Stop Pretending You Care. You Just Hate Israel!

There’s a certain breed of person who will never confront you publicly. Instead, they slither into your inbox, emboldened by anonymity, to scold you for defending Israel’s right to exist.

Message Body:
To millions of Palestinians your “Independence Day” is a reminder of The Nakba when the militias of the fledgling “Jewish State” set about executing Plan Dalet resulting in the massacres at Balad al-Sheikh, Saasaa, Saliha, Lod, Tantura, Deir Yassin, Haifa and Jaffa, to name but a few, along with the creation of 750,000 refugees. Did you know that Herzl himself was anti-semitic? Read his writings.

After publishing my piece “Flames of Karma,” I received such a note from the self-appointed moral crusader GH. Too cowardly to post his accusations for public scrutiny, he privately sermonized about Israel’s “Nakba crimes”—listing Plan Dalet, Deir Yassin, Tantura, Lod, Jaffa, and, in a final flourish of ignorance, claimed that Theodor Herzl was antisemitic.

This is the mind of the anti-Israel zealot. A mind incapable of shame, blind to historical fact, and obsessive in its need to paint the Jew—not as victim, survivor, or sovereign—but as eternal villain.

Let’s dismantle this farce, publicly.

Plan Dalet: The Military Strategy of a Besieged People

To hear GH tell it, you’d think Plan Dalet was Israel’s Mein Kampf. In reality, it was a defensive strategy, drafted by the Haganah in March 1948, designed to shift from passive defense to proactive security.

Why? Because after years of bloodshed, ambushes, and sieges, it had become clear: waiting to be attacked was suicidal. The tipping point was “Black March” 1948, when three Jewish convoys were slaughtered while simply trying to resupply besieged communities.

• Yehiam Convoy (March 27, 1948): 47 Haganah members were killed trying to reach Kibbutz Yehiam.

• Nabi Daniel Convoy (March 27, 1948): Ambushed near Bethlehem en route to Gush Etzion. 20 Jews killed, 50 wounded. Arab forces captured the convoy’s weapons and vehicles.

• Hulda Convoy (March 31, 1948): 17 Jews killed, 20 wounded, attempting to break through to Jerusalem.

• Hadassah Medical Convoy Massacre (April 13, 1948): 78 Jews were slaughtered — doctors, nurses, patients, Haganah fighters, even a British soldier  while heading to Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus. Civilians burned alive.

All of this happened before the State of Israel was reclaimed. Before it was rededicated.
Before the IDF. Before any so-called “occupation.”
The message then, as now, was simple: No Jews allowed to live. No Jews allowed to defend themselves.

The violence against Jews in Mandatory Palestine didn’t happen in a vacuum.
The British administration enabled it through neglect, complicity, and policy. Arab riots became a political tool because the British allowed them to be. They disarmed Jews, refused to crack down on Arab militias, and after every outbreak of violence, they blamed Jewish immigration.

The playbook was always the same:

• Arab attacks.

• British commissions of inquiry.

• Conclusion: Arabs fear Jewish immigration.

• Solution: Restrict Jews. Reward rioters.

Meanwhile, Jewish efforts at self-defense were punished. When Haj Amin al-Husseini orchestrated riots, he was pardoned and promoted. When Jews like Vladimir Jabotinsky organized defense, they were imprisoned.

The Arabs learned the lesson well:
Terrorism paid off, because the British made sure it did.

For my family, this wasn’t history. It was personal. My relative, Nissim Dorani, was murdered in one of these ambushes on January 26, 1938. He worked for the Co-op Mit-an Company, part of the Drom Yehuda transport division, delivering supplies to Jerusalem under constant threat.

That day, as his truck slowed going uphill, Arab gunmen from Lifta launched their attack.
A grenade was hurled into the cabin. Nissim, quick and fearless, grabbed it to throw it back but it detonated before he could. Immediately, the attackers riddled him and his partner with bullets. This wasn’t just a murder. It was a message.

He left behind a widow and a six-month-old baby.
His “crime”? He was simply delivering food to Jerusalem, where Arab ambushes and British complicity made supplies dangerously scarce.

The response was immediate. Thousands attended his funeral, not just to mourn, but to protest. They protested the British authorities’ indifference to Jewish blood, their refusal to protect Jewish life while tying the hands of Jews trying to protect themselves.

My grandfather, Zachariya Ratzabi, working as a driver for the Mantacheff British company in the 1930s. (Courtesy Levinsky)

Adding to the bitter irony, my own grandfather was also a driver, working for the Mantacheff British company, providing services essential to the British administration itself.
The same British who depended on Jewish labor for their operations, yet refused to protect Jewish lives. The hypocrisy was staggering.

Under pressure, the British made token gestures — establishing a guard post at Castel, grudgingly allowing a few more Jewish drivers to carry weapons.
But the violence persisted. The lesson was clear:
Jews would have to defend themselves. No one else would.

