But it’s a tough battle. It’s a war without a
finale. It’s a fight for that most basic of
human rights: survival. And it’s exhausting.
Laborious. Wearying.
Yet we continue doing it. Why? Parce que
nous sommes Juifs; nous sommes Israel.
Because we are Jews; we are Israel.
And now Israel and the Jewish people
once again stand at the crossroads of history,
confronted by a nuclear Iran determined to
destroy her; by an unprecedented and
epidemic rise in anti-Semitism; by a hatred
so deeply entrenched yet so poorly
understood; and by a world that largely
signifies its indifference in attitudes overt
and unconcealed.
Again, we will fight, we will demand
recognition, we will defend the truth – and
we will survive and be victorious. It is in our
genes, in our DNA, in our history. We are not
many more than 14 million people among
more than 7 billion; our country, our spiritual
home, is smaller than the Kruger National
Park, smaller than the US state of New
Hampshire, occupying about one-tenth of
one percent of the Middle East landmass, the
only Jewish nation state in the world.
We will stand up in the United Nations
even though that body continues to
condemn Israel for the ‘crime’ of defending
its citizens, while totally overlooking the
most heinous offenses by other nations
against millions of people.
Our voices will be heard in the print
media, on television, on YouTube, on
Facebook, on Twitter, because the truth
cannot be silenced forever. We will protest,
we will march, we will defend our actions
when they need to be defended, and we will
not be silenced. But, we will also criticise
Israel because, as a democratic country, she
should and must be criticised when she
oversteps the mark. And we will criticise
the Jewish people because we are selfcritical, and need to learn from our
mistakes. We will do it, though, with grace
and caution, so the same errors are not
repeated. And throughout this process, we
will never forget our humanity, nor our
empathy for those others in the world who
“suffer the sling and arrows of outrageous
fortune” – the Christians and others who
have been, and are still being, tortured and
beheaded in the most barbaric manner,
simply because of their faith. For that is –
IT’S A WAR WITHOUT A FINALE. IT’S A
FIGHT FOR THAT MOST BASIC OF HUMAN
RIGHTS: SURVIVAL. AND IT’S EXHAUSTING.
LABORIOUS. WEARYING.
that must be – the Jewish way, the way that
characterises who we are and why we have
been spared, despite our torturous history.
Let us look again at the major threats
facing Israel and the Jewish people – the
most dangerous threats – as a reminder of
why we should never be complacent and
never think that if we ignore them, they will
go away. They are ominous. They are
menacing. And they are real.
But we will never surrender – we will
never give up – and we will survive.
IRAN: Its military has developed the means
to strike Israel with conventional weapons,
and it is getting closer to the point where it
will be able to build and arm a nuclear
weapon. Its conventional military
capabilities are also growing. Naval forces
are adding new ships and submarines while
expanding bases on the Gulf of Oman, the
Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea. It already
has the largest inventory of ballistic missiles
in the Middle East, and as one of the world›s
principal sponsors of terrorism, it poses the
danger of giving terrorists access to nuclear
material. It provides weapons to Hezbollah
and Hamas. Should either of these groups
obtain any radioactive materials, the
consequences for Israel and the world
cannot be overstated.
HEZBOLLAH: Based in Lebanon, Hezbollah, the militant group backed by Iran, is
suspected of smuggling advanced guidedmissile systems into Lebanon from Syria,
piece-by-piece, to evade a secretive Israeli
air campaign designed to stop them. Iran
wants to upgrade Hezbollah›s arsenal to
deter future Israeli strikes. Hezbollah has
an estimated 100 000 rockets – 10 times as
many as were in the Hamas arsenal – and its
5 000 long-range missiles, located in Beirut
and other areas deep inside Lebanon, are
capable of carrying large warheads (of up to
1 ton and more), with precision guidance
systems, covering all of Israel.
HAMAS: Its attack tunnels remain one of
the greatest threats to Israel. In addition,
Hamas is continuing in its efforts to learn
lessons from the war and rehabilitate its
military capabilities. There are weekly
reports of the organisation carrying out
rocket-launching
experiments
from
different sites in the Gaza Strip, westward
into the sea. It is also trying to divert
building materials and cement to the
reconstruction of the tunnels. The terrorist
group sees them as a strategic tool which
must be updated and improved all the time.
SYRIA: Because it has been defeated so
many times by the IDF, Syria, still a huge
threat to the safety and security of Israel,
avoids direct confrontation, choosing
instead to fund and arm terrorist
organisations (primarily Hamas and
Hezbollah) as proxies to attack Israel.
Meanwhile, the Syrian regime of Bashar alAssad continues to develop ballistic missile
systems and weapons of mass destruction.
Should al-Assad be replaced by someone
more extreme and less prepared to
compromise with Israel on the Golan
Heights, this would undermine any SyrianIsraeli peace moves.
THE ISLAMIC STATE (IS/ISIS): ISIS and
other jihadist organisations view Israel in
the long term as an enemy and a key target
to be eliminated. At present, such a
confrontation is of low priority, but ISIS
could later decide to strike at Israel directly
or indirectly by means of terror efforts
against Israeli targets.
THE BDS STRATEGY: This is extremely
dangerous as it encompasses academic,
cultural and economic boycotts of Israel. It
is a growing 6