Are We Safe Yet?
It's been four months since Hamas's attack on October 7th. Shortly after, Israel launched its devastating offensive on the people of Gaza. It was a time of intense fear, pain, and rage. The Hamas attacks were described as "the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust" which activated a core fear in Jewish people across the world. Israel's bombardment was communicated as a war to secure safety for the Jewish people of Israel(and not so subtly, everywhere else). Zionists across the world rallied to support Israel under the banner of Jewish solidarity.
In this climate of fear and rallying around the flag, Zionists have fought to silence a broad swath of anti-Israel criticism. This includes more extreme language that uses the framework of decolonization to justify Hamas' attacks, contested language like "from the river to the sea," as well as many widely-accepted, fact-based critiques of Israel's apartheid regime. These attacks on speech were also promoted as part of the fight for Jewish safety. I think it's worth assessing whether the Jewish people are any safer today than on October 8th.
I personally don't feel safer, and why should I?
As of this writing, more than 27,000 Palestinians are dead. More ten thousand of them are children. This level of death, carried out in such a short amount of time, is impossible to comprehend. But on top of that, 66,000 are injured. And more two million people are being slowly starved.
Has Hamas been eradicated in this time? Even if Israel is somehow able to destroy the organizational infrastructure of Hamas, can anyone in their right mind argue that they will have extinguished anti-Jewish hatred? In what world does destroying a people's homes and killing their loved ones lead to a peaceful outcome? Whatever peace they hope to achieve through this path will be an illusion. Each atrocity creates new enemies and gives support and credibility to old ones. And through their insistence that they are acting as Jews, on behalf of Jews, they are making Jews across the world less safe.
Here in the United States, I am afraid that the war on dissent will also backfire. In the past four months we have witnessed an assault on free speech unseen since the Red Scare. Like the anti-communist era, the right is energizing much of this intimidation, but liberal institutions and politicians are enabling it. Since October 7th, university presidents, Hollywood actors and journalists have all been censored or fired. Students are being doxxed.
Meanwhile, Congress has found time to censure Rashida Tlaib and grill three university presidents, but has no appetite to stop the bloodshed in Gaza. In doing so, they are ignoring the will of the American people. A majority of Americans want a ceasefire. A majority of Americans want aid to Israel to be conditional on respect for human rights. Instead we are watching as the Democrats offer a right-wing immigration bill as an incentive for billions in dollars of no-strings-attached money for Israel.
It is worth pointing out that all of this is the result of a coalition of powerful interests that includes weapons manufacturers, foreign policy hawks, and Christian Zionists. But who does the average American see as the culprit? And honestly, when the vast majority of U.S. Jews are providing carte blanche support for a genocide, they are doing little to counteract the antisemitic trope of dual loyalty.
So no, I don't feel safer. And the tragic thing is that I don't know any Zionist Jews who feel safer either. They are convinced that the Jewish people are under attack in the United States and abroad.
I want to be clear that I am not arguing that the Jewish people are responsible for inflaming antisemitism. What I'm saying is that lashing out and trying to control people you perceive to be your enemy (the features of a trauma response) do not in fact make you safer.
What makes us safer? Relationships. And these relationships must be built on trust, not coercion. This is the core understanding of restorative justice. It's also a key part of diasporism.
I won't even attempt to imagine what a path to peace and safety looks like for Israelis and Palestinians. But I know that there are peace activists here in New York City and in Israel fighting for a different path forward. Their call is for "all for all." Release the hostages taken by Hamas. Release the Palestinians rotting in Israeli jails. Recognize our shared humanity and build from there.
For American Jews we have a lot of internal work to do to understand the fear that is driving some very harmful behavior. We can start by slowing down and remembering to breathe (and remembering taht social media is manipulating us to do the exact opposite. Its algorithms thrive on our anxiety and anger and feed us content designed to inflame our emotions). When we allow ourselves to be grounded, we can ask ourselves what safety looks like? What does it feel like? We must also work to see beyond our own suffering and show empathy for the many others who are suffering.
When we are clear on what we desire and deserve then we can ask ourselves how we build that world? Do we think we can build it alone? Do we think we can construct it through fear, force, or violence? I don't think we can.
I'm not asking us to abandon our values, our culture, or anything else that feels vital to us as Jews. We have tried to blend in throughout history and then also failed to keep us safe. Rather I'm asking us what it means to build true alliances — not through transactional relationships ("I posted BLM so you must post Am Yisrael Chai!") — that are formed through listening, empathy, and mutual respect.
Perhaps the most terrifying part of this proposal is that is achingly slow. In fact it's a process that may last longer than our lifetimes. And in the meantime, the world around is very, very scary.
But the current strategy is failing us. And I'm heartbroken to imagine what we may lose if don't change course. True safety can only come for us by working alongside others to build a world that is safe for everyone.
Other Recent Writing
Other recommendations for reading/listening/watching
"The Heroes Fighting for Public Education" by Laura Pappano, Yes Magazine
"What Relationships Would You Want, If You Believed They Were Possible?" The Ezra Klein Show