ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS REINFORCE THE BELIEF THAT ZIONISM IS A MORAL IDEOLOGY.

 By Robert Singer January 16, 2024, 01:05 Updated: January 16, 2024, 01:12.

Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel spoke to a reporter in Washington in 2005. Years earlier, he said, ‘As a Jew, I need Israel. More precisely, I can live as a Jew outside Israel but not without Israel.’ (Photo credit: Jeff Christensen/Reuters) 

Our polls show that Israelis clearly understand that, and more and more Jews in the diaspora are realizing that Israel is the only country that guarantees Jewish rights around the world.

"As a Jew, I need Israel. More precisely, I can live as a Jew outside Israel but not without Israel," said Elie Wiesel, the 1998 Nobel Peace laureate.

The strong Israel-Diaspora relations of the late 20th and early 21st centuries are illustrated by this statement more than many others.

It is a relationship in which Jewish states are considered to protect the rights and freedoms of Jews around the world. A Jewish state would not only advocate for and lobby for their safety, but it would also provide a sense of protection to Jews around the world, letting them know that they had a place to escape if things became untenable in their country.

Most Israelis believe that Israel is the safest place for Jews.

Even in the midst of the war and in spite of the October 7 massacre, according to the most recent survey by the Center for Jewish Impact (CJI) and the Geocartography Knowledge Group, the threat to Israel is not any more dangerous than the rampant antisemitism around the world.

In fact, ninety-seven percent of Israelis who responded agreed that "the safest place for Jews is Israel regardless of the security situation, and therefore the Jewish Diaspora should make aliyah to Israel."

These findings suggest a consistent improvement over time in this attitude. Increases of 82% in 2022 and 76% in 2020 are examples of consistent increases. It shows that Israelis consider antisemitism around the world more dangerous than Israel's security and the belief that Israel is still a safe haven for Jews, even during war.

Although this statistic is quite amazing, it is based on reality and is relevant to the Zionist cause. Contemporary political Zionism was highly revolutionary, catching many Jews off guard in the 19th century.

Modern Zionism and antisemitism

Several decades have passed since the emancipation of the Jews, and many Jews are happy to receive full rights in many of their societies, especially in central and western Europe.

However, contemporary antisemitism only strengthens. Only the German journalist Wilhelm Marr used the phrase itself to describe the type of discrimination he experienced in 1879.

Until the middle of the 20th century, the majority of European Jews clearly did not like Zionism, but the Holocaust changed this belief.

The extermination of six million Jews shook the world as a whole and clearly changed the perspective of many people on the demands to re-establish Jewish sovereignty in their ancestral homelands. Many Jews believe that rights, freedom, and security do not exist.

Over the past 75 years, Jews have continued to immigrate to Israel, despite wars, boycotts, regional exclusion, and global delegitimization. It is very clear that Israel's open-door policy towards Jews is more like a helping hand than a hug.

The massacre of more than 1,200 Israelis in Simchat Torah shocked the military system of the Jewish state, which never imagined that an attack with so much damage and blood would occur. 

It shook the foundations of Zionism for many Jews living in Israel and around the world.

These foundations have shown their strength and power. Unlike previous generations, Jews have seen that when their country is hit, they respond with moral and devastating force to ensure that the massacre will never happen again.

This is an act that never happened to our ancestors, and it is this strong fortitude in the face of genocide that has kept Zionism protected and strengthened.

Antisemitism has increased dramatically around the world, sometimes by hundreds of percent, even in places where there shouldn't be any animosity toward Jews.

Israeli Jews have witnessed unprecedented crimes just a few kilometers from their homes, towns, and cities and continue to believe that they are doing better than their co-religionists around the world.

On the other hand, Jews around the world are told, sometimes by good friends and often by cruel enemies, that they will be attacked and targeted because of what Israel is doing.

It is an outrageous lie and a terrible and deceptive corollary that Israel's actions led to antisemitism. Of course, this ignores the Jewish hatred that lasted for thousands of years. It is spoken to justify dangerous antisemitism and to try to cause conflict between Israel and the Jewish diaspora.

That, however, will not work. Any antisemitic attack only confirms that Zionism and the power of the Jewish state are true. It shows the reason we need to have a Jewish homeland.

Our polls show that Israelis clearly understand, and a growing number of Jews in the diaspora understand Wiesel's assertion—who experienced the greatest inhumanity to man in modern history—that the state of Israel is the only state that guarantees the rights of Jews around the world. world

The author is director of the Center for Jewish Influence and former CEO of the World Jewish Congress.

News Sources :https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-782305