But I digress. Israel’s leaders constantly speak of the need for hasbara (public relations). Doctor, heal thyself first, I say. If Israel wants to articulate our moral divine right to the country and our right to preserve our lives at whatever cost, they have to first believe it themselves. They have to stop begging the world for approval. Righteous gentiles know wha’ts going on. The handful or so of genuine U.S. politicians on our side don’t need to be told what’s happening. Their speeches are stronger than those of our own leaders, who are given praise for stating the sanitized obvious truth, ‘that we have the right to defend ourselves.’
Dignified Hasbara…V’Zehu. Not asking the world for the right to defend ourselves. Such a right is obvious to anyone with a spine. Not begging or spouting wimpy phrases. You don’t have to keep saying it. Those who would deny us this right are anti-Semites and we shouldn’t even be talking to them. We need to forcefully, and without compromising anything, state our position. Once. Not as a means of obtaining their permission to act. Then backing it up in the military field with the full arm of Jewish might. The righteous indignation of our position, our willingness to enforce it, and the guaranteed divine providence of The Almighty to those who fulfill His Will are enough.
Perhaps never before in history were we so fortunate to merit a powerful army that was capable of destroying the enemy, and been so unwilling to use it. It exposes a genuine weakness in the Jewish condition. It highlights that although the Jewish body has largely been rehabilitated after two thousand years of death and despair, the soul of the shtetl still resides within too many Jews. In his classic collection of articles, “Battletruth,” the great Irgun leader/historian Shmuel Katz recalls a speech he gave at Kibbutz Hashomer Hatzair in 1967 to a group of non-Jewish British volunteers. While detailing the brutality of the British Mandatory regime that the Jewish Underground endured, he noted that the British republic would have reacted similarly under such conditions. To which one of the students started to reply, but then turned shamefaced and became silent. Evidently, he had caught himself, but the damage was done. “But you Jews are accustomed” (hence the title of the essay)…. this fool began before stopping short. That is to say, you Jews are accustomed to beatings, lynchings, pogroms, etc.
Heed the words of this young Brit of yesterday who imbibed such toxic views from his upbringing. It’s very tragic that polite anti-Semites would justify their Jewish double standard by creating a false moral standard for the Jew. But even more tragic are the untold numbers of Jews who believe it themselves, and adopt it as a Jewish value. Judaism says otherwise. It is a mitzvah to live, and not to die. And although there are things for which the Jew is obligated to give his life for, (idolatry, murder, forbidden sexual practices, and the all-encompassing Milchemet Mitzvah), the underlying principle is that even such measures are intrisically tied to the preservation of the most Jewish principles and values. They are tantamount to ensuring that the Jewish soul lives.
And so I say, dignified hasbara… v’zehu.
Let them howl. We will live.
May Hakadosh Baruch Hu protect Am Yisroel.