Shalom! (שָׁלוֹם)
Start Here. I’m so thankful you’ve taken the time to join me on a journey of discovery. Welcome.
The history of the Jewish people is complex, layered, and often painful. But our connection to our ancestral homeland is unambiguous. Israel is our ancestral homeland and the duration of occupation by conquering armies does not legitimize their presence as “indigenous” peoples. I’m not disputing that the history is complicated, it is, but complexity does not (and should not) create moral ambiguity. Nuance does not erase truth. And correlation is not causation.
The suffering of Palestinians is real, but it is not the inevitable result of Jewish self-determination — it is the direct consequence of 100 years of Arab leadership and islamist ideologies that have chosen the destruction of the State of Israel over peace. And sadly, it’s had a profound and devastating effect on the psyche of Israeli Citizens. Founded as a socialist dream, Israeli politics and society have, over time, moved further right. As a result of Israeli’s learned experiences with Palestinian rejections of overtures of peace resulting in decades of aggressions, as of 2022, 62 percent of the population identifying as on the political right. October 7th has only reinforced that trend and as a result, the prospects of peace have dimmed.
This is not a symmetrical conflict. It is a struggle between the Jewish people — both in Israel and in the diaspora — and those who seek to erase us. A fight not just against the Jewish state, but against Jewish identity, continuity, and survival.
Understanding our history makes our claim stronger, not weaker. And it deepens our obligation — not just to defend Israel, but to defend ourselves. Acknowledging the full story doesn’t weaken our case — it strengthens our obligation to tell it.
I spend too many waking hours struggle to understand why we are once again being vilified. But at this point, that is besides the point. It’s real, it’s persistent and it’s crawled out the shadows and exploded on the world stage since Hamas crossed the boarder in a genocidal rampage through southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The rising tide of anti-Zionist propaganda is leaving Jews isolated, divided, and confused.
The “Pro-Palestine” Propaganda War
This is not new. We’ve faced persecution, expulsion and existential threats for well over two thousand years.
In “On Blood Libels” Anthony Julius discusses blood libels in great detail. He observes that:
The blood libel is not just an attack on Jews, it is an attack on Judaism. It does not just assert, “This is what Jews do.” It asserts, “This is what Judaism demands.”
The latest virulent strain of antisemitism, disguises itself as human rights activism and “social justice" and it has been amplified to unprecedented levels as a result of the “greatest propaganda machine in history”. This is how criticism of Israel has become the new lingua franca (bridge language) of antisemitism. And it’s being parroted by biased “journalism” in mainstream media outlets world wide from the BBC to CNN, the AP and MSNBC. Thanks to billions of dollars from Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood it has infected our children in classrooms from elementary schools to our nation’s most “elite” universities. It has spilled into our streets at hate filled protests around the world. Synagogues are being desecrated and burned, visibly jewish people are being assaulted and killed in the streets, Jewish children are being physically assaulted on the way to jewish schools and on college campuses, Jewish cemeteries and holocaust museums are being desecrated and the violence is escalating in the name of "Palestine”, in the past few weeks, two Israeli embassy staffers were assassinated outside a jewish event and a holocaust survivor was burned to death at a peaceful protest in Boulder and the perpetrators of these hate crimes are being celebrated.
As Natan Sharansky said so well in helping to define the 3Ds of modern anti-semitism:
Whereas classical anti-Semitism is aimed at the Jewish people or the Jewish religion, “new anti-Semitism” is aimed at the Jewish state. Since this anti-Semitism can hide behind the veneer of legitimate criticism of Israel, it is more difficult to expose. Making the task even harder is that this hatred is advanced in the name of values most of us would consider unimpeachable, such as human rights.
He warned us 20 years ago about the constant and growing stream of anti-Semitic propaganda from the Arab and Muslim world which he published in a 150-page report on “Anti- Semitism in the Contemporary Middle East.”
It’s not just a war for Israel’s legitimacy — it’s an antisemitic war that threatens the ability for jews - regardless of political leaning - to live in peace and security in America and around the world. This is what “globalize the intifada” means.
