What is the appropriate response to those who criticize or question Israel for its military activity in Gaza? Not the Israel-haters, the extremists, the antisemites, who can’t tolerate the very idea that Jews have their own state and who called for boycotting, punishing and indeed abolishing Israel long before the current war. They are not open to rational discourse. But what about young people and others who may not be familiar with all the background and are troubled by the adverse media coverage and scenes of devastation? What about those who describe themselves as “anti-war” or “peace activists”? What about those who declined to support Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election or even voted for protest candidate Jill Stein for this reason, or who believe that others did so?
Here is their answer.
The Jewish State of Israel came into being in 1948, pursuant to the United Nations Partition Plan. That Plan divided the Middle East territory being contested by Arabs and Jews into two states: a Jewish state and an Arab state. Partition as a diplomatic solution to disputed territory was not unique to this area. It has been done before and since, most famously to divide the subcontinent of India between Muslims (Pakistan) and Hindus (India). It is regarded as the fairest and most peaceful way to settle such disputes. The UN General Assembly approved the Partition Plan by a margin of almost three to one, with the support of, among others, the world’s two great super powers, who rarely agreed on anything else: The United States and the Soviet Union.
Accordingly, the legal/political foundation of Israel is ironclad.
So too is the country’s historic foundation: Jews have always lived in substantial numbers in what is now Israel, since long before the creation of Islam and long before the creation of Christianity (which is based on a Jew who lived in ancient Israel.) Jews have been a majority in Jerusalem, the spiritual heartland of the area, for more than 150 years (as they were in ancient times.)
So too is Israel’s moral and practical foundation. There are almost 500 million Arabs in the world, and they have 22 countries. The Jews have only one country, Israel, with about 7.5 million Jewish residents. Many of them are descendants of indigenous people; others are the descendants of refugees from the 1800’s and 1900’s. It is neither surprising nor problematic that, in these past centuries, Jews took refuge in the Middle East. European Jews were victimized by severe discrimination and programs; millions were then slaughtered in the Holocaust. Almost a million Jews once lived in Arab countries but were driven from there as well. Other countries refused to accept Jewish refugees, no matter how severe their circumstances. Even in the aftermath of World War II, hundreds of thousands remained in Displaced Persons Camps. Israel is the Jewish homeland, the only one, to which these migrants were surely entitled and which, as a practical matter, was the only place where most of them could go.
Yes, there were also Arabs living in this territory. Many of them remained in the Jewish state after partition, and their descendants – more than 2 million strong – reside in Israel today as full citizens. Others sold their land to Jews or left to avoid the dangers of war. Others fled at the urging of neighboring Arab nations, which assured them that they could return after Jews were “exterminated” (their word) in the war they were about to launch. Still others were driven out during the battles that afflicted the area before and after the Partition Plan.
So, yes, the territory was disputed – often violently – between two peoples. That’s what the Partition Plan was designed to resolve by creating two states, one for each side. It was the quintessential “two state solution.”
The Partition Plan did not give the Jews everything they wanted, not by any means. They were assigned to a small, non-contiguous state barely 9 miles wide at its narrowest point. Much of it was desert, unpopulated, infertile. Nevertheless, the Jews compromised and accepted Partition. However, the Arabs did not; they wanted it all, and refused to accept the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East. At the very dawn of Israel’s independence in 1948, it was invaded by the armies of five countries (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon Syria and Iraq) as well as by local Arab militias, determined to perpetrate what the Arab League leaders called “ an immense massacre”. A difficult and bloody war ensued: Israel’s War of Independence.
The war ended in 1949 with an armistice. There was no peace treaty and no real peace. At the time of the armistice, Jordan controlled the West Bank and Jerusalem, illegally, contrary to the Partition Plan. For almost 2 decades thereafter, Jordan refused to allow Israelis – or for that matter any Jews – into Jerusalem. Syria used the Golan Heights to fire rockets into Israel. The Arab states, both neighboring and distant, as well as much of the population within the Arab areas of the Partition Plan (they are now called “Palestinians”, although the term was not generally used at the time) remained resolutely opposed to Israel. They launched frequent military and terrorist attacks on the Jewish state.
The 1949 armistice left Egypt in control of the Gaza Strip. From 1949 to 1967, Egypt used its control of Gaza not to develop a prosperous, peaceful territory but to launch terrorist raids into Israel.
In 1967, the surrounding Arab countries prepared to invade Israel. Anticipating that invasion, Israel preemptively struck and won a substantial victory in what is known as the Six Day War. It ousted Egypt from Gaza and took control thereof, for defensive reasons. Israel controlled Gaza for the next several decades and established settlements there.
