Jews must stand together, work for peace

Levi is a second-year student and financial vice-president of
the Jewish Student Union.

By Justin Levi

This week, Jews around the world will celebrate Yom
Ha’atzmaut, the Israeli Day of Independence. In light of this
highly controversial day, it is vital to examine the importance of
this watershed event in Jewish history as not merely political.

In approximately the year 70 of the Common Era, the Jews were
driven out of their homeland of Judea by Roman conquerors. Although
several famous (and other not so well known) revolts ensued for the
next 100 years, it ultimately became clear that the Jews were in a
Diaspora (dispersion) that would force them to seek permanent
refuge thousands of miles from the only home they had ever
known.

To be fair, the Diaspora has not been without its positive
contributions to Jewish culture throughout the world. Indeed, much
of what Judaism is today is a result of the adaptive processes that
the religion was forced to undergo for nearly 2,000 years in
exile.

But despite these impacts, the Jews were nevertheless a
persecuted people for the whole of the Diaspora, subjected to
endless expulsions and massacres.

It is important to understand the force that allowed the Jews to
survive for so many years with relatively little erosion of the
fundamental aspects of the religion, even in the face of such
persecution.

Every year, at the end of the Passover Seder, the words,
“Next year in Jerusalem,” are recited. Although the
Jews were expelled from their homeland, the idea of a return to the
land of Zion, the Holy Land, never left their hearts and minds.

It was this firmly embedded principle that spawned the Zionist
movement, beginning in the latter part of the 19th century. Even
non-religious Jews who had been raised with romantic notions of a
return to Jerusalem joined this movement with the hope of returning
to the land of Israel. They conceded that a Jewish sovereign state
anywhere else in the world would not be acceptable, given the lack
of spiritual attachment.

Of course, such a movement was not powerful enough to succeed on
its own.

Tragically, what was ultimately needed to convince the world of
the necessity for an independent Jewish state was the massacre of
six million Jews, roughly 30 percent of world Jewry, in just a
six-year span at the hands of the Nazis. What the Holocaust proved
was that the Jews, despite an unprecedented mode of survival
practiced for nearly 2,000 years, are, without a state of their
own, nothing short of an endangered species.

Given this, it is clear why Israeli Independence Day carries so
much emotion with regard to Jews around the world. But others
don’t quite see it that way.

As powerful a force as Zionism was and still is today, the real
growing movement is anti-Zionism. This movement is especially
growing within the United Nations and in the ultra leftist world of
American academia. This idea represents nothing less than pure
anti-Semitism and employs a variety of tactics, most notably a
propaganda campaign that distorts the current situation in the
Middle East to the point that it does not even remotely resemble
the truth.

To be fair, it must be noted that the Israeli government, since
its inception in 1948, has been anything but perfect. In an effort
to control rampant Arab antagonism from within its borders as well
as without, it has very often employed overly harsh tactics that
deserve to be criticized.

But true anti-Zionism, as Martin Luther King Jr. stated in his
“Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend,” is in fact
anti-Semitism, as it is manifested in a day and age in which
traditional anti-Semitism is looked down upon in many important
areas of society.

During the next week, especially on college campuses throughout
the nation, including our own, anti-Zionist protesters will be out
in force spreading this propaganda. While they have every right to
express their opinions in an open forum, this is generally not the
limit to their actions.

At UCLA last year, during “Anti-Zionism Week,” many
young Jewish students did not merely experience a political
viewpoint calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.
Rather, they were subjected to dirty looks, libelous statements
written all around campus and a campaign to spread this
anti-Semitic venom to those who do not have the requisite knowledge
of the Middle East to challenge or question them.

The result of such actions is that Jewish students, rather than
feeling the courage to stand up to such blatant racism, are made to
feel guilty, intimidated and, quite frankly, scared.

Last year, after witnessing this kind of activity, I ran for a
position on the Jewish Student Union board. I did it so that this
year Jews would not be made to feel guilty but proud and would
understand that there is, in fact, an organization on campus that
will defend their cherished views about the state of Israel.

This week, the Jewish Student Union will send a message that it
will be the goal of the Jewish community to pursue a just, secure
and lasting peace between Israel and her Arab neighbors, most
notably the Palestinians, and we will work with the United Arab
Society on campus to achieve such a goal.

Nevertheless, the Jewish community must stand united in the face
of extremism, anti-Semitism and the sabotage of a meaningful
dialogue between two communities that have grown weary of the
conflict in the Middle East.

This Thursday, the Israeli Independence Day rally on campus will
show that Jews will no longer be complacent when dealing with such
a serious issue as anti-Zionism. I encourage all Jewish students as
well as non-Jews who are concerned with the current situation to
join us on Bruin Walk as well as in Westwood Plaza at noon today so
that they may learn more about the Middle East and about the
undying devotion that Jews have toward the state of Israel.