On October 7,
2023, one of the worst terrorist attacks in history took place. Peaceful
communities of the Kibbutzim close to Gaza were brutally attacked. The massacre
of peaceful people was unprovoked and unexpected. The terrorists infiltrated
Israel by air, sea and land. A peaceful music festival was also the target of
the invasion of the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered, burned, raped, and
tortured innocent civilians in addition to taking hostages. Hamas launched
over five thousand rockets from Gaza to Israel. Some of the people who
suffered the devastating consequences of the savagery of October 7 were
Holocaust survivors.
Despite the barbarism and cruelty of the
attack by Hamas and the fact that their goal is to destroy Israel and
exterminate Jews, some people still insist on giving legitimacy to this group.
Hamas has refused to surrender and continues to keep 134 hostages. Hamas cannot
even provide a list of the hostages’ names. Hamas is a terrorist organization
that ruled Gaza for several years, a group that is responsible for massacring
its own political opponents and for implementing Sharia law. These monsters
videotaped themselves committing their atrocities. Yet I often come across
comments denying the October 7 attack. This does not surprise me because
Holocaust deniers do the same. And how can anybody support the brutal attack of October 7?
Antisemitism had been on the rise before
October 7 (check supplementary links at the bottom of this post to refresh your
memory) and let’s make clear that criticizing Israel’s government is not considered antisemitic.
I often come across distorted narratives about
Israel, hateful rhetoric and inappropriate labels that do not reflect the
history of the country whose land is the size of New Jersey.
Before October 7 my knowledge of Jewish
culture was very limited. I did not know much about the history of Israel either, so
I felt compelled to read about her. I never believed the misinformation nor the
conspiracy theories that erupt from both extremes of the political spectrum.
Education and knowledge are the best vaccines
against ignorance and hate, so I am very thankful for Noa Tishby’s book:
Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth.
When Noa Tishby migrated to America, she was
shocked to find that people did not have a clue about Israel. Yet they felt
confident about expressing their strong opinions.
Noa Tishby’s book does not shy away from
difficult topics about Israel. Her account is balanced, thorough and supported
by facts. I appreciate her honesty. Reading this book has been a captivating journey
into Israel, into its past, present and into a dream for a future of peace,
collaboration and understanding. Her book confirmed some of my perceptions and
broadened my perspectives. It helped me to gain a deeper understanding of the
context of the Israel-Hamas war.
Noa Tishby examines five thousand years of
history, and she does so in a conversational style that does not bore the
reader. I read and reread the book feeling I’m having coffee with a good
friend, enjoying a pleasant conversation. I verified some of the facts because
I was left speechless many times. For example, I did not know that in December
1945, five months after the end of World War II, the Arab League’s collective action
was to establish a formal boycott of the Palestinian Jewish community’s products.
Soon after the Holocaust, which massacred six million Jews and stripped them of
their possessions, homes, citizenships, and loved ones, the Arab League thought
it was a good idea to boycott their products. The movement to boycott Jewish
goods continued after the creation of Israel. You can also learn a lot about
the misinformation and manipulation of the BDS, and, ironically, how their
irrational hateful actions hurt Palestinians.
During World War II a prominent Muslim
religious leader called Haj Amin Al-Husseini traveled to Germany
to meet Hitler and make agreements related to the annihilation of Jews. He collaborated with Hitler’s Nazi regime.
On
November 29, 1947 the UN established a partition plan for the establishment of a
Jewish State and a state for the local Arabs (who were not even called Palestinians
yet). Israel accepted, but the Arab world rejected it. The following day the Arabs
declared war on Israel. Israel won this war. Palestinian leaders have refused
peaceful agreements several times because they believe that Israel should not
exist. The Arabs who stayed in Israel, on the other hand, integrated into Israel’s
society as per the proclamation of the Declaration of Independence of Israel,
which is committed to ensure equal rights to every citizen irrespective of
their gender, race or religion. Let’s review the current structure of
Israel’s society:
The
population of Israel at the start of 2020 was 9,246,000 people. 74 percent
are Jewish, 21 percent are Arab, and 5 percent identify as Other. Among the
Arab population, 84.8 percent are Muslims, 7.4 percent are Christians and 7.8
percent are Druze. Within the Jewish community, 45 percent describe themselves
as secular, 25 percent as traditional, 16 percent as religious and 14 percent
as ultra-Orthodox or Charedi. The military service is compulsory in Israel,
except for the Charedi people, who are exempted due to their religious beliefs.