In 2005, Israel withdrew completely from Gaza. It dismantled all of its settlements. It removed -- sometimes forcibly – all of the Israeli settlers, and it withdrew all of its military personnel. It handed Gaza over to the Palestinians and never returned. The Palestinians, not the Israelis, controlled Gaza for the next 19 years, until they launched their war against Israel on October 7, 2023.
That is an undisputed fact of supreme importance. It is never mentioned in the media coverage of the current war. It is never mentioned by the Israel – haters. It is almost certainly not known by the campus protesters or by the disaffected who voted for Jill Stein in the 2024 elections. Israel’s critics frequently decry “the settlements” and “the occupation.” Ask them what portion of Gaza was occupied by Israel or how many settlements Israel had in Gaza at the time of the Palestinian invasion of October 7, 2023. The answer to both questions is “zero” The overwhelming majority will have no idea of that.
Of the various countries that controlled Gaza over the decades and centuries, Israel is the only one that turned it over to the Palestinians. That is another undisputed fact of great importance which is never mentioned by the media or the Israel-haters and is surely not known by the campus demonstrators or the 2024 protest voters. Prior to Israel, Egypt controlled Gaza for almost 20 years until 1967, as noted above. It did not give the Palestinians any power, much less the right of self-governance or the right to their own state. (It is also worth noting, although tangential to this narrative about Gaza, that during the same time, Jordan did not give the Palestinians the right of self-governance, much less their own state, in the West Bank or Jerusalem, all of which Jordan controlled.) Before Egypt, England controlled Gaza, pursuant to the so-called “Mandate” of the League of Nations. During that period, from the end of World War I in or about 1920 until 1948, England did not give the Palestinians in Gaza the right of self-governance or the right to their own state. Prior to England, for more than 400 years, the Ottoman Empire (a/k/a Turkey) controlled Gaza until World War I, when the Empire was defeated and collapsed. It did not give the Arabs/Palestinians in Gaza any control, much less the right to create their own state. In all of history, only Israel ceded control over Gaza to the Palestinians. That is yet another important undisputed fact that is never mentioned by – and probably unknown to - the haters/critics.
But nobody complained about the occupancy of Gaza by these other powers or their failure to give the Palestinians autonomy over the decades and the centuries – not the Arab League or the European Union or the United Nations or any other entity. And, you will not hear anything about it today from the left wing of the Democratic Party or the right wing or the Republican Party or Amnesty International or the International Criminal Court or the media or anyone else. Even though Israel withdrew in favor of the Palestinians 20 years ago, it is only Israel that is blamed for occupying Gaza. Why do you think that is?
And what did the Palestinians do once they obtained control of Gaza after Israel withdrew in 2005? Did they create a liberal, democratic, humane entity? Did they make peace with Israel? On the contrary, they turned Gaza over to Hamas, a terrorist organization – so designated by the United States, the European Union and others – dedicated to killing Jews and destroying Israel, as explicitly stated in its charter. The tyrannical Hamas regime did not take power in Gaza by force or by accident. Hamas was freely and voluntarily chosen by the “innocent Palestinians”, in the one and only election ever held in Gaza.
What did the Palestinians’ choice – Hamas – do once it was installed and held the reins of government in Gaza? Terrible things. Here are a few:
This is the entity that the “innocent Palestinians” and Israel’s critics in the West, including the protest voters and campus demonstrators, are supporting, explicitly or implicitly.
In contrast to the Hamas – ruled tyranny of Gaza, Israel is a progressive, successful, free nation. It is the only democracy in the Middle East and one of America’s strongest allies. It has world class universities and hospitals, enterprises so innovative that it is known as the “startup nation”, and abundant agricultural and environmental techniques that it shares with the developing world. It has more Nobel prize winners than India or China, and more Nobel winners per capita than the United States, Germany or France. And Israel famously “made the desert bloom”.
The claim by the Israel – haters that Israelis are “white, colonial, and privileged” is an outrageous slander.
“White”? Israel is a diverse, multicultural nation. Its citizens include Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druze, Bedouins, Arameans, Slavs. More than 21% of the population is Arab. Of course, the Jews are a substantial majority; that is the whole point of Partition. But of the Jewish population, large numbers are people of color, coming from Arab countries, Ethiopia, Asia, Russia and Eastern Europe.
“Colonial”? The powers that colonized this territory were the Ottoman Empire, then England and then Egypt. Jewish migrants came not on behalf of any colonial power-they represented none – but as individuals fleeing persecution.
