The United States should continue to send aid to Israel so that the Jewish state can continue to ardently defend its borders and confront its enemies.
Israel, a nation smaller than New Jersey, stands in its region as the one bastion against Arab imperialism and hegemony. Like the Kurds, Christians, Yazidis, and the Zoroastrians, the Jewish people are a vulnerable minority in the Middle East—subjected to the most gruesome and violent animosity since declaring independence in their ancestral homeland in 1948. Independence is something other minorities have failed to clinch, ushering in devastating prospects for their security. Through resistance and resilience, Jews have avoided this fate. Not only for Jews in the Middle East, but for Jews everywhere, Israel is a safe haven, a refuge, a tiny corner of the earth where they are a majority—where they can defend themselves—where they are no longer at the mercy of a nation that is not their own. That is the preciousness of Zionism, a promise of “Never Again” to those who would seek to destroy the Jewish people.
The unilateral, genocidal war to undo Israel was once fought with military tactics. From 1948 to 1973, invading armies did everything in their power to force Jews into minority status once again. These attempts were unsuccessful. And so the Soviet-Arab bloc of the United Nations strategized to flip the politics of antisemitism, also called anti-Zionism, from the right-wing to the left. By framing Jews as the victimizers rather than swearing to push them into the sea, a previous campaign that western liberals could never in good conscience support, their anti-Jewish argument could garner more support. When the United Nations passed resolution 3379 in 1975, denoting Zionism as a form of “racism,” it was a shocking yet ingenious change of strategy against the Jews. The Jews were accused of bigotry for not permitting an Arab state when in reality, the Arabs were intransigent in their refusal to permit a Jewish state. It is only by grotesque use of falsehood that the Jews, forced from their homes in the Middle East, forced to enlist in a Jewish army to defend their tiny scrap of land, and who have time and time again offered peace on the condition of their own safety, could be accused of oppression.
If Jews are portrayed as tyrannical colonialists, antisemitism can gain a sizable foothold in western academia, media, and culture. And indeed it has, though it is now cloaked in the mendacious language of social justice and liberation. It is incumbent upon the United States to see through this lie. It is incumbent upon the Biden Administration to not fall for the framing of Israel as oppressor, Palestine as oppressed. The Biden Administration must continue to support Israel by way of foreign aid, as not only is this a promise of protection to the Jewish people, it is an investment in the security of the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.
Israel is worthy of criticism. The tactics Israel employs to defend itself should be subjected to strong and robust debate, especially with the occupation of The West Bank and the blockade of the Gaza Strip. But again, context matters. Why is there an occupation and why is there a blockade? Because since 1948, the Palestinians and the surrounding Arab countries have refused to accept a Jewish state anywhere between The Jordan River and The Mediterranean Sea. They have rejected all offers for their own self determination if it meant partitioning the land with the other indigenous people. They have resorted to violence, terrorism, and political warfare to deny Jews our right of self governance. Is Israel to sign away the safety of millions of Jews for a false promise that minority status won’t result in war, or even genocide? All while the looming threat of nuclear annihilation from Iran looms over its head? Jews have been scarred enough to never be fooled into such utopianism again, and the United States should not be so naive to assume otherwise.