Israel today is in a war of images with the Arab world. Sometimes these images are still or moving pictures, but more frequently they’re images painted by words.
Words have become the new battleground on which the legitimacy of Israel is contested before the eyes of the world. Logically, this ought to be good news for Jews who are by nature wordsmiths, having created the greatest book ever: the Bible. And yet it seems that around the world they are losing this war and I’d like to offer a few reasons for why this is so.
However, I warn you that the truth is often not pretty.
Keats could say in one of his odes: “Truth is beauty, and beauty is truth.” If it ever was true, it’s not true in regard to the Israeli-Islamist conflict. And because the truth is often ugly, we turn away from it.
We turned away from Mein Kampf even though the author told us exactly what his intentions were. We turn away from Iran's Ayatollah even though he tells us exactly what his intentions are.
And we turn away from the truth about Hamas, Hezbollah, and many of the Arab States, because it’s an ugly truth and it disturbs us. I suggest it’s time for us to face the truth head-on before it destroys us and do we want to be the generation that sees Israel destroyed and another Holocaust of nine million Jews? Because there are 7 million plus Jews in Israel.
First - Some of our enemies – the Arab/Islamic world - live in a different cultural universe than we do. This is a fact and has nothing to do with racism or cultural stereotypes; read “The Arab Mind” by Raphael Patai or “The Closed Circle” by David Pryce-Jones.
Their universe permits and even encourages an “us” and “them” psychology. It’s a win-lose game. If I win, you lose. If you lose, I win. If you seek compromise, you are weak. In the end I’ll conquer and absorb you. That end - “conquest”- justifies the means that we find repugnant: horrific lies, and horrific acts. The lies are common and range from what appears comical to us, all the way to unthinkable falsehoods and slanders. The acts are worse, but they are only possible if preceded by lies. “If you wish to kill someone, first of all dehumanize and delegitimize him; the rest will be easy.” Remember Jews made to look like rats in the German Nazi movies.
This fact alone about our enemies is so strange to our ears that we and the rest of the West often close our minds to what we know is true. The media do it, and even our own Jews do it. We talk ourselves into thinking there is a “peace process” even though fact after fact belies the existence of such a thing. The Islamic world will never accept a non-Muslim nation in land previously conquered in the name of Allah.
We cheerfully believe that if we compromise enough, and are reasonable enough, and give away enough, our enemies will somehow “see the light” and agree to live in peace with us. That is simply not so.
We gave away Gaza in its entirety and got war in return. We gave away the entire Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, and while there is a formal treaty, it’s a cold peace indeed.
Cairo remains the heir of Berlin in the publishing of anti-Semitic propaganda. Most Egyptians are not allowed to travel to Israel as tourists, or on cultural or scientific exchanges. They weren’t allowed under the more secular regime of Mubarak. They most certainly will not be allowed under a regime of Muslim fundamentalists.
Unfortunately we have had enemies in the US State Department as well; historically a hot bed of anti-Israelism for the simple reason that so many of them were convinced that contemporary reality demands that we smile at oil.
We know who has the oil and who mostly doesn’t at this moment. An enormous arms sale to Saudi Arabia that is now being contemplated is evidence of that.
The White House has traditionally been supportive of Israel; but whether it continues to be that way will be indicated in part by the Government’s policies. Congress historically was once friendly but no longer is among the Democrats.
Some large liberal Christian denominations have turned their backs on God’s land and His people, and read a different Bible than we do.
Presbyterians, Methodists, Church of Christ, Quakers and some Catholics have promoted divestment from Israeli companies, or from companies that trade with Israel.
They have claimed that there is no such thing as Christian Zionism. They have stated that the Israel of the Bible has no relationship to the Israel of today.
The other side of the coin is of course the conservative Christians that have turned out in support of Israel in their millions for reasons, I am convinced, that have little to do with hastening the millennium, but a little to do with converting us.
The so-called mainstream media: newspapers, radio, television networks don’t adequately or accurately cover Israel. They almost never give context. If Israel can be shown in a bad light, they’ll do so. They accept as facts whatever Israel’s enemies report to them, even though those parties have a clear track record of lying.
The most heartbreaking group of enemies of Israel are our fellow Jews, among them even some Israeli Jews. These are the people who feel guilty about Israel; who feel embarrassed about Israel. They feel that whoever is weak must be good, and whoever is strong must by definition be bad. Therefore, the Arabs are good, the Palestinian Arabs are good, and Israel is bad. If Israel can be weakened, it will be better, and more moral. Shame on such fools.
These folks have never heard of my paraphrase: “Powerlessness corrupts, and absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely.” And of course, tell them about God’s promise to the Jewish people and they’ll laugh in your face. It may be that their spiritual development is somewhat stunted. God’s plan is the key to everything in this little drama, but they don’t want to hear about it.
Two years ago the editor of Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper could say to Condoleeza Rice, utterly seriously, “The US will have to rape Israel into a more reasonable stance towards the Arabs”. Do not underestimate the hatred of these people towards Israel.
