Page 39 - issue
P. 39
Embassy Row 35
Israeli society really values and really cherishes. I hope that
when people walk into our home and see our children – even
with all of the balagan that necessarily comes along with
them – they get a little taste of that side of Israel too.
WWW: What do you suggest is the most effective thing that
American Jews can do to combat the war against Israel being
waged in the court of public opinion?
RD: As your readers know, Israelis face continual threats to
their physical safety. Just recently, a 13-year-old girl was mur-
dered in her home in Kiryat Arba and a father was gunned
down in his car with his children in the backseat. But there
is also a war being conducted against our people in the court
of public opinion. In the newspapers and on TV, in the halls
of government around the world, and at the UN, the worst
kind of lies are spread about our people. Israeli soldiers are
labeled as war criminals. Our leaders are compared to Nazis,
and our people are made out to be bloodthirsty. These are
moral attacks. They are attacks against who we are and the
kinds of values we represent, and they are attacks that are
designed to call our moral legitimacy into question.
In the face of these attacks, the first thing all of us must
do is educate ourselves about the conflict in Israel; about our
legal, historical, and moral rights; and about the remarkable
efforts Israelis have made to make peace. We can’t hope to
counter what other people are saying about us if we don’t
actually have the facts. And the facts are on our side.
Whenever there has been a partner for peace, Israel has
seized the opportunity to make peace. What’s more, even in
the face of unremitting aggression and terror attacks, we have
shown remarkable kindness to the civilian population of our
enemies. In fact, just after the last round of fighting in Gaza,
an Israeli hospital treated the daughter of one of the leaders
of Hamas. At the same time, wherever we have defended our-
selves, we have gone to extreme lengths to protect the lives
of innocent Palestinian civilians, including putting our own
soldiers at risk in ground operations in order to avoid aerial
bombing that would claim many more innocent lives.
Once we are armed with the truth, we can then set out to
spread it. Not too long ago, it was only prime ministers and
ambassadors who could take to the airwaves to make Israel’s
case, but today, with the rise of social media, everyone has a
platform. As I said earlier, when it comes to the Jewish State,
we are all ambassadors: You never know who your Facebook
posts or your Tweets are going to impact or how.
And by the way, we shouldn’t think that in countering the
lies we are only addressing our enemies. It is important to
educate ourselves about what’s going on in Israel, because
the attacks against us in the court of public opinion also
have an impact on our children and our grandchildren. I
once sat in on a meeting between Ron and a group of Jewish
leaders who were very supportive of Israel but were con-
cerned that the younger generation of Jews didn’t feel
u 410 358 8509 u
Israeli society really values and really cherishes. I hope that
when people walk into our home and see our children – even
with all of the balagan that necessarily comes along with
them – they get a little taste of that side of Israel too.
WWW: What do you suggest is the most effective thing that
American Jews can do to combat the war against Israel being
waged in the court of public opinion?
RD: As your readers know, Israelis face continual threats to
their physical safety. Just recently, a 13-year-old girl was mur-
dered in her home in Kiryat Arba and a father was gunned
down in his car with his children in the backseat. But there
is also a war being conducted against our people in the court
of public opinion. In the newspapers and on TV, in the halls
of government around the world, and at the UN, the worst
kind of lies are spread about our people. Israeli soldiers are
labeled as war criminals. Our leaders are compared to Nazis,
and our people are made out to be bloodthirsty. These are
moral attacks. They are attacks against who we are and the
kinds of values we represent, and they are attacks that are
designed to call our moral legitimacy into question.
In the face of these attacks, the first thing all of us must
do is educate ourselves about the conflict in Israel; about our
legal, historical, and moral rights; and about the remarkable
efforts Israelis have made to make peace. We can’t hope to
counter what other people are saying about us if we don’t
actually have the facts. And the facts are on our side.
Whenever there has been a partner for peace, Israel has
seized the opportunity to make peace. What’s more, even in
the face of unremitting aggression and terror attacks, we have
shown remarkable kindness to the civilian population of our
enemies. In fact, just after the last round of fighting in Gaza,
an Israeli hospital treated the daughter of one of the leaders
of Hamas. At the same time, wherever we have defended our-
selves, we have gone to extreme lengths to protect the lives
of innocent Palestinian civilians, including putting our own
soldiers at risk in ground operations in order to avoid aerial
bombing that would claim many more innocent lives.
Once we are armed with the truth, we can then set out to
spread it. Not too long ago, it was only prime ministers and
ambassadors who could take to the airwaves to make Israel’s
case, but today, with the rise of social media, everyone has a
platform. As I said earlier, when it comes to the Jewish State,
we are all ambassadors: You never know who your Facebook
posts or your Tweets are going to impact or how.
And by the way, we shouldn’t think that in countering the
lies we are only addressing our enemies. It is important to
educate ourselves about what’s going on in Israel, because
the attacks against us in the court of public opinion also
have an impact on our children and our grandchildren. I
once sat in on a meeting between Ron and a group of Jewish
leaders who were very supportive of Israel but were con-
cerned that the younger generation of Jews didn’t feel
u 410 358 8509 u
