Stay updated with the latest news!
Subscribe to The Jerusalem Post Newsletter
A nationwide alliance of Hispanic Christian leaders joined Israel’s more prominent Evangelical church supporters in defending the Jewish state and demanding Hamas free the hostages, whose plight moved millions. On Broadway, dozens of stars, including Billy Porter, Debra Messing, and Jeremy Jordan, adapted “Bring Him Home,” from Les Misérables, to honor the hostages.
Madonna was devastated, declaring during a London concert: “I turn on social media and I want to vomit. I see children being kidnapped, pulled off motorcycles; babies being decapitated, children at peace raves being shot and killed.” She posted a heartbreaking video of the invasion on Instagram, while proclaiming: “My heart goes out to Israel” and “I am aware that this is the work of Hamas.”
True, Madonna needed to hire extra security after that. But she had the security as an American that in key moments you stand for goodness, knowing that the overwhelming majority of Americans will have your back.
Over 2,000 Hollywood actors, producers, and screenwriters, including Jerry Seinfeld, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Amy Schumer, embraced Israel while denouncing Hamas’s “evil.” And in New York, when two non-Jewish construction workers, identifying themselves as proud Americans, confronted a neighbor tearing down hostage posters, the video of the confrontation went viral.
That’s the America I know!
True, a small, rabid, well-organized group of anti-Jewish anti-Zionists dominated the headlines, giving cover to the twisted minority of Jew-hating anti-Zionists. It’s a structural problem – extremists command attention. But it’s an existential problem, too. Too many decent, hard-working, fair-minded pro-Israel Americans are so demoralized by media shrillness, they withdraw – on this issue and many others. This Silenced Majority’s passivity obscured the rare bipartisan consensus recognizing that America and Israel share common values, interests, challenges, enemies, and a common fate, especially now.
Why hasn’t America bombed Iranian nuclear facilities?
I HAVE my criticisms. I am appalled that America didn’t start bombing Iranian nuclear facilities back in April, to show Taiwan, China, and everyone else that America protects its allies. I don’t understand the aversion even many American Jews have to giving Israel a clear victory over evil jihadists who are anti-American, antisemitic and anti-Zionist.
In short, politicians, left and right, infuriate me. And, yes, I’m especially annoyed by the Biden-Harris “experts” so fearful of “escalation” that their hesitations fueled and prolonged this conflict. And, yes, we Israelis better understand that democracies need backbones because the lesson of World War II still holds: you don’t negotiate with dictators, you crush them. But that other World War II takeaway still holds, too – never underestimate the American people’s decency, and its capacity to distinguish between good and evil.
So, while processing this roller-coaster year, noting a feckless Canadian prime minister, a surly British prime minister, and a hostile French president, we Israelis should thank America and thank American Jewry, appreciating these deep, enduring, strategically essential, enduring, friendships.
The writer, a senior fellow in Zionist thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute, is an American presidential historian. He is the author of The Essential Guide to October 7th and its Aftermath: Facts, Figures, History. His latest book, To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream, was just published.
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=6705e376f16540df98205df8f645d95a&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jpost.com%2Fopinion%2Farticle-823805&c=8057724909178832819&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2024-10-08 14:22:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
