There is a paradox that has persisted for a century surrounding the Jewish people and the State of Israel:
When the Jew is dominated and defenseless, the world weeps.
When he rises, defends himself, and prevails, the world grits its teeth. And tries to make sure it does not achieve total victory.
The image of the fragile, starving, powerless Jew is etched into the Western imagination in the striped pajamas of Auschwitz. The image of the Israeli soldier-helmeted, armed, strategic-reveals something entirely different: a challenge to global moral comfort.
The West adores memory but fears the present. It sanctifies commemorations, speeches, museums, and days of remembrance. It distributes posthumous medals and belated regrets. But as soon as Israel proves that compassion is no longer enough-that defending itself is more vital than mourning-the West turns away, perplexed, almost indignant.
Western hypocrisy could be summed up in one formula: “We love you dead, we tolerate you humiliated, but powerful… you embarrass us." The world is moved by yesterday’s crimes to better condemn today’s strategies. It honors ashes to better judge the living.
When Israel Refuses to Be the Victim the World Demands
History, it seems, has not absorbed all its lessons.
For it was not merely a tiny state that defeated larger armies in 1948, 1967, or 1973. Israel demonstrated that a people once preferred defenseless could now project power far beyond Tel Aviv: against Hamas in Gaza, the Iranian regime, Hezbollah in Lebanon, ISIS in Syria, the Houthis in the Red Sea, and even the financial and informational networks of Qatar. In just a few decades, the Jewish state shifted from being the West’s moral refugee to an autonomous, effective, and unpredictable military actor.
And perhaps that is the true scandal. Israeli strength unsettles not only Israel’s declared enemies; it disrupts the world’s moral order. If a supposedly fragile people becomes strong, what remains of the certainties of great powers, regional tyrannies, media clergies, and diplomatic elites accustomed to dispensing compassion or condemnation? When Israel wins, narratives crack. Authoritarian regimes tremble because Israel proves it is possible to survive while encircled. Democracies panic because it forces them to reconsider their own use of force.
There is something scandalous in Israel’s strength for those who preferred tragedy over sovereignty. But no people is destined to remain a victim for the intellectual comfort of others. The Jewish state is neither a museum of suffering nor a living memorial. It is a power that defends its own, invents, strikes, negotiates, and errs at times - but never silently.
When Media Prefer the Narrative to Reality
And while the West chokes on the sight of the Jew become sovereign, the media take care of the rest. They bombard the public with communiqués, push alerts, and instant “analysis," all wrapped in strategic compassion. Every image of Israel is dissected with moral precision; every Hamas rocket dissolves into the fog of “context." Narrative precedes fact; dramaturgy precedes chronology.
If the destiny of the Jewish people becomes troubling once it turns autonomous, it may be because it reveals a political truth: compassion is worthless without sovereignty. And tyrannies never tolerate truth.
It is not the strong Jew that some fear. It is what he reveals: that dignity is not a memory, that a people can rise without asking permission, and that compassion has never protected anyone. The order of the world prefers conquered peoples. Israel has chosen not to be one.