While a lot of antisemitic propaganda we see is often obviously biased, unfortunately, much of it is far more nefarious and has been used by our enemies to “indoctrinate” generation after generation. This information presents as rational, reasonable commentary that vilifies Israel. It has been “sane washed” into seemingly fact-based dispassionate “scholarly” journals chronicling our crimes against the Palestinian people. These writings are dangerous. With the advent of ChatGPT, you can unpack the misinformation and uncover these biased and lopsided narratives that have captivated tens if not hundreds of millions of people. Take for example the Carnegie Institute’s publication, written after the October 7th attacks, entitled: “The Many Civil and Human Rights Challenges Facing Israel’s Palestinian Citizens” written by an author with an agenda, Layla Gantus. Gantus’s article is a masterclass in selective omission and ideological framing. While it references real social and economic challenges faced by Arab-Israelis, which are real, it manipulates the context to paint Israel as an apartheid-like oppressor, without acknowledging the country’s complex balancing act between civil rights and national security—especially with an enemy that has refused a nation-state and peace with Israel every single time it’s been offered over the last 100 years. The piece downplays or ignores the scale of the October 7 attacks, fails to consider legitimate Israeli concerns over incitement and terror support, and frames lawful security responses as persecution. It describes Israel’s efforts to define itself as a Jewish state—while granting full citizenship to minorities—as inherently discriminatory. Most tellingly, it never once holds Palestinian leadership or extremist actors accountable for perpetuating conflict. This is not scholarship; it is advocacy dressed in institutional language. And it’s precisely this type of masked bias that has made anti-Zionist propaganda so powerful and so difficult for well-meaning observers to detect—unless they know what to look for. Here is ChatGPT’s analysis of the bias presented in this article:
Layla Gantus’s article is not a neutral policy critique but an ideologically slanted opinion piece that exaggerates discrimination against Arab-Israelis while ignoring Israel’s legitimate security concerns. It omits critical context—such as Arab political representation, integration successes, and the role of incitement—while conflating societal racism with state policy. By presenting one-sided narratives under the veneer of scholarship, it advances an activist agenda that distorts rather than clarifies the truth.
Or this white paper by the Middle East Research and Information Project innocuously entitled: “Palestine and Israel—A Primer” by Joel Beinin and Lisa Hajjar. Despite its academic tone, this publication is deeply biased co-authored by a co-founder of Jewish Voice for Peace (which is neither jewish nor advocates for peace1). Here is ChatGPT’s analysis of the bias presented in this article:
Though presented as an educational overview, this “primer” is a heavily biased document that frames Zionism as a colonial project and erases Jewish historical ties to the land of Israel. It systematically omits key context—such as Arab rejectionism, Palestinian terrorism, and Israel’s repeated peace offers—while portraying Palestinians as purely passive victims. By structuring the conflict as a one-sided narrative of Israeli aggression and Palestinian innocence, it indoctrinates readers into a delegitimizing worldview that masquerades as academic neutrality.
We have to be diligent and suspect of everything we read. Please take the time to fact check and seek out the truth.
Another insidious tactic that antisemites use is they intentionally redefine terms used in international law to fit their narratives. Words have meaning, but not to the antisemite. Words like Zionism, Genocide, Apartheid, Colonialism even antisemitism itself have all been redefined to vilify Israel. Be wary of the shape shifting virus of antisemitism.
Words have Meaning.
Let’s now go deeper, focusing on precise, historically grounded definitions of each term—typically drawn from legal, academic, or institutional sources—and then compare them to the ways antisemites or anti-Zionists have redefined them specifically to vilify Israel. The goal is to expose the deliberate manipulation of language.
1. Zionism
Historical Definition (from Jewish and academic sources):
“Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, which holds that Jews, like all other peoples, have the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland, the Land of Israel.”
— World Zionist Organization, 1897; consistent with modern international norms of self-determination.
