Jews everywhere are missing the point about Israel.

The Jewish state protects Jews everywhere. It deserves more than conditional support in return.

photo: Raman Shaunia/Unsplash

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Everyone expects the Mossad to be operating inside enemy territory — deep in Iran, Lebanon, Gaza, and other hostile places.

We all remember the legend of Eli Cohen, the master Israeli spy who penetrated the highest ranks of the Syrian government in the 1960s and provided intelligence that helped defend the nascent Jewish state.

But the Mossad’s work isn’t just about Iran or Gaza or Lebanon, or battlefield intelligence in general; it also extends far beyond Israel’s borders to protect Jewish lives and Jewish communities across the world.

Hence, the Jewish state is not just a country where Israelis live their lives and fight their wars. It is also a country whose laws, intelligence services, and national mission operate on a remarkable assumption: Israel is the global insurance policy for the Jewish People — politically, physically, and psychologically. In other words, every Jew in the world matters.

The question is whether Jews everywhere recognize that, and whether they are willing to work for Israel in return.

There is one country on earth where any Jew can arrive tomorrow and be accepted as part of the national story. Under the Law of Return, any Jew — from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires, from Paris to Johannesburg — can immigrate and become a citizen.

No one conditions Jewish newcomers on how they plan to vote in the next Israeli election. No one questions what denomination they belong to. No one asks if they are Left-wing or Right-wing, religious or secular, liberal or conservative.

The door is simply open.

This is an extraordinary fact in a world defined by restrictive immigration systems, quotas, and bureaucratic suspicion. But for Jews, Israel operates according to a radically different logic: You belong. Not conditionally. Not politically. Not temporarily. Simply because you are part of the Jewish People.

Israel’s commitment to Jews does not stop at immigration; it extends across the globe.

As the war with Iran intensifies, senior Israeli officials continue to warn that the Iranian regime has unleashed a broad campaign to attack Jews and Israelis worldwide. The Islamic Republic understands that it has limited ability to strike Jews in Israel directly, where Israel’s military and defense maintain overwhelming superiority.

So, instead, it targets Jews abroad. Iranian planners believe that attacks on synagogues, Jewish institutions, and Israeli citizens overseas are an integral part of the war against Israel.

Oded Ailam, a former head of the Mossad’s counter‑terrorism division, explained that Iranian intelligence and its proxies are increasingly using crude recruitment tactics and extensive networks abroad — including financial incentives and online solicitation — and that Tehran’s efforts amount to hundreds of sleeper cells and recruitment campaigns worldwide, often relying on money rather than strong ideology to enlist operatives.¹

And Israel responds accordingly.

The Mossad is deployed around the world pursuing terrorist cells and thwarting attacks before they happen. According to Israeli officials, the scale of attempted Iranian operations has surged dramatically. In recent weeks, attempts have been detected across North America, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia.

According to a senior Israeli intelligence official, Israel’s foreign intelligence service provided Australian authorities with concrete warnings well before the Bondi Beach attack last December. These warnings concerned what the official described as Iranian-directed terror activity operating inside Australia. The alerts were not specific to Bondi Beach itself, but rather to broader Iranian efforts to establish terror networks designed to target Jewish sites and communities.²

“If you knew how many terror attacks the Mossad has prevented,” the Israeli official added, “you would drop your jaw.”

The same official stated that Israeli intelligence identified Iranian guidance and coordination behind these efforts, including operatives allegedly in possession of weapons and operating “in the center of Jewish communities,” all while remaining undetected by local authorities. Last year, for example, the Mossad named Sardar Ammar, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, behind attacks on an Australian synagogue and restaurant.

“The numbers of Iranian attack attempts are crazy,” one official said. “And our deployment is crazy.”³

At the same time, antisemitism has surged worldwide. The latest global monitoring reports show a sharp spike in incidents: violent attacks, threats, vandalism, and harassment directed at Jewish communities.

This is not random; it is deliberate.

Iran understands something that many Jews in the diaspora sometimes forget: Israel is the center of gravity of the Jewish People. If you want to destabilize the Jewish world, you try to shake Jews’ confidence in the one place where Jewish security is strongest. Because despite decades of threats and attempts, the Iranian regime can barely touch Jews inside Israel itself.

Yet, even as Israel works to protect Jews around the world, an increasing number of Jews abroad treat their support for Israel as conditional. They debate whether Israel deserves their backing based on the latest election results, coalition agreements, or domestic policy debates within Israeli society.

This is a strange posture, no less because Israelis live in a democracy (one of the most vibrant democracies on this planet) and they do exactly what citizens in democratic countries do. Disagreeing with Israeli political decisions from afar — while living thousands of kilometers away and bearing none of the real day-to-day consequences — is an odd form of long-distance supervision.

