Tag Archives: Israel

Somaliland and Venezuela 

Posted on January 8, 2026 | Leave a comment

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

Like the two least popular kids in high school befriending each other, Israel and Somaliland recently established diplomatic relations, to the usual handwringing from our adversaries. Halfway across the world, the United States kidnapped Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife and brought them to the US to stand trial for drug smuggling and other crimes.

Much of the world is unhappy about the latter although there is not much they can do about it except gripe. The United Nations is feckless except for its routine denunciations of Israel, and the US veto in the UN Security Council precludes that body taking any practical steps. Even the General Assembly will be muted because of the nations’ fear of inciting President Trump’s wrath against them.

There are already mass protests in the United States and globally against the abduction, notwithstanding that it should be difficult to muster any sympathy for a mass murdering, drug smuggling, human trafficking dictator. But then again, many of these same protesters are ardent supporters of Hamas and violently anti-Israel.

We need not speculate how the world would react if Israel ever tried such a stunt – because we already have. Every incursion into our neighbor’s territory in our own defense (Lebanon, Syria, Qatar, Iran) is immediately denounced as a violation of international law, regardless of circumstances or provocation. And when Israel did kidnap Adolph Eichmann from Argentina in May 1960 and to try him in Israel for war crimes, Israel was denounced by the UN (UNSC Resolution 138) for this “violation of the sovereignty” of Argentina that caused “international friction” for which Israel was urged to make “appropriate reparation.” The resolution passed unanimously, with American support, although the Soviet Union and Poland abstained. The resolution did acknowledge and refused to condone the “odious crimes” of which Eichmann was charged.

Are there lessons that we can derive from both these incidents – Israel’s recognition of Somaliland and the US seizure of Maduro? One lesson for us would be to act more and talk less. Days after the attack, there is still no mention of US or Venezuelan casualties. Another, and the primary lesson, is that we have to better learn how to advance our national interests by making daring decisions after rationally assessing all options and consequences rather than being perpetually reactive.

Accordingly, in retrospect, it is surprising that we did not recognize Somaliland until now. Somaliland, a territory on the horn of Africa almost eight times our size, has never been part of neighboring Somalia and had long fought them (primarily a struggle of clans) until declaring its independence in 1991. Somaliland is a Muslim country that sought friendly relations with Israel, as opposed to Somalia which has always boycotted us and has rebuffed our outreach for more than a half century. And now Somaliland offers Israel friendship, a military base that is in close proximity to Yemen and its Houthi rebels, as well as a possible locale for resettlement of a hostile Gazan population. Win, win, win.

Now that Somaliland’s diplomatic isolation has ended, perhaps other countries will follow suit. Leaving its land in diplomatic limbo for more than seventy years sounds ridiculous. But we foolishly do the same thing.

Israel has never been proactive in promoting our interests. For well over fifty years, we have allowed the status of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza to remain disputed, never declaring sovereignty or even staking a formal claim. Instead, we tolerated this ambiguity to our detriment, negotiating agreements based on fantasies that facilitated the rise of hostile forces with subsequent torrents of terror and wild claims to statehood. That failure is on us and our leadership.

Innovative ideas are usually kicked down the road, with decisions often delayed “until the Prime Minister returns from Washington,” as happened years ago with sovereignty over Judea and Samaria and weeks ago with the municipal plans to rebuild the Atarot neighborhood in north Jerusalem. Both were “temporarily” shelved to “avoid a confrontation,” which begs the question, if they are both right and just, then why don’t we? Why don’t we act in our national interest? Why do we subjugate our rights to the considerations of other nations?

While constructive ambiguity may have its place in diplomacy, it has most often weakened us and strengthened our enemies.

Take a few other examples. Last year, Israel declared it would penalize countries that recognized a “state” of Palestine but literally nothing has happened. France’s illegal consulate in Jerusalem remains open, conducting nefarious anti-Israel activities in gross violation of Israeli law. The Turkish consulate in Jerusalem explicitly declared itself its “Embassy to Palestine,” and other Turkish agencies located in Jerusalem still engage in consistent incitement and anti-Israel activities. All these provocations are met by Israel with empty bluster but nothing ever actually happens.

