In a recent substack posting Benjamin Kerstein wrote about antisemitism’s psychological toll on Jews, in which he argued we must as a first step acknowledge the devastating impact the contemporary explosion of antisemitism since October 7 2023 has had on us.
I have been waiting for this post. This is a post that really and truly only a Jew of the Diaspora could write. It had to be written. I would humbly add, that the call to action is two-fold. The Jews of the Diaspora must prepare for emigration, and the State of Israel must prepare for absorption.
I agree wholeheartedly with this. The modern liberal order is collapsing, and even if parts of the west can be saved, it will not be as good to be here than in Israel.
To quote Jabotinsky; there must be an end to apologising. If we really believe that it is God’s land, then it behooves us to act accordingly.
I love you and your people. And I am not alone! We Zionists don’t want to lose you. Even more than your list of contributions to society, you are part of America. A bagel is America. A Jewish accent is… New York, but still America!
At the same time, your people in Israel need you. It is our job as non-Jews to make sure that you always have a space here! A candle will be burning in the window.
P.S. America should be the last place to lose Jews, if at all. Please stay. Jewish people from hopeless places like France, the UK and Ireland should make aliyah first!
I am a dual citizen of Israel and the USA I left the USA in 1973 right after the Yom Kippur War.
I returned when the USA pressured Israel in the Peace Accord to give back Yamit, a growing city developed on the Egyptian border for defense. Now that Israel is backing away from the USA State Dept and Jews realize Jew hatred is part of foreign policy Israel will be the GOAT. Am Israel Chai
I will just say one thing- the public opinion polls are all published to show how the public thinks like the pollsters. The polls are so ridiculously presented as to be irrelevant. Israeli public opinion has changed. I would venture to say that post Zionism - our wokeness- is dead in the water.
Further- the future will see an even stronger Zionist identity amongst the young. Everyone from 10-18 is a Zionist. The recent draft had the highest percentage of combat soldiers in israeli history.
While I sympathize with some of what you are saying, I don’t see how it’s possible. Israel has relied on the United States and the West for its entire existence. With its tiny land mass and tiny population, I don’t see how it can do otherwise. And if the West, particularly the United States, commits suicide, it’s taking Israel with it. Israel cannot stand alone against the world unless of course you’re talking about the coming of the Moshiach.
Israel has to stop relying on American military aid so it cannot be blackmailed as Biden did to Israel. Israel has to stop saying it is saving the West because there is no West to save. Israel has an affinity with America, but Israeli leftists and American leftists both work to sabotage their respective societies; so no affinity and collaboration there. Israel does not stand alone against the world, though it does against western Europe. Slovenia wants to cancel Israeli participation in Eurovision 2025. As the United States reinvigorates itself under Trump it will pursue its own interests. So Israel. And when their interests coincide they will cooperate. And when they do not, USA will not determine the outcome. Even this year Netanyahu outmanoeuvred Biden and his flunkeys, but at a price. It is likely that the world is heading in a new direction as Ira Slomowitz in a recent piece on The Angry Demagogue suggested. So no need to keep up the old argument that Israel has to rely on America or face extinction. Israel can maneuver very well in a multipolar world, just as some other more horrible nation states do. The logic of your comment condemns Israel to extinction, albeit slow and with much loss of life. The lesson of Gaza is exactly the opposite.
I’m afraid that calling for Jews to move to Israel only makes them a bigger target in one place. Nor should Jews who have lived where they are for generations allow themselves to be forced out.
We will deal with the Gaza grifters when we deal with the rest of the Wokists, and make sure they are no longer a threat.
Jews are free to stay where they are and fight back if they are so inclined and feel the battle is worth it. Myself, I am so disgusted by the government sponsored antisemitism and the lack of response by the populations of western democracies that I have no desire to save those countries. Let them figure out their own suicide. The UK is a stellar example of the decline and fall of all that was noble and tolerant for centuries. The current Labour government is a pathetic in its craven subscription to woke correctness. As for all the Jews moving to one place, namely Israel, that would not make them a bigger target but a stronger nation with a stronger army and a stronger economy. And that wold in turn make the craven democracies of the West respect it more and cease its vilification of the Jewish state. Peace through strength, I believe, is the strategy.
The West will hate us even more if we all made aliyah. Why? because we’d be living a dream that they want but that has for the last half-century been forbidden to them: the emotional tranquility and cultural richness of living in a relatively homogenous country where citizens enjoy a common religion, history, language, amd destiny. Pride, cancel culture and deep-self-occlusion would all conspire to keep Westerners from admitting that this particular envy is behind a part of their Jew hatred, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s there.
I think the question is. When we say “the international community,” do we mean the literal international community, or do we mean the part of Israelis that views themselves as liberal bastions of justice using the antisemitic double standards? Who is everyone kowtowing to? The US? Or leftist Israelis?
The international community is a shibboleth for UN and EU antisemitism, similar to the euphemism "international law" and "rules based order." Countries respect it where it is convenient, but in reality the only real international law consists of the Geneva Conventions and the only rules-based order is the one the Great Powers adhere to or not when it is convenient for them. Yes, leftist Israelis use those phrases to intimidate their fellow citizens or justify their own ideas and policies, like opposing judicial reform or the application of Jewish sovereignty over Gaza, Judea and Samaria. But when Israel ignored the advice of the Biden administration and the US military and invaded Gaza, Rafah, and Lebanon, lo and behold success and victory spoke louder than the idiocies of Israel's American friends.
I have been waiting for this post. This is a post that really and truly only a Jew of the Diaspora could write. It had to be written. I would humbly add, that the call to action is two-fold. The Jews of the Diaspora must prepare for emigration, and the State of Israel must prepare for absorption.