A Canadian Jew does not feel the effects of the Israeli economy. An Australian Jew does not experience the ups and downs of Israel’s social services. A South African Jew does not use Israel’s public transportation. An American Jew does not send their kids to Israeli schools or the IDF. And yet they insist on having a diehard opinion about Israeli politics — using it to judge the entire country and everyone who lives there.

In fact, some diaspora Jews justify their opinions by saying, “Well, Israelis complain about Israeli politics, so we can too.” That makes no sense. Israelis live here. Their complaints come from direct experience, grounded in reality. A diaspora Jew claiming the same right is like criticizing a mountain climber’s route from the valley below.

Plus, Israel is not just a political equation. It is a country, a people, a history, a land, a culture, a society. Reducing the Jewish state to insipid conversations about politics is like critiquing a symphony by listening to one instrument.

And then there are the double standards.

No one checks the latest policies of the Italian government before booking a trip to Rome. No one debates whether they should buy a croissant at the local French bakery based on the outcome of a recent policy decision in France. No one studies the Japanese parliament before deciding whether they admire Japanese culture. And no one cancels a vacation to Greece because they disagree with the current Greek prime minister.

Judging Israel’s legitimacy, or one’s support for it, based on temporal politics misunderstands what a nation actually is and, more importantly, what Israel actually is.

This misunderstanding is perhaps most visible in a label that has become fashionable in some circles: the “anti-Zionist Jew.” The term suggests that Zionism is still a theoretical project, something that can be debated as if it has not yet happened. But Zionism is no longer an idea; it is a longstanding fact.

The Jewish state exists. It has existed for nearly eight decades. It is home to millions of Jews and a fully functioning society with major cities, universities, hospitals, elections, courts, businesses, and communities. Being “anti-Zionist” today is like being anti-Jupiter. You can oppose it rhetorically. You can declare your disapproval. But the object of your opposition already exists.

Zionism is not a movement awaiting approval; it is the reality that the Jewish People restored their sovereignty in our ancestral homeland. Any Jew who labels themselves “anti-Zionist” is engaging in a kind of twisted fantasy — the equivalent of an African American declaring themselves anti-Africa. The idea is so absurd that it does not exist anywhere else.

There is an irony in how some diaspora Jews loudly criticize Israel or express sympathy for Israel’s adversaries — whether it’s Iran, the Palestinians, or other hostile actors — without recognizing the very different realities in those societies. In the Islamic Republic and Palestinian Territories, for example, dissent is not merely frowned upon; it can be met with arrest, torture, or even execution. In Israel, the worst that would happen is someone would yell at you in disagreement, and then invite you to Shabbat dinner in the next sentence.

Whether a Jew identifies as Zionist or not, Israel does not differentiate. Even those who oppose or criticize Israeli politics are still under the protection of the Jewish state. Its institutions, from the Mossad to local security networks, operate on the principle that all Jews — no matter their personal beliefs — are part of the national responsibility.

Even in relatively quiet periods (when Israel is not at war), the Mossad operates as a global shield for the Jewish People. In September 2023 (just one month before October 7th), Mossad Director David Barnea revealed that the agency had already thwarted 27 terrorist plots in foreign countries planned by Iran against Jewish and Israeli targets. Since October 7th, that number has at least doubled.

Sometimes these plots are stopped through quiet cooperation between the Mossad and partner intelligence services. In 2023, for example, Israeli intelligence helped Brazilian federal police dismantle a Hezbollah terror cell that was planning attacks on Jewish and Israeli sites, including synagogues. Other times the Mossad operates independently, conducting clandestine counter-terror operations on foreign soil. And occasionally it works alongside intelligence agencies in countries that are not exactly friendly to Israel — even states that maintain limited or no diplomatic relations with Jerusalem.

Those governments may not see themselves as defenders of the Jewish people. But they do take a dim view of a foreign power like Iran attempting to carry out terrorist attacks on their sovereign territory. In those moments, their national interest happens to align with Israel’s: stopping the attack before it happens.

But it is important to remember: Israel and the Mossad have plenty to worry about at home. Protecting Jews worldwide is not automatic. Every plot foiled, every cell dismantled, every life saved abroad requires extraordinary effort, resources, and constant vigilance. The truth is that Israel chooses to extend its protection to Jews everywhere, even when doing so stretches its capabilities. That generosity is not a given.

The lesson for Jews everywhere is clear: If Israel works tirelessly for us, even far from its borders, we owe it our awareness, our respect, and our support. The Jewish state is not only a refuge; it is a lifeline. And it is a lifeline that, with all the backing of the Jewish People it protects, becomes far stronger.

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1. Sky News Australia

2. “Intelligence warned Australia of Iranian-linked terror activity months before Bondi attack, officials say.” Fox News.

3. “המרדף של המוסד בחו”ל - נגד חוליות טרור איראני: “הוסר כל רסן, המספרים מטורפים.” Ynet News.