Redefined Anti-Israel Usage:
Zionism is redefined as a racist, settler-colonial, and exclusionary ideology, asserting that the Jewish return to Israel represents European imperialism and ethnic supremacy rather than indigenous return.
Strategic Purpose of Redefinition:
By calling Zionism racism or colonialism, anti-Zionists seek to invalidate Israel’s legitimacy entirely, rather than critique policies. This demonizes all Jews who support Israel, turning nationalism into a slur.
2. Antisemitism
Historical Definition (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA):
“A certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
Includes: denying Jewish self-determination, holding Jews collectively responsible for Israel’s actions.
Redefined Anti-Israel Usage:
Antisemitism is redefined narrowly as only violence or discrimination against Jews as individuals or religious adherents—excluding anti-Zionism, rejection of Jewish statehood, or even calls for Israel’s destruction.
Strategic Purpose of Redefinition:
By decoupling anti-Zionism from antisemitism, activists grant themselves permission to demonize Jewish identity expressed politically, while claiming to oppose bigotry. It creates a false moral distinction.
3. Genocide
Historical Definition (UN Convention on Genocide):
“Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, such as: killing members, causing serious harm, deliberately inflicting life conditions calculated to bring about destruction.”
Redefined Anti-Israel Usage:
Israel’s military operations—even when targeting terrorists and providing humanitarian warnings/aid—are labeled “genocide.” Civilian casualties in asymmetric warfare are treated as proof of intent to exterminate.
Strategic Purpose of Redefinition:
This redefinition falsely equates war with genocide, ignoring actual genocides (e.g., Rwanda, Yazidis, Holocaust). It allows Israel to be demonized as Nazi-like, stripping it of the moral right to self-defense.
4. Colonialism
Historical Definition (UN and academic):
“The practice of acquiring political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.”
— United Nations Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (1960)
Colonizers are: foreign powers with no indigenous ties, extracting resources from the colonized land.
Redefined Anti-Israel Usage:
Jews—who have maintained a 3,000-year connection to the Land of Israel—are labeled European settler-colonialists displacing “indigenous Palestinians,” ignoring Mizrahi Jews, historical sovereignty, and Arab conquests.
Strategic Purpose of Redefinition:
This inversion turns indigenous Jews into invaders and colonial aggressors, erasing Jewish history to fit a global Leftist anti-imperialist narrative, and justifying resistance by any means.
It’s also ironic considering the fact that it’s the Arabs that are the actual colonizers. The consequences of the history of Arab-Islamic colonialism are obvious: There are more than 1.8 billion Muslims. There are 22 Arabs states which comprise the Arab League, representing roughly 430,000,000 Arab citizens, and Arabic is one of the most common languages in the world. Today, in addition to the 22 Arab nations there are 57 Islamic countries. Over 1.8 billion people are Muslims, constituting around a quarter of the entire global population. Arabic was spread across the world through Arab colonialism in the same way that English was spread across the world by English colonialism. Contrasted with about 15 million Jews worldwide, 6 million Jews in Israel, and only a few million people who speak Hebrew, this means there are about 120 Muslims per one Jew. Clearly, the Arabs were some of the greatest colonialists in human history.
5. Apartheid
Historical Definition (International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, 1973):
“Inhumane acts… committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group over another and systematically oppressing them.”
Key Elements: Racial classification, legalized segregation, denial of voting rights, and systemic denial of services.
Redefined Anti-Israel Usage:
Israel is labeled an apartheid state because it treats citizens and non-citizens (e.g., Palestinians in the West Bank or Gaza) differently, ignoring the fact that Arab citizens of Israel have voting rights, serve in parliament, and attend universities.
Strategic Purpose of Redefinition:
Redefining apartheid to mean any legal or military distinction, regardless of race or citizenship, allows activists to equate Israel with South Africa, a known pariah, to rally global condemnation and BDS.
