War, Empire, and Survival

War, Empire, and Survival: The Bloody Price of War: Why Israel’s War Is Different

This featured video interviews Richard Kemp, “Israel’s Victim of the World’s Greatest Slur Campaign”. It is from 2018 and provides fascinating insights. It holds so many truths.

This year, as we mark Israel’s Independence Day, preceded by Yom HaZikaron — a solemn day of remembrance for Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror — I find myself reflecting deeply. Today, Israel is accused of all kinds of things: colonialism, genocide, oppression. But as we pause to honour those who sacrificed everything, it’s important to tell a different — and truer — story. A story not only about Israel, but about the timeless human struggle between empires of greed and the fight for dignity and survival.

The Tragic Story of War Across Human History

Since the dawn of civilisation, war has been a tragic companion to human progress.
Empires rose and fell. Civilisations clashed.
Countless lives were lost, often for the ambitions of a few.

While some wars were fought in defence of life and freedom, far too many were driven by conquest, greed, and the lust for domination:

• War often went hand-in-hand with genocide, slavery, famine, and disease.
• Native populations — from the Americas to Africa — suffered catastrophic losses, often between 70–90%.
• Colonial powers masked brutality behind so-called “civilising missions,” a thin ideological cover for cruelty and exploitation.

The moral reckoning with these crimes is still ongoing — and must never be forgotten.

Ancient Times: The Origins of War

War has existed since humanity first formed organised societies:

• Territory, power, survival, and religious supremacy drove ancient battles.
• Fertile lands, vital trade routes, and sacred places became flashpoints for endless conflict.

Examples from the Land of Israel:

Our own ancient homeland has witnessed war’s devastation from its earliest days:

• Joshua’s Conquest: The Israelites, newly freed from Egyptian bondage, fought to reclaim their ancestral land.
• Battles with the Philistines: Under Saul, David, and Solomon, the Israelites defended their existence against relentless attacks.
• Assyrian and Babylonian invasions: Catastrophic, culminating in the destruction of the First Temple and exile.
• Roman conquest: In 70 CE, Jerusalem and the Second Temple were destroyed. Over a million Jews perished. Tens of thousands enslaved.
  The spoils of Jerusalem even funded the building of Rome’s Colosseum, a chilling reminder of how Jewish suffering built the empires of others.

Despite devastation after devastation, the Jewish people endured — a testament to resilience, faith, and hope.

The March of Empires — and the Cost of Expansion

From Egypt to Rome, from Alexander the Great to colonial Europe, empires expanded through violence:

• Organized slaughter.
• Mass enslavement.
• Economic pillaging.

The Colonial Era (15th–20th centuries) was especially brutal:

• Spain and Portugal in the Americas.
• Britain, France, and Holland across Africa, Asia, and Australia.
• Native populations — Indigenous Americans, Aboriginal Australians, and millions of Africans — were decimated.

70 to 120 million deaths are attributed to wars of colonial expansion.

This wasn’t about survival. It was about greed, wealth, and power.

The Jewish Experience: Pogroms and Persecution

While empires fought to conquer lands, the Jews — a stateless people — faced wars of annihilation:

• Medieval Pogroms in Eastern Europe.
• Expulsions from England (1290), France (1394), Spain (1492).
• The Chmielnicki Massacres in Ukraine — over 100,000 Jews murdered.

The Holocaust, culminating in the systematic extermination of six million Jews, was not a war between armies.

It was a war against our very existence.

The Modern Era: Wars Without End

The 20th century introduced wars on a terrifying new scale:

• World War I: 16 million deaths.
• World War II: Up to 85 million deaths — a staggering 3% of the world’s population.

New technologies turned killing into an industrial process, culminating in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Holocaust’s death factories.

Today, wars still rage:

• Ukraine, Yemen, Sudan, Syria — where millions have been displaced or killed.
• Yet the world often turns its gaze only selectively, weaponising narratives while ignoring human suffering.

Israel: Fighting for Home, Not Empire

This brings me back to Israel — and why this reflection is so important today.

Unlike the wars of empire, Israel’s wars have never been about conquest:

• 1948, 1967, 1973, and countless conflicts since — all were fought for one thing only:
  The right of the Jewish people to live safely and freely in their ancestral home.

Israel’s wars are defensive, born not of greed, but of the desperate need to survive in a region — and a world — too often hostile to Jewish existence:

• Jews were not foreign colonists.
• Jews were returning home after millennia of exile, slaughter, and persecution.

Today, as accusations of colonialism and genocide are hurled at Israel, we remember the names of those who fell defending our homeland.
They were not conquerors.
They were not empire-builders.
They were sons and daughters who just wanted to live.
And they fought so that we — and generations after us — could live free.

Final Reflection: Choosing Life Over Empire

The lesson of history is clear:

• Empires built on violence eventually fall.
• Societies rooted in justice, truth, and dignity endure.

This week, as we honour the memory of Israel’s fallen on Yom HaZikaron, and celebrate the miracle of Israel’s rebirth on Yom HaAtzmaut, I share this simple but powerful truth:

Israel’s struggle is not a war for conquest — it is a fight for survival, dignity, and peace.

In remembering the Jewish journey — through exile, persecution, and homecoming — we honour not only our people’s right to exist, but the right of every person to live free from hatred, tyranny, and annihilation.

May we have the courage to tell history honestly.
May we have the strength to pursue peace with clarity.
And may we always choose life, against all odds