Please Israel, Hear Us Out!

There is a detail that will probably be (as it always has been) completely ignored in Israel.

The Jews of the diaspora. The Jews who live in countries outside of Israel. Jews who, like me, have had to deal with jokes, threats and attacks since early childhood. I am a Jew who emigrated to Israel at the no longer tender age of 35. When I lived in Rome, there have been few events in which I have found myself reminded that I still had to remain alert because of my religious beliefs. I will give you a few examples: in 1982, when I was exactly one month old, a Palestinian commando threw grenades into the Great Synagogue of Rome. A child of a few years old, Stefano Gay Tache’, died, my father was injured and my mother found herself providing aid to the injured women with me in her arms.

In 1989, when I was 7, another commando of neo-Nazis entered the Jewish elementary school Vittorio Polacco and shot us. I was saved because I locked myself in the bathroom. When I was 17, another Palestinian commando shot us in the Synagogue on the day of Simcha’ Tora’. It took me two hours to find my father and my brother in the middle of that sea of ​​frightened people. I know that Israelis have experienced much worse things, and honestly this is not a competition to see who suffers more. I just want to say that we Jews of the diaspora know very well what it means to be Jewish outside of Israel. We know how to resist the temptation of Catholic conversion in order to put an end to the problems that arise from people’s ignorance. And believe me when I tell you that people are ignorant. We Jews of the diaspora have always defended Israel in front of everything and everyone, at the risk of being mocked, marginalized, humiliated. And yet we have always done our job. Sending money, soldiers, fighting with neo-Nazis, protecting us from the racists who spread like an ocean of hate outside. Remember, reader, that people do not know how to distinguish Israel from a Jewish person in the diaspora.

And yet, it seems to me that Israel cares little about the Jews in the diaspora. Not living in Israel, they have no right to protection from Israel. They must protect Israel, but they do not deserve the opposite treatment.

Whatever happens in Israel, has repercussions on the entire vast Jewish world, so forgive me, reader, if in this venting article, I find myself having to be critical of what happened yesterday.

Attacking a Unifil headquarters with Italian soldiers inside, I think was a move more stupid than dangerous. I would like to point out that outside of here there is only America left, no longer of Nixon, but  Biden who no longer has the great resources of the past to counter giants like China and Russia. If Israel starts attacking Unifil headquarters, then either they have completely lost track of reality or they want a war against the entire world. And forgive me if this seems on the edge of dystopian.

What I want to say, and here I conclude, is that we are losing Israelis who are running to seek the European nationality of their ancestor and leave the country forever, because a life also needs to be spent in peace. The aliyah are frozen. The Jews in the world are under a threat similar to that of 80 years ago. Is this what Israel aspires to? Well, I am a Jew of the diaspora. I know what is outside of here, that is how I grew up. BUT you, native Israeli readers, have no idea, and worse still, you are not even aware of it. The chutzpa outside of here is of no use, trust me. We need to stop. We need to change. We need to listen. We need something that has never been seen here, that is, to be modest and admit that the use and abuse of force will lead us all to an abyss from which we will emerge, if we emerge, decimated. Like eighty years ago.