These redefinitions are not innocent academic exercises—they are rhetorical weapons. They are designed to delegitimize, demonize, and ultimately destroy Israel not through tanks and bombs, but through words. When lies become normalized through repetition, even truth starts sounding radical.
It is incumbent on each and every one of us to combat the massive disinformation campaign being waged against us. We must tell our side of the story. Because if we don’t tell our story — clearly, courageously, and consistently — our enemies will rewrite it for us. And this isn’t hyperbole. Our enemies have waged a propaganda war for thousands of years and, sadly, we have to face the reality that they are winning. Our story is being erased and rewritten in real time. And what’s being erased isn’t just Israel’s “side” of the story, but our story. Our history. Our right to exist as a people.
What is also troubling is that Hamas’ murderous rampage has divided us and it has created a crisis of Jewish disunity. It’s causing moral confusion and, as a result, Zionism is being called into question.
What is Zionism?
Many of Zionism’s detractors look around at whatever the current Israeli government is doing and see their actions as a reflection of Zionism itself. They believe that to be a Zionists, you must align with the Netanyahu regime. Yet, I am a Zionist, and I abhor the current Israeli government. How can that be?
To answer that question, we must start by aligning on the definition of Zionism? As defined above:
“Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, which holds that Jews, like all other peoples, have the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland, the Land of Israel.”
Zionism is a four-thousand-year-old ideology that turned into a movement in the late 1800s. Zionism stands for the right of the Jewish people to exercise self-determination in their historic homeland, the land of Israel.
That’s it. Full stop. It’s the reason there’s a Jewish refuge in this world — and the reason so many want it gone. Since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, it has repeatedly served as a refuge for Jewish communities facing existential threats, persecution, or displacement around the world.2
But, we must be clear that “Zionism” and current Israeli policy are not the same. The Zionist ideology might inform current Israeli policy – in much the same way the values written in American’s declaration of Independence informs American policy – but the ideology does not dictate the policy of the Israeli government.
My goal in publishing this is to help us work together to align and recapture our story.
WHAT THIS GUIDE IS
It’s a tool for countering the lies with truth, the slogans with context, and the moral relativism with historical clarity. It breaks down the most common accusations against Israel — genocide, apartheid, colonialism — and gives you the language to push back without apology.
WHO IT’S FOR
Jews who feel alone, confused, or gaslit in today’s discourse
Students confronting peer pressure and institutional hostility
Parents, professionals, rabbis, and friends trying to explain why Israel matters — and why we must defend it
Anyone who still believes that our people’s story didn’t start in 1948 — and doesn’t end in hashtags
HOW TO USE IT
Each section presents a falsehood - A “blood libel” — and walks you through how to counter it. Not just with facts, but with the confidence that comes from knowing our history and embracing our responsibility. I’ve included “Author’s Notes” throughout the chapters along with footnotes and commentary I’ve called “Beyond the Talking Points” with links for anyone that wants to dig deeper.
Please use it at the Shabbat table. In classrooms. On campus. On social media. In your own mind when doubt creeps in. Send it to your friends. Post it on social media. Please help it go viral. We need to help our Jewish and non-Jewish friends and families to defeat this pernicious propaganda.
Because the truth is complex — but not unclear.
Because Jewish unity depends on a common narrative rooted in moral clarity.
Because we can’t continue to allow our enemies to invert morality and conflate causation with correlation.
And because no one is coming to tell our story for us.
We have to do it — together.
A PROLOGUE
☮️Peace, Love & Hate
We must all recognize that antisemitism is unlike any other form of hatred throughout history. No matter where the Jews have been - Europe, the Middle East, North Africa - they’ve always faced hatred. Antisemitism has been around for thousands of years, but it really kicked into high gear with the rise of Christianity and Islam. Discrimination against Jews often turns real ugly, real fast. It can escalate into false accusations, mass expulsions, violent mobs, murders, and even genocide. Everything and its opposite is a reason for hating Jews:
In communist countries, Jews were hated for being capitalists, but in capitalist nations, they were accused of being communists.