Additionally, the UK was one of those countries that recognized a “Palestine” and thus seeks to deprive us of the heart of our ancestral homeland. Why not, in turn, appreciate the current friendship and support of Argentina by recognizing the Falkland Islands – still claimed by Argentina, a few hundred miles off the Argentinian coast, and distant from Britain by approximately 8,000 miles (!) – as rightful Argentinian territory? Admittedly, the symbolism of our recognition is greater than the practical effect – but isn’t recognition of a “Palestine” more symbol than substance?

For too long, we have left diplomatic, political, and territorial vacuums, which are then invariably filled with initiatives, policies, and actions that are inimical to our well-being. Granted, we are not a world superpower like the United States that can act with impunity. But we are more powerful than we think, and our power should be used to reward our friends, punish our enemies, and conserve and develop our land for future generations – rather than just kicking the can down the road and making idle threats.

At a certain point, we will run out of road, as has happened before, and what filled those vacuums were catastrophes like Oslo, the Gaza Expulsion, repeatedly mowing the lawn in Lebanon and Gaza to little effect, October 7, and a “state” of Palestine now recognized by 157 countries.

With Iran and its proxies weakened, and Venezuela – an ally of Hamas and a sanctuary for Islamic terrorists – temporarily sidelined as a global threat, it is time to be proactive, identify our national interests, promote them, and achieve them.

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The Friend of My Enemy

Posted on December 19, 2025 | Comments Off on The Friend of My Enemy

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

There is a well-known and ancient aphorism that affirms that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Two countries that are rivals can still unite to challenge and overcome a mutual adversary that threatens them both. Thus, during World War II, the United States and United Kingdom joined forces with the USSR (after Germany breached their non-aggression pact) in order to defeat the Nazis. Shortly after the war ended, the enmity between the erstwhile allies resumed in full force and the Cold War began.

What about a corollary to that hoary principle? How does one characterize “the friend of my enemy,” or in our case, enemies? Is the friend still a friend? Does the friend become an enemy? Is there an intermediate stage – can a country become a frenemy?

This is our new reality, as Israel’s closest friend and ally in the world – the United States – curries favor with Qatar and Turkey, arguably two of Israel’s most implacable strategic foes in the world today. It is impossible not to conclude that those two countries are our enemies, and this despite Israel’s longtime willingness to ignore the provocations of both and to dream of the past (Turkey) or better days ahead (Qatar).

We should not delude ourselves any longer. Qatar has for quite some time been the sponsors of Hamas and other terrorist groups. It literally hosted and shielded Hamas’ leadership before, during, and after the October 7 massacre, and Qatari wealth has sustained Hamas despite its designation as a terrorist organization. Qatari money has allegedly fueled the anti-Jewish campus unrest in the United States the last several years. Their recent distancing from Hamas was solely the result of Israel’s attack on Hamas’ Qatar headquarters this past September, a shot across the bow that, among other things, informed the Qataris that the jig was up – and even induced them to pressure Hamas to free all the living Israeli hostages then held captive by Hamas.

Israelis still remember the Turkey that was the first (and for decades, only) Muslim country that recognized Israel. That bond was severed when Recep Tayyip Erdoğan became prime minister in 2003 and then president (apparently for life unless there is a coup) in 2014. Turkey before Erdoğan was a breath of fresh air in the Middle East. His ascension to power and his commitment to the tenets of radical Islam immediately soured relations, although Israel was slow to realize that and our diplomacy remained trapped in the fantasy world of the 1980’s. Nothing Erdoğan’s Turkey could do – supporting Hamas, dispatching the Mavi Marmara, repeatedly condemning Israel on the world stage, calling our government “Nazis” and our prime minister “Hitler” – none of that dispelled the Israeli illusion that this was still the same Turkey that exports dates and welcomes Israeli tourists, and that we are just a few conversations away from reviving that halcyon era.

