not just resilience; it is quiet defiance. And that is exactly why it will prevail.
From its inception, Israel’s existence was treated as a provocation. A home for the Jews? In the Middle East? In lands Jews had lived in for centuries, long before Islam existed? The very idea was rejected violently by its neighbors.
Within 24 hours of Israel’s founding in 1948, five Arab nations invaded to strangle it in its cradle. They failed. So did every other attempt to destroy it, from conventional wars to intifadas, rocket barrages, and terror tunnels.
But Israel’s victory on the battlefield was only one front. The deeper war – the more insidious one – is the war of perception. And in that war, Israel faces a much darker force: the normalization of anti-Jewish double standards disguised as social justice.
Today, anti-Zionism has become the socially acceptable mask of antisemitism. Its proponents no longer shout “Death to the Jews” but “From the river to the sea.” They no longer burn synagogues; they boycott Jewish businesses, intimidate Jewish students, and deny Jews the right to self-determination under the language of liberation.
THIS HATRED now hides behind the word “Palestine,” but its target remains the same: Jewish legitimacy, Jewish security, and Jewish survival.
It is important to state clearly that criticism of Israel is not antisemitism. But denying Israel the right to exist is antisemitism. Holding it to impossible standards no other nation is judged by is antisemitism. And treating its people as permanent suspects, even when under attack, is antisemitism.
Still, even as hatred grows louder, Israel must not flinch. In fact, its answer should not be appeasement; it must be moral clarity.
Israel cannot spend its energy begging the world to understand. It must stop apologizing for its existence. There is no moral justification for its enemies firing rockets from playgrounds, launching terror attacks in synagogues, or using their own people as human shields. There is no moral high ground in calling for the annihilation of a nation.
So, how does Israel respond? Not just with military strength, but with narrative strength.
It must start telling its story again and telling it better. The world does not need another defensive press release. It needs truth with a spine. It needs voices that stop chasing Western approval and start asserting moral reality.
Israel must stop letting its enemies define the terms of the debate. “Occupation”? The land it is accused of occupying is the same land offered to the Palestinians in countless peace deals, all of which were rejected, not because of borders but because of Israel’s existence. “Colonialism”? There has never been a Palestinian state to colonize. Jews are not foreigners in Jerusalem, Hebron, or Tiberias. They are natives returning home.
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