When Jews lived in ghettos, they were called "clannish," but when they assimilated, they were accused of infiltrating and corrupting the dominant culture.
Jews are “too white” to count as an oppressed minority, but not “white enough” to mollify white supremacists.
Basically, no matter what, someone somewhere comes up with a reason to hate Jews.
Antisemitism is old and many thoughtful people have tried to explain it. The most common reasons are: Jews are rich, powerful and influential given their numbers. Jews claim to be the Chosen People. Jews killed Jesus. Jews are outsiders and different from everyone else. Jews are an inferior race. Jews are easy scapegoats.
And while some of these reasons may describe a particular antisemite’s motivation, none of them really explain antisemitism, especially since antisemitism happens at times and in places where these reasons don’t make a whole lot of sense.
For example, Jews living in Russia’s Pale of Settlement were poor and weak, but they were still hated.
The Jews of 19th century Germany renounced their status as a “chosen people,” but they were still hated.
Even when the Jews assimilated and did their best to shed their Jewish identity - you guessed it - they were still hated.
So, no matter where you look in history, antisemitism is always there, and with the explanations always changing and evolving, it’s hard not to think they’re really just… excuses.
If you're a Washington Post subscriber this is an interesting piece entitled "Why do people hate jews and judaism"
Hate: Why do they Hate Us?
Why do you suppose, as a people, jews have been forever persecuted. It's a puzzling question that is worth exploring.
On November 2nd, 2023 the Stanford Classical Liberalism Initiative interviewed Alan Dershowitz. It's worth the time to listen. As always, when it comes to Alan Dershowitz, you can count on moral clarity when it comes to Antisemitism.
I want to highlight two answers he gave in discussing the "woke progress" movement. Both arguments are valid and both were novel arguments that I had not yet heard.
He starts by explaining why it's so hard to resolve this complex problem when addressing the "woke progressives". He says:
The new McCarthyism is more dangerous than the old McCarthyism. The old McCarthyism was clearly wrong it was going after the wrong people for the wrong things, but the new Mccarthyites, the new wokes, they favor women's rights, so do we, they favor gay rights, so do we, they favor transgender rights, so do we, they favor climate control, so do we, they favor reasonable gun control, they favor a decent Supreme Court, they're on our side, they just are taking it to a point where tolerance has disappeared, due process has disappeared, free speech has disappeared. Remember that the "hard left" never supported free speech, it was always free speech for me but not for thee, go back to the Frankfurt school and the people there, they never tolerated anything like that, and so now the intolerant hard left is taking over, but the reason they're so hard to defeat is because they're on the right side of so many issues whereas the hard right is not on the right side and so they are much easier targets
It's such a smart observation. It's why it's so insidious and so hard to combat.
In discussing the "woke" progressive movement and their "anti-colonialist" framing of Israel and why they hate us, said:
One of the causes that woke has, is that they are totally against meritocracy.“ Why does he say that? He continues. “Who have been one of the biggest beneficiaries of meritocracy of the world.... the jews. Jews were without privilege, without any opportunities. They made it in America on the basis of meritocracy. Israel became a scientific superpower and a military superpower. So Jews in Israel stand for meritocracy. Stand for the ability to rise up. And that's exactly what the woke people don't like. So Jews fit that paradigm in so many different ways, colonialist, meritocracy, rejection of identity politics. Afterall Israel is one of the most diverse countries in the world, it has a significant black population, a very significant brown population, the majority of Israelis are not European by background, they're from North African and Arab countries by background. So meritocracy, that's the bane of the woke progressive movement
So could it be that?
But "wokeism" and "anticolonialism" are recent phenomena and antisemitism has existed for Millenia. So there must be more?
Perhaps it's what the late, great, Rabbi Sacks said 13 years ago... Maybe it's just "sibling rivalry" between religious "brothers”
Peace: How do we prioritize peace with an enemy that doesn’t want peace?
Since this chapter is entitled “Shalom”, let’s end with some inspiring thoughts from an asperational leader and a man who sought Peace.
