As the grandson of Holocaust survivors, I was raised in a home where the concept of Jews being in danger was a constant. Following a massacre of our people, a brutal war where our people are being held hostage, where our soldiers are forced to fight a brutal war against a terrorist region, we face brutal Anti-Semitism.
We live against a backdrop when University Presidents refuse to condemn the genocide of Jews. And yet, many of us always realize and remember why we have a Jewish state. There’s always our country, always our home. We will not be the world’s whipping boys. Those days are long over.
We have heroes and we have pride and we have a strong Jewish state. We are strong. There’s a Jewish state and the world wont kill us again without understanding indeed there’s a price to be paid, as the world realizes as we will eliminate Hamas.
Yet, Anti-Semites are something that we knew existed, cognizant that the world was silent in the Holocaust as we were being killed. And we know now the world isn’t silent, they are against us. And it is ok. We will win and the Jewish people will survive.
Since October 6th for so many of us, its been a whirlwind. I stood at Kibbutz Beeri seeing what happened, and my college-age daughter called me to tell me the building she was in class at had protestors screaming “Free Palestine”. Literally people calling for her death as I stood at the site of a massacre. That’s life for us in 2023. Par for the course. They can all go to hell.
This week, I sat in amazement at the United Nations that I had to listen to speaker after speaker explains how rape should be condemned. I sat simply in amazement thinking of my late Mom. While so many of us cried listening to speaker after speaker detailing the horrors our people faced on October 7th, the reality is the UN and much of the world hate us.
That’s how it’s always been for our people. And how it always will be. We are Jewish.
Philanthropist and author Sheryl Sandberg told JNS there was nowhere else she’d rather be, standing up for the Israeli women who were killed, raped, abused and kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. And thankfully she was there to speak truth to power as have so many others.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan has been a beacon of leadership since the war started. In a world of hate, Erdan has simply stood up again and again and again – in the UN, in the media, in our community, and led. Speaking truth to power.
Ambassador Erdan reminds me consistently of the story Rabbi Schneerson of Chabad once told of the UN. He is once remarked to have referred to the UN as a “house of lies”, noting that “Remember that in a hall of perfect darkness, if you light one small candle, its precious light will be seen from afar, by everyone. Your mission is to light a candle for truth and for the Jewish people.” And Ambassador Erdan has consistently done that. Thank you.
We should all be grateful for his words on George Soros, the world’s most dangerous billionaire. Erdan said following reports that $15 million from Soros has gone to groups that are organizing pro-Hamas protests around the country that “George Soros’ donations to organizations that seek the destruction of the State of Israel as a Jewish state is shameful. He added that “for years, Soros has backed and transferred money to organizations supporting BDS that want to isolate Israel. … They have never been about real peace or any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Having recently read George Soros: The World’s Most Influential Investor” its impossible in these days to not raise Soros’ work during the Holocaust, which has been the constant source of controversy. The book describes in Soros’ words what he did during this period, and described further Soros’ interview on ‘60 Minutes’ (below in part):
KROFT: My understanding is that you went out with this protector of yours who swore that you were his adopted godson.
Mr. SOROS: Yes. Yes.
KROFT: Went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews.
Mr. SOROS: Yes. That’s right. Yes.
KROFT: I mean, that’s–that sounds like an experience that would send lots of people to the psychiatric couch for many, many years. Was it difficult?
Mr. SOROS: Not–not at all. Not at all. Maybe as a child you don’t–you don’t see the connection. But it was–it created no–no problem at all.
KROFT: No feeling of guilt?
Mr. SOROS: No.
KROFT: For example that, ‘I’m Jewish and here I am, watching these people go. I could just as easily be there. I should be there.’ None of that?
Mr. SOROS: Well, of course I c–I could be on the other side or I could be the one from whom the thing is being taken away. But there was no sense that I shouldn’t be there, because that was–well, actually, in a funny way, it’s just like in markets–that if I weren’t there–of course, I wasn’t doing it, but somebody else would–would–would be taking it away anyhow” (‘Interview with Steve Kroft,’ ‘60 Minutes,’ December 20, 1998).
Soros has also said that “European anti-Semitism is the result of the policies of Israel and the United States.”
He;s given billions to causes that harm Jews and America – and hes probably kvelling and celebrating now this disgusting awful man. It isn’t just Israel he condemns – it’s also America. Soros’ commentary that “America is the gravest threat to world freedom” is detailed as are so many other of his pet projects.
The simple answer to University Presidents, to the United Nations, to George Soros to so many of these evil individuals can simply be found in the words of our Zionist great Ze’ev Jabotinsky who simply told us that our answer to “….all current and future accusations, reproaches, suspicions, slanders, and denunciations by simply folding our arms and loudly, clearly, coldly and calmly answer,’ Go to Hell!’
“Who are we, to make excuses to them; who are they to interrogate us? What is the purpose of this mock trial over the entire people where the sentence is known in advance? Our habit of constantly and zealously answering to any rabble has already done us a lot of harm and will do much more. The situation that has been created as a result, tragically confirms a well-known saying: ‘Qui s’excuse s’accuse’ (He who apologizes condemns himself).
“We think that our constant readiness to undergo a search without hesitation and to turn out our pockets will eventually convince mankind of our nobility; look what gentlemen we are–we do not have anything to hide! This is a terrible mistake. The real gentlemen are the people who will not allow anyone for any reason to search their apartments, their pockets or their souls. Only a person under surveillance is ready for a search at every moment. This is the only inevitable conclusion from our maniacal reaction to every reproach, to accept responsibility as a people for every action of a Jew, and to make excuses in front of everybody.
“I consider this system to be false at its very root. We are hated not because we are blamed for everything, but we are blamed for everything because we are not loved. We do not have to apologize for anything. We are a people like all other people; we do not have any intentions to be better than the rest. We do not have to account to anybody; we are not to sit for anybody’s examination and nobody is old enough to call on us to answer. We came before them. We are what we are, we are good for ourselves, we will not change and we do not want to.”
This is a long war on many fronts. The State of Israel is now in Gaza facing enemies on multiple fronts, Diaspora Jewry is under attack on multiple fronts, and at the end of the day for many of us its simple. We will win and they can all go to hell. Am Israel Chai.
