Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on May 21, 2020

Over the past few decades, there has been a seismic shift in rhetorical and intellectual honesty within the western media, academia, as well as in various public intellectual circles across the world. The most common assertion among these groups is based upon the so-called grotesque occupation and prejudiced history before the founding of Israel. In truth, what has been coined by scholars as the anti-Zionist movement is nothing more than a disingenuous, ahistorical attempt to castigate the State of Israel as illegitimate. Therefore, all criticisms and condemnations of Israel are not only valid but fundamentally necessary to ensure and promote the moral responsibility of all countries on the global stage. Such arguments are historically inaccurate, cloaked in anti-Semitic language, and typically utilized to justify horrendously violent and gruesome acts aimed at the civilian populace of Israel by way of various terrorist entities, networks, and states. And while this is a very sensitive issue, in which ethnic and religious backgrounds collide, one must not deliberately engage themselves in intellectual dishonesty. Such actions served to undermine the very importance and factual history of the matter.

Many people would like to believe, unfortunately, the vast swaths of history revisionism regarding the origins of the land that is now commonly known as Israel. However, history tells us that, The Diaspora (Jewish) signifies the historic exile of the Jewish people from their ancestral homeland, Israel, by all available historical data. However, a common misperception, sometimes deliberately constructed, is centered around the claim that the Jewish peopleweresolely driven from the land by the Romans,at the time of 70 A.D,whenthe second temple of Jerusalem was destroyed. However,this is simplyuntrue,as the Jewish connection to the state of Israel remains well-documented and accounts fornearly4,000 yearsofhistory.

The most common pushbackthat Jews,Israelis,some historians, and generally Pro-Israel activists face, at least consistently,is thecommon assertionthatifJews aretruly indigenous tothe landthat constitutes the state of Israel, then whyis thereevidencethatthe land was known as Palestine before the founding of Israel?Such points are valid on paper but usuallydebunked when looking underneath the surface.The term Palestine was originated,based on all available evidence, from the Philistines, an Aegean people who settledin 12th Century B.C. along with the territories of what is now known as Israel and the Gaza Strip. Come second century A.D., the Romans, just shortly after fighting off the last Jewish revolt, applied the name Palestine to Judea, which encompasses the southernportion of what is now called the West Bank.

One may reasonablyaskthemselves, why was this done? There is one core reason: to dispeland minimizethe notion that there wasever anyJewishidentification with the land of Israel. The commonly usedArabicword,Filastin,is derived from this Latin word.Moreover, one maystillbelieve that Israel is an occupied territory, invaded by European Jewry. This entire claim is antithetical to the idea that anti-Semitism has no connection to anti-Zionism. When Jews began to immigrate to Palestine in large numbers in 1882, fewer than 250,000 Arabs lived there, andmany of them had arrived in recent decades. While nefarious reasonscontinueto be deployed torefutetherightfor Israel to exist,ultimately it is quite clear that Palestine was never an exclusively Arab country.Eventhe distinguished Arab-American historian, PhillipHitti, a Princeton University professor, stated that there is no such thing as Palestine in history. Even before the Romans dispersed the Hebrew inhabitants from their Homeland, there is agreatdeal of evidence that the Diaspora existed far beforethe Romans ever encountered orthought of Judea. When the Assyrian people conquered Israel in 722 BCE, the Hebrew nation was scattered all over the Middle East; signifying the firstdispersionof the Hebrew people from the native homeland of Israel.

There are many reasons why the Israeli-Palestine conflict is a global issue, apart from the unfortunate history revisionism discussed previously. The conflict has given energy to newer forms of antisemitism, particularly those masquerading from within the anti-Zionism movement. Unfortunately, hate crimes against Jews in the United States and on the global stage continue to rise on a year-to-year basis. This is not an attempt to imply that all criticisms of the state of Israel are anti-Semitic. Of course, there are, and should be, legitimate criticisms of any state. The issue is where we choose to draw the line between valid and useful criticisms of the Israeli government and anti-Semitic tropes, strategies, and behavior, which as one may see, is a very slippery slope to define not only on a domestic basis but an International one as well.

This contemporary wave of anti-Semitism is uniquein that it positions its ideology under a formalizedoutlineundergirded by the main motives that constitute the ideology. According to StevenWindmueller, this sophisticated and newly developed formofantisemitism typicallyconsists of four phases.The first phaseinvolves theportrayalofThe United States as subservient to Zionist interests,particularly in benefiting the state of Israel as well asproviding supportto Jewish international goals. The secondphaseis typicallywielded bythe postmodernist left,as well asthe neo-Nazi right.This entailsthe castigation of Jews asso-calleddefenders of the statusquo,or, better put, contemporary Western values.Andwhile these two groups converge in theiroverall disdainand goals of stigmatizing Israel and the Jewish people,the thirdphase is almost exclusively wieldedand utilized bythe postmodernist left in thatit accuses Israel of implementingNazi-like practices and creating an association of Israels leaders withthe leader of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler. Lastly,and the most obviousof all, is the effort oflinking Jewstointernational businesses and banking, most notably to createtheillusionof acause and effect relationship between international practicesand Jewish interests.