Shimon Perez's last book was an autobiography entitled "No Room for Small Dreams: Courage, Imagination, and the Making of Modern Israel." It’s a fantastic book. He finished writing it only weeks before his passing in 2016. May his memory be a blessing! I highly recommend reading it.
I think given everything going on in Israel and in the world today, this is a poignant reminder that peace must be the end game. We can disagree about the means to that end, but it must be the end!
As Shimon says many times throughout his book and again below, peace must come through strength! Am Yisrael Chai!
I want to introduce you to the book, by quoting the book's final chapter. No spoiler alert necessary.
In discussing the Oslo Accords, Shimon said:
“It is worth remembering that every subsequent Israeli government, even those that have not chosen peace as a priority, eventually adopted our framework, acknowledging that the only way to put an end to the vicious cycle of violence and terrorism is through peace. Through two states, not one. And yet there continues to be great skepticism about peace not only whether it's possible, but whether it's even desirable.
To the first question, I believe that peace is not only possible, but inevitable. The optimism I feel is a function not just of my identity but of history. History after all is a powerful antidote to a cynical view of the world. How many times has it surprised us. How many times has it led us to realities that far exceeded our dreams. Who would have dreamed after World War II, that just three years later, France, Germany, and Italy would join together in peaceful alliance. How many times did I hear experts telling us that lasting peace with Egypt and Jordan was simply impossible. How many times did the pessimists shake their head at the idea that among the Palestinians there would ever rise a broad constituency against terror. We have seen the impossible made real again and again.
There was a time when the Arab League subscribed to the Khartoum formula known as the “three Nos”. Never make peace with Israel. Never recognize Israel. Never negotiate with Israel. Most of the people I worked with most of my life, would never have imagined a time when the Arab League would publish an initiative that refutes them all. [Note: Google the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative].
Never would they have believed that Arab leaders would speak out in favor of peace and against terror not just abroad but at home or that Palestinians would recognize Israel within its 1967 borders. And yet peace stubbornly, doggedly finds a way.
Without consideration of the doubts of the experts, I believe in the inevitability of peace because I understand the necessity of peace. Necessity is perhaps the most powerful concept of all it is what drove the Pioneers to settle the land. It is what pushed them to think creatively to turn salted dirt into fertile ground and transform a fallow desert into a community that could bear fruit. It was necessity that sent Ben Gurion on a mission to build the IDF to protect us at a time of our greatest vulnerability from the certainty of impending war. It was necessity that called upon Israeli leadership to build the impossible in Dimona [Negev Nuclear Research Center] and to risk everything in Entebbe. And likewise, it will be the necessity of peace that brings it finally and fully to fruition. The cost of hostility is simply too high. I believe with all my being in the virtue of Zionism and in the historic decision made by Ben Gurion to accept the UN resolution for a partitioned Palestine. Even then Ben Gurion understood that in order to retain the Jewish character of our state, we had to uphold our values and that our values are fundamentally democratic. Jews are taught that we are all born in the image of God. To believe this fundamental tenet, a Jewish state must embrace democracy which demands full equality between the Jews and non-Jews. Democracy after all is not only the right of every citizen to be equal, but also the equal right of every citizen to be different.
The future of the Zionist project depends on our embrace of the two-state solution. The danger if Israel abandons this goal is that the Palestinians will eventually accept a one-state solution. Because of demographics, this will leave us with a choice stay Jewish or stay democratic. But it really isn't a choice at all. To lose our Jewish majority is to lose our Jewish character. To give up on democracy, is to abandon our Jewish values. We must hold on to our values. We didn't give up our values even when we were facing furnaces and gas chambers. We lived as Jews and died as Jews and rose again as a free Jewish people. We didn't survive merely to be a passing shadow in history but as a new genesis a nation intent on Tikkun Olam. On making the world a right.
