We are fighting the only war worth fighting.
"It is not a war about territory or economics. It is not about who governs. It is about the transcendent rather than the immediate."
Please consider supporting our mission to help everyone better understand and become smarter about the Jewish world. A contribution of any amount helps us keep going.
This is a guest essay written by Saul Goldman. You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.
A recent Jerusalem Post editorial called for a new solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“What is needed,” the Post wrote, “is some out-of-the-box thinking, a creative alternative to the two-state solution. It became axiomatic over the years to believe the only answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conundrum is either a two-state solution or a binational state, both of which could endanger Israel as a Jewish state.”1
Its optimism is praiseworthy.
However, we must ask ourselves: Is this perseverance, or is it perseveration? The former has always been part of our successful history, but the latter is actually a symptom of mental illness.
It is understandable, after so much bloodshed, that we suffer from a collective or national form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But, are we really capable of solving the Palestinian crisis? Or, is the suggestion that we can be a sign of moral hubris?
Jews think it is stupid to fight. We prefer reasoned arguments. However, not everyone agrees. Historically, there were many cultures that revered the martial character: the Spartans, Romans, and the Germans to mention only a few. The great symbol of Islam is the sword and Islam, itself, means submission.
Nevertheless, Palestinians are quite capable of solving their own crisis if they are willing to do so. Remember the old joke about how many psychiatrists it takes to change a light bulb? The answer was one psychiatrist, but the light bulb has to want to change.
The question before us is: “Why” do the “poor Palestinians” not want to resolve their situation? The answer is not so difficult. The Palestinian identity has emerged from an inconspicuous history as just one of many Arab ethnicities.
Today, the Palestinian hidden behind a keffiyeh (a Palestinian scarf) and sporting an AK-47 has become a cultural superhero for the ignorant masses and for anyone with a chip on their shoulder because once their ancestors constituted an indigenous tribe in what is now a metropolitan center.
Contrary to the romance of being indigenous, the facts are that the colonizing Europeans conquered America; the indigenous Americans did not conquer London or Paris.
The facts are that the Jews are indigenous to this land. They not only defeated the Arabs but built a thriving community which includes Arabs who chose to live in a Jewish state. These Jews provided work and healthcare to millions of putative Palestinians. And they also defended them when their cousins indiscriminately launch rockets.
It is not like the Iron Dome has a feature that allows its operators to exclusively shoot down incoming rockets on their way to killing Jewish Israelis, but not Arab Israelis.
Imagine, no one even said “thank you” to the Jews.
Nevertheless, there seems to be an upside to being the poor long-suffering Palestinian. He has become a cultural icon in the new “woke” civilization, in which everything we thought we knew and valued has been destroyed. Sex is no longer determined; it is chosen. Morality has become a tool of ideology.
However, the Palestinians’ rise as cultural icons is inversely proportionate to the demise of the West. In other words, like some Nazi Storm Trooper, the Palestinian is a hero to villains.
Isaiah warned us of a time when all of this would happen; when “people would call bad good.” In this biblical nightmare, murder is now resistance. If you are killed in a criminal or terrorist act, you become a martyr. True and false are no longer meaningful because facts are irrelevant.
The Palestinians may not be good at much, but they excel in lying. For example, they reinvented Jesus as a Palestinian. This lie resonates among Christians eager to push their claims of supersessionism — a Christian theological opinion that describes the idea that the Christian Church has superseded the nation of Israel assuming their role as God’s covenanted people, thus asserting that the New Covenant through Jesus Christ has superseded or replaced the Mosaic covenant.
We live in the Culture of the Lie. Truth is cast aside. If I may quote the Psalmist:
“The righteous man no longer exists. People lie to one another. They say with our tongue we will prevail.”
And this is exactly what is happening. Palestinian supporters are glib and photogenic, and excel in newsworthy sound bites.
Yet only the Palestinians can solve the Palestinian crisis — because they created it. Only they can disentangle their people from a self-taught curriculum based upon ancient falsehoods.
Pursuing the light bulb analogy, we cannot emancipate Palestinians from years of their own indoctrination and mental bondage. Yes, the rebirth of Israel was hard on them. Many became refugees. As the comedian Bill Maher commented, “Just get over it, you lost.”2
Many people have been dislodged because of war, but they did not become professional refugees. They found a new home.