“Privileged”? Jewish Israelis who are not indigenous are immigrants or their descendants who arrived with nothing but the proverbial shirts on their backs; refugees and victims of persecution; impoverished black Ethiopians who trekked through hundreds of miles of desert; Soviet Jews prohibited from departing for decades and then forced to leave their possessions behind; Middle Eastern Jews expelled from Arab countries; and, of course, Holocaust survivors and their descendants, who endured unspeakable horrors. One of Israel’s great achievements, that other countries would do well to emulate, is its ability to accept and integrate countless immigrants and turn them into productive, fully equal citizens.
The experience of Israel’s immigrants stands in dramatic contrast to Palestinians who, after Partition, migrated to Arab countries where, for 75 years, they have been denied citizenship, forced to remain in “camps”, and required to survive on handouts from the United Nations.
The claim that Israel is an “apartheid state” is a despicable slur. The millions of Arabs living in Israel – who regard themselves as Israelis, not “Palestinians” – have the full rights of citizenship. They vote in all elections, form political parties, sit in the Knesset (Parliament), participate in the government (including the governing coalition), and serve on the Supreme Court. The fact is that Israeli Arabs have more freedom and rights than Arabs in any Arab country! They attend the best universities and are treated in the top hospitals. They serve in large numbers in the professions. Half of Israeli pharmacists, for example, are Arabs, as are almost half of the physicians. They even serve voluntarily in the Israeli military in increasing numbers. Is there discrimination? Yes, of course, just as there is discrimination against minorities in every country, including the United States. But it is random and individual, not state – sponsored, and it doesn’t prevent them from leading productive lives. Attached is the text of a wonderful speech given by an Israeli Arab to a European Parliament, in which he furiously and magnificently refutes the claim of apartheid in Israel.
Of course, migration to Israel (“the right of return”) is reserved for Jews living abroad. Partition carved out one small state in the disputed territory, in the Middle East, in the whole world for the planet’s tiny Jewish minority - one Jewish state. That would be meaningless if Israel were populated by others. And Jews do not have the right to migrate to any of the world’s Arab countries.
Of course, Israel is not perfect – far from it. It has its problems and challenges like most countries, including our own. Indeed, surrounded as it is by enemies, Israel has more problems than most. But it has a motivated, talented population, addressing these problems. It has a vigorous democracy through which disputes and issues are resolved. It makes substantial contributions to the world. The efforts to demonize it are beneath contempt and frequently advanced by those whose societies are far worse.
All of the above is background to the events of October 2023, and the ensuing Gaza war.
On October 7, Israel was invaded by Hamas. It was the most horrific attack against Jews since the Holocaust. The invaders slaughtered, maimed, incinerated and raped Israelis – entire families, grandparents, toddlers, and everyone in between. They destroyed communities, including kibbutzim (collective villages) that had been lovingly developed from scratch over the decades. These were not military targets. On the contrary, the invaders singled out defenseless civilians, in particular thousands of young people gathered for a music festival.
It is beyond outrageous that many Israel – haters deny and/or justify these barbaric actions.
How can they be denied? The terrorists themselves took videos and selfies of their rampage and put them on the Internet. They celebrated what they had done, and were congratulated for doing so by Iran and others. Yet even some women’s groups whose mantra is that claims of sexual assault should not be disbelieved (remember the “me too” movement?) have denied the abuse of Israeli women in the October 7 invasion.
How can they be justified? There was nothing defensive about Hamas’s invasion; Israel was not invading or occupying Gaza or threatening to do so. Indeed, one of the most astonishing and widely reported aspects of this episode is that Israel was completely unprepared and had such a small military presence on the border. That has led to a lot of commentary about Israel’s uncharacteristic intelligence failure, but the most import point it demonstrates is that Israel had no hostile designs on Gaza at the time of the invasion. Indeed, it is clear that Hamas chose this time to invade because it knew that Israel had such a thin miliary presence at the border.
Some of the antagonists are transparent about their rational: Israel has no right to exist, its very creation was immoral, and therefore the Palestinians have a right to do whatever barbaric acts are necessary to destroy it. It’s impossible to argue with people who have that view, although it is refuted by the information above. Extremists with this point of view prove the truth of the Israeli adage: “They hate us not because of what we do, but because of who we are.” A lot of the hostility towards Israel rests on this fundamental viewpoint, which demonstrates that all of the criticism of this or that Israeli action is simply a smokescreen.
