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We Should Fight the Hatred and Envy of Israel By Recommitting Ourselves to Supporting It
Some 550 new immigrants from the Bnei Menashe community visited the Western Wall for the first time on March 9, 2022. Photo: Yehoshua Halevi/Courtesy of Shavei Israel.
There is a moral decay that has damaged the fabric of American society. We can see its effects on the newly minted, indoctrinated university elite, who perceive the one Jewish state in the world as the sole source of all the problems in the Middle East. Despite Hamas’ massacre on October 7, and the multiple wars of annihilation launched by the Arab world against Israel, the same privileged elites view Israel’s seven million Jews as the oppressor, and Islam’s 1.9 billion adherents as the oppressed.
Interestingly, the hypocritical well-funded and organized “moral mob” never calls for the release of the hostages, including women and children, nor do they demand that Hamas surrender. Cowardly university administrators routinely cow-tow to faculty, students, and a horde of outside agitators, all of whom deny Hamas committed atrocities on Oct. 7, despite videos proudly displayed by the terrorists. In the interest of saving lives, the Biden administration has called on Israel to implement an immediate ceasefire, but is not saying it won’t accept a situation where Hamas remains in power after the war.
According to psychological studies, the strongest motivating forces of human behavior are fear, love, and envy. Of the three, the only negative trait is envy. Thousands of years ago, our sages recognized the destructive nature of envy. The Torah addresses that destructive human attribute and offers a prescription of how to mediate envy’s damaging effects on society. The Tenth Commandment says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
The campus mobs chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” are the pawns of the envious, those individuals and societies that have replaced their innate abilities to create and build what Israel has, with envy. They begrudge the accomplishments of Israel and the Jewish people. When Abraham heeded G-d’s directive: “go yourself from your land, from your birthplace, and the house of your father, to the land that I will show you,” it was a call for Abraham to reject the prevailing practices of his contemporaries. It was an answer to Richard Landes’ question about Jews in his book, Can the Whole World Be Wrong? Abraham left his hometown, Ur Kasdim, thus cutting ties with his country, his city, his neighbors, and family, to seek a better way of life.
Which brings me back to Israel. Israel’s absorption of refugees from Russia, Europe, Africa, and Arab lands hostile to Jews, is in stark contrast to Arab states that refuse Palestinians entry and citizenship in their states (even the many refugees that did not leave Israel during the 1948 war). Also, Israel’s success in medicine, science, and agriculture shows that inquisitions, pogroms, and the atrocities of the Holocaust do not have to decide a people’s fate.
Israel debunks the Marxist oppressor-oppressed narrative because it proves that a people can flourish, despite the deprivations and disadvantages of systemic racism and antisemitism.
Today more than ever, Israel needs Jews as much as Jews need Israel. There is a Hebrew expression, Kibbutz Galiyyut, it refers to the in-gathering of exiles from foreign lands and the return of the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland Israel. Since 1948, it has been the only place that will unequivocally take Jews and where they can truly feel at home.
I close with my opening statement, “there is a moral decay that has damaged the fabric of American society,” and just as G-d directed Abraham to leave Ur Kasdim, a place of bad actors, we too should heed that call and live in Israel, if not in body, then in spirit — by supporting her safety, welfare, and very existence. Understandably, because Israel is not America, she mounts challenges for which Americans are unaccustomed, therefore Israeli life, or one’s personal circumstances, may find that Israel is not for everyone, but it is comforting to know she is there for every one of us.
Steve Wenick, upon retiring from IBM as an IT analyst, took up blogging and writing articles of Jewish interest. His book reviews and articles have appeared in The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, and the Jewish Voice of South Jersey. He lives with his wife in Voorhees, New Jersey.
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Israel to Send Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Ceasefire Talks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem, Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
Israel has decided to send a delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, reviving hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations to end the almost 21-month war.
Palestinian group Hamas said on Friday it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a “positive spirit,” a few days after US President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed “to the necessary conditions to finalize” a 60-day truce.