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Everyone of goodwill towards Israel, and especially activists, should fully understand six important facts among others:
1. There is an absolute continuity between the Israel of the Bible and the Israel of today. Same land, same people, same language, same God, same prophets, same holy Book. There has never been a time in the last 35 centuries when there haven’t been Jews living in Israel, sometimes as a sovereign nation, sometimes as isolated enclaves occupied by an alien, enemy power.
2. And when we have been few in number inside Israel itself, we have nevertheless continued to pray for its welfare daily, to pray for our return to nationhood daily, to recount the Biblical promises, and to pray for a quick return. This is continuity par excellence. Why is this important? Because part of the Big Lie of today is to deny it and to consider the Jews illegitimate newcomers to the land who can legitimately be pushed right back out.
3. There never was a nation of Palestine. That name was given to the Land of Israel by Roman Emperor Hadrian after defeating the second Jewish revolt in 135 CE, so that the land would never again be associated with Israel, Judea, Zion, or the Jewish people in any way.
4. The non-state land then known as Palestine was conquered by Persians, Mongols and Arabs in the 7th century and became part of the territory ruled by other alien conquerors such as the Abbbasids, the Omayids and Crusaders. Then the Ottoman Empire held it for exactly 400 years. It was always a province, generally a backwater, a GEOGRAPHICAL ENTITY ONLY LIKE Patagonia or Siberia.
By the way, Hadrian failed, because in the 1920’s, ‘30’s, and ‘40’s, in any city in the world, if a person was pointed out as a Palestinian, the assumption automatically was that he was a Jew.
Why is this important? Because the world has bought the Big Lie that there is this age-old people known as the Palestinians who were kicked out of their nation and deserve to be allowed back in.
There never were such people, and there never was such a nation. The PLO, with Soviet help, was created in 1964 – three years before the so-called occupation – with the intention not of creating a new Arab state called Palestine, but with the sole intention of destroying the Jewish state.
Today the goal of creating a new Palestine is in order to create another terror base to be used against Israel; but this time, one that is a sovereign nation that Israel cannot invade or strike in self defense without dire international consequences.
5. Some people can’t bring themselves to believe that the Creator of the universe promised this land to us, the Jewish people, in conversations with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, and the Prophets of Israel; promises recorded verbatim in the Book that is history’s best seller. For those people, they should consider that in terms of international agreements, Israel is the most officially approved-of nation in History.
6. The British promised it to the Jewish people in the Balfour Declaration. The victorious allies of WWI promised it to the Jewish people at the San Remo Conference. The League of Nations promised it to the Jewish people when it awarded Britain a Mandate to develop it for that purpose. The United Nations promised it to the Jewish people in Resolution 181 of November 29, 1947. This kind of international legal legitimacy has not been granted to France, Canada, Russia, Jordan, or any other nation in the world. Why is this important? Because in every way, Israel has more legitimacy than most other nations of the world, and its existence must finally be acknowledged and welcomed as a senior partner in the family of nations.
7. Today the world is talking about a “Two-State Solution,” meaning that the world should establish a 23rd Arab nation alongside Israel in the very thin land mass between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Are we all aware that the United Nations called for this to happen in 1947? Are we all aware that Jewish leadership agreed to it? And are we all aware that the Arabs collectively rejected it. Transjordan invaded what was to become that nation, occupied it, annexed it, and made it part of the Arab Kingdom, which then changed the entire country’s name from Transjordan, meaning “on the far side of the Jordan” to simply “Jordan”, meaning that it now straddled the River on both sides?
In short, the Arab state that is being called for today could have been celebrating its 77the birthday this year, were it not for the rapaciousness of its fellow Arabs! Why didn’t they create a Palestinian Arab state in 1948 or in any of the nineteen years until 1967? Does this give us a clue that all the voices that are raised today in favor of another Arab nation alongside Israel might be slightly hypocritical; might have some ulterior motive in what they want, rather than the benefit of the so-called Palestinians? Why is this important? It suggests the world and even the Arab world doesn’t care about the so-called “Palestinian Arabs” for themselves; only as a tool to eat away at Israel.
8. The Jews did not displace an indigenous population from its country in the establishment of Israel in 1948. First of all, the population, which was not indigenous, was extremely sparse and people were few.
9. Read “From Time Immemorial” by Joan Peters. She points out how the Arab population grew tremendously only with the coming of the Zionists, The Jewish pioneers, who brought the four things the Arabs wanted: Employment, Electricity, Medical Care, and the eradication of malaria. There was no huge indigenous population prior to this influx. And the departure of most of the Arabs who left Israel in 1948, in most cases, was due to the urging of their own Arab League leaders, not expulsions by Israel.
10. In 1948, in response to the United Nations’ approval for a Jewish State, surrounding Arabs and Arab nations launched a genocidal attack on Israel. The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha, said publicly: “This will be a war of extermination; a momentous massacre spoken of like the Mongolian massacres.” Please note that this was just three years after the Holocaust. The Jews took him seriously.