A very smart essay. Indeed it is possible to care too much.
Howard Rotberg
I agree wholeheartedly with this. The modern liberal order is collapsing, and even if parts of the west can be saved, it will not be as good to be here than in Israel.
To quote Jabotinsky; there must be an end to apologising. If we really believe that it is God’s land, then it behooves us to act accordingly.
I love you and your people. And I am not alone! We Zionists don’t want to lose you. Even more than your list of contributions to society, you are part of America. A bagel is America. A Jewish accent is… New York, but still America!
At the same time, your people in Israel need you. It is our job as non-Jews to make sure that you always have a space here! A candle will be burning in the window.
P.S. America should be the last place to lose Jews, if at all. Please stay. Jewish people from hopeless places like France, the UK and Ireland should make aliyah first!
I am a dual citizen of Israel and the USA I left the USA in 1973 right after the Yom Kippur War.
I returned when the USA pressured Israel in the Peace Accord to give back Yamit, a growing city developed on the Egyptian border for defense. Now that Israel is backing away from the USA State Dept and Jews realize Jew hatred is part of foreign policy Israel will be the GOAT. Am Israel Chai
Lots to think about here.
I will just say one thing- the public opinion polls are all published to show how the public thinks like the pollsters. The polls are so ridiculously presented as to be irrelevant. Israeli public opinion has changed. I would venture to say that post Zionism - our wokeness- is dead in the water.
Further- the future will see an even stronger Zionist identity amongst the young. Everyone from 10-18 is a Zionist. The recent draft had the highest percentage of combat soldiers in israeli history.
Boy howdy, now that's a real barn-burner of a post. Wowzers that resonates. Been waitin' to hear it, pleased you wrote it. I agree 100 percent.
Every single word! Thank you!!
Well said, I agree with this piece in its entirety.
Very good. Articulate and on target. Encouraging.
Thank you.
While I sympathize with some of what you are saying, I don’t see how it’s possible. Israel has relied on the United States and the West for its entire existence. With its tiny land mass and tiny population, I don’t see how it can do otherwise. And if the West, particularly the United States, commits suicide, it’s taking Israel with it. Israel cannot stand alone against the world unless of course you’re talking about the coming of the Moshiach.
Israel has to stop relying on American military aid so it cannot be blackmailed as Biden did to Israel. Israel has to stop saying it is saving the West because there is no West to save. Israel has an affinity with America, but Israeli leftists and American leftists both work to sabotage their respective societies; so no affinity and collaboration there. Israel does not stand alone against the world, though it does against western Europe. Slovenia wants to cancel Israeli participation in Eurovision 2025. As the United States reinvigorates itself under Trump it will pursue its own interests. So Israel. And when their interests coincide they will cooperate. And when they do not, USA will not determine the outcome. Even this year Netanyahu outmanoeuvred Biden and his flunkeys, but at a price. It is likely that the world is heading in a new direction as Ira Slomowitz in a recent piece on The Angry Demagogue suggested. So no need to keep up the old argument that Israel has to rely on America or face extinction. Israel can maneuver very well in a multipolar world, just as some other more horrible nation states do. The logic of your comment condemns Israel to extinction, albeit slow and with much loss of life. The lesson of Gaza is exactly the opposite.
Can we talk about the psychological toll that Jewish subversion takes on western societies?
When to leave the West is all I think about, at one level or other, all day long. See my post “Speaking Of Mass Deportations”
I’m afraid that calling for Jews to move to Israel only makes them a bigger target in one place. Nor should Jews who have lived where they are for generations allow themselves to be forced out.
We will deal with the Gaza grifters when we deal with the rest of the Wokists, and make sure they are no longer a threat.
Jews are free to stay where they are and fight back if they are so inclined and feel the battle is worth it. Myself, I am so disgusted by the government sponsored antisemitism and the lack of response by the populations of western democracies that I have no desire to save those countries. Let them figure out their own suicide. The UK is a stellar example of the decline and fall of all that was noble and tolerant for centuries. The current Labour government is a pathetic in its craven subscription to woke correctness. As for all the Jews moving to one place, namely Israel, that would not make them a bigger target but a stronger nation with a stronger army and a stronger economy. And that wold in turn make the craven democracies of the West respect it more and cease its vilification of the Jewish state. Peace through strength, I believe, is the strategy.
The West will hate us even more if we all made aliyah. Why? because we’d be living a dream that they want but that has for the last half-century been forbidden to them: the emotional tranquility and cultural richness of living in a relatively homogenous country where citizens enjoy a common religion, history, language, amd destiny. Pride, cancel culture and deep-self-occlusion would all conspire to keep Westerners from admitting that this particular envy is behind a part of their Jew hatred, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s there.
I think the question is. When we say “the international community,” do we mean the literal international community, or do we mean the part of Israelis that views themselves as liberal bastions of justice using the antisemitic double standards? Who is everyone kowtowing to? The US? Or leftist Israelis?
The international community is a shibboleth for UN and EU antisemitism, similar to the euphemism "international law" and "rules based order." Countries respect it where it is convenient, but in reality the only real international law consists of the Geneva Conventions and the only rules-based order is the one the Great Powers adhere to or not when it is convenient for them. Yes, leftist Israelis use those phrases to intimidate their fellow citizens or justify their own ideas and policies, like opposing judicial reform or the application of Jewish sovereignty over Gaza, Judea and Samaria. But when Israel ignored the advice of the Biden administration and the US military and invaded Gaza, Rafah, and Lebanon, lo and behold success and victory spoke louder than the idiocies of Israel's American friends.