No one in the Jewish community will disagree that antisemitism and antizionism have reached alarming levels. The massacre last Sunday at a Hanukkah event in Sydney was the latest example of how it has become open season on the Jews.
We all agree we should do something, but what? Should we fight back and defend Zionism? Should we correct the lies and the libels? What will have make the most impact?
Our first line of defense has always been condemnation and outrage, especially when the Jew-hatred rises to the violence we saw at Bondi Beach. Hundreds of statements were released by various Jewish organizations condemning the horror and expressing the “urgent need to better protect Jews.”
On the activist front, there are efforts to brand antizionism to make it unacceptable, calling it a hate movement or even a racist movement. There’s plenty of evidence, historical and otherwise, to support these claims.
Also on the activist front is the tactic of punishing the culprits, usually through the legal system. A mainstay of pro-Israel activism has been to call out the injustice of singling out Jews and Israel, either on college campuses or in international venues like the United Nations, which condemns the Jewish state more than all other nations combined.
Finally, there are powerful statements of defiance—we will not be cowed, we will remain proud, we will double down on our Judaism, and so on.
The point is this: all of these approaches are worthy but they point in the same direction—reacting to our enemies by defending ourselves.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with defending ourselves. If we get attacked with lies, shouldn’t we defend ourselves with the truth?
Yes, we should. The question is: Which truth?
So far, we have used the truth to debunk lies like genocide, apartheid, colonialism and so on.
This is fine, but again, we’re still fighting on the enemy’s turf, we’re still defending Zionism.
I read an interesting take recently on the limitations of defending Zionism in 2025. For better or for worse, much of the world sees the current Israeli government as the “spokesperson” of Zionism — as the most accurate and up-to-date expression of Zionism. We may loathe that, but it does speak to the difficulty of defending what many see today as a pariah state.
This doesn’t mean we should stop defending ourselves. What it does mean is that we are in desperate need of a radically new approach that will push forward something positive about Zionism rather than push back against something negative.
That something positive is staring us in the face. The country that is most maligned on the planet — the Zionist state — turns out to be one of the top contributors to that same planet.
Projecting a positive view of Zionism should be a juicy idea, but it’s not. It bores us. We’re tired of hearing about “Start-Up Nation,” about drip irrigation, the pill cam and the endless innovations that Israel has brought to the world.
Focusing on positives doesn’t make us feel like we’re in a fight. It feels good to be in a fight. It feels good to express outrage, to make noise, to correct lies.
So, given that, what possible value could there be in a campaign that would express the immense value of the Zionist state to the world?
For starters, it will change the playing field. Instead of fighting over whether Israel is a genocidal, racist monster, a new question will be introduced where we have plenty of great answers: How is the Zionist state so helpful to the world?
In other words, we will begin to change the conversation in Israel’s favor.
Just as there is plenty of truth to challenge the libelous accusations against Israel, there is plenty of truth to support the claim of Israel’s value to the world.
The second thing it will do is send shock waves through enemy territory. Just when Zionism is at its lowest point, we brand it at the highest possible level. Outrageous. Crazy. Stunning.
“Zionism is great for the world” would enrage the antizionism movement, and for good reason. So far, they’ve had the playing field to themselves. They attack, we defend, we look weak, rinse and repeat.
That’s the other thing we must acknowledge about a defensive strategy — it makes us look weak. We’re always alarmed, always concerned, always looking for safety. That may be justified, but it’s not a strong look.
It’s also not who we are.
Jews are more than an alarmed people who demand more security.
To be Jewish and to be a Zionist is to think big. By putting us on the defensive, our enemies have made us look small.
How do we break out of that trap?
By returning to who we are. Zionism is about building, about creating, about prevailing against all odds, about having faith in our strength and our destiny.
As my friend Gil Troy says, “Zionism is one of the most successful forms of liberal democracy ever invented — a kind of nationalism that has created a productive society and a happy people — rooted in the past, thriving in the present and helping to invent a better future.”
Our enemies want the world to never hear any of that, and right now, they’re succeeding. All people hear about Zionism is poison on top of poison.
That is a crime not just against Zionism but against the truth.
