Tens of thousands of Jews are fleeing Europe. The nation of Israel, the only Jewish country on Earth, is under daily attack on multiple levels. International organizations and governments are rationalizing their lack of support for not just Israel but for Jewish people around the world in general. Jews and, incredibly, some Israelis are as divided today as they ever have been on both their Jewishness and their support of Israel. The majority of Jews today live in exactly two places:

1.    The United States, with approximately 7.46 million

2.    Israel with 7.43 million

Out of 15.7 million Jews worldwide, less than a million live elsewhere any longer. It didn’t used to be that way. Since 1938, Jewish populations have been exterminated, dispossessed, ostracized, and prevented from working in multiple countries and regions due to persecution, war, and political instability. Key offenders include:

• Germany and Austria: During the Holocaust, Jews fled or were forcibly deported.
• Europe as a whole: Also during the Holocaust, the Nazis murdered 6 million Jews, the ones who couldn’t flee.
• Poland and Eastern Europe: After World War II, the surviving Jews emigrated due to antisemitism and communist regimes.
• Arab countries: After the establishment of Israel in 1948, Jews faced hostility, with 850,000-900,000 expelled from countries like Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya.
• Soviet Union: Jews emigrated during the Cold War due to restrictions on religious and cultural practices.
• Modern-day Europe: Jews are fleeing France, Belgium, and Sweden as both economic and particularly antisemitism not only becomes more common but seemingly tolerated or encouraged by government officials as well.

Millions of Jews experienced a second diaspora in the last 75 years that has concentrated the remaining Jews to where they live today.

In response to an essay I wrote about a fanatic pro-Palestinian activist in England, some sent me multiple inflammatory PDFs and a video, plus a YouTube link that you can view here, heralding the imminent end of Israel in a very matter-of-fact manner. Reading the attached documents, what struck me was the clinical logic with which the authors predicted the deserved death of every Jew in Israel based on Israel’s conduct.

For someone ignorant about history, including the true (not antisemitic) history of the Jews and of Israel, you can see how these connected statements and videos must ultimately lead to a new Holocaust. Vicious claptraps like this feed low-information audiences with short attention spans and/or too much emotional energy, which they must work off.

It also engenders a kind of euphoric, almost orgasmic reaction in people who believe that they, and only they, see the truth; facts in opposition mean nothing to them! If you think I’m wrong, witness the repetitive chanting, high emotion, screaming, frequent crying, and need for exclusive safe spaces for its adherents as they protest their cause du jour.

One of the ongoing antisemitic narratives is about Zionism. Not only non-Jews but an increasing percentage of leftist American and Israeli Jews equate Zionism with genocide. Let’s discuss what Zionism is and why it is so controversial while being massively misunderstood:

Zionism is a political and cultural movement advocating for the establishment and support of a Jewish homeland in the region historically known as Zion, which corresponds to modern-day Israel—a region that Jews have lived in without cessation for 3,400 years and that was last a nation when the Romans eradicated Judea in 135 AD and brought it under colonial rule. It remained a territory of various colonizers for the next 1,813 years.

It was in the last half-century of this colonial occupation that the idea of Zionism came into being. The movement emerged in the late 19th century in response to widespread antisemitism in Europe and the Jews’ desire to have a safe and sovereign state where they could freely practice their religion and culture.

If you look up Zionism on the internet, you’ll discover that most Internet sources use biased language implying that Zionism is a colonial enterprise. It is not, since only nation-states colonize another country’s land. Israel was a colonized sovereign territory that finally regained its independence.

If you ask ten people what they think Zionism is, you are likely to get multiple answers, most likely wrong. Zionism is a reaction to being displaced from your own country and then returning to where you began, not an attempt to colonize someone else’s country.

There has never been a country called Palestine. This is an uncomfortable fact for far too many people who have been collectively brainwashed into believing that Jews came and took over Palestine, pushing “Palestinians” from their lands.

For almost 1,800 years, “Palestine” referred to a region rather than an established country. The name originates from the ancient Philistines and was later used by the Romans to designate the area after the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE. Over centuries, the region of Palestine was ruled by various empires, including the Romans, Byzantines, Islamic Caliphates, Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottomans, and the British.

As noted above, the Jewish people have had a continuous presence in the land of Canaan (present-day Israel) since biblical times. This name appears in ancient texts and refers to the region encompassing modern-day Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and parts of Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. The place “Canaan” is used extensively in the 3200-year-old Hebrew Bible, particularly in the context of the Israelites’ journey to the Promised Land.

Given these facts, there is an unanswered question: why is there so much vitriol targeted both to Jews in general and Israel in particular? The reasons seem to be as numerous as the stars in the universe. Jews are blamed (scapegoated) for everything from Marxism to the concentration of wealth in the world, plus a hundred other reasons that become excuses in which to shield themselves from their own failings.

Jews will always be a tiny minority everywhere they go. (except Israel) Every other solution proposed to create peace will bring even more division and death until the world respects Israel’s right to exist and does not set it up for the next attack. Israel’s detractors, which now include too many Jews themselves, cloak themselves in the language of “peace” but actually demonize and marginalize Jews everywhere, reinvigorating old tropes. The Castle Doctrine (the legal ability to defend one’s home with deadly force) applies to nations as well as individuals. Israel has a right to defend itself, and nothing can change that.

Image created using AI.

Author, Businessman, Thinker, and Strategist. Read more about Allan, his background, and his ideas to create a better tomorrow at www.1plus1equals2.com.