Jewish terrorism

Israel was established as a home for the Jews. The Law of Return basically says that any Jew has the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship. Anyone with a Jewish grandparent could achieve the same. Up until the 1920s, Palestine was a region with Arabs, Jews and some Christians. After the British Mandate, the Arabs became the Palestinians and the Jews became the Israelis. The British Mandate basically also established Palestine because before the 1920s, this entire region was part of the greater Caliphate. There were Arabs and Jews. There were no Palestinians and Israelis.

Ever since the Jews became the Israelis, the propaganda machinery of the Israelis and their western backers has always marketed Israel as the only home of the Jews or a Jewish state. The underlying idea behind this certain rhetoric has been to create this victim image of Israel because it is a land that for the first time many persecuted Jews could call home.

Despite my immense critique of the state of Israel as child killers and occupiers of foreign land called Palestine, I totally agree that the place that they call Israel is actually a Jewish state. People who are not Jews do not even enjoy equal rights inside the Jewish state. Citizens who are born in Israel who are not Jews do not have a right to vote. There is a 2018 law called the Nation State Law, which says that “the right to national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish People.” However, any Jewish person, who may immigrate to Israel from anywhere in the world owing to the Law of Return of 1950, would be able to exercise that very right of national self-determination. In a nutshell, it is a state for the Jews, by the Jews, of the Jews. The law also downgrades the Arabic language to a “special status” despite the fact that it is the language of the Israeli Arab citizens.

Furthermore, every time, there is critique of Israel for killing children, or building settlements on occupied land, or any of the countless abhorrent things that Israel does, the reflexive response from Israel and their propaganda noise makers in America is that the act of criticism is tantamount to anti-Semitism. That magic phrase has proven very lethal in neutralising critics of Israel into silence or oblivion. Anti-Semitism used to mean the racism and hatred shown toward the dark skinned Jews by the white Europeans. But today, it has evolved into a new product altogether.

So, critique of Israel is whined as critique of Jews. The state of Israel is advertised as a Jewish homeland. Only Jews have the right to vote and obviously run for office. It is also proudly labeled as the Jewish state or home of the Jews. Fair enough. Here is one simple observation though: When Israel bombs houses and hospitals and kills children and countless innocent adults, why do we all just call it Israeli aggression or Israeli crimes or Israeli terrorism? Why not Jewish terrorism? And why wouldn’t the Israelis appreciate it since that would be an acknowledgement of their identity? It is a Jewish state right? They equate the critique of their state with a critique of their faith right? Then why shouldn’t their crimes have the label of their faith? Why not Jewish terrorism? And why wouldn’t they welcome it?

Judaism and Israel cannot be divorced from each other. Israel is not a secular state. The act of killing over 13 thousand children, which is the number at the time of this writing, by Jewish citizens of the Jewish state should most reasonably be labeled as Jewish aggression or Jewish terrorism.

The most hypocritical consequence of this would be to be criticised for being a Jew hater. If this is not Jewish terrorism, then criticising Israel is also not Jewish criticism. If criticising Israel is criticising Jews then Israeli terrorism should also mean Jewish terrorism. Why the double standard?

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2024.

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