ZIONISM: HELPING TO SAVE JEWS

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By GIL TROY, JANUARY 3, 2024 03:26 / PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu leads a cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, last week. ‘Israel’s government failed systemically, flamboyantly, from the coalition’s inception. Yet, Zionism did not fail on October 7,’ says the writer. (photo credit: MIRIAM ALSTER/FLASH90)

Despite the ongoing tragedy of Jewish history, many people hate us. Zionism's enduring success lies in the fact that we have an army of citizens to protect us and a new mentality that will never give up.

Many important things for Jews failed during the annus horribilis of 2023. Since the beginning of the coalition, the Israeli government has suffered systemic and flamboyant failures. The IDF's border defenses failed strategically and operationally. Jews revered the Ivy League, but it did not uphold moral standards. Many young Jewish Americans failed ideologically and politically.

But on October 7, Zionism did not fail. In 1947, Chaim Weizmann said that "a nation does not get a state on a silver platter." In fact, Zionism, especially its self-defense principle, continues to protect Israel and the Jewish people physically and spiritually.

Arnold Toynbee, a historian, stated, "Of course there is something called history, but history is something unpleasant that happens to other people."

In fact, October 7 ends a fifty-year holiday for many Jews. Since defeating the 1973 Yom Kippur surprise attack by the Egyptian and Syrian armies, the Israelis have escaped history quite successfully. Israel remains prosperous despite occasional terrorist attacks. A once primitive, fragile, and beleaguered state developed into a regional military powerhouse and a high-tech and financial superpower.

The two competing factions this year avoided history because most Israelis hoped the Supreme Court's untimely decision to rekindle the passions of judicial reform would not polarize us again. Left-wing extremists defend Israel's hopes because they fear Netanyahu's government will destroy a highly sophisticated and unkempt Israel. Meanwhile, right-wing extremists, who get their share of the profits from Israel, reduce politics to a struggle for booty and revenge against old enemies at home while ignoring our enemies abroad.

Netanyahu helped Israel modernize, prosper, and be spoiled through Bibi's Zionist doctrine. Bibi ignored her father's darker historical teachings and metamorphosed into an avatar of "Ikea Zionism," promising to put a chicken in every pot and an Apple laptop in every heavily decorated bedroom.

Ironically, the upstart Tel Avivis, the greatest creation of Bibi Zionism, fought him to save Zionism from its own government. Bibi holds onto power by ignoring this achievement and returning her Bibist to her Zionist aunt's complaint that they helped them escape.

Increasingly, Bibizionism opposes good government, national unity, and problem solving. The daily news cycle is preferable to dealing with a problem that lasts a long time, which makes Israelis addicted to a comfortable lifestyle and my highway politics.

In addition, American Jews love the history of refugees. In 1973, the community moved on and felt guilty for its absence during the Holocaust. Jews "made it "in 2023, and many Jewish children feel guilty for their"privilege," ignoring the painstaking efforts of their parents and ancestors. They also consider themselves to be "white," which on the left is considered a curse, and on the right is considered a designation that Jews do not deserve.

However, last year, Israelis and American Jews were able to see two of the happiest, richest, and most comfortable communities in Jewish history. Most Jews in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom are also happy.

Today, we are devastated, bloody, alarming, and fighting on multiple fronts. We underestimate our Middle Eastern enemies and overestimate our Western friends.

Although the Zionists thought Zionism would end hatred of Jews, they were wrong. Ultimately, Zionism gave Jews the tools to deal with hatred for Jews. Zionism returns us to the past by promising the Jews that we will never be powerless again. Jewish history is not only full of tragedies, enemies, and failures; it is also full of values, goals, and victories. Had the sadistic massacre of October 7th made us all Jews again, the Israeli counterattack would have made us all Zionists entirely.

This tension is described in the wonderful Hebrew short story of 1942, excellently translated by Hillel Halkin. Six years before the creation of Israel, Haim Hazaz wrote a "sermon" in the midst of the Holocaust. He discusses the challenges of Jewish history and the Zionist opportunities that arise amid persistent Jewish hatred.

Yudka, known as "little Judah" or "Jew," presided over the kibbutz meeting and said, "I object to Jewish history." According to him, "we never make our own history; the Gentiles always make it for us." We have been victims, not players, in history. No adventures, no conquering heroes, no great rulers... All he had was a mob of beaten, groaning, crying, and begging Jews.

In addition, Yudka blew up "all absent-minded Arab-loving professors" who "buried themselves in the suffering of Jews" and "believed that suffering" allows us to be Jews, "that suffering" nourishes us and makes us seem strong and heroic" and moral. In an attempt to anticipate those who were not Jews at this time, Yudka Yudka sighed, tired of surrender: "The more we are enslaved, the more we feel better."

In an overreaction, Yudka made the decision that Zionism should destroy Judaism rather than redefine and revive it. However, I agree that the" inner essence of Zionism, its hidden power," is cleansing, radical, and proactive. Paradoxically, the ideology of Zionism produces "a different person, a person above all else who makes his own history for himself rather than having it made by others... because the one who does not live in his own land and controls his own destiny has no history."

Ever since the Jews took over Israel, a number of Arabs have been trying to kill us. Too many succeeded on October 7, 2023. However, we immediately mobilized globally, even on that bloody day. Every day, we fight, mobilize, volunteer, support, and push back, creating bold new chapters in Jewish history written in Zionist ink, sweat, and blood.

And every day, we rob them of the victory they seek from our enemies by singing, dancing, marrying, giving birth, or simply living our lives, which we, as Zionists, will never give them again.

The author, a senior fellow in Zionist thought at the Jewish People's Policy Institute, is an American presidential historian and editor of the Jewish People's Library's inaugural publication, Theodor Herzl: Zionist Writings, which consists of three volumes.

News Sources: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-780518?dicbo=v2-tUniboX