In achievingthese four goals,such factions,as well as the Islamic Jihad,employ specifictactics.These tacticsare not limited tobut includethe boycottand divestmentcampaign directed at Israel, introducing one-sided international solutions that seek tosingle out Israel, effortsto target and remove the presence of Israeli faculty from research projects and academic boards,And the labeling of specific hate messages against Israel, Jews, and Judaism as examples offreedom of the press and academia at large. As a result ofsuchefforts,Jews were victims in 60% of religiously motivated hate crimes in 2018.There was also a 105% increase in physical assaults on Jews over the previousyear.

Even as we operationally define newer sources of anti-Semitism and the threat this poses to the international Jewish community at large, there remains a great deal of cultural and political concerns when discussing the role of American institutions and organizations in the facilitation of cooperation and a common interest of battling this threat, especially amongst European countries.

One current point of global contention is how American Jewish action is perceived in the context of foreign diplomacy, regardless of the United States standing with the other nation or nations involved. Americas European counterparts may express concerns, which may be valid, regarding the political domineering behavior of the United States. These countries, may indeed, only seek solutions that they consider to be a European approach. Regardless of the relationship status amongst European states and the United States, such condescending demeanor will almost always be treated combatively by the European countries involved in such affairs, who may deem that the United States is sufficiently overstepping its boundaries and insensitive to the cultural differences in addressing such issues between European Jewry and American Jewry. And while American concern may be valid, the rhetoric employed by the Jewish organizations typically involves threatening terms that implya failureon behalf ofEuropean governmentstoadequately and effectively addressantisemitism.

Not only is this conflictimportant to amendbut also adifficultchallengeto address head-on due to many different variables. Although unfortunate,addressing the underlying issues that have catapulted the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remainsa very direpossibility. As it turns out,many different stateshave a vested interestinspreadinganti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiments,with an ultimate goal similar tothe ones outlined within the four phases. If one examines, for example, the Hamascovenant of 1988,which outlinesthe ideological basisfor continuing its jihadto annihilate Israel,the complexity of solvingthe issuebecomesmore complex by the minute. The covenant states,the day of judgment will not comeuntil Muslims fight the Jews when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. However,more influential thanHamasis certainlyIran.

When Khomeini overthrew the Shah in 1979,Iransclose ties with Israelceased to exist.Khomeinis anti-Semitism, as a whole, isvery much alignedwith the second phaseunder the contemporary wave of anti-Semitism, driven by an anti-Western hatredfor Israel, America, and the Shah.Shortly followingthe rise ofKhomeini,Iranbegins to give birthandvast amounts of fundingtoHamas and Hezbollah,both recognized terrorist entitiesbyvast swathsof the western world. Without Irans financial andmilitary backing, its quite evident that neither Hezbollah nor Hamaswould havegainedthe capabilities to acquirethe weaponryandresourcesthat have turned them intofierceadversaries of Israel and its neighbors and allies.

For Islamists today,manyclaimthatit isthe Prophetwho guidesthemtoward an apocalyptic genocidalresolutionofthe conflict with the Jews.In their view,the conflict is not between Palestinians and Zionists,but Muslims and Jews in which there is no room for compromise. The Islamic State (ISIS) now controls large swaths of northern Syria and Iraq, accounting for a great deal of influence.This has led toa growingdesire for thecleansing ofJudeo-Christian presence within the Muslim Middle East.And if that wasnt enoughof a challenge for Israel and the western world,Egypt is also responsible for the promotion ofvariousanti-Semitic entities and tropes.In November 2002,during Ramadan, various programs based on the myths of the protocols of Zionwere shownonEgyptian TV, and thenacrossthe Arab world, reaching at the very least 200 million Muslim viewers. Also, the Muslim Brotherhood,a group that has referredto Israel as, the Jewish-Zionist tumor, historically reaps one of the most influential political organizations knowwithin the Middle East at large.

While it may be nearly impossible to address this issue head-on, Western States remain capable of battling against these dangerous ideologies by providing support, when possible, or appropriate, for Israel, as well as formalized Holocaust education in public school settings. Schools may also provide educational programs to identify various forms of anti-Semitic behavior while also ensuring that free speech is still promoted and permitted. States may also ensure that their legal systems provide a safe environment for Jews, free from the experience of Anti-Semitic violence or discrimination. Lastly, states mustcollect and maintain reliable information and statisticsaboutanti-Semitic crimesand other hate crimes, thus, simultaneously ensuring that the public is well informed on these matters.

Alex Frank is a junior at Texas Christian University. Alex is currently studying Political Science and Business. Formerly, Alex interned for Senator Ted Cruz in Austin, Texas, and currently, he hosts the newly developed Generation-Z podcast, The Contrarian Conservatarian. Alex practices Conservative Judaism and remains observant and passionate about causes related to Judaism, Zionism, and the State of Israel.

Visit link:
Why Everything You Probably Know about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Is a Lie - The Times of Israel

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