Today, Turkey’s influence in our region is especially nefarious, and even in Israel itself. It designated its illegal consulate in Jerusalem, our capital city, as its “embassy to Palestine” – and we do nothing about it. Through a variety of social service, educational, and cultural organizations it sponsors in Jerusalem, funded by Qatar, it propagates radical Islam, rejection of Israel, and support for terror – and we do nothing about it. It routinely insults us, denies our legitimacy, and mocks our sovereignty – and we do nothing about it. The fantasy about the old Turkey even precipitated an apology from our prime minister after the Mavi Marmara incident. In other words, Turkey sent a hostile craft meant to break our blockade and supply our genocidal enemy in Gaza – and we had to apologize.

Now, the United States is friends or at least allies with these two of our enemies, and the price of that friendship has not been the diminution of their hostility towards Israel. Turkey and Qatar have captivated the US and it is not because of the shared values of those three countries – unless the primary value is money. These antagonists have infiltrated the US in different ways – Turkey as a longtime member of NATO serving as a counterforce to the Russians, and Qatar by spreading tens of billions of dollars of its oil revenues to buy influence in universities, politics, think tanks, school boards, and cultural institutions. Qatar has upped the ante in the current administration by engaging in sweetheart business deals with Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s ambassador for all things, and with Trump family members, and promising (although not yet delivering) investments in US infrastructure reported to be a trillion dollars.

Although the US could easily detach itself from Turkey, whose weak economy is obscured by its bellicose rhetoric and grandiose ambitions, it could not easily disconnect from the Qataris, so extensive is their influence in the United States. Qatari money is spread across numerous industries such as real estate, energy, aviation, and technology, and most reprehensible is their funding of dozens of American universities, including study programs which extol the virtues of Islam and denigrate Judaism and Israel. Yes, money talks, and three American universities – Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, and Northwestern – have received more than two trillion dollars to fund their campuses in Doha, Qatar.

The influence of Qatari money on American university campuses, and its connection to the rampant Jew hatred and anti-American activism that have erupted there in recent years, is being investigated. But the linkage should be unsurprising, as well the accompanying decline in support for Israel in the last few years among younger Americans.

Undoubtedly, Qatar and Turkey are masterful at playing the double game, promoting the interests of radical Israel under the pretense of befriending America and serving America’s interests. This should have been made clear to all through the machinations of Qatar and Turkey during the prolonged hostage negotiations, when both countries pretended to be intermediaries and peace seekers. In fact, their enmity to Israel was blatant. Even their supposed neutrality to Hamas was and is a moral obscenity. If part of their current game is currying favor with President Trump through money (including a promise of a new Air Force One, which has not yet been fulfilled) and overblown flattery, then it is working. And if a long-term Arab goal has always been to distance the US from Israel, then that hasn’t happened, but it is clearly on their agenda.

Well, how do we react when our strongest ally sees itself as friends with our enemies? We can pretend to our detriment that perhaps those enemies are no longer enemies because they are friends with our friend. That would be absurd, which is not to say unlikely given our diplomatic dithering. But it should be clear that one might be a friend of my enemy but that does not make that enemy my friend. An enemy remains an enemy because of divergent interests and objectives, and hostile actions. Friendship with a third party will not change that.

We cannot compete with Qatari money. Trump is a sucker for flattery and has been played by multiple countries – Russia, China, Syria, and others – but we should not play that unsavory game more than is necessary, such as calling Trump “the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House,” which is true but does not preclude Trump pursuing American interests first, as he should. We pretend to our detriment that US and Israeli interests are always aligned.

What we can do is try to minimize the impact of that so-called friendship by emphasizing our shared interests with the United States, and especially by calling out Qatari and Turkish actions that conflict with US interests, of which there are not a few. Qatar has announced it will not fund Gaza’s rebuilding, despite promises made to the Americans. Both countries have long flirted with America’s global adversaries and skillfully play one off against the other. The presence of a US Air Force base in Qatar serves one US interest but means that the US literally defends Qatar from all hostile elements, something that makes American troops targets which should trouble America Firsters. Israel has never sought that type of on the ground protection, and it is a mistake to allow an American base in Kiryat Gat.