The Israeli negotiation delegation will fly to Qatar on Sunday, the Israeli official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters.
But in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a militant group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to meet Trump in Washington on Monday, has yet to comment on Trump’s announcement, and in their public statements Hamas and Israel remain far apart.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the terrorist group, which is thought to be holding 20 living hostages, has so far refused to discuss.
Israeli media said on Friday that Israel had received and was reviewing Hamas’ response to the ceasefire proposal.
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Tucker Carlson Says to Air Interview with President of Iran
Tucker Carlson speaks on July 18, 2024 during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Photo: Jasper Colt-USA TODAY via Reuters Connect
US conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson said in an online post on Saturday that he had conducted an interview with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, which would air in the next day or two.
Carlson said the interview was conducted remotely through a translator, and would be published as soon as it was edited, which “should be in a day or two.”
Carlson said he had stuck to simple questions in the interview, such as, “What is your goal? Do you seek war with the United States? Do you seek war with Israel?”
“There are all kinds of questions that I didn’t ask the president of Iran, particularly questions to which I knew I could get an not get an honest answer, such as, ‘was your nuclear program totally disabled by the bombing campaign by the US government a week and a half ago?’” he said.
Carlson also said he had made a third request in the past several months to interview Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be visiting Washington next week for talks with US President Donald Trump.
Trump said on Friday he would discuss Iran with Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.
Trump said he believed Tehran’s nuclear program had been set back permanently by recent US strikes that followed Israel’s attacks on the country last month, although Iran could restart it at a different location.
Trump also said Iran had not agreed to inspections of its nuclear program or to give up enriching uranium. He said he would not allow Tehran to resume its nuclear program, adding that Iran did want to meet with him.
Pezeshkian said last month Iran does not intend to develop nuclear weapons but will pursue its right to nuclear energy and research.
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Hostage Families Reject Partial Gaza Seal, Demand Release of All Hostages
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – As Israeli leaders weigh the contours of a possible partial ceasefire deal with Hamas, the families of the 50 hostages still held in Gaza issued an impassioned public statement this weekend, condemning any agreement that would return only some of the abductees.
In a powerful message released Saturday, the Families Forum for the Return of Hostages denounced what they call the “beating system” and “cruel selection process,” which, they say, has left families trapped in unbearable uncertainty for 638 days—not knowing whether to hope for reunion or prepare for mourning.
The group warned that a phased or selective deal—rumored to be under discussion—would deepen their suffering and perpetuate injustice. Among the 50 hostages, 22 are believed to be alive, and 28 are presumed dead.
“Every family deserves answers and closure,” the Forum said. “Whether it is a return to embrace or a grave to mourn over—each is sacred.”
They accused the Israeli government of allowing political considerations to prevent a full agreement that could have brought all hostages—living and fallen—home long ago. “It is forbidden to conform to the dictates of Schindler-style lists,” the statement read, invoking a painful historical parallel.
“All of the abductees could have returned for rehabilitation or burial months ago, had the government chosen to act with courage.”
The call for a comprehensive deal comes just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for high-stakes talks in Washington and as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are expected to resume in Doha within the next 24 hours, according to regional media reports.
Hamas, for its part, issued a statement Friday confirming its readiness to begin immediate negotiations on the implementation of a ceasefire and hostage release framework.
The Forum emphasized that every day in captivity poses a mortal risk to the living hostages, and for the deceased, a danger of being lost forever. “The horror of selection does not spare any of us,” the statement said. “Enough with the separation and categories that deepen the pain of the families.”
In a planned public address near Begin Gate in Tel Aviv, families are gathering Saturday evening to demand that the Israeli government accept a full-release deal—what they describe as the only “moral and Zionist” path forward.
“We will return. We will avenge,” the Forum concluded. “This is the time to complete the mission.”
As of now, the Israeli government has not formally responded to Hamas’s latest statement.
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