It is very easy to say antisemitism. And there is antisemitism. It is very easy to say “Europe,” because that continent has an ancient tradition of Jew-hatred. It is very easy to explain the matter away as hypocrisy, and there is hypocrisy. And heaven is my witness that I have said and written and proved and detailed all these things over the past decades. And presumably the hypocritical West will yet give us many more reasons to point to the hatred. All of that is true.
But after saying all that, it is worth noticing that not everything stems from hatred of Israel. Now we are hearing about new initiatives for sanctions, not only from the Netherlands, Ireland or Britain, but also from the United States, our greatest and most important friend. And not only in the U.S. Congress, where there are all kinds of different voices, but the administration itself is also considering imposing sanctions on Israel.
These are not Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Bernie Sanders, whose hatred of Israel burns in their bones. Nor are they new congressional candidates such as Abdul El-Sayed, who will apparently be elected senator from Michigan and beside whom veteran Israel-haters will look like Zionists. We are also talking about people who until recently were considered friends of Israel. They are fed up with us.
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A Palestinian was injured after being violently attacked by settlers in the village of Usran, south of Nablus
So yes, it is us. It is also because of us. Because what you see from there is not what you see from here. And from here, we can see the hooligans, flesh of our flesh, carrying out rampages in the West Bank. Another pogrom here, another expulsion there. Just yesterday there was another one. When this wave began, we thought it would die down. After all, Israel is a state governed by law. There is a police force. There is an army. There is a Shin Bet. They will find the ringleaders and the perpetrators and we will return to routine, which was nothing to be proud of in the first place.
But nothing happened. And everything we see from here, and most Israelis are angry about, and probably most settlers as well, is seen even more clearly from there. And it looks bad. And it serves exactly what Israel’s enemies say about Israel. Try explaining to world public opinion that this is not Israel, but only a fascist “handful,” of the sort that exists in every country in the world.
But we do not believe Netanyahu when he says “a handful.” Why should they believe him? And why should they? After all, this is a growing wave. There are almost no arrests. And from time to time there are Palestinians killed, or perhaps we should say murdered.
Arson attack by Jewish extremists in the West Bank village of Jalud
But there is much more Palestinian terrorism, the apologists tell us. They are right. We know. But excuse me: since when can Palestinian terrorism justify the Hezbollah model that is developing here? A group of hundreds of hooligans - some of them armed - ignores the police and the army, does as it pleases in the territories, attacks Palestinians as it pleases and sometimes soldiers as well. The Lebanese government is forgiven because it has a weak army. When it comes to Israel, the world does not buy that excuse. Because it cannot be that the strongest army in the Middle East is incapable of stopping this handful.
The conclusion is that the problem lies with the government itself. It does not stop this wave of Jewish terrorism because there are ministers in the government who do not want any harm to come to our terrorists. The result is that the chief of staff and the commander of the Central Command speak in lofty terms against this terrorism, which harms us, interferes with the IDF and encourages sanctions on Israel, but their hands are apparently tied.
And please, spare us the nonsense about left and right, about pro-Bibi and anti-Bibi. Because this time this is a struggle by the national Zionist camp against the anti-Zionist right on the right, which is helping the anti-Zionist camp on the left. This is an existential struggle.
What exactly are we waiting for? For Jewish terrorism to deepen the damage to the IDF? For there to be no vital spare parts for tanks and aircraft? We have enough enemies of Israel from outside. There is no need to help them with enemies of Israel from within.