We need a 'Free Israel' movement. Are you in?

If anyone genuinely wants peace with Israel and the Jewish People, then let them have it. To everyone else: Beware of the “Free Israel” movement.

photo: Jewish National Fund USA

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The Free Palestine Movement was founded in 2003 by Yasser Qashlaq, a Syria-born Palestinian businessman of considerable wealth.

Unsurprisingly, Qashlaq is known for his antisemitic views, having repeatedly called Jews “dregs of European garbage,” a “gang of criminal murderers,”¹ and “human pieces of filth”² that should be deported to Europe.

He has also stated that there is “no reason for coexistence” between Israelis and Palestinians, since the latter should reclaim their lands and “hunt [the Israelis] down to the end of the world, and prosecute them for their massacres.”

The slogan “Free Palestine” has since been adopted across the world by “anti-war,” “humanitarian,” “anti-racist,” and “pro-ceasefire” folks — even though this slogan so obviously implies war, genocide, racism, and the notion that Israel should cease so the Palestinians can fire. Exhibit A: October 7th.

But deterring the Palestinians and their “pro-Palestinian” friends has not been as successful as some of us would have hoped. This is in part because “Palestinian” means 100 different things to 100 different people, at scale, among a variety of languages, countries, and political persuasions.

As far as the Palestinians themselves, I will defer to Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of Hamas’ founders, who recently wrote:

“There is no ‘Palestinians.’ There are tribes — the tribe of Hamas, the tribe of Islamic Jihad, the tribe of Khalil, the tribe of Nablus — and each one has different interests. And all of them are conflicted. If they did not have Israel as the common enemy, they would kill each other. This is the reality of what is so-called Palestine.”³

Today, therefore, I am proposing a different approach to this unceasing conflict, since it so clearly has not been serving Israel, Israelis, Zionists, Jews, and our much-appreciated supporters.

I call this approach (un-inventively) the “Free Israel” movement.

The “Free Israel” movement starts with the Jews — and it is time we Jews cut through the crap. For decades, many of us have been told that being respectful, unassuming, and even quiet will make us more “acceptable” in societies where calling our population a “minority” is an overstatement.

Many of us have also coddled our Jewish kids and grandkids with a “let’s all feel good” attitude that has infected modern Judaism and spoiled at least one generation of Jews. When we raise kids to think that Judaism can be whatever they want it to be, and unaccustomed to facing adversity (i.e. the ever-present antisemitism), the Jewish People are threatened.

In the “Free Israel” movement, we must be candid: To hell with being “accepted” and “acceptable,” and to hell with raising our kids in these “safetyism” environments.⁴ Kids should know that antisemitism exists and persists, and they should know how to forcefully confront it in all its forms, notwithstanding on the fraudulent “love and peace” extreme Left.

Instead of pretending like antisemitism evaporated in the West after the Holocaust, we must be honest: It just morphed into something more socially defensible, like “anti-Zionism” and “anti-Israel.”

Think about it for a second — the Jewish state is literally the world’s only country with the term “anti” prefixed to it. Even the most oppressive regimes like North Korea and Iran do not compel people to be “anti-North Korea” or “anti-Iran.” If this does not help you understand why nearly all major criticisms of Israel are ultimately antisemitic, may God bless your soul.

Moving on, the “Free Israel” movement means a Jewish People who are not bullied and terrorized in the absence of grave repercussions, who are not held to absurd double standards, and who are not expected to make concessions that no other people or state would justifiably make.

As New York University professor Scott Galloway said this week:

“If I went into the NYU square with a white hood on and said, ‘lynch the Blacks’ or ‘burn the gays,’ my ID would be shut off by that night. I would never work in academia again. There would be no need for the words ‘context’ or ‘nuance.’ I wouldn’t be protected by the First Amendment or free speech.”⁵

The “Free Israel” movement also means a Jewish People void of “anti-Zionist” Jews who are really just today’s version of “kapos” — which is sad because, after the “kapos” helped the Nazis genocide the Jews, these “kapos” were then killed. To think today’s “anti-Zionist” Jews would be subject to a different fate is naive hubris, at best.

Let me be clear, though: The “Free Israel” movement has no problem with Jews renouncing their Judaism and Jewishness, or just being uninterested in it. To each their own.

But the “anti-Zionist” Jews starting ridiculous sentences about Israel with “As a Jew…” are just a handful of loud, over-represented, misaligned, ill-informed folks being exploited by Jew-hating, West-despising con artists to “embolden” the latter’s baseless, idiotic, and malevolent positions.

It is effectively impossible to be an “anti-Zionist Jew” — just as you never hear, say, an African American describing themselves as an “anti-Africa” African American. One plus one does not equal three. Or as comedian Michael Rapaport put it: “Jews for Palestine can’t be Jews in Palestine.”⁶

Over in the “Free Israel” movement, we have our priorities straight: Israel is the Jewish homeland and the only country that has the Jews’ best interests in mind. Every other country, while beneficial in different ways to different Jews, is at best a second home.

Hence why I have been encouraging more Jews to apply for Israeli citizenship (which is automatic for every Jew, anywhere, as long as they do not have a criminal record and/or pose a public health threat).

Many countries allow dual citizenship with Israel, and for most Jews, there are no real legal or financial implications to being a dual citizen. In addition, there is no requisite amount of time that you must live in Israel in order to become a dual citizen.

I know French Jews, for example, who applied for their Israeli citizenship from France, flew to Israel to pick up their Israeli ID card, and then went back to living in France. No harm, no foul.