All
citizens of Israel have the same rights. Did you know, for example, that Arab
Israelis can become members of the Supreme Court and legislators? Arab
Israelis vote, get elected, protest, and participate in the democratic system,
working alongside their fellow citizens to make a change. They can vote and
be voted for, something that does not happen in Gaza, where the people are
under a savage authoritarian regime. (However, Israel gets the label of being
an Apartheid state by those who have no clue).
“According to a survey done by professor Sammy
Smooha from the University of Haifa, 77.4 percent of Arab Israeli citizens
living in Israel said they do not wish to move to a Palestinian state should
one be formed…” People in Israel do have the right to protest, and they do so.
There is no Sharia Law in Israel. Women have
equal rights. Now you may be wondering what Sharia Law is. When the attack by
Hamas took place on October 7, 2023, Gaza was under the control of Hamas, and
to understand Hamas you need to understand the Muslim Brotherhood. She explains
this clearly:
“The Muslim
Brotherhood is a Sunni Islamist movement that originated in Egypt in 1928 and
aims to implement Islamic law, known as Sharia, all over the world, starting
with the Middle East. Sharia law is not a preferred way of living if you like
democracy, freedom, equality, or human rights of any kind, let alone if you are
a woman or a member of the LGTBQ community. Under Sharia law, for instance,
a woman who is raped cannot testify against her rapist. If she wants to
complain, she needs to produce four male witnesses in order for a “court” to
believe she was raped. If she does not produce these four male witnesses, she
will be convicted of adultery, which is punishable by death. The rapist, on the
other hand, can have his conviction dismissed if he chooses to wed his victim. Other
pillars of Sharia law include: a husband can beat his wife, for she is his
property, as clearly stated in the Quran, chapter 4 verse 34,
homosexuality is punishable with death by stoning; petty theft is punishable by
the literal amputation of the hand; and anyone who apostatizes or speaks ill
of, criticizes, or denies Islam, Muhammad as the only true prophet, of course.”
Reading this brought to my mind the case of Salman Rushdie who was stabbed in
America by a religious fanatic. Make
sure you learn what the Ayatollah in Iran wanted to do to him for expressing
himself as a writer. This is what we should stand up against. This is why democracy
matters, and it is a good reminder of the need to prevent any kind of theocracy
from gaining power in America. By the way, a theocracy of any kind in
the United States of America would be unconstitutional.
Noa had three grandmothers, and you may wonder
how this is possible… to decipher the enigma I will let you read the book,
because this information reveals the piece of a puzzle that can help to
understand so much about life in Israel, how such an experience can shape
somebody as a person.
I was spellbound by the experiences of Noa
Tishby’s grandparents. In 1918, when her Russian grandmother was only 11 years
old, the Bolsheviks took over Russia. The Bolsheviks promised equality for all
in Russia. Fania Artzi, her grandmother, was excited. Everybody believed in the
revolution, but they would soon get disillusioned. The Bolsheviks did not
believe that Jewish people deserved equal rights, so the Jewish people were
persecuted, imprisoned, forced to work in labor camps and deported to Siberia.
Noa’s grandmother and her family were desperate to find a place where Jews were
accepted, where they could work hard and thrive; they wished for a society in
which justice, peace and gender equality would prevail.
Noa shares notes from her grandmother’s
diary, something I find fascinating. It must be so special to hold one’s
grandmother’s diaries in your hand and to be able to share them with the world.
