Minority Jews: Struggling as the Underdog in the Global Arena

The Mideast Conflict: A Call for Jewish Voices

There are a lot of voices out there on the matter of the Mideast right now, but the commentary that will eventually be acknowledged as being on the right side of history is muted, comparatively quieter than the prevailing rhetoric. The prevailing opinion is that this is finally the generation the Jews should just roll over and submit to the longstanding notion that they should not exist.

Land is forever in flux, but Jews are truly an indigenous people of Israel. We have been in present-day Israel for nearly 4,000 years, maintaining our presence there despite periodic expulsions. Traditionally on the side of the underdog, the Left has forcefully abandoned Jews in this great moment of need. It is a challenging time of existential angst for Jewish people, especially the descendants of Holocaust survivors who feel in our DNA that “Never Again” happened again and that a latent antisemitism has been revived across the world.

We see white people of privilege jumping onto the bandwagon by marching with keffiyehs, tearing down the posters of kidnapped Israelis, and screaming coded slogans that call for the elimination of Israel. They’re raising flags with Hamas paragliders, which can only mean support for Hamas and its incursion into Israel to intentionally massacre 1,200 people and take 240 civilians hostage. This is obviously not just about supporting the plight of Palestinians, but also about supporting the large-scale murder of Jews. I also shouldn’t feel ashamed to say that Israel is a beacon of democracy and decency amidst some pretty scary and draconian regimes and movements.

Perhaps we’ll soon see the folly of the knee-jerk reaction against Israel. Should Israel not act as any other nation would in its situation because people don’t want it or Jews to continue to exist? We deserve to exist; we deserve the ancestral homeland that we have turned into a first-class arena for the arts, science, and academia; and we should strive to share it in a sustainable manner.

This is a unifying wake-up call for Jews in Israel and across the world to share our voices too, so that Israel will emerge stronger from this horrible moment. Corwin, a grandson of Holocaust survivors, is a professional writer and editor.