The last few weeks have left me feeling betrayed as an Israeli. The UN resolution that the U.S. got behind, that stupid Paris conference, and finally, this exhibit from an organization totally unrelated to its mandate.
We’ve seen this “crossing over” a lot. Organizations whose mission has nothing to do with the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict somehow manage to jump on Israel, and suddenly have plenty of resources to allot towards activities and exhibitions that slam the Jewish state while completely straying from their stated aims. Amnesty International, Black Lives Matter, and finally, Médécins Sans Frontières, an organization I had on my bucket list to volunteer for. So this revelation is particularly stinging.
Why is this the case? I’ve come to expect anti-Israel nonsense from groups that have it as their mandate, groups that shall not be named, groups that think innocent Jews deserve to be stabbed and shot simply for living on our ancestral land. But MSF?
The pro-Israel establishment has been asleep at the wheel, too focused on doing things that will maximize donations and not on what will help save Israel’s name. These same organizations are also petrified of being portrayed as zealous or radical, because of a post traumatic stress disorder embedded in our DNA that drills into our upbringing that the nail that sticks out the most is hammered down.
But we aren’t entirely to blame. The Arabs have been extremely crafty and strategic, because it appears to be that they want nothing more than to take Israel back for themselves, which would signify the ultimate triumph of their replacement theology, proof that Allah loves them more than He loves us. It would also distract people from their governments’ egregious deeds and sectarian feuds to work towards a common goal. When Erdogan became dictator – and let’s be real, we all know he’s rigging the elections – he distracted his subjects by uniting everyone under a new Islamist banner to distract them from his abuse of power, and create an absolute-monarchy-like situation. Suddenly, with Erdogan’s rise came an unprecedented amount of anti-Israel propaganda, as the rise of most dictators seems to bring: communist, Arab, banana republic and third-world dictators alike.
The above phenomenon can provide a clue into the purpose for this discrepancy. What is clear is that the anti-Israel zeitgeist seems to always be ushered in by one thing: zeal.
What do the progressive Ivy League-educated social justice warriors who are groomed to take over the world’s NGOs, who see working for an NGO as the highest good, and an Islamist Imam who tells his congregants to be fruitful and multiply so that Islam can take over the world, have in common? Zeal. The Arabs have managed to recruit the zealous ones.
So how do we measure up to their zeal? After all, while they’re targeting our only homeland, we just want to live our lives and work hard and succeed and provide for our families and enjoy our hobbies and try not to think of the conflict. These people feel a higher calling, they feel like they’re transcending the material for the greater good. You can’t defeat those who see opposing Israel as almost a religion (or even part of their religion, as many Muslims do), when your ultimate goals are entirely practical rather than spiritual in nature. You simply can’t outlast someone who sees a spiritual calling in your destruction while you don’t wish for theirs, and in fact don’t mind peace and compromise, anything for them to finally leave you alone. Indeed, the fact that we want compromise and the other side wants all or nothing makes them look like they have more conviction, which is much more attractive and convincing to outsiders, something counterintuitive but true. Also, their zeal means they will plough towards their goal through all means necessary, even if it means lying, cheating, infiltrating otherwise good organizations and hijacking its mandate, and of course, sometimes, blowing themselves up. Meanwhile, we walk the path of the straight and narrow because doing so is important to us, and deep down we feel it’s a fight that shouldn’t be happening because we don’t understand why they can’t just let us be and move on with their lives. The truth is, this zeal, built up by dictators willing to distract their masses, picked up by social justice warriors desperate for a cause that will make them feel important, is preventing them from doing so.
At this point, all they want to do is win and maintain face. If they lose, everything they’ve devoted their lives to fighting for becomes in vain. With great zeal comes great sacrifice and investment. They feel they have a lot more to lose.
So how do we measure up to their zeal? Perhaps by pointing out the absurdity of it. The obsessiveness, the eagerness to spin lies and latch onto them. Make it humorous, terse, powerful. Make it look like a war we simply don’t want to fight. Hold up a giant mirror, so they can see their crazy eyes.
So while they have the numbers and the zeal, we’ve shown that we can still defeat them regardless of the fact that they have 300 times our population and 1000 times our zeal. After all, perhaps they have too much numbers and too much zeal, to the point that it is doomed to backfire into an own goal. We just have to stand around with a video camera every time it does.
