After Oct. 7th, nothing will ever be the same. The totality of the collective failure of American Jewish organizations and “leaders” to get even basic facts about Israel printed by mainstream media, or disseminated on campuses, or to the average American, is astounding. Post Gaza’s 2014’s Operation Protective Edge, we still had a chance to be pro-active, counter the anti-Zionist hate on our campuses with force. We did not. We are living with the results. Jews and Israel are now ‘genocidal killers’, ‘subhuman’ and therefore fair game for the Jew hunt. How we allowed this to happen is precisely what we need to Atone for. The status quo is not working. Moving forward for 5787 means formulating and implementing a new Redemption plan.

Redemption 5787 Style

So what should a strong Jewish community look like for our future?

• We cannot ignore poll after poll showing a generational gap in support for Israel. Synagogues, Bureaus of Education, Jewish Community Centers continue to ignore secular Jews who make up an increasingly large percentage of younger Jews. They need to reach out to them, establish an Association for Jewish Zionist Seculars and incorporate them into their activities.
• Our resources are not unlimited. Each time I read about Jews fundraising for a cause other than ours, or a wealthy Jew throwing away millions buying a sports team my normally low blood pressure skyrockets.  We should only be giving to those who openly support Zionism, Israel’s legal right to exist as a Jewish nation, both Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, and begin cultivating more allies. Close your eyes with me and imagine relentless, non-stop funding of billboards across America, lighting up the sky with refutation of the Big Lies. Pamphlets are available about Israel’s truth and beauty.  Flood Congress, media offices, colleges, and even our own places and schools, everywhere we gather with a non-stop tsunami of pamphlets.  

Apartheid? Try these billboards on for size:

• Arab representatives have served in the parliament since the first Knesset elections in 1949. The head of Israel’s major Bank Leumi was an Arab, Dr. Samer Haj-Yehia. 
• In the whole of the Middle East, only 1.6 million Arabs have complete political, civil & religious rights. They all live in one place–-Israel. Israel’s Founding Declaration affords full legal, civil and religious rights to all. 
• It is not and never was about land or borders. It was about, as their leader Abbas said, “we will never accept the evil Zionist (Jews) entity in our midst with any borders.” 
• ‘Palestinian’ Arabs rejected offers for statehood & peace: 1948, 1967, 2000-2001, 2005 and 2008.

Genocide in Gaza? Take your pick of indisputable facts:

• Israel facilitated over 2.1 million tons of humanitarian aid into Gaza on over 110,000 trucks in the two years following Hamas’ October 7 massacre. (Hamas stole most of it). 
• Thousands of Gazan civilians were evacuated by Israel to receive medical care.
• The IDF routinely warned Palestinian civilians to evacuate ahead of military operations and strikes through text messages, phone calls and by dropping leaflets.

While every civilian death is a tragedy, they regularly occur in war and are not illegal under international convention or U.S. law. https://aipac.org/memos/israel-genocide-lies

• Unrelenting intimidation & forced telling of Lies—an award-winning journalist finally admits the truth, “How Hamas Controls the Story Coming Out of Gaza,” https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22869/gaza-hamas-controls-media-story

• More exposure of the media’s eagerness to gobble up and spew more Big Lies:

 “How Hamas lies about casualty numbers in Gaza,” https://www.jns.org/jns-tv/how-hamas-lies-about-casualty-numbers-in-gaza

• They could have had a state of their own for decades but prefer jihad instead: Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas a peace proposal in 2008, offering close to 100% of the West Bank with land swaps, Palestinian statehood and the division of Jerusalem with the Muslim parts becoming the capital of the new Palestine. Did Abbas accept? Not on your life.
• “Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas has admitted that he rejected “out of hand” an Israeli offer for a Palestinian state on nearly 95% of Judea and Samaria. In 2008, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert offered to agree to the creation of an independent PA state including all of Gaza, nearly all of Judea/Samaria, and parts of Israel.” https://zoa.org/2015/11/10304270-abbas-admits-rejecting-olmert-generous-offer-of-palestinian-state/

Paradigm Shift for 5787  

“The core concept of the “Big Lie” was first written down by Hitler in “Mein Kampf.” The masses are more likely to believe a massive falsehood than a small one because they cannot fathom someone having the impudence to distort the truth so radically.”  The ‘Palestinian’ Arabs are led by, and garnered ill-informed supporters, and outright bigoted always against Israel, lazy, do-no-research, spew Hamas’ false data mainstream media who learned this lesson well.  Every place where Jews gather needs to include training on How to Become an Activist. How to form coalitions with other Jews and new allies to combat these Lies, from mobile groups launched to physically protest outside offenders’ offices, to convincing our wealthy Jewish members to put aside all else and fund relentless ubiquitous repudiation of each Big Lie until the end of time. 

All Jews, from little ones to big ones, need to be enrolled in hard core self-defense training, and carry all forms of legal self defense at all times. No, that does not make us live in fear.  This makes us confident, proud, fierce Jews, letting the world know we will take you down if you attack us, and ask questions later. 

And lastly I hear from others, “Well, I’m just one person. What can I do?” Plenty. 

Upon hearing the mobs in Europe chanting “Jews to the gas. Hitler should have finished the job”, I knew I had to do something so I went to Israel in 2015 with HonestReporting for a Certification in “Defending Israel from Media Bias.” My pen has been my sword ever since. 

I volunteered twice with Israel’s Sar-El, working on army bases after Hamas’ Oct. 7th butchery, a few times defiantly huddled in bomb shelters, singing Hebrew songs while hearing the explosions overhead.  Our hearts are with all Israelis who are forced to live with this as their norm. Find a volunteer organization that suits you in Israel. And go. 

In Graduate School for Social Welfare, the Nation of Islam’s filth, “The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews”,  promoting the lie that Jews were responsible for slavery, was at a required event.  I protested to the Dean, using “Jew-Hatred as History” to refute these lies. She issued a letter of apology to the entire student body.  It never ends. I was appalled to find Goodreads’ preface as “accurate” of “Black Hitler”, Louis Farrakhan’s same filthy book online. I successfully protested to Amazon, who had acquired Goodreads: “We have examined the book’s description and as we found it violated our terms of use, we have removed it. I am very sorry that you encountered it and that it caused you distress.”   

I asked Tauck Tours to stop subscribing to a newsletter which falsely smeared Israel. They did and apologized. Small victories perhaps but examples of my guiding principle: Not wanting to make ‘trouble’ is what gets us into the worst kind of ‘trouble’.  

Fact: “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, possibly the worst of the worst Jew-hate, is a best seller and is widely believed throughout the Middle East. In 2002, Egypt even had a TV show enacting its conspiracy lies. 

So, to all the self-righteous ill-informed, semi-literate, over and under-educated progressives who vomit their falsehoods without knowledge or facts, for 5787 try this instead. Demand these Arabs be led by democratically elected leaders who seek peace instead of putting their resources and energy into the elimination of Israel.  That would be a true humanitarian cause. 

Ginette Weiner, A Zionist Jew

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ginette Weiner, is a published commentator in Jewish and mainstream newspapers. She holds an MSW and a Certification in “Understanding Media Bias & Israel Advocacy: Defending Israel from Media Bias”, 23rd Mission to Israel, Honest Reporting: June, 2015.