I am an Israel-American Jew writing from the bomb shelter of my home in a suburb 10km north of Tel Aviv. All over the world Jews are being hunted in a way which hasn’t happened since the Holocaust. In many different ways and in many different manners.
Yesterday, Betar, the organization I lead, along with myself and a number of other Jewish Americans, were sued by Nerdeen Kiswani, the New York City-based pro-Hamas October 7-supporting anti-Israel leader of Within Our Lifetime, who claimed that we “threaten, intimidate, and violate [her] civil rights." They seek to eliminate Zionism from Jewish life using statutes originally enacted to combat the Ku Klux Klan.
It’s a follow-up from the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, which found that Betar USA had engaged in a “campaign of violence, harassment, and intimidation against Arab, Muslim and Jewish New Yorkers." The State of New York supports "Palestine" and hasn’t investigated any Palestinian Arab groups, and the liberal ADL has labeled Betar a hate group.
This lawsuit is a dangerous attack on Jewish life in America, a further attempt to criminalize Zionism. Similar efforts in Europe are targeting French leaders of the Jabotinsky movement. Meanwhile, here in Israel we maintain headquarters at Metzudah Ze’ev in Tel Aviv, the historic home of the Jabotinsky movement and the Likud party, where we are seen as mainstream Zionism and entrenched in the institutions of Israel.
Calling Betar a terror group is calling all of Zionists terrorists. We’ve heard it before. As Ze’ev Jabotinsky taught us, “We hold that Zionism is moral and just. And since it is moral and just, justice must be done, no matter whether Joseph or Simon or Ivan or Achmet agree with it or not."
I am a Betari, a Jabotinsky follower since the age of 11, the proud son of Penina Waga who was born in a DP camp in Poland to a family of Holocaust survivors. And writing as an American-Israeli Zionist from our bomb shelter we now have Jews fighting as Jews, exactly as generations of our forefathers did, and as Jabotinsky, the father of the IDF insisted upon. What a dream come true for generations of Jews. A Jewish fighting force.
What can be better than having our independent nation?
Ze’ev Jabotinsky taught us, “Human society is based on reciprocity. If you remove reciprocity, justice becomes a lie. A person walking somewhere on a street has the right to live only because and only to the extent that he acknowledges my right to live. But, if he wishes to kill me, to my mind he forfeits his right to exist - and this also applies to nations. Otherwise, the world would become a racing area for vicious predators, where not only the weakest would be devoured, but the best."
We have been to and from the bomb shelters all day for several days, since learning that the IDF had attacked Iran in a coordinated attack with USA. President Trump is the right man for this moment, and all must remember and repeat the words of Zeev Jabotinsky at these times, quoted above: “We hold that Zionism is moral and just. And since it is moral and just, justice must be done, no matter whether Joseph or Simon or Ivan or Achmed agree with it or not."
In many forums and in many ways we will fight, as we remember throughout history they have seeked to harm us. We were here before them and we will be here thriving, after them.
Ronn Torossian is Chairman of Betar Worldwide, and Friends of Jabotinsky Movement. He’s an Israeli-based American entrepreneur and philanthropist.