There’s no question that the challenges we Jews are facing at this moment , internally and externally, are enormous and scary. On the face of it this is because of the war that followed October the 7th and has led to thousands of tragic casualties on both sides. But in practice, it has merely taken the lid off so much hatred around the world that cannot be explained rationally. I believe that we have a right to our homeland. For me it has little to do with political Zionism, but Judaism.
I have often quoted John Donne that every person’s death diminishes me . I feel terrible about lives lost in any war. All wars are horrible and innocent individuals suffer. Yet I do believe in a just war. And this is one. I strongly believe that Israel has the right to respond in the way that it did and does. But no facts, no amount of argument or social media clips are likely to change anybody’s mind. The rival camps are fixed. And therefore, when logic fails, one is left with the emotional issue of loyalty.
A mother may well know that her son is a wicked person and may disagree with what he does. And yet at the same time, a mother feels loyalty to her son regardless of his crimes. What I feel is not about a country so much but about a family and a people that has a right to return to its homeland. I have never felt I belonged to Britain or the USA, countries I have lived in and benefitted from. Whereas for all I dislike about Israel ,I feel more at home there than elsewhere else.
I am not blind in my support of Israel. I am fully aware of Israel’s overconfidence, mistakes and deplorable actions. But I also understand the traumas that Israelis have constantly been subjected to year after year which may have led to overreaction on the part of some. Israel politics has always offended me. And both sides carry the blame. As for the reaction of the rest of the world, I think that is their problem rather than mine.
The Middle East is a world of ideologies that glorify murder, militant jihad and militias that justify cruelty and rape. Ideologies that respect the strong and revile the weak. I believe in deterrence. That gave us years of peace after the Second World War. In a violent threatening world deterrence is the best defense. And Israel owes that to its population. All the more so now. Whether you think Hamas are freedom fighters or savages, it uses human shields, hospitals and UNRWA institutions as command centers and refuses to shelter civilians in its tunnels that it preserves for its armed elites. It deprives its own people of humanitarian aid by hijacking it for its own benefit. The consequences are upon their heads. At the same time, I mourn for the hundreds of Israeli soldiers killed precisely because the army tried to avoid casualties. Despite the rogues, the vast majority were trying to be humane.
It is under constant attack from opponents who make no attempt to disguise their intention to eliminate Israel and are applauded at the United Nations. Which is why I believe strongly in the right of aggressive self-defense. If sometimes it goes too far, and mistakes are made, individuals behave in an unforgivable way, that is the sad price of war.
The attacks of Hamas were not simply a response to Israel’s occupation but the horrific nature of them, the rape, the torture, were consciously applauded and encouraged both by many Palestinians and left-wing supporters, reveals an agenda. So much unspeakable vicious cruelty was glorified and excused that it is unimaginable that anyone of any moral standard capacity could have ignored their inhuman barbarism or would want to live anywhere near them.
I regard the overwhelming hatred of Israel shown by the United Nations and much of the rest of the world is only further proof of how prejudiced ,dishonest, and anti-Jewish they are. One just has to look at the number of motions passed against Israel and the United Nations to see the evidence. Many of the academic and socialist worlds have adopted black and white, flawed and dishonest concepts of Colonialism and Orientalism. Juxtaposing strength and weakness, glorifying victims, and arbitrarily attributing evil to the West and probity to the east. This is the struggle that the free world faces, and its intellectual leadership justifies. One of the things that I have learned in the course of my life is there are simply some people who one cannot debate with. Those with closed minds cannot conceive of a different point of view. I believe Israel needs all the help and support that it can get, while at the same time continuing to wage a war until there is a resolution. Which will never come for as long as the majority of the world are not prepared to allow Israel to defend itself with the same tools and means as other nations use. Which is why I condemn those Jews who publicly side against her.
This is where loyalty matters more than self and good intentions. I have no sympathy for either the fools of Neturei Karta who fawn over their enemies or those Jews on the other side of the spectrum who publicly condemn Israel. “Be careful about your words. Lest others learn to lie from them” (Avot 1:9). None of this breast beating will solve anything.
No matter how many claim that the current government is destroying democracy, the fact is that there will be elections and people will have their say. Regardless of the demonstrations, the one thing almost everybody agrees about, from left to right, is that they wish to defend their homeland from the violence of those who seek unabashedly and unashamedly to want to see the Jewish state destroyed. I consider them to be beyond the pale.
I have inherited from my father a passionate commitment to the land of Israel and the right of the Jews to return and live at peace. This to me is an absolute fundamental based on history and the concept of loyalty. It transcends failures and divisions. And is why we have survived and will.
The Hebrew word for loyalty is NeEMaN. The same root as the word EmuNa, faith. And the word AMEN. Either you have it or you don’t.
Jeremy April 2025