In 1996, I established the Peres Center for peace and innovation because of my belief in people and their ability to bring positive change and in recognition that peace cannot solely be made by governments, it must be made between people, between Jews and Arabs. I have worked over the past 20 years to build those bonds, through peace education business partnerships agriculture and health care. But a permanent solution will require the reasoned wisdom of governments. Ours and our neighbors. It will require leaders who understand that Israel is strong enough to make peace and that making peace from a position of strength is imperative.
To wait is to guarantee that the agreement will be worse than any we have ever considered. Israel will be negotiating, for the very first time, from a position of weakness. In a reality where immediate peace is the only way to save Zionism, the Palestinian negotiators will hold all the cards. The question then, is not whether we will achieve peace, but when and at what cost knowing that the longer we wait the higher it grows. This is why I see grave danger in giving in to skepticism at a time when we should be redoubling our efforts in history. There is no reverse gear. As I know far too well, achieving peace is not easy but there is no alternative but to return to the table. The yesterday between us and the Palestinians is full of sadness. I believe that the Israel and Palestine of tomorrow can offer our children a new ray of hope. The advancement of peace will complete the march of Israel toward the fulfillment of its founding vision. An exemplary and thriving country living in peace and security in its homeland and among its neighbors. It has been more than 20 years since I stood on a stage in Oslo and alongside Rabin and Arafat accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. Much has changed since then, but my core message remains unaltered: Countries can no longer afford to divide the world into friend and foe. Our foes are now universal poverty and famine, radicalization and terror, these know no borders and threaten all nations and so we must act swiftly to build the bonds of peace to tear down walls built with bitterness and animosity so that we can together confront the challenges and seize the opportunities of a new era. Optimism and naivete are not one and the same. That I am optimistic does not mean I expect a peace of love. I expect simply a peace of necessity. I do not envision a perfect peace, but I believe we can find a peace that allows us to live side-by-side without the threat of violence.
In the years to come, we must remember that peace negotiations will never begin with a happy end. They will begin instead from an obscure complicated situation, colored with memories of pain and violence and they will take time.
So let us rededicate ourselves to that effort and save the happy end for the ending. I believe with all my heart in the vision of the prophets, the vision of peace for the country. I love so much and what I know to be true is that a majority of people on both sides of the divide are eager for peace. Especially the young generation. They are the ones who transform the impossible into the unlikely. The ones whose creativity and passion will turn the unlikely into reality. Whether the leaders catch up to the young or the young become the leaders, we are inevitably walking in the same direction. The road will be littered with obstacles, but it remains the only one worth traveling."
I shared my observations in a chapter I wrote in Fairness Matters entitled: “Trump and the Battle for Jewish Unity. How Fear of Authoritarianism on the Left, and Fear of Progressivism on the Right Are Fracturing Jewish Unity in the US when we need it most”
October the 7th changed me. Until I read this article, I wasn't fully in touch with the actual source of my true sadness... but this summed it up... my idealism has been shattered! I want to conclude by sharing this article published by the Free Press entitled “Once, I Was a Peace Advocate. Now, I Have No Idealism Left” and this excerpt:
.... over the years, I noticed a disturbing trend:
With all the atrocities in the world, why did my social justice warrior friends hate Israel so disproportionately?
Why did it feel like intersectionality excluded Jews?
Why did the left—who supposedly stood up for human rights—put child-murdering Hamas terrorists on a pedestal?
At first, I thought it must be miseducation.
'Ah, they think Palestinians are the indigenous people. I’ll show that Jewish history, and the archaeology to prove it, dates back millennia.'
'Ah, they think we’re white colonizers. I’ll show how many Jews are people of color, including those who are Mizrahi, Sephardi, and Ethiopian.'
'Ah, they’ll get it once I show them that there are fifty Muslim countries, and only one Jewish state.'
I agreed that the settlements were unlawful, that Gaza was a humanitarian crisis, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyuahu was a dictator. I assumed—if I cared enough, if I mourned for the Palestinian dead, if I put nuance above all else—our neighbors and their allies would give us the same decency.
