The rockets from Gaza that are raining on Israel this week, that continue to be launched into residential neighborhoods even as we type, should be a wake-up call for all Jews to understand that whether we are civilians or not, our very existence is under attack. It was Kristallnacht all over again in Lod this week, as Arab bullies roamed the streets looking for apartments with mezuzot to torch.
If this were not enough, just as scary, and potentially very far-reaching, we are losing the war for legitimacy with younger generations on social media.
Our friends in Israel illustrate this truth most deeply this week. They attempt to combat the Palestinian sympathy narrative by posting Facebook messages from their bomb shelters, and taking videos for Twitter from their backyards of the Iron Dome fending off rockets.
But on TikTok, where the kids are, it’s all about freeing Palestine. In every single video, it’s all about the poor victims of apartheid and this unjust war against them, and it’s about encouraging young men and women to go out and be freedom fighters against these horrible Zionists. Setting off rockets is a “cry for help” to the Western world from a marginalized group.
Our American government, by making pareve statements lamenting the “loss of life on both sides” is doing Israel no favors by reminding the Palestinians that the Jewish state “has a right to defend itself.” The TikTok crowd knows that this is pure lip service, because all of a sudden Hamas has been legitimized as “Palestinian militants” in every major news source in America. They sound like heroes now, not terrorists, don’t they?
As we go to press, we are watching footage of Tuesday’s Palestinian “Emergency Rally for Palestine” at the Israeli consulate in New York. Embassy staff were sent home for their safety, and one Palestinian sympathizer was arrested for ripping an Israel flag he had just violently taken from an Israeli protester. A Jewish man, covered in blood, was led away after a chair was thrown at him. Jewish and Palestinian protesters were each barricaded off from one another, attempting to lunge past police officers to attack one another.
Like in Israel, in America our existence is under attack, in person and online. We have to do more.
