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I’m a well-document reluctant lover of Israel.
What does that mean?
I support Israel’s right to exist and defend itself 100%. I advocate for Israel. And with all of its imperfections, I believe Israel to be worlds greater than all of its enemies.
And I want Israel to succeed. I want to be proud of my country. I want it to be a better place for all those living here. I’m just frustrated by the many things I believe Israel could be doing better. And even more frustrated by the many people who seem to have given up on making those changes a reality.
Pride from the Days
Every once in a while I feel small pieces of pride.
But those moments are rare.
I love history. And I especially love Israel history.
But most of my moments of pride come from things that happened before I was born.
I think about the insane miracle of establishing a state in 1948, against all odds.
I think about the spy Eli Cohen rising to prominence in the Syrian government, gathering vital intelligence that would help to ensure Israel’s victory in upcoming battles.
I think about when four countries attacked Israel in 1967, and within just six days Israel had them begging for a ceasefire.
I think about when terrorists hijacked a plane filled with Israelis and brought the plane to Entebbe, Uganda, and the utterly impressive rescue mission that followed.
And I think about how Israeli agents kidnapped Adolf Eichmann, one of the most important Nazis during the Holocaust, right out of his home in Argentina to bring him back to face justice in Israel.
Proud of Days Gone By
All of these stories have two things in common.
First, they are amazing. Straight out of the movies. In fact, some even have movies made about them.
Second, they all happened a long time ago.
And that’s significant.
It makes Israel feel like a story and not a real thing. I walk down the street and see falafel shops and cigarettes and bad driving and kids playing and random pieces of bread sitting on benches.
I can marvel at how modernized Israel has become in less than a century, and quite a challenging century at that. But it doesn’t feel special. It doesn’t feel miraculous. Everything that is tremendous about the country seems to have predated me, leaving me just pining over a time that has long past.
Exploding Beepers
And then the news came on.
I heard all about exploding beepers throughout Lebanon.
The next day it was exploding walkie-talkies.
And just a few days later, we took out Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah. But it wasn’t that simple. This piece of garbage has eluded death or capture for decades. We pinpointed his location, deep underground, and blew the ever-living hell out of his lair. I don’t know the fine details and I’m still trying to understand exactly what happened. But I understand we knew where he was located because of a mission involving a spy shaking his hand and transferring some sort of invisible tracker to his skin.
And a few hours later, that was all she wrote.
In a matter of days, Israel had eliminated all of Hezbollah’s senior leadership, dismantled their communication network, and left the terrorists fearful to touch anything, lest it literally blow up in their faces.
I’ve been waiting for this since I moved to Israel the first time in 1997. I’ve been waiting to live through a moment that would later be turned into an incredible feature film. And I couldn’t be more ecstatic.
Never Easy for Israel
The things I’m reading in my very diverse online world are all over the place. Many, of course, agree with me. They celebrate everything from the ingenuity and effectiveness of the attacks, to how relatively precise they were, causing far less damage then, say, a missile demolishing a building.
But others have accused Israel of international terrorism. They’ve taken the world’s faith away from the things they use in everyday life. People will become afraid to pick up their cellphone or turn on their television, lest they explode. They have made the mundane feel unsafe.
I laugh at these thoughts.
I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but come on!
If Israel allows Hezbollah to pummel the north with rockets, tens of thousands of people need to flee their homes in fear and we encourage a terrorist entity to continue to bombard us.
If we strike back with conventional weapons, we’re accused of everything from disproportionate force to genocide.
So what do we do? We innovate solutions that cause damage specifically to those we mean to harm, and minimize the damage and suffering to others. Israel should be lauded as a nation of superheroes. But instead people will still find room for criticism.
Always Room for Antisemitism
And what do you call it when people criticize you no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try to please everyone and do the right thing?
I suppose you can call it antisemitism. It’s frustrating to me. I’ve often commented that after nearly half a century living in this world, and overtly letting the world know my ethnicity, I’ve experienced almost no antisemitism firsthand. The people in my life have been relatively kind and unbiased, at least in regards to peripheral differences. Yet racism and bigotry are such convenient explanations for so many things that are otherwise inexplicable.
Why are there massive protests against Israel for defensive wars, and silence about Russia? Silence about anything revolting happening in China or Syria? Or all over Africa?
Why do people hear buzzwords like “genocide” or “ethnic cleansing” regarding Israel and they jump on bandwagons and into loud protests proclaiming knowledge they clearly don’t have, when terrible things happen all over the world that go completely under the radar?
There is no logic.
It’s madness.
And, sadly, it can all be neatly explained with one simple concept.
Very Proud of Israel
And regardless of any of the garbage I may encounter online, I’m very proud of my country right now. I’m proud of its technological innovation. I’m proud of its masterful planning and ingenuity. I’m proud of its attempts to keep our people safe without endangering too many civilians. And I’m proud that we’ve gone above and beyond to bring us back to an era that feels like ancient history.
My head has been held just a little bit higher since that day.
Let’s keep up the good work.