Nissim’s sacrifice became a symbol of Jewish resilience. His murder was immortalized in a tribute that reflects both his courage and the unbroken will of his people:

“בדרך ירושלים, רוצחים ממארב, נתקו בזדון את פתיל חייו, אך אותנו לא יפחידו זדון ורצח, גבורתך, ניסים, למופת תהיה לנצח.”
(“On the road to Jerusalem, murderers from ambush maliciously severed the thread of his life, but malice and murder will not frighten us. Your heroism, Nissim, will forever be an example.”)

As a proud Beitari — a member of the Betar movement (Brit Yosef Trumpeldor) — Nissim lived by its ideals of courage and defiance. He would often say:

“A man like me — a Beitari — will never be intimidated by danger.”

This is the real story behind Plan Dalet. Not aggression. Not colonialism.
Survival. Because no one was coming to save us.

So when you send me your outraged emails accusing Israel of “brutality,” I wonder:
Do you know this history? Or do you choose to ignore it because it doesn’t fit your script?

Plan Dalet aimed to:

• Secure Jewish settlements.

• Establish territorial continuity in the Jewish-designated areas of the UN Partition Plan.

• Fortify positions against the imminent invasion by five Arab armies.

This was not some ethnic cleansing manifesto. It was the birth of an organized army from a resistance militia, forced into action by Arab aggression. The idea that Holocaust survivors, still reeling from genocide, suddenly conspired to commit one is not just vile—it’s insane.

Deir Yassin, Tantura, and the Convenient Amnesia of Balad al-Sheikh

Anti-Israel crusaders like GH love to invoke Deir Yassin and Tantura as proof of Zionist brutality. Yet none of these claims withstand serious scrutiny.

Deir Yassin (April 1948): A strategic Arab village used to blockade Jerusalem. Jewish forces from the Irgun and Lehi attacked to break the siege. The battle was chaotic, brutal, with tragic civilian deaths—but not a planned massacre. Arab leaders deliberately inflated the death toll to 254 to incite panic. The real number was closer to 100. Ironically, this propaganda sparked mass flight from other Arab villages.

Tantura: In the 1990s, a student named Teddy Katz alleged a massacre of 200+ villagers. Under oath, Katz admitted fabricating interviews and distorting quotes. No credible evidence of a massacre was ever found. Yet the lie persists because it’s too useful to let go.

Balad al-Sheikh (December 1947): Frequently paraded as another “massacre,” Balad al-Sheikh was the site of a retaliatory strike after Arab mobs massacred 39 Jewish workers at the Haifa Oil Refinery. Arab irregulars from Balad al-Sheikh had taken part in the attack. In response, Haganah fighters targeted this base of operations. Civilians were tragically killed in the fighting. But this was a military action against a hostile force, not a deliberate massacre. As always, the provocation—the slaughter of Jews—is conveniently omitted from the anti-Israel narrative.

The Forgotten Arab War on Jews

And perhaps most infuriating of all—no one ever mentions the massacres of Jews by Arabs. So let’s remind them:

• Tel Hai (1920): Arab militias attacked the Jewish farm settlement of Tel Hai. Eight Jews were killed, including Joseph Trumpeldor, whose last words allegedly were: “It is good to die for our country.” There was no “Israel” to blame. Just Jews living on ancestral land, attacked for daring to be there.

• The War on Jewish Farms (1920s–1930s): Jewish farmers faced constant attacks. Arab raiders burned fields, uprooted orchards, poisoned wells, and slaughtered livestock. These were not armies, but civilian farmers. This relentless terror campaign forced the British to authorize the Notrim, Jewish auxiliary police tasked with defending settlements against these Arab assaults.

• Nebi Musa Riots (April 1920):
  Incited by Haj Amin el-Husseini’s blood libels, Arab mobs attacked Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem. 5 Jews were murdered, hundreds injured. Synagogues desecrated. Homes looted. The British watched, paralyzed.

  Jaffa Riots (May 1921):
  Arab mobs stormed Jewish quarters of Jaffa, murdering 43 Jews, wounding hundreds. The violence spread to surrounding towns. The result? British immigration restrictions on Jews — once again, Arab terror rewarded.

  Hebron Massacre (August 1929):
  67 Jews butchered by Arab mobs. Survivors were hidden by righteous Arab neighbors, but Hebron’s ancient Jewish community was annihilated.

  Safed Massacre (August 1929):
  18 Jews murdered. Homes, shops, and synagogues set ablaze by Arab rioters.

  Buraq (Western Wall) Riots (August 1929):
  Across Palestine, Arab mobs attacked Jewish communities after false rumors spread that Jews intended to destroy Al-Aqsa. 133 Jews were murdered. Hundreds more injured. Synagogues destroyed. The world yawned.