Under Qatari and Turkish influence, the US will try to force Israel into accepting the disappearance of the deceased hostage Ran Gvili, diluting our insistence that Hamas be disarmed and disabled, speed up Gazan reconstruction, and advance our withdrawal (again, for the eighth time) from Gaza. None of this is in Israel’s interest, unless our goal is a few months or years of relative tranquility as the enemy prepares for the next, and even deadlier, round of terror and atrocities.

Trump has good instincts and is unpredictable because of his tendency to engage in bold actions. But he also has a short attention span, is easily distracted, and enjoys more the good PR from claiming diplomatic triumphs than the reality on which his wishes are implausibly imposed which is always less auspicious. Hence, the series of “wars” he has ended which have not actually ended – whether in Congo, Thailand, Gaza, or the Middle East. The day of agreement concerns him more than the day after an agreement. He lacks the tenacity and patience to see his vision through or to ensure it endures. That is why he urges Netanyahu to “take the win,” even if there is no win to be taken. It is akin to Senator George Aiken’s famous quote (he did not actually say it) in 1966 that the US in Vietnam should “declare victory and go home.” But Gaza is home, part of the land of Israel, and the enemy’s objective is to survive, and during the respite rebuild, rearm, and plan for the next attack. Now that Hamas is on the ropes and Gaza is devastated, we would be foolish to allow true victory in that tiny territory to slip away.

And we would have to be insane to allow the introduction of troops from Turkey and Qatar into Gaza, knowing full well that they will do little else than facilitate their plans for our demise. Their forces would not be Trojan horses but rather the enemy itself, armed and dangerous and in plain sight. Qatar has infiltrated the highest levels of the American government and it should be sobering for us to realize the outsized influence Qatar now has on American foreign policy, including Trump’s pronouncements. It puts paid to the boring cliché prevalent among anti-Israel Americans that Israel controls US foreign policy, although it will not stop our haters from professing it. Every administration statement, including leaks to journalists from “senior officials,” has to be filtered through the prism of Qatari influence.

In truth, it is Trump who should “take the win,” the win being the release of all the living hostages at once which would not have happened without him. Everything else is smoke and mirrors. If we do not take advantage of Hamas’ current vulnerability, we will be left dealing with a resurgent terror network and an explosive Gaza long after Trump leaves office, and under much less favorable conditions for us to respond.

As always, Israel is remiss is not clearly defining our interests and sticking to them, in not establishing red lines and proclaiming their indelibility. Ruling out Turkish troops in Gaza is a god start but Qatari forces are no better. We, too, are desperate for friends and allies but we should be forthright in recognizing that our enemies are not just those who physically attack us but also those who subsidize the attackers. Israelis too have been seduced by the allure of Qatari business and investments. That the US is unduly swayed by Qatar and Turkey is probably inevitable, given the US interest in countering the growing sway of China and Russia, but it need not be permanent. Those countries’ influence on the Trump administration is troubling but not exclusive. We too have influence – and that influence is enhanced when our interests are unambiguously projected and our shared values are transparent and transmitted.

The reborn Jewish commonwealth after the miracle Chanukah foundered because of, among other reasons, ill-considered alliances with foreign countries that gradually undermined our sovereignty in the land of Israel. Having learned from our long and providential history, we know better. Or do we?

Happy Chanukah!

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Chanukah: Ancient Challenges

Posted on December 15, 2025 | 2 comments

(First published in the December issue of Jewish Image magazine)

It is not widely known but Jerusalem is at the center of each of the Jewish holidays. In addition to the three pilgrimage festivals, a second day was added to Rosh Hashana to facilitate the Temple service in case the precise appearance of the New Moon perplexed the authorities. The Temple service was at the heart of Yom Kippur and Jerusalem celebrates Purim on the same day it was celebrated in Shushan, one day after most of the Jewish world rejoices.

