A Way to Show You Care

Yesterday I wrote an article that criticized CBS’s Lesley Stahl for implicitly questioning the morality of Israel’s pager operation on September 17th, despite her acknowledgement that Israel was exceedingly careful that the explosions would only kill terrorists and not those near them. Given Hezbollah’s clear intention to destroy the State of Israel and its Jewish inhabitants… and given Hezbollah’s unprovoked and unceasing bombardment of northern Israel with missiles and drones for eleven consecutive months… and given its refusal to implement UN 1701 to which it had agreed at the end of the 2006 war… and given its obvious determination to invade northern Israel as soon as it sensed an opportunity… Israel’s successful attempt to eliminate Hezbollah terrorists while doing everything possible to minimize harm to others was its best moral option. Allowing Hezbollah to continue killing and displacing Israelis, while making the northern part of the country utterly uninhabitable, and failing to prevent Hezbollah’s future plan to massacre those who dared to live nearby, would be a horrible moral wrong.

As the father of a soldier, I assure anyone who doubts this that all Israelis would prefer that Lebanon be free of Hezbollah, and that our two countries could exist peacefully side by side. Israel has no territorial ambitions outside of its borders, and should Hezbollah cease to exist and Lebanon’s government request a peaceful resolution of any outstanding issues, Israel would put down its arms and happily negotiate. We do not live in that ideal world, however; and when a vicious terrorist army fires thousands of rockets over eleven months in order to kill as many Jews as possible, Israel has a moral obligation to protect its people. Sadly1, this involves the killing of terrorists; but when any other option would be even worse, the killing of terrorists is far more ethical than leaving them to their devices, allowing them to actively work towards Israel’s demise.

Without even mentioning Hezbollah’s indefensible attacks against Israeli civilians, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement that quoted “UN human rights experts” who “condemned the malicious manipulation of thousands of electronic pagers and radios to explode simultaneously across Lebanon and Syria as ‘terrifying’ violations of international law… We express our deepest solidarity to the victims of these attacks… Such attacks could constitute war crimes of murder, attacking civilians, and launching indiscriminate attacks, in addition to violating the right to life.”

Compare these fighting (and absurd) words with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk’s statement when Hezbollah’s missiles killed twelve children in Majdal Shams on July 27th. There is not much to compare, as he and his commission said absolutely nothing.2 UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres issued an anodyne condemnation of the Majdal Shams massacre that did not mention Hezbollah by name, and which called on “all parties to exercise maximum restraint.”

No one who follows the United Nations’ attitudes towards Israel will be surprised to hear this. The UN, along with many international organizations, typically gun for Israel with gusto; just last week we learned that Prime Minister Netanyahu cannot attend the ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz because he would likely be arrested by the Polish government, as demanded by the International Court of Justice’s ridiculous arrest warrant. The examples are legion; should I start listing them here, this would be a book rather than an article.

I have two simple questions:

Do you care? And if you do, how can you show it?

Last week I had a wonderful opportunity to speak to two groups of Israel-supporting Orthodox Jews in the New York area. During an oneg Shabbat in Fair Lawn, NJ and a Sunday morning brunch in White Plains, NY, I asked whether American Jews care enough about Israel.

I recognize that this is an unfair question, as there is no way to determine what goes on in the hearts of others. Nonetheless, many Israelis have noticed that the grand gestures that our American brothers and sisters performed towards the beginning of the war – such as the March for Israel last November in Washington, D.C. – have attenuated. There are still demonstrations, but they are far smaller; people still donate money to Israel, but to a lesser degree; people still make solidarity trips to Israel, but in fewer numbers.

This is natural and understandable. I truly do not blame any individual.

But while it’s understandable, there’s more than can and should be done.

Some of the attendees asked me what they could do in order to demonstrate to Israelis their continued care and passion. My response was that I didn’t really know; but I alluded to what I wrote after last year’s D.C. rally, where I suggested that “this rally cannot be the culmination of Jewish efforts to support Israel and to defeat antisemitism. It must instead be a shot in the arm so that even greater efforts to support Israel and fight antisemitism begin right now.”

Unfortunately, rallies of a thousand people simply don’t make a big impression on the news media; Israelis don’t hear about them at all. The grand gesture, on the other hand, gets everyone’s attention.

For that reason, I suggested that the Jewish community come together to rally in front of the United Nations in New York in numbers that we have never before seen – not even last November in Washington. There would be no need for New York’s huge Jewish population to travel out of town; it would require no more than dedicating several hours on a Sunday to showing solidarity to Israel, while condemning the international community’s double standards and unfair vilification of the Middle East’s only democracy.

If you want to show that you care, I said, this is a good way to do it.

And now I’d like to suggest that it actually happen.

Let’s push our leadership to organize a demonstration in front of the United Nations which will get people’s attention. It’s time for the Jewish people to show the entire world that our support for Israel is ironclad and unbreakable, and that we condemn the international organizations that are trying to undermine Israel with every proclamation they make, and by their nonexistent condemnations of the world’s worst terrorists.

Imagine doing this on Sunday, January 19th, 2025 – the day before the presidential inauguration. That would send a message to everyone.

Are you with me?

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