Fania arrived in Israel in the year 1925. Let’s make this clear: they settled
in Israel without displacing anybody. I encourage you to read this
carefully to understand how they coped to deal with the challenges of their
surrounding environment…
“In 1925 she
landed on the shores of Jaffa in 1925. She and her parents and siblings took a
ship from Odessa in hellish conditions. They got robbed, and were starving,
resorting to eating dry crackers they would first soak in hot water to remove
the worms.” You will learn more about this from her book.
In 1926 she lived in tents and grew
food with a group called the Women’s Farm, a group of women who wanted to prove
they did not need men.
“On one
stormy night a massive wind blew their tents away and the girls were left
soaked in water and exposed to the elements. They were completely drenched in
the dark, laughing their hearts out.” After a couple of harsh years living in
tents and growing whatever she could on the land, Fania had an offer to join
the kibbutz of Degania, where she found her home and met her future husband. They
had to work hard, but they also had fun.
“My
grandmother, the aspiring farmer, volunteered for the vegetable garden and she
became one of the first new members of the first kibbutz in Israel.”
It is impressive to learn that these people
made the desert bloom. They did not have enough water, so they had to be
ingenious enough to figure out how to irrigate their crops. Resilience,
resourcefulness, innovation and hard work paid off. The Jewish culture has so
much to offer the world.
There
are many amazing stories of collaboration, inspiration and understanding
between cultures in this book. I love the story of the restaurant that served
delicious hummus… and so many others.
Let’s dream
of a world without hate, one in which we can all learn from each other, one in
which we can focus our energy on making life sustainable for all.
There
are still 134 hostages in Gaza. Where are the hostages? Hamas refuses to
surrender and to establish peaceful negotiations with Israel. In fact, they
have no intentions to peacefully negotiate and they use their own people as
human shields. They consider them martyrs, and they want to have as many
casualties as possible to gather international support while their wealthy
leaders hide in comfortable places. Hamas is backed by the Iranian government,
which looks down on democratic principles and believes in Sharia law.
It is
deeply disturbing to see how the rape and mutilation of Israeli women has been
ignored and treated with disbelief. There is evidence that showed that the rape
of women on October 7 had been meticulously planned by the terrorists who invaded
Israel. Many of the women are no longer present to defend themselves. It is our
duty to speak up for them and for every woman and man who continues to be held
hostage in Gaza. We will continue to ask for their release. No matter how hard they try to silence us, we will continue to
demand justice and security.
Noa
Tishby’s book shares facts, inspiration and knowledge. I highly recommend her
book, and let me remind you of Aldous Huxley’s quote: “Facts don’t cease to
exist because they are ignored.” Her
book is a unique masterpiece that instills hope and a strong desire for peace,
collaboration and a constructive future together.
Supplementary
links:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/israels-innovative-role-combatting-climate-change-advancing-oron
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68534027
https://jstreet.org/press-releases/j-street-celebrates-and-reflects-on-israels-milestone-75th-anniversary/
https://www.adl.org/racists-converge-charlottesville
https://www.newsweek.com/200-rockets-and-mortars-fired-israel-one-day-where-outrage-1027416
https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-road-to-october-7-hamas-long-game-clarified/
https://theconversation.com/antisemitism-has-moved-from-the-right-to-the-left-in-the-us-and-falls-back-on-long-standing-stereotypes-215760
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/4250708-putins-fingerprints-are-on-hamas/
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/553873-why-does-the-hard-left-glorify-the-palestinians/
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/11/middleeast/qatar-hamas-funds-israel-backing-intl/index.html
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/26/christie-trump-blame-rise-antisemitism-00128609
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB5JpJTdfBA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpnvUIcvNUE
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/23/opinions/israel-gaza-antisemitism-anti-zionism-purim-weiss/index.html
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/map-of-the-u-n-partition-plan
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/poll-shows-palestinians-back-oct-7-attack-israel-support-hamas-rises-2023-12-14/