But on no holiday does Jerusalem feature as prominently in its history and observance as it does on Chanukah. The miracle of Chanukah – the burning of the Temple Menorah for eight days – occurred in Jerusalem and the liberation of Jerusalem was considered the apex of the military victory even though the war itself continued for another two decades. And there is much that happened on Chanukah that can guide us today as the challenges that bedeviled the Jewish people then are prevalent, not to mention, exasperating, in modern times.

The story of Chanukah almost 2200 years ago took place against the backdrop of three major crises. The Jewish world then had to wrestle with a foreign enemy, internal strife, and a spiritual malaise that threatened the continuity of Jewish life.

The Syrian Greeks led by a descendant of one of the generals of Alexander the Great captured the land of Israel and the Temple itself and embarked on a campaign of coerced Hellenization of the Jewish population. The Temple was defiled with a statue of Zeus, service in the Temple was summarily halted, and the Syrians attempted to force the Jews to abandon Torah study, circumcision, and other fundamental commandments in the hope that Jews would assimilate into the Greek culture as all other conquered nations had done.  Additionally, the Syrians exercised hegemony over the land of Israel and the Jews were subjugated in their own land.

Most Jews succumbed to the allures of Hellenism, embraced their conquerors, and fiercely opposed the rebellion of the Hasmoneans. In a real yet frightening sense, the war of Chanukah was as much a civil war among Jews as it was a rebellion against the foreign enemy. Jews were quite willing to lend support to the enemy and too many did not hesitate to abandon the particulars of Jewish observance and identity in order to integrate into the Hellenist culture that had swept the world.

None of these predicaments are unknown to us today. The Jewish state, and Jerusalem itself, hosts a large Arab population that does not necessarily perceive its destiny as identical to that of Israeli Jews. There are hostile foreign elements within Jerusalem – chapters of Hamas, Turkish anti-Israel organizations, Qatar money funding a variety of nefarious activities, and European consulates that operate in Jerusalem as embassies to the Palestinians in defiance of Israeli law and thus threatening Israeli sovereignty in the Holy City, including that of Greece, of all countries, our ancient tormentor.

The internal disharmony in Israel over the last few years, which itself precipitated the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, was mostly papered over by the war but has now slowly re-emerged. It mostly centers on starkly different, even diametrically opposed, visions of Jewish destiny, the meaning, importance, and even continued relevance of a Jewish state, and competing notions of Israeli and Jewish identity.

To be sure, the good news is that the state of affairs when the rebellion of Chanukah began was far more precarious than it is today. We have endured much as a people, weathered conquests, expulsions, exiles, pogroms, and Holocausts, only to return to our land – as promised in the Bible – and reestablish thereon the third Jewish commonwealth. Jews for the last two millennia could only dream of an independent Jewish state in which Torah study is abundant, the observance of mitzvot is woven into the societal structure, a Jewish army can rise up against our foes in righteous self-defense, and Chanukah is a national celebration. Indeed, despite all our differences and the superficial discord, somehow, we have created and maintained a thriving society, prosperous and caring, boisterous but determined, tolerant and broadminded, embattled but audacious, and in many respects, the envy of the world.

We should never ignore the gifts we have been given nor trivialize the opportunities with which we have been blessed. The Jewish population of Jerusalem has not been as sizable as it is today since the destruction of the Temple over nineteen centuries ago. The challenges that we face today – both domestic and foreign – pale before the challenges we overcame throughout history.

That is because the great light of Chanukah still illuminates our way forward and reminds us of the great days of faith, unity, and redemption ahead.

Happy Chanukah to all!

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Just Because…

Posted on November 28, 2025 | 3 comments

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

It is high time we reconsider one of the most hackneyed clichés of our era – the one that claims that just because a person criticizes Israel does not mean he hates Jews. In its most concise form, it is the assertion that just because people are anti-Zionist does not mean they are anti-Jewish. It has become the most common defense of every anti-Semite in the world, at least for those who are looking for a defense.

