I’m in New York right now, anxiously following the wave of antisemitism hitting here.
The sights are unimaginable. Jews are afraid to approach college campuses, Jewish professors are prevented from entering, and an enraged and inflamed crowd in broad daylight calls for physical harm to Jews. Kristallnacht has returned, and it seems that even in the US it is only a matter of time until lives are harmed.
The rioters’ official claim is against the “Zionists,” and as the head of a large international Zionist organization, I can only be shocked that the centers of academia have become the centers of ignorance. Because what is “Zionism”? It is the aspiration that one country in the world be a safe place for Jews. But not only that: Zionism is the hope for a tolerant and accepting place, where a democratic, egalitarian, open society exists, an island of light and freedom in a region of oppression and violence.
Zionism is for equality
Indeed, Zionist Israel grants equal rights and equal opportunities to every person who lives in it, without distinguishing between religions and nationalities. Even its Arab citizens (21% of Israel’s total population) feel that this is their country and are not willing to give up their right to be its citizens.
The rioting mobs in US cities and in front of college campuses are made up of both violent Islamists with their deep-rooted antisemitism, and “innocent” local anarchists who do not understand the meaning of the slogans they shout.
Some of them still do not understand that they are demonstrating on behalf of an evil axis, which, while publicly championing “only” the idea of murdering Jews and erasing the Jewish state, at home they are also oppressing women, killing LGBTQ+ people, shooting freedom demonstrators, executing political opponents, blocking channels of free communication, and indoctrinating religious fanaticism centered on the holy mission of persecuting anyone who differs.
And not just the rioters are guilty; so are those who remain silent. There are those who think that this does not concern them because it is a local conflict in the Middle East.
But just the opposite is the case: the war between a sovereign country that was attacked and a murderous terrorist organization that still holds 133 of its citizens, is not “local” at all. After all, 1.9 billion Muslims, who in recent years have been well dispersed around the world, are not at all interested in a solution for the plight of the Palestinians.
Their real goal is the domination of Islam over the entire world, which they currently make up about a quarter of, and in two generations they will be half of it. The Gazans in this story are not the essence but only the messenger, and the next October 7 could be in Paris, Dublin, Malmo, or Montreal.
The wave of hatred currently sweeping the center of the free world is not only against the “Zionists,” but against everything good and valuable. While our hostages are being held and our soldiers are fighting to bring them home, the protesters in the United States are passionately embracing the murderous terrorist organization whose banner is hatred, destruction, and oppression.
We are not the only ones who should be concerned about this problem; every person who cares about the good of our world should be deeply concerned. Because they don’t just want the destruction of Israel, but the destruction of the entire Western and modern world. “Zionism” just stands in their way.
The writer is the chairperson of WIZO.