How wrong I was. This past week, as over 1,300 Jews were slaughtered, the most murderous attack on Jews since the Holocaust, I saw the true face of Palestinians and their allies. All around the world, they celebrate. They gloat. They mock our tears. They do not protest against Hamas. They embrace pure evil.
And so, to the terrorists I now say:
When you killed my family, I forgave you. When you killed my people, I forgave you. But when you killed my idealism, I had no forgiveness left."
Am Yisrael Chai!
Footnotes:
Jewish Voice for Peace is not a peace organization, and it does not represent the Jewish community in any broad sense. It is a radical anti-Zionist group that uses Jewish identity to lend credibility to an agenda that seeks the dissolution of the Jewish state, while downplaying or excusing violent actors opposed to coexistence. Its advocacy serves not the cause of peace, but the amplification of a one-sided, often hostile narrative that undermines the possibility of mutual recognition and true reconciliation.
Since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, it has repeatedly served as a refuge for Jewish communities facing existential threats, persecution, or displacement around the world. Below is a list of key mass immigrations (known as Aliyot) where entire Jewish populations or large segments fled to Israel for safety:
Holocaust Survivors (Late 1940s – Early 1950s)
From: Displaced persons camps across Europe, including Poland, Germany, Romania, Hungary, and Austria.
Cause: Surviving the Holocaust with no homes or communities to return to; widespread post-war antisemitism.
Operation: Mass immigration under Israel’s Law of Return and “Aliyah Bet” (illegal immigration under British Mandate before 1948).
Middle Eastern and North African Jews (1948–1970s)
From: Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Syria, Lebanon, and Iran.
Cause: Retaliatory violence, expulsion, or persecution following Israel’s establishment and rising Arab nationalism.
Operations:
Operation Magic Carpet (1949–1950): ~49,000 Yemenite Jews airlifted.
Operation Ezra and Nehemiah (1950–1951): ~120,000 Iraqi Jews.
Ongoing emigration from Morocco, Egypt, and Libya throughout the 1950s–60s.
Total: Over 850,000 Jews from Arab and Muslim lands came to Israel during this period.
Soviet Jewry (1970s–1990s)
From: USSR (Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Lithuania, etc.)
Cause: State-sponsored antisemitism, religious oppression, and refusal to allow emigration (“refuseniks”).
Peak Period: After the fall of the Soviet Union (~1989–1991), over 1 million Soviet Jews emigrated to Israel.
Ethiopian Jews (1980s–1990s, 2000s–2020s)
From: Ethiopia (Beta Israel community).
Cause: Famine, civil war, and religious persecution.
Operations:
Operation Moses (1984): ~8,000 Jews airlifted.
Operation Solomon (1991): ~14,500 Jews evacuated in 36 hours.
Additional groups arrived in subsequent waves, including Operation Dove’s Wings (2013).
Total: Over 100,000 Ethiopian Jews have immigrated to Israel.
Argentinian Jews (Early 2000s)
From: Argentina.
Cause: Economic collapse, political instability, and rising antisemitism during the 2001 financial crisis.
Result: Several thousand Jews made aliyah, though this was smaller than other waves.
French Jews (2010s–Present)
From: France.
Cause: Rising antisemitism, including the 2012 Toulouse school shooting and the 2015 Hypercacher attack in Paris.
Peak Year: In 2015, over 7,800 French Jews made aliyah—the largest from any Western country in a single year.
Trend: Over 40,000 French Jews have moved to Israel since 2000.
Ukrainian and Russian Jews (2022–Present)
From: Ukraine and Russia.
Cause: Russian invasion of Ukraine; antisemitism and political instability in both countries.
Estimates: As of 2024, over 75,000 Jews from Ukraine and Russia have made aliyah since the war began.
Jewish Refugees from Turkey, Venezuela, and South Africa (Ongoing)
From: Various smaller but significant emigrations due to economic collapse (Venezuela), political instability (Turkey), and rising violence/antisemitism (South Africa).
Trend: A few thousand from each country over the past two decades.