This axiom has become so prevalent and harmful that we need to reformulate it. The truth is that just because people criticize Israel does not mean that they are not anti-Semites.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that anyone who criticizes Israel should be presumed to hate Israel and Jews. In legal terminology, let us call it a rebuttable presumption. We can safely assume that such people are anti-Semites, and if they challenge that conclusion, the burden of proof is on them. They must demonstrate love for Jews, notwithstanding their contempt for the Jewish state. And if they can’t, it speaks for itself. I would love to hear their explanations.

Part of the double standard, or really lack of any standards at all, pertaining to people’s views on Israel, is the attribution by these haters of their disdain for Israel to Israel’s government, to decisions of PM Netanyahu, or Smotrich, or Ben Gvir, or the bogeyman of their choice. It is not that anyone is above criticism; it is rather that the criticism usually contains some dismissal of Israel’s leadership as if they are unrepresentative of the people who keep electing them, as if the democratically-elected government of Israel is somehow illegitimate and therefore Israel by extension is illegitimate.

I am hard-pressed to think of a comparable example across the world. There are people who despise Trump or Biden or Obama or Putin or Macron or Kim Jung Il and yet do not question the legitimacy of the countries they lead (or led). Indeed, there is no other country on the planet whose “right to exist” is even a topic of discussion, much less negotiation. Certainly, no other country’s “right to exist” is considered a concession to be wrung from its enemies, if in fact that is even possible.

There are undeniable telltale signs of Jew hatred masquerading as anti-Zionism. Obviously, the protesters roiling American streets and harassing its Jews don’t just hate Israel and its right to exist but all Jews. Consider the following anomaly: the fabricated fear of “Islamophobia” rests on the assumption that all Muslims should not be blamed for acts of terror committed by some Muslims (even if most terror in the world is perpetrated by Muslims and has been for many decades now). And that is a reasonable assumption even if the other Muslims are never asked to denounce and repudiate Islamic terror. We even created a new term – Islamist – to distinguish between the good and bad Muslims.

Curious, then, that the same courtesy is not extended to Jews. Our enemies – that is, these critics – enthusiastically and indiscriminately blame all Jews wherever they are in the world for the alleged crimes of Israel. That is bad enough, patently hypocritical, and worse when we consider that Israel’s alleged crimes are not crimes at all.

Thus, the most execrable of the Jew hater who claims he is only anti-Israel will whitewash the Hamas atrocities of October 7 by claiming that Israel deserved it. In other words, Jews deserve to be slaughtered – but Jews do not deserve the right to defend ourselves. The slightly more refined among these haters will declare that the Hamas massacre, rapes, and kidnapping were wrong, and that Israel has the right to defend itself – but not in the way Israel did. They do not really go into details and are nonplused when asked for alternative means of fighting an urban war against an enemy that in gross violation of international law used (and uses) its own people as human shields and held innocent civilians as hostages. They have no answers but just know that Israel did not do it the right way. Yes, that is Jew hatred, and we should make no mistake about it.

Another clue as to the Jew hatred of these anti-Zionists is that “international law,” legal farce that it is, only works one way. It is a cudgel against Israel, and only Israel, and never seems to be applied to our enemies. Only Israel can violate international law, a shape-shifting doctrine that impugned every tactic Israel used and tried to rule out anything that could produce victory. And these foes accuse Israel of the very barbarism of which they are guilty – genocide (their fantasy solution to the Jewish problem) and starvation (which they inflicted on our hostages) – and moan about the devastation of Gaza (the bases and tunnels of terror built with billions of dollars of Western and Arab money).

