The Politicization of Israel

We all like to think that our reputations don’t define who we are. Whether you’re a celebrity being discussed in the tabloids, a prominent figure in your community, or a regular person with an average-sized social circle, you can probably think of a time when you knew that a story involving you didn’t capture the full picture.

Unfortunately, we usually don’t extend the same benefit of the doubt when the story in question is someone else’s. It’s human nature — we make quick assumptions and are easily conditioned by the opinion of the masses.

In a game of reputation word association, I’m willing to bet that if I said “United States of America,” you would think of Uncle Sam and freedom, not the time that the U.S. invaded Iraq to look for nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. But if I said “Israel,” would you picture the Kotel in Jerusalem and the beaches in Tel Aviv… or would you brace yourself for a heated debate about borders, disputed territories, and terror attacks? 


Regardless how much or little you follow current events in the Middle East, there is undeniably one way that Israel is portrayed in the mainstream media — and Israel is so often the topic of stressful or heated conversations that it seems to me as though just mentioning its name puts even the most staunch Zionists on the defensive. Jewish or not, starting a conversation about Israel tends to have very different connotations than a conversation about literally any other country.

When I started telling people that I was entering the Israel Video Network contest about a month ago, I was somewhat surprised by the responses I got. While most were excited to see what I would come up with after my recent “>my time volunteering with Save A Child’s Heart, the organization that brings kids with life-threatening heart defects to Israel for free treatment, it has nothing to do with my opinion on the one- or two-state solution. When I bring up Innovation: Africa, the organization that brings Israeli technology to third-world villages, I’m not trying to start a debate about Bibi Netanyahu’s national security policies.

There are many things about many countries that are political. Humanitarian aid, on the other hand, should be the most universally accepted concept out there, regardless of what country is involved.

If you’d like to learn more about Israel’s incredible humanitarian aid achievements, you can watch my (entirely apolitical) video When I took a semester off to volunteer in Israel, I spent 8 weeks working on IDF bases and a week as a live-in volunteer at Save A Child's Heart.