Anachnu Po: The Left’s Misunderstanding of Israel
Anachnu po. אנחנו פה. We are here.
Israel’s enemies, and much of the Western Left, appear to believe that this remains open to negotiation. Perhaps if enough historians, activists, professors, and international tribunals declare us foreign, we will eventually concede the point. Perhaps if Israel is compared often enough to Algeria, Rhodesia, or apartheid South Africa, we will finally understand ourselves as settlers and begin making arrangements to leave.
They have understood nothing.
We could be wrong about our history. We could be delusional. Every Israeli archaeologist, historian, rabbi, atheist, refugee, and soldier could have participated in constructing the same colossal fantasy. None of that would change the political fact confronting anyone who hopes to defeat Israel by convincing us that we do not belong here.
We believe, completely and irrevocably, that this is our home.
We are not Afrikaners. We are not French colonists who can sail back to Marseille. Most of us were born in Israel. Many of us descend from families driven from Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Libya, Iran, Poland, Russia, Germany, and dozens of other countries in which Jewish life became impossible. We speak Hebrew. Our parents are buried here. Our children were born here. When missiles fall, there is no imperial capital to which we can retreat.
You may answer that none of this proves our moral or historical case. Fine. Make that argument. Write another book explaining that Jews are not indigenous, that Zionism is colonialism, that the Jewish connection to this particular strip of earth is invented, exaggerated, or morally irrelevant.
We do not care.
That sentence will sound arrogant to Western activists accustomed to believing that political legitimacy is bestowed by people like themselves. It is intended as a statement of reality. We are not waiting for a committee in London, New York, or Berkeley to decide whether we may continue to exist. We will fight. We will fight desperately, brutally, intelligently, foolishly, honorably, and sometimes dishonorably. We will fight until we prevail or until we are annihilated.
This does not absolve Israel of anything. A people’s determination to remain in its home does not excuse cruelty, corruption, occupation, fanaticism, or catastrophic military decisions. Israel can be judged for what it does. It can change its government, its borders, its policies, and its relationship with the Palestinians. We cannot be persuaded to regard our own existence as a historical error awaiting correction.
The title of this essay comes from the Jewish Partisan Hymn, written in Yiddish by Hirsh Glik in 1943. Its opening verse reads:
Yiddish
זאָג ניט קיין מאָל, אַז דו גייסט דעם לעצטן וועג,
כאָטש הימלען בלײַענע פֿאַרשטעלן בלויע טעג.
קומען וועט נאָך אונדזער אויסגעבענקטע שעה –
ס׳וועט אַ פּויק טאָן אונדזער טראָט: מיר זײַנען דאָ!
Avraham Shlonsky translated the verse into Hebrew:
Hebrew
אַל נָא תֹּאמַר: הִנֵּה דַּרְכִּי הָאַחֲרוֹנָה,
אֶת אוֹר הַיּוֹם הִסְתִּירוּ שְׁמֵי הָעֲנָנָה.
זֶה יוֹם נִכְסַפְנוּ לוֹ עוֹד יַעַל וְיָבוֹא,
וּמִצְעָדֵנוּ עוֹד יַרְעִים: אֲנַחְנוּ פֹּה!
English
Never say that you are walking your final road,
Though leaden skies conceal the blue of day.
The hour we have longed for will yet come—
Our marching step will thunder: We are here!
These words were written by Jews who had every reason to believe that they were walking their final road. Glik’s answer was mir zaynen do. We are here. Shlonsky carried that declaration into Hebrew: Anachnu po.
That is the Western Left’s tragic misunderstanding of Israel. It believes it is applying moral pressure to a colonial regime. We hear a demand that we surrender our homes to people who have repeatedly promised to kill us.
We will never agree.
אנחנו פה.
Anachnu po.
We are here.