  The Arab Revolt (1936–1939):
  A coordinated campaign of murder and terror against Jews, led by Husseini. Hundreds of Jews killed in shootings, bombings, and ambushes on buses, markets, and farms. The goal was clear: to terrorize Jews into fleeing their homeland.

  Tiberias Massacre (October 1938):
  Arab terrorists infiltrated Tiberias, murdered 19 Jews — including 11 children — as they slept. Homes were torched. Babies were slaughtered. The world barely noticed.

  Haifa Oil Refinery Massacre (December 1947):
  Arab workers, fueled by incitement, turned on their Jewish colleagues. 39 Jews were butchered with knives and iron bars. This atrocity sparked the Haganah’s retaliatory strike on Balad al-Sheikh — which anti-Israel activists love to denounce while ignoring what provoked it.

  Kfar Etzion Massacre (May 1948):
  After the surrender of the Jewish defenders, 127 were executed by Arab Legion soldiers and local Arab villagers. Those who tried to escape were hunted down and shot.

  These are not isolated incidents. They are part of a sustained, deliberate campaign to erase the Jewish presence from the land.

Yet none of these atrocities appear in GH’s sanctimonious anti-Israel diatribe. None are commemorated by the same international community that holds “Nakba Day” with such pious solemnity.

Because Jewish blood, it seems, only counts when Jews don’t fight back.

The Normalization of Terror: When Jewish Blood Is Just Background Noise

For people like GH, there is no era in which Jewish blood was ever too cheap to spill. It’s not just the massacres of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. It’s the decades of relentless terrorism that followed—acts that would be called crimes against humanity if they happened anywhere else.

But against Israelis? They become “resistance.”

• The bus bombings of the 1990s and 2000s that ripped apart families on their morning commute.

• The stabbing intifadas, where terrorists prowled streets looking for Jews to butcher with kitchen knives.

• The endless rocket barrages from Gaza, launched at civilian towns while the world yawns.

• The car-ramming attacks on mothers pushing strollers, teenagers waiting for a bus, or soldiers off-duty.

• The daily reality of Jewish children growing up with bomb shelters as normal architecture.

This is the “legitimate resistance” in GH’s moral universe. The kind of violence he will never mention, because acknowledging it would dismantle his carefully curated villain-victim script. To him, Jews are allowed to be murdered. They’re just never allowed to fight back.

The Obsession with a Sovereign Jew

For the anti-Israel mob, Israel’s very existence is the crime. Every act of self-defense is reframed as aggression. Every battle is a massacre. Every soldier is a war criminal.

Plan Dalet wasn’t a genocidal plot. It was a desperate strategy to protect Jewish life against overwhelming Arab hostility. But the usual suspects pretend it’s a smoking gun, as if defending your right to exist is something uniquely illegitimate when Jews do it.

What they cannot stand is this: the Jews didn’t lose!

So Herzl Was Antisemitic?

Among the laziest smears is the claim that Theodor Herzl was antisemitic. This nonsense comes from a deliberate misreading of his brutally honest reporting on the condition of European Jewry. Herzl was a journalist before he was a visionary. His job was to observe, to report, and to tell uncomfortable truths. He didn’t hate Jews—he hated Jewish powerlessness.

What Herzl did was no different from what good journalism demands: holding up an unflinching mirror to a society in crisis. He documented the reality of antisemitism, dissected its roots, and exposed its consequences. His solution wasn’t self-loathing—it was Zionism. A call for Jewish sovereignty, dignity, and security.

Twisting Herzl’s sober reporting into proof of “self-hatred” isn’t just dishonest—it’s a willful perversion of his life’s work. But propagandists like GH count on intellectual laziness. They rely on the fact that few will bother to read Herzl’s words in context.

Final Word to GH

GH, you didn’t have the guts to say this publicly. You knew real historians and real witnesses would dismantle you. So you opted for the whisper campaign. The private jab. The intellectual drive-by. But you forget something: Israel’s story is not a secret. We are here because we fought to be here. Because we defended ourselves.
Because after 2,000 years of being the victim, we refused to stay that way.

So thank you for the cowardice. If you ever find the spine to say it out loud, I’ll be here—with names, dates, archives, and facts. Until then, I suggest you stay in the inbox. You’re safer there.

*Extra reading:

Bobby B. Sprout Meets a Bunch of Rotten Veggies by Ilana K. Levinsky is a charming children’s book that explores themes of diversity, acceptance, and the celebration of individual differences. Follow Bobby B. Sprout on his delightful adventures as he encounters a variety of vegetables, teaching young readers valuable lessons about love, acceptance, and empathy, all with a touch of humor of course! Filled with vibrant illustrations and charming characters, this book is not only enjoyable to read but also serves as a powerful tool in fostering exclusivity and challenging stereotypes from an early age.