For many generations to come, 5784 will be remembered as a year of catastrophe. The inhuman brutality of the October 7 atrocities, the ongoing torture and murder of the hostages, the exile of thousands of families from their homes, and the pervasive arrogance in Israel that allowed this horror to take place will remain deeply embedded on the consciousness of the Jewish people. The painful pleas of the victims, their family members, and friends will continue to echo for many years.
In addition, the grotesque displays of hypocrisy and immorality from the leaders of the world’s democracies and the so-called international community, at levels far beyond those imagined by the greatest cynics, will accompany these memories.
Under the facades of human rights and international law, whatever Israel does to protect its citizens and minimize the harm to civilians on the other side is automatically and mindlessly denounced as a “war crime.” Karim Khan, the supposedly unbiased prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, is calling for the arrest and trial of Israeli leaders under the blatantly false accusation of deliberately starving innocent civilians in Gaza.
Once again, the Jewish people have discovered that we are alone and abandoned in a hostile and irrational world. The lofty language proclaimed in response to the Holocaust, such as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is routinely weaponized and exploited for hate by powerful groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Oxfam, in cooperation with a network encompassing hundreds of smaller “nongovernmental organizations” (NGOs).
Jews were among the founders, leaders and primary funders of these institutions, hoping for and believing in the promises of a better world. They embraced the creation of the United Nations Human Rights Council, and later, the International Criminal Court, ostensibly based on the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals. But these organizations and the principles they claim to advance have been systematically hijacked by Jew-haters and propagandists who followed Stalin and the Soviet bloc.
Antizionism in international organzations
Together with the Arab League, they produced the infamous 1975 “Zionism is Racism” UN Resolution, which was revived in the antisemitic 2001 UN Durban Conference, and continues in the daily messaging that demonizes any form of Jewish self-determination in our homeland. Joining this march of betrayal, journalists from “trusted” media platforms automatically repeat the lies.
In parallel, university campuses that had been seen as fortresses for seeking truth and tolerance were turned into encampments of intimidation and mob violence against Jews (“Zionists”), led by the secretly funded and tightly organized “Students for Justice in Palestine.” Their allies among Jew-hating radicals (Faculty for Justice in Palestine) are the engines of the deadly Orwellian propaganda campaign, repeating the propaganda slogans of genocide and apartheid.
Responding to these lies and the political pressure they generate, cowardly “progressive” political leaders in Canada, Britain, and other countries have blocked the export of weapons and technology to Israel, thereby aiding the efforts of Palestinian terrorists and the Iranian regime’s proxy armies – the real sources of genocide.
And yet, as we begin 5785, there are some signs of recovery and hope. Experts and pundits who solemnly declared that Hamas could not be defeated – and predicted that the counterattack in Gaza would end like the American and NATO withdrawals in Afghanistan and Iraq – were proven wrong. Israelis understood that we were fighting for our survival as a free people in our homeland and not against a far-away enemy.
The IDF citizens’ army recovered from the massive failures of October 7, and acted heroically in destroying the Hamas army and its 500 miles of underground concrete terror tunnels. Additionally, in countering the threat from Lebanon, the story of the incredible success in removing thousands of Hezbollah terrorists from active duty by causing their “secure” communications devices to explode will also be retold for generations.
Will it get better?
As in 1948, 1973, and during the suicide bombings of Arafat’s war, Israelis have demonstrated remarkable resilience and determination to overcome the tragedy and prevail. From the Diaspora, a constant stream of groups and volunteers have come to demonstrate their solidarity. Despite the ongoing internal political and social tensions, and with a few marginal exceptions, the unity of the Jewish people has been reinforced. This unity and determination to pursue justice will eventually prevail against the purveyors of lies, hate, and hypocrisy.
At a number of universities and among some journalists, a growing number of responsible and principled voices are standing strong in opposing the hypocrisy and moral betrayal. They have not allowed the propagandists and haters to monopolize the public discourse, and their determination to speak the truth will eventually prevail.
The pain of the past year will never be erased. But at the same time, there is good reason to be optimistic that next year – 5785 – will be better.
“Let the old year and its curses depart; let the new year with its blessings begin.”
Shana tova.
The writer is founder and president of NGO Monitor and professor emeritus at Bar-Ilan University, where he founded the Program on Conflict Management and Negotiation.