At least, not in its present form.
Before we go any further, please note that this post is most definitely not antisemitic. We have many Jewish friends, both here in the U.S. and overseas, and we treasure them. We salute Jewish achievements in the sciences and the arts, particularly those in literature and music. We would like all Jewish people to live in peace, unthreatened and in harmony with others everywhere. Sadly, though, this does not seem possible.
Antisemitism is very real, of course, and it—especially its horrendous manifestation in the Holocaust—underlies Israel’s foundation. It is also why well-meaning people continue to believe in and support Israel, even today. Yet we would argue that supporting Israel at the close of 2024 is in itself antisemitic. Israel today is antithetical to true Jewish values, and to any value system that incorporates empathy and fair treatment of others. A country run by criminals, and war criminals at that? Its current government and military policies are a blight on the Jewish people. Israel has become a criminal enterprise which imposes apartheid on many of its citizens and war crimes and genocide on the Palestinians within its territory. In the latter part of this year, the American-funded IDF has expanded its genocidal campaign to Lebanon and Syria as well.
The Nakba of 1948, when many Palestinians were forced from their land and/or murdered for it, provided a preview of what was to come. Yet the death of some six million Jews in World War II was still uppermost in world leaders’ minds and it was generally believed the Jewish people deserved a haven, a safe refuge to help atone for all they had suffered. Israel was not established in the most ethical or humane manner, but there was a need for a Jewish homeland, it was felt.
In hindsight, this was obviously the wrong approach. How many peace talks have there been? How many proposed two-state solutions? How many wars?
A further effect of Israel’s steady descent into the monster state it is today has been the complicity it has imposed on its supporters, the U.S. foremost among them. Joe Biden’s legacy will be forever smeared by his total embrace of Israel’s actions, much more so than by his inept loss of political power.
Even at this writing, though, strong criticism of Israel is censored or downplayed. Students voicing their consciences are punished. Mainstream media are mostly silent. To the extent Israel’s atrocities are reported, they are muted to a point where they become background noise. Israel bombed a hospital/refugee camp today, and X people were killed. Ho-hum. The story is buried deep within a section or quickly mouthed in one sentence during broadcasts. “Settlers” murder Palestinians with impunity in the West Bank, and that seems to go completely unreported.
Just today (December 20), the New York Times reported on yet another Israeli bombing on a hospital in northern Gaza. The headline was “‘We Just Want Mercy’: A Gaza Hospital Pleads for a Respite.” Fair enough, as far as it goes. But the story was nowhere to be found on the paper’s home page. It’s become old news, you see.
America’s involvement with and complicity in Israel’s inhuman behavior will only grow stronger with the incoming administration. This will harm both countries, and many others in the world as well. After all, neither nation is particularly stable these days.
The atrocities Israel continues to perpetrate will eventually lead to its destruction, regardless of how long this may take. Decent Israel citizens should be planning now to seek improved lives elsewhere. Given current circumstances in the United States, there may be better options than here.