However, at least some of the critics try to give a reason. They justify their position by saying that, even though Israel withdrew from Gaza, it imposed excessive, crippling restraints that stifled Gaza’s economy and required a military response by the Palestinians. You will hear it said that, because of Israel’s border controls and the like, Gaza was “an open air prison.”
But that is another falsehood. Israel was fully justified in controlling its border with Gaza to prevent terrorist incursions. And Israel does not occupy all of the area at the Gaza border. Much of it is occupied by Egypt, which imposes similar restraints for the same reason: to prevent or resist Palestinian terror incursions into Egypt’s Sinai peninsula. Further, Israel actually boosted Gaza’s economy by giving work permits to tens of thousands of Palestinians who found gainful employment in Israel. One of the most sinister aspects of the October 7 attack is that many of these Palestinian workers used their employment access to Israel to spy on Israeli homes and communities near the border in order to enable the invasion. Israelis were shocked to see among the attackers some of the very Palestinians who were employed in their communities and homes.
One of the most horrific aspects of the October 7 invasion was the seizure of hostages. More than 200 were taken. Not all of them, by the way, were Jews, and many of them have non-Israeli nationality. In fact, a few of them were American or have dual US – Israeli Citizenship. Many other countries have nationals among the hostages – people who were working in or visiting Israel at the time. Some of the hostages have been murdered by Hamas. Those still alive were held for over a year. They were subjected to unspeakable conditions – starvation, no toilets, no light, physical and sexual assault. The Israel haters almost never mention anything about them. The campus protestors and Jill Stein voters should be asked what they have done to call attention to the hostages and try to get them released, or at least to protest on their behalf. Answer: Nothing.
Under the circumstances described above, can there be any doubt about Israel’s justification for responding with strong military force? Would the campus demonstrators or protest voters oppose/criticize/throw away their presidential vote if America responded similarly to a similar attack on San Diego or Pittsburgh or New Rochelle?
Critics say that Israel’s response is “disproportionate”. What exactly does that mean? If Hamas kills 1200 Israeli civilians and takes 250 hostages, does that mean its OK for Israel to kill 1200 Palestinian civilians and take 250 Palestinian hostages, but no more. When Japan launched World War II by bombing Pearl Harbor, did America respond “proportionately”? Of course, not. It declared war, called for unconditional surrender, and waged war for several years, in the process killing millions. That is tragic, but it is the reality of war. There’s no precedent for a country suffering an attack on the scale of the October 7 invasion of Israel and responding in a way that would be regarded as “proportionate”.
And of course, this is not the position of the Israel-haters. They don’t want a “proportionate” response; they want no response. Immediately after October 7, before any Israeli military incursion or response, the Israel-haters were celebrating the Hamas invasion and demanding that there be no response. The self-proclaimed “peace activists” called for an immediate ceasefire that would have left all the hostages in captivity and the Hamas terrorists still in total control of Gaza. How can anyone argue that that would have been a reasonable result?
Israel’s objectives in this war have been clear: freeing the hostages and preventing future terrorist attacks from Gaza by defeating Hamas. How can anyone dispute the reasonableness of those objectives? Notably, the objectives do not include occupying or building settlements in Gaza; Israel withdrew from that 20 years ago.
Hamas claims that its objectives have been to end Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and to obtain the complete withdrawal of Israel from Gaza. But that claim is absurd, because that was the condition of Gaza before the October 7 invasion. On October 6, Israel had no military forces (or for that matter civilians) in Gaza and was not conducting a military campaign there. That did not prevent Hamas from launching its terrible October 7 invasion. Indeed, that did not prevent Hamas, over a period of years, from building the tunnels, preparing for the invasion, launching frequent rocket assaults on civilian areas in Israel and launching terrorist attacks on Israel. So no one should be gullible enough to believe that Hamas was justified in launching a terrible war on October 7 to achieve the status quo that already existed and had been in place for almost 20 years through October 6.
Unfortunately, a large number of Palestinians have been killed in this battle. That is the sad but inevitable consequence of war, especially in a populated area – a war that was started not by Israel but by Hamas. Furthermore, the deaths, injuries and physical destruction are greatly exacerbated because Hamas deliberately hides its fighters, weapons, and tunnels in civilian areas such as hospitals, mosques, schools, UN buildings, private homes and the like. It uses civilians as human shields. Hamas vastly increase the toll by these tactics, and it does so deliberately. There is compelling evidence that Hamas desires to have a high civilian death and injury toll in order to manipulate public opinion and garner international political support. Unfortunately, the campus demonstrators/peace activists/protest voters are allowing themselves to be manipulated by these tactics.
Dated: January 31, 2025
.jpg){kind=spacer}