And the most obvious evidence of the falsity of the claim that one can be anti-Zionist without being anti-Jewish is the utter rejection of Jewish nationalism. Zionism did not emerge in the abstract but is rooted in the Bible, which repeatedly addresses the covenant between G-d and the Jewish people that is founded on the Torah and the land of Israel. Any denial of the rights of the Jewish people to the Jewish homeland not only repudiates the Bible but seeks to nullify one of the pillars of Jewish life. If someone claimed to have no animus towards Jews or the Torah but simply disavows Shabbat, circumcision, Kashrut, acts of kindness, etc., we would not say such a person is just anti-Torah. Such a person is anti-Jewish because they take the essence of Jewishness and render it meaningless. One who says “I love Jews but hate everything Jews stand for” actually hates Jews.

Nevertheless, there is a weak point in this argument, a self-inflicted wound that has caused us endless suffering. One of these haters might retort that he does not hate Jews, only Israel, and use as proof random articles and op-eds in Haaretz, or reports on most of Israel’s news stations. We may not like Al-Jazeera or the BBC, and with good reason, but the most anti-Israel invective, the most vulgar vilifications of Israel, are found in Haaretz. Any anti-Israel, anti-Jewish media outlet could not do better than to simply cite passages from Haaretz and leave it at that. If all Tucker Carlson did was read Haaretz on the air every day, he would have more than enough material to satiate his most rabid listeners and vindicate his hateful views. Indeed, if our detractors just quoted Israel’s former, now-disgraced military prosecutor and her wild accusations against our soldiers, and just played her doctored video, they would have enough ammunition to besmirch Israel to their satisfaction.

Does that make Haaretz anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish also? Well, yes, it does, and there is not much we can do about it. It has its audience – those disappointed in an Israel that is Jewish in practice, not just in name; those horrified by an Israel that takes the Torah seriously; those disgusted by Jews who wish to settle all of Israel, from the river to the sea, and see that endeavor as a fulfillment of the prophetic vision of the Bible; and those confounded by Jews who believe that G-d really exists and that the Torah is true. It is really a simple metric: if I read an anti-Israel article in Haaretz in some other newspaper, would I deem it anti-Semitic? If the answer is yes, then that is the reality.

And what about other anti-Zionist Jews, Neturei Karta and their ilk, whose hatred of the State of Israel is based on a misguided reading of Jewish sources? They, too, should be held to the same standard, a rebuttable presumption that they are anti-Jewish as well. One obstacle they would have to overcome is their seeming contempt for any Jews who are not exactly like them, but if they can rebut this presumption by showing their love for Jews but not Israel, I am all ears.

To be sure, one can criticize Israel’s government and its prime minister, its army, its media, and its judiciary, and not be guilty of Jew hatred – but from a place of love, a place from which the legitimacy of the country is not challenged. Like it or not – and I don’t always like it – PM Netanyahu has found his way to power repeatedly, through free and fair elections. If anything, his waffling and vacillation, his unkept promises, frustrate his base even as they torment his adversaries.

Yet, the great biblical commentator Malbim notes (II Divrei Hayamim 9:8) that “the throne of Israel is G-d’s throne, and Israel’s king is the king ascribed to G-d.” PM Netanyahu may not officially be a “king of Israel,” song notwithstanding, although he has served more years as leader than most kings of ancient Israel and Judea served. But, as we know, people who are anti-America hate the United States regardless of who its leader is, and people who despise a particular leader do not usually then loathe the entire country. That sort of perverse ignominy is reserved for Israel.

We should not accept it and we should no longer be fooled by it. The dichotomy between anti-Israel and anti-Jewish is false. It is false in the media, on the campuses, and in the capitals of the world. If any other country in the world were as relentlessly criticized as was Israel, we would rightly assume that the critic has animus towards that country and its people. Those who claim to love Jews but hate Israel should prove it. My bet is that they cannot. And we who love Israel and Jews should give thanks both for the challenges and privileges of our generation, which – for all the current unpleasantness and the media loudmouths – previous generations would have loved to have.

Count us among the grateful – and those who stand with pride for the gifts with which we have been blessed as well as the opportunities to confound our enemies and bring redemption closer. And always remember that just because people criticize Israel does not mean that they are not anti-Semites.

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