Jewish Identity: Beyond the Grave

“It is impossible to overestimate the impact of the formation of Israel on Jewish identity.”
-The Future Tense, Jonathan Sacks

Last week marked 500 days since October 7th. And another pantomime from Hamas, of traumatised Jews forced to pose on a podium, before they were finally released back into Israel. Only this time, the display was also complemented by a grotesque line of coffins comprising the dead hostages.

For a brief moment, Israel was not cast as the genocidal monster. For a fleeting instant, the so-called Palestinian “government” was unmasked, revealing its true colors as a gang of deranged gunmen.

After previous “ceremonies”, distortions still persisted. Tareq Abu Azzoum of Al Jazeera English observed that the hostages looked “well-dressed” and in “very good condition.” (Reports later confirmed that these emaciated “captives” had lost a third of their body weight and suffered heart complications). The BBC, with its habitual moral equivalence, drew comparisons between innocent hostages and convicted Palestinian prisoners, as if being Jewish were a crime on par with terrorism.

And yet, for one weekend, the world witnessed a moment of acute empathy. As the coffins of the Bibas family returned from Gaza, even hardened reporters choked back tears on live television. Even Al Jazeera aired a guest discussing the ‘spectacle of death’. 

It brought to mind Dara Horn’s 2021 book, People Love Dead Jews, which critiques a global fascination with Jewish suffering that ignores Jewish life. Why is there more scholarly interest in a deserted Jewish town in the Far East than in Tel Aviv’s transformation from sand dunes to skyscrapers? Why do Auschwitz and Anne Frank command reverence, while Israel is demonized? Jews attract sympathy as victims of anti-Semitism but disregarded or vilified when they live, build, and defend themselves.

The past 16 months have further validated Horn’s argument in a yet more sinister manner. Deaths of Israeli hostages have been manipulated by the press to depict a country that abandoned its people. Does this honestly reflect how most Jews relate to the Israeli government? Consider further the accidental killing of three hostages by Israeli forces, an incident that sparked particular schadenfreude. Channel 4 speculated that this tragedy might “finally sway” Israeli public opinion in a way that “two months of bombing never could”.  The inference was clear. Jews do not reserve the right to neutralise security threats. Only to mourn their dead.

Guardian journalist Owen Jones claimed that Israel’s hi-tech sector and democratic values are nothing but a front to present itself as a “vanguard of White European civilization” in the Middle East. He lamented the “tragic fate of the Bibas family,” but the moment the conversation shifted to the living, he resumed his tirade, predicting that Israelis would “avenge” their deaths with “mass slaughter” of Palestinians.

Having lived in Israel for over half a decade, walked across the country, and served in its army, I feel compelled to correct two fundamental misconceptions. First, the claim that Jewish sovereignty is merely an extension of American or European influence is both offensive and false. Most Israeli Jews do not originate from the West, and Israel’s cultural tapestry is uniquely Middle Eastern. As Rabbi Sacks articulated: “Jewish existence, which in today’s diaspora may appear random, arbitrary, and disconnected, in Israel takes on coherence. There the Bible comes alive against the backdrop of its own landscape and its own language, once again a living tongue.”

Second, while criticism of Israel’s policies is legitimate, the international discourse consistently overlooks the resilience and heroism that has coursed through Israel since October 7th. Would mainstream news outlets ever consider writing headlines celebrating the hostages who clung to their faith under captivity? Where is the recognition of the extraordinary altruism and unity displayed by Israeli society in the face of unprecedented terror?

Perhaps the West struggles to appreciate nations that proudly define their own identity. In 2025, how many Western countries still tell the story of who they are and where they come from?

Few, if any.

Islamic terrorists however, have no such confusion. Their recent farcical hostage handover ceremony bore the slogan: “No migration except to Jerusalem.” A reference, presumably, to President Trump’s relocation plan.

I respect Islam’s historical connection to the holy city, and I know my Bible well enough to recall Isaiah and Zechariah’s vision of Jerusalem as a place of worship for all nations. But that vision will remain a distant dream until our neighbours abandon their savagery, and both allies and Israelis reject a narrative that confines Jewish identity to the grave. Only then will this vision have a hope of becoming reality,