International musician and DJ Oded Nir has returned to Israel after two decades in Amsterdam. On his very first day back, he attended the Vision of the Right conference and shared his story with Israel National News.
“At three in the morning I closed my apartment in Amsterdam, and today I’m here,” Nir recounted. He described how his perspective shifted dramatically following the Hamas massacre of October 7. His wife woke him that day with the devastating news from Israel. “I immediately understood that nothing would ever be the same again, and that things would only deteriorate from here.”
“I knew all the Israeli flags in the windows would quickly come down and be replaced with Palestinian flags — and that’s exactly what happened,” he said. “The situation kept worsening by the hour. My wife returned to Israel after a month — she couldn’t take it anymore. I continued commuting between Israel and the Netherlands for work and performances until the Maccabi Tel Aviv match.”
Nir had attended the match as a guest of the Ajax football club. That day, he said, “the Judaism that sustained me through 19 years in Europe connected with my Israeli identity, which I had distanced myself from. I thought of myself as a global citizen, beyond such things, and believed everyone loved me.”
“But walking among Maccabi fans — that’s when I realized who I really am.”
He spoke candidly about chasing a career that struggled to take off in Israel but found success abroad. Still, he credited his Jewish identity as the force that kept him grounded. “Without it, I would’ve fallen apart,” he said.
Explaining why he came to the Vision of the National Camp conference, Nir said he wanted to deliver a message to Jews in Israel and around the world: “The situation out there is dire. We are surrounded by wolves,” he said, referring also to Western nations, which he said “are not exactly on our side, to put it mildly.”
“In such a reality, we cannot afford internal conflicts and divisions. We are surrounded by wolves waiting for us to fall and fight among ourselves. This is an apolitical call: Jews and Israelis, come home.”
Nir believes that the return of the Jewish people to their land is central to the vision required today — along with a renewed Israeli spirit that recognizes the persistent threat of antisemitism. “Without a strong Israel, those in the Diaspora become the Jew of the shtetl, at the mercy of the local ruler or the king’s tailor. A strong Israel allows me to have a career abroad — without it, I’m a leaf blown by the wind.”