One of these truths is that the world, and especially the West, has a lot to learn from the Zionist state.
Take the Hanukkah massacre at Bondi Beach. In my column this week, I mention the reports that four police officers just “froze” during the 20-minute rampage.
It’s hard to imagine, I wrote, four Israeli policemen “freezing” while two terrorists are shooting at civilians. That’s because Israel can’t afford to be in denial about the threats it is facing.
If Australia is serious about upgrading its security to better protect its Jews, I argued, the first call it must make is to Israel. No nation has more experience on that front.
I also refer to the slow erosion of the West, especially Europe, and how Zionism provides a model against that erosion.
I quote Douglas Murray’s 2018 book, “The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam”: “More than any other continent or culture in the world today, Europe is now deeply weighed down with guilt for its past … it has lost faith in its beliefs, traditions and legitimacy,” Murray wrote.
Zionism feels no guilt for its past — on the contrary, the miracle of returning to our biblical homeland after 1,900 years is a source of unlimited pride. The West could use some of that pride.
This pride of accomplishment has created an odd duality — on the one hand, Israel must fiercely defend itself against enemies sworn to its destruction, but on the other, there is a fierce love of life that is demonstrated in multiple ways.
One of those ways is innovation.
The liquid of the last century was oil. The liquid of this century is water. Droughts are plaguing much of the Middle East, and it will only get worse. No country is better suited to solve that problem than the world’s number one expert in water technology.
Yes, the Zionist state.
Go down the list of the world’s biggest problems — health care, cybersecurity, food insecurity, climate change, harnessing solar and wind power, fighting diseases, helping people with special needs, dealing with mental trauma, among so many others — and you will find Israelis who are delivering at the highest levels.
In a place where there’s a war every two years and barely any natural resources, the Zionist state has the highest number of billion-dollar start-ups per capita in the world, start-ups that are benefitting hundreds of millions of people throughout the world.
Contributions to culture and the arts are no less. Just ask those Hollywood producers who regularly trek to Tel Aviv in search of new shows.
Speaking of culture, there is no nation in the Middle East that can match the multicultural nature of the Zionist state. It’s also the country where Arabs and Muslims can enjoy rights and opportunities they won’t find anywhere else in the region.
It turns out the much-maligned Zionist state is an ideal model for the failed nations of the region to emulate.
That message has been hidden.
It’s been hidden because we have been too busy fighting. We’ve been too busy being alarmed. We’ve been too busy correcting the lies of our enemies.
That has made our enemies very happy.
As long as the positive force of Zionism is silenced, as long as they can keep Jews on the defensive, our enemies know they will keep winning.
The radical message that “Zionism is great for the world” will be a spear through the dark hearts of Jew-haters.
You may have noticed that I’ve stayed away from listing Israel’s sins, but that’s only because the world media already has a field day bashing Israel. They don’t need me to pile on.
There will never be a shortage of messages that demonize Jews and Zionism. As we saw at Bondi Beach and many have pointed out, this is what “globalize the Intifada” looks like. If the world can wake up and crack down on the hateful rhetoric that fuels Jew-hatred, including the hateful rhetoric that fuels radical Islam, it will be a good thing.
But we can’t count on that. The first step is to stop looking weak and start looking like Jews. They want to globalize the Intifada? Well, we want to globalize Zionism.
Yes, it’s difficult to push a positive message about Zionism when we’re under attack. But if you ask me, that’s when we need it even more.
I was inspired by this post by Liel Leibovitz after the Sydney massacre, which I quote in my column: “The victims may have been Jews, but we will recover, rebuild, and grow stronger. But the nations that gave in to an insidious, murderous ideology never will. Nearly a century after the Holocaust, Jews are strong and the Jewish state is thriving, but Europe is holding on for dear life, awash in violence and un-freedom, a shadow of its former self.
“And in a decade or two, Jews will be ever stronger and the suicidal West will have been devoured by the benighted jihadis it so cheerfully let in.”
This is not triumphalism. This is not a denial of the danger we are in. It’s a recognition that Jews are strong, that we have been strong for millennia, that we have much to offer the world, and that it’s time to reclaim our place as a light unto the nations.
At the very least, it will drive our enemies crazy.