Moreover, when you become an Israeli citizen, you can immediately vote in Israeli elections without any preconditions. This is especially beneficial for Jews who are critical of the Israeli government. Voting is the ultimate way to shape the Israeli government that you want to see, is it not?

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What’s more, the “Free Israel” movement means that we Jews resoundingly stand up for ourselves, whether through words, actions, self-defense, or a combination thereof. If I am a Jew living in America or Canada, I am getting a firearm license and training, as well as a gun and plenty of ammunition. If I am running a Jewish organization, I am continuously offering self-defense classes to my community. If I am hosting a Jewish event, I am hiring Jewish bodyguards strapped with guns.

The “Free Israel” movement also means that we, the Jewish People, do not shy away from being powerful and influential. Yes, we are powerful and influential — and we should make no apologies about it. How the hell do you think we have survived for some 4,000 years?

Of course, we do not habitually use this power and influence to pursue greedy, cunning advantages, but we will absolutely leverage it as retribution if you mess with us. I am looking at you — universities, workplaces, and other institutions. If you tolerate Jew hatred of any kind (including “anti-Zionism”) in your spaces, lawyer up. God knows the Jews have plenty of attorneys.

But retribution should not end there. The “Free Israel” movement means that there are multiple types of consequences for Jew hatred — social, financial, and physical. And I am not talking about the police or the legal system imposing these consequences. Whatever they do is a “cherry on top.”

For Jews to be truly safe and sound, and for deterrence to sustainably work, we must take retribution into our own hands (within legal and “legal” confines). After all, we have people in high places — professional services, business, media, politics, and technology — and we should not be afraid to use our leverage when worthwhile and relevant.

What do you think Iran and Qatar have been doing during the last few decades, and the Saudis before them? If we do not play this admittedly dirty game, we automatically lose it. In the “Free Israel” movement, there is no room for excessive and undeserved niceties, and there is no room for losers.

And lastly, the “Free Israel” movement means Jewish unity (not to be confused with homogeneity) must be a top priority. We can debate whether Israel is overly nationalistic, overly conservative, overly militaristic, or overly hardened by its hostile and erratic neighbors. We can debate the pros and cons of a secular Jewish lifestyle versus a religious Jewish lifestyle, or Israeli Jewish culture versus Diaspora Jewish culture.

We can even debate whether the State of Israel should do a better job of taking into account Diaspora Jewry when making certain policy decisions, and whether or not Jewish self-sovereignty contradicts Palestinian self-sovereignty.

But one thing is not up for debate: When Jews are united, we can withstand virtually everything. When we are not, all of our lives become increasingly less safe. In the “Free Israel” movement, we champion productive debates, not destructive arguments. We are patently interested in learning about other Jews’ lifestyles, beliefs, and tendencies — instead of judging them at face value while straddling our imaginary high horses.

And, in the “Free Israel” movement, we are aware that Israel’s wars are essentially the Jewish People’s wars; Israelis are courageously on the literal frontlines. For those of us not in Israel, we can all ask questions and offer well-intentioned, nuanced, realistic suggestions from wherever we live in the world, but ultimately the people who live in Israel know what is best for the people who live in Israel. And they ought to be given the respect as such.

For folks to act like they know what is best for Israel and Israelis — while they sit in an “ivory tower” far, far away — is unhelpful and unbecoming. And it has no place in the “Free Israel” movement.

Israelis have shown time and again that they will take to the streets to protest and use other methods if they do not like the actions of their government. If you do not see hundreds of thousands of people in the streets in Israel over a prolonged period of time, it probably means that the majority of Israelis are generally accepting of their government — and we should give them the respect as such, just as Israelis do not try to “lecture” other societies about which type of government is or is not best for them.

Ultimately, the “Free Israel” movement is based on a simple fact: The Jewish world changed for the better — a heck of a lot better — in 1948 when the Jews formally reestablished Jewish self-sovereignty in our indigenous homeland.

Is Zionism perfect? Not in the least. Is self-sovereignty a walk in the park? Definitely not, just ask Palestinian leadership today and prior.

But Zionism is an unequivocally vital part of the Jewish world and makes Jews across the world safer, on the whole, even if they do not feel it right now. (Indeed, many Jews are feeling unsafe right now not because of Israel’s completely justified war against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but because these Jews’ governments are not properly policing and deterring antisemitic crimes.)

Regardless, Zionism is a task that needs every Jew to be engaged, to stay engaged, in order to help effectuate the type of Jewish state and greater Jewish world that each of us wants to see.

Right now, many Jews and Zionists are understandably confused about October 7th and its aftermath, so allow me to provide some context: October 7th largely occurred because of the ambiguous, shallow, failed Oslo Accords in the 1990s. The price Israelis have had to pay for the illusion of peace has been catastrophic since then, not to mention the side-effects that Jews across the world have subsequently experienced, especially during the last six months.

The bottom line is: Most Israelis have had enough of more dead Jews as part of some illusion of (temporary) peace, no less a naive desire to be liked or accepted by the international community.

If anyone genuinely wants peace with Israel and the Jewish People, then let them have it. To everyone else: Beware of the “Free Israel” movement.

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1. Yasser Qashlaq, a Lebanese Flotilla Organizer, on Hizbullah’s Al-Manar TV. Middle East Media Research Institute. June 23, 2010.

2. “Lebanese Businessman: Send ‘Filthy Jews’ to their True Countries.” Arutz Sheva.

3. Mosab Hassan Yousef on X

4. Haidt, J., & Lukianoff, G. (2019). “The Coddling of the American Mind.” Penguin Books.

5. “Morning Joe.” MSNBC.

6. MichaelRapaport on X