As Israel begins its 77th year, one aligned with the word Oz (“strength”) due to its gematric numerical value, both the State of Israel and the Jewish people worldwide must embrace the concept, not just militarily — but morally, spiritually, and ideologically.

At a time when lies, propaganda, and revisionist history dominate the discourse, especially on Western college campuses, we must meet distortion with clarity and hatred with truth. Our silence or passivity in the face of these attacks is no longer an option. We must speak, not just loudly, but rightly.

Across North America and Europe, a new wave of anti-Israel sentiment is spreading, often masquerading as human rights activism. On too many campuses, students are taught to view Israel as a colonialist aggressor rather than a small democratic nation surrounded by hostile regimes. Jewish students are being harassed, physically threatened, and shouted down for supporting the right of Israel to exist. This is not criticism, but rather demonization. And it must be answered.

Consider just one recent example: Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, publicly denied the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, claiming absurdly that the ancient Jewish Temple was in Yemen. This is not just a historical falsehood, it is part of a long-standing strategy to erase Jewish history from its indigenous homeland. The truth? Jerusalem has been the capital of the Jewish people since King David established it as such 3,000 years ago. It has never served as the capital of any other nation.

During centuries of foreign conquest, including the Arab conquest in the 8th century, Jerusalem was not chosen as the caliphate’s capital. There is a reason that Jerusalem’s center is the Temple Mount, because the Jewish Temple stood there, long before Islam was founded.

Despite the so-called Palestinian “truth” of the sole Muslim claim to Jerusalem and the city’s holiness in Islam, when Jordan occupied eastern Jerusalem from 1948 to 1967 (something that is never mentioned in the media), Jerusalem fell into disrepair, and outside of the Jordanian monarchy, not a single other Arab leader made a pilgrimage there.

During those 19 years of a true “occupation” by the Jordanians, Jews were forbidden from praying at our holiest site, and 58 synagogues throughout the Old City were destroyed.

When it comes to claims of Israeli occupation, in 1917, the British Mandate legally recognized the Jewish right to the land of Israel including Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem. Israel has made multiple peace offers, including full statehood for the Palestinians, at least eight times since its founding in 1948. Each time, the offers were rejected, not because of borders, but because of one simple clause: the one recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. The issue has never been just land. It has always been a religious and ideological rejection of Jewish sovereignty in any form.

In 1948, Palestinian Arabs rejected the UN’s offer for a Palestinian state by aligning with Israel’s Arab neighbors and trying to kill every single Jew in the land, and claim the whole thing as their own. That pattern has not stopped for the past 77 years, and is the real reason there is no peace.

The world accuses Israel of apartheid, a blood libel as obscene as it is false. Arabs in Israel enjoy full civil rights: they vote, serve in the Knesset, sit on the Supreme Court, and attend Israeli universities in large numbers. There are Arab doctors, teachers, soldiers, and entrepreneurs. This is not apartheid. This is democracy. That slur should be denounced, not tolerated.

Mahmoud Abbas is often described as a moderate partner for peace. But is a man who denies the Holocaust, glorifies terrorists, and pays lifetime pensions to the families of suicide bombers truly a moderate? Is someone who names schools after Jew-killers a peace-seeker? Let us not be naïve. We are not dealing with moderation; we are confronting radical, institutionalized antisemitism under the banner of nationalism.

The emblem of Fatah, Abbas’s party, is telling: it shows the entirety of Israel covered in a keffiyeh, with a rifle laid across it. This is not a symbol of coexistence. It is a call for erasure. The world must see these images and understand their meaning. Too many in the West remain blind to the truth, misled by slogans and half-truths.

The Jewish people are not intruders in our land. We are its indigenous people. We are not colonizers, we are homecomers. Despite being exiled, persecuted, and nearly annihilated over generations, the Jewish people have returned and rebuilt. Our presence in the land is not temporary. It is sacred.

So as Israel marks its 77th year, let us rise not just with military might, but with moral clarity. Let our leaders at every level — political, religious, and cultural — speak boldly and empower the Jewish community across the world with the truth. Let our students be armed not just with facts, but with pride in their Judaism.

The world may try to tear us down, but we will stand tall. With courage, with unity, and with the blessing of the Almighty, we will endure.

Morton A. Klein is the National President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).

The post In Israel’s Year of Strength, Israel and the Jewish People Must Emerge Stronger Than Ever first appeared on Algemeiner.com.