In the summer of 1967 President Nasser of Egypt kicked the UN peacekeeping forces out of the Sinai Peninsula, moved massive amounts of armor into the Sinai facing Israel, blockaded Israel’s important southern port of Eilat, and put Egypt’s and Syria’s armed forces under joint command. Nasser then announced publicly: “We shall now choose the moment to erase the mistakes of 1948”. Genocide again.
In 1973, again. Intermittently, by terror against civilians, again and again. Why is this important? Because it shows intent. What intent? To destroy Israel and fulfill what the Arabs had long been saying: “We waited 200 years to get rid of the Crusaders and we finally succeeded. We will wait patiently for you, and in the end, we will get rid of you also.” Why is this important? Because they haven’t given up. Jews who delude themselves into thinking that peace is now on its way don’t understand the Arabs and don’t understand history.
Every negotiation, every initiative, has essentially ended in failure, and the reason is that by and large the Arabs want to eventually eliminate Israel more than they want their own independence. Jewish delusion surely ended after the horror of October 7th, 2023.
There are many other facts we need to learn, but more important even than facts, are attitudes.
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We must never feel guilty that Israel exists and thrives. Israel started with the same sand the Arabs have, but look what we’ve made of it, and look what they’ve made of it. No guilt, no embarrassment, no doubt about the overall rightness of our cause. Israel has less than 10,000 square miles, the Arabs have 5 million. The Jews have one state, the Arabs have 22. We’re entitled.
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Israel makes plenty of mistakes. She has corrupt politicians. She is not always environmentally friendly. She has one of the most non-functional electoral systems in the world. Her people are brusque and often impertinent. There are occasionally rotten apples even in the Army. Having said that, I know that you know the difference between someone who loves Israel and offers constructive criticism, and someone who does not love Israel and has only criticism to offer – never a good word, never a compliment, never any recognition of the rightness of Israel’s cause.
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There are good Arabs; there are good Muslims; there are Arab nations whose major goal is not necessarily to destroy Israel. The sad reality is, however, that the rotten minority pulls along the apathetic majority. The Arabs have lied and murdered and made war for 63 years, have built repressive and intolerant societies, and the West has given them a pass. It’s time for that to end.
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There will not be Peace Now. There may not be peace for a long time. We want it, we need it, we long for it, we sing of it, we teach about it. But we dare not let our longing for peace make us weak in hopes that our enemies won’t take advantage of that weakness. In the Israel-Arab struggle, compromise is seen as weakness and weakness attracts the bad elements like blood attracts a shark. The best thing that could be done for peace was when the United States under President Trump made it clear that it would stand behind Israel. And the best illustration of that, was the move that would be worth lots of tanks and aircraft, to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
Never forget, strength for Israel equals peace. Weakness for Israel equals a much greater likelihood of war.
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Finally, what are we to do? Because of the negativity of the media, most people have rarely seen truly positive news coverage of Israel. Think of it before 1973, Israel was portrayed as heroic. Ever since about 1973, Israel has been portrayed as the villain. The media have been buffaloed. The liberal Christians have been bamboozled. Scholars have been subverted. Academia has been bought. And Jews, including Jewish leaders, have been led by the nose to weaken Israel, to weaken the Jewish people, to surrender a God-given right to our land, and to undermine the confidence of our own people in the rightness of Israel’s cause. If you want to work on behalf of Israel, please do this:
1. Give yourself to the cause. Not unthinkingly, but passionately. Go into this work knowing that you and we and Israel are mostly right. Our enemies are almost entirely wrong.
2. Educate yourselves. Please read my book(s) (bibliography; websites)
3. You have a responsibility as adult citizens to know your governmental representatives, to know their attitudes, to know how to contact them, and to be in contact with them frequently.
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So, I've written about our enemies, and we do have enemies. We’ve talked about what you must know, and those points are only the beginning. We’ve talked about the attitude with which we have to approach the struggle. And we’ve talked about some steps we must take. I would like to leave you with just one more thought: this is not politics as we see it in our political parties. This is a life-and-death struggle in which many people have in fact died, and probably more will. There is very little in your life that will be as valuable as what you can do in this struggle.
Golda Meir once said on a visit to England when asked what Israel can do to defeat the anti-Israel lies in the media she said "tell the facts about Israel’s cause and case over and over again."
I have poured my heart and soul into my four volumes of Politicide: The Attempted Murder of the Jewish State with facts and more facts, WHICH ARE THERE FOR YOU TO READ AND TO USE TO SUPPORT THE REBORN JEWISH STATE and to defeat and answer the anti-Israel lies and propaganda that relentlessly is heaped upon Israel. Thank you.
Victor Sharpeis a prolific writer with many articles and essays appearing in websites such as American Thinker, Renew America, Canada Free Press, Jerusalem Connection, Times of Israel, Israel National News. He is also the author of seven published books.
