ON A Shabbat walk last week, toward the end of the day, I found myself weaving through a large, loud group of people. It turns out it was a pro-Trump rally. One of the people standing around stopped me, trying to convince me to vote Trump. Somehow the conversation turned to Israel. The guy was anti-Israel and, after a while, I understood, without him realizing it, he was an anti-Semite. As if it were a given, he was quoting the typical tropes of primitive conspiracy theories.
Well, you know how Jews are the ones who control the media? or Well you know how Rothschild Jews are in charge of the banks?
Problem was, this guy was actually smart and well read, going back back to the Balfour Declaration (1917).
One thing led to the next, and the conversation took a turn to terrorism and the Middle East. This guy casually made light of it all.
His out of touch responses were almost like the bone chilling knifings and bombings in Israel today — all a figment of my imagination.
When I arrived home, the news was already there: Terrorists in Turkey had followed a group of Israelis for two hours before fatally attacking them in a terrorist attack.
Such validation I could do without.
But unfortunately, yet again, Jews were hunted.
WITHIN DAYS, there was the terrible news from Brussels.
Not to sound Israel-centric at a time when we grieve with Belgium, but precisely because I feel the pain of Belgium it highlights another dimension of this dark chapter of terrorism. Sadly, Ive come to expect an indifferent response by the world to terrorism against Israel, to Jewish bloodshed.
It hurts. But I reprimand myself; you know, we are an am levadad yishkon, a people that dwells alone.
Belgium is attacked and Facebook photos turn shades of black, yellow and red stripes. It seems to be an automatic gesture. You know, solidarity.
Except for when Israel is hit.
Then it is barely a blip on the newsworthy radar screen. Let alone any expressions of empathy.
It’s blame the victim; somehow the terror is justified.
It’s OK, because the goal of Israel or the goal of being Jewish is not to get people to feel bad for you; it’s not about being the ongoing sob story of the world.
But something about the quick succession, almost the juxtaposition, of Israeli terror victims in Turkey versus Belgians in Europe — the contrast of the deafening silence around Turkey versus the converging world condemnation of the terror in Belgium is, to be sure, painful, but honestly, genuinely confusing and alarming. Do people not realize that when you strip all the reasons away, it is essentially all one and the same?
It’s interesting to see the mental gymnastics people will contort themselves into just so they can tease out terrorism against Israel as different from any and every other terrorism in the world.
The denial is astounding.
Yes, there is a Palestinian-Israeli territorial conflict as well. But that is beside the point of the anti-Israel terrorism.
So it is, in this era of social media, time and again I watch as the flags on Facebook change. Paris, Belgium . . . but never Israel.
Somehow the murder of Israelis doesnt touch the worlds nerve center as it does when terror tragically strikes non-Israelis, triggering an outpouring of grief and solidarity.
OR MAYBE it’s just that terror strikes Israel so often. How many times can you muster that emotional sense of tragedy for the commonplace? Sickeningly, terrorism in Israel is not the unexpected.
And therein lies the crux of the matter.
If the world wants to continue experiencing the perverted and twisted luxury of shock over a terror attack coming unexpectedly, versus the tragic reality of terror as commonplace, as a way of life, so ongoing that it barely elicits a response, then understand that all terrorism is one terrorism.
Terrorism is terrorism.
Makes no difference if it is in Israel or elsewhere.
It is a human issue that affects us all.
Precisely because the world neatly compartmentalized Israeli terror as something different and apart from the rest of the world, today the rest of the world where terrorist attacks were unthinkable, primitive weapons of a remote world far from Western civilization is finding out that the world has shrunk. Suddenly terrorist attacks are happening with a frequency that is terrifying.
The world is only as safe as its weakest link. If Jews arent safe on the streets, then eventually no one will be.
UNLIKE THE Purim story, this modern chapter of terror we are living through does not seek to commit genocide of only one people, but of the way of life for all of us: Jews, Christians, Americans, Europeans, moderate Muslims anyone who doesn’t buy their radical Islam.
And unlike the story of Purim, I don’t see any miraculous rescue. We are the only ones who can save ourselves from this, and it starts with uniting against all terror. Period.
An American was murdered in a terror attack in Israel mere weeks ago, a West Point graduate, a veteran of the Iraq war, no less. Unless you are following Israeli news closely, Americans are completely unaware of this. America’s official response was not even a tepid one, more like practically nil. Why? Even for one of our own?
Let’s not wake up once the genie is totally out of the bottle.
Its a matter of uniting, coming together, dulling the difference between terrorism against Israel and terrorism anywhere else in the world.
Because at the end of the day, there really is no difference.
When it comes to terrorizing civilians, when it comes to our way of life, to our freedom, we are all one flag.
The flag of humanity.
Copyright © 2016 by the Intermountain Jewish News
