I don’t know about you, but I love when people show their true colors. In 2002, when Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared “If Jews all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide,” I felt a twinge of relief in knowing that the terrorist leader had revealed his true intentions. There’s nothing like watching an antisemite admit the bigoted truth, though, in today’s woke environment, no one seems to care much what is said about Jews anymore because we’re labeled as white and privileged, and therefore, legitimate targets of contempt (and yes, violence).
I felt that same sense of relief last week, when Paul O’Brien, the USA director of Amnesty International, told a group at the Women’s National Democratic Club that “Israel shouldn’t exist as a Jewish state.” Rather, he suggested, his “gut” tells him that instead of an actual Jewish state, what American Jews really want is a “safe Jewish space.”
Yes, that’s exactly what Arab and Muslim countries in the Middle East have been known to provide for centuries: A safe Jewish space. There’s nothing like shopping for tzitzit, yarmulkes and little Israel lapel pins at outdoor bazaars in Damascus, Beirut or Tehran these days.
Who better to tell us how we feel about Israel than the non-Jewish head of Amnesty USA, whose organization recently released a report accusing Israel of perpetrating “apartheid” against Palestinians?
Naturally, O’Brien rejected a 2020 survey by the Ruderman Family Foundation that showed that eight in 10 American Jews identify as “pro-Israel.” Who better to tell us how we feel about Israel than the non-Jewish head of Amnesty USA, whose organization recently released a report accusing Israel of perpetrating “apartheid” against Palestinians?
When I was an undergraduate, I often approached hostile students at anti-Israel campus events, especially protests, even if they were large males who were a foot-and-a-half taller than me (I’m a whopping 5’2). My motto was and still remains the same: I didn’t escape the mullahs in Iran and become a refugee, only to be harassed by some fanaticized kid from Southern California who’s never even traveled to the Middle East.
So when those hateful Zionophobes, as my good friend, Dr. Judea Pearl, reminds me to call them, chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” I always finished my falafel sandwich (those students were always protesting our pro-Israel club’s campus events, even falafel parties) and walked right up to them. It wasn’t easy, especially when I confronted those big, tall young men, but I always asked them the same question: “Then what?”
“Then what what?” they often responded.
“If you get what you want and Israel’s Jews leave and all of the land enters Palestinian hands, then what?”
The answer was usually the same: “Then Palestinians will be free.”
“They’ll be free from Jews,” I said. “And will they live in freedom?”
There was seldom a response to this question. Those students knew as well as I did that Palestinian leaders weren’t explicitly demanding a democratic Palestinian state in place of Israel; only a Palestinian state.
I still ask this question to those who think that all of the Palestinians’ problems will be solved if only for the pesky matter of Israel still being run by Jews. Why don’t they ever want to know what the quality of life was like for the average Palestinian when East Jerusalem and the West Bank were controlled by Muslim-majority Jordan? They certainly couldn’t be bothered to care that some synagogues in the Old City were used as donkey stables under Jordanian rule from 1949-1967.
Let’s put the treatment of religious minorities aside for a minute. Has the Muslim Middle East, whether Sunni or Shiite, proved overwhelmingly good and kind toward Muslims? Has it overwhelmingly treated its Muslim citizens humanely?
There are 49 Muslim majority countries in the world. The 50th country — a future Palestinian state — shouldn’t come at the expense of Israel; it should exist side by side with Israel.
In contemplating how Muslim leaders in the Middle East have treated their own people, I’m reminded that Jordan is home to the largest number of Palestinian refugees and many of them are still denied Jordanian citizenship. This means that they can’t even access basic welfare services. I’m also reminded of Iran, the world’s largest Shiite state, that shoots down passenger airplanes, plows down protestors who demand basic freedoms, subjugates women and is the world’s largest executioner of juvenile offenders.
And then, there are Palestinian leaders. I still remember how, in a brutal power struggle with Fatah for control of Gaza a decade and a half ago, Hamas terrorists even killed some Fatah members by throwing them off of rooftops. If Paul O’Brien and his ilk got their way and Israel ceased to be a Jewish state, what’s to keep Hamas fanatics from hurling Fatah fanatics off of rooftops and skyrise buildings in Tel Aviv, Haifa or Beersheba? I’m still waiting for anyone who chants “From the river to the sea” to answer this question.
Can you imagine the bastion of safety that would await Jews if Amnesty International got its way? I can. I imagine seven million Israeli Jews suddenly asking for refugee asylum in the West.
But that’s a predictable scenario, and Israel’s too strong to ever let that happen. But what is seldom discussed is what would happen to Israeli Arabs, Christians, Druze, Bedouins and others if Israel was run by fanatic Muslim leaders. And then, there are the terrorists themselves.
Yes, over the years, terrorists (and their relatives) have been treated at several Israeli hospitals. My favorite case occurred in 2014, when the mother-in-law of Ismael Haniyeh, the notorious head of Hamas in Gaza, was allowed into Israel for cancer treatment at an East Jerusalem hospital near the Mount of Olives. Where would the relatives of terrorists go for life-saving treatment if Israel collapsed as a Jewish state?
I challenge O’Brien to look even one [Ukrainian Jewish refugee] in the eye and tell them with a straight face that they would still have a safe haven if Israel ceased to be a Jewish state.
And now, as of the last two weeks, there are 200,000 Jews in Ukraine who need an immediate escape out of the brutal Russian assault against the country. I challenge O’Brien to look even one of them in the eye and tell them with a straight face that they would still have a safe haven if Israel ceased to be a Jewish state. If he doesn’t find the task hopelessly impossible, he’s lying to himself.
Tabby Refael is a Los Angeles-based writer, speaker and civic action advocate. Follow her on Twitter @RefaelTabby