Resolving the Palestinian crisis means that facts supersede rhetoric. We Jews see that the Palestinians are in bondage and their plight hurts us. But, there is little that we can do until they, at least, ask us for help.
The freedom they seek cannot be given to them by Israel or by anyone else. Freedom begins in the mind. Politicians can create democracies that decompensate into chaos. But, meaningful individual liberty begins, as Baruch Spinoza and Moses before him proved, in the mind — in each individual soul.
A major obstacle in the way of this liberation is that no one really wants to help them. No one wants to tell them the truth. Instead, everyone wants to exploit them; to use them for their own political objectives. So the world encourages the Palestinians to blame the Jews for the sad facts of their fate. It is easier to blame than to accept responsibility.
Blame is something that resonates within every antisemitic culture; its origins stretch back to the medieval blood libels. One might innocently ask: Why would anyone want to give Hamas another chance? Why would anyone want such an evil regime to continue to ruin lives? Maybe, because they only murder Jews.
The Israelis did not take away their human rights; Hamas and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas did that — and millions of Palestinians acquiesced. They could have resisted. All over the world, people resist tyranny. Their enemy is not the democratic Jewish state, where their own cousins live in dignity and equality. Their enemy is the lie that they revere. Until the Palestinians stand up and fight for themselves, there will never be a solution.
Left alone, none of us would be free. Liberty is not a gift; it is an achievement. Voltaire was wrong. Man is not born free. He is born in bondage to his instincts and to his own habits. Erich Fromm helped us to understand our own fear of freedom. The Exodus story includes the poignant episode in which some of the Hebrews wanted to return to what they knew best: bondage.
Each of us contends against our own unconscious instincts and fears. Among those drives (which Sigmund Freud called the “Death Instinct”) is the impulse of un-freedom.
I am not suggesting that Israelis stand idly by. It is important that we understand how to help the Palestinians. But blaming the Jews will never “free Palestine.” And offering more concessions to their demands only justifies their deceitful deeds.
What is transpiring between Israel and the Palestinians is a mere vision of what awaits the world. People are beginning to realize, the sword of Islam is pointed at the soul of civilization. Our hope for peace is a meager one.
And we Israelis should be proud that we are fighting the only war worth fighting. It is not a war about territory or economics. It is not about who governs. It is about the transcendent rather than the immediate.
Moreover, the West must understand that this war has to be won — because it is about the values we cherish and the conceptions we fear.
“It is time to talk about a new solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - editorial.” The Jerusalem Post.
“Real Time With Bill Maher.” HBO.
Great essay - thanks. Our biggest enemy, the way I see it, are the die-hard leftist Jews and sometimes, the Jewish zealots who interpret Torah in a bizarre, cult-like way. They march with non-Jewish anti-Semites at the demonstrations. In Montreal recently, a group calling itself Independent Jewish Voices, chanted along with demonstrators calling for the death of all Jews as well as Israel! In a YouTube video, Douglas Murray likened these Jews to the Queers for Palestine, calling them all "maniacs". But mentally deranged or not, Jewish Communities including the Beis Din and the Israeli government must make it clear that while these persons may be Jewish by birth, they are heretics and do not represent Israel or the Jewish People. As for the Palestinians, we must get it through our thick collective heads that WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THEM. The Israeli military has correct and moral procedures for limiting collateral damage which follows international law. So let's get on with taking the necessary steps to eliminate Hamas, their supporters and any other enemies of Israel without constantly worrying about the future of the so-called Palestinian people. They made their bed - over and over again. Let them lie in it. Them and the self-hating Jews who lend credence to the enemy's lies. BTW: I am happy to report that those so-called "Independent Jewish Voices" - along with their murderous fellow protestors - were finally ordered away from the Jewish Institutions they've been harassing by Quebec's Superior Court. And, 5 Hamas supporters were finally arrested by Montreal's police. Bravo to Montreal's Jewish leaders for their persistence with the courts, the politicians and the police. I and probably other Montreal Jews were at the point where we were calling for private, armed security for our institutions and carrying various weapons when we went out, even if some of them are illegal in Canada. Am Yisroel Chai!
Excellent article. The only thing I would add is “this war… is an existential war. We are fighting for our existence…