Why Israel? (Simone Stoyen, Hasbara Fellow, Vanderbilt University)
Why? Why do I care so much about a country half-way across the world from me? What motivates me to split my breaks from school between being in Florida with my family and being in a tiny country in the Middle East? These are the questions that I hoped to find answers to during my time in Israel this winter with Hasbara Fellowships.
I realized that I cannot witness injustices and do nothing about them. We all need a cause in life, something to give us a purpose. Something to live for. This can change and evolve over time, but it is something we need in order to live a fulfilled life. For me, this passion is the State of Israel.
Without context, that can definitely sound a bit strange. Why, Simone, are you so passionate about a country that you have spent less than 6 months in during your entire life? It is simple for me. Israel is not just any country to me. Israel is my country. Of course, the United States of America is also my country and one that I am extremely devoted to. These two facts do not conflict.
As a Jew, Israel is the safe haven that I know I will always have to turn to. It is the country I must protect and defend in whatever capacity I can be most useful. Israel is an incredible country filled with spirited, innovative, caring people. She is a country that is constantly being defamed by the global world and bullied for even the slightest misstep. Israel, like every other country in the world, is not perfect, and I find it my duty to defend her right to exist and to defend her against all of the double-standards that she is held to.
I would like to share something personal about my own journey with loving Israel. When I entered college, I knew very little about the State of Israel. I only thought I “knew” a few things. The main one was something I had read time and time again and was told by my non-Jewish peers in high school: Israel is an oppressive, illegitimate entity that oppresses Palestinians relentlessly.
I am aware that reading that must have been painful. Believe me, it was even more painful to write and to think back that, only a few years ago, this was all that I knew about the country that I now love so much. All I knew about Israel was the worst, most simplistic (and largely false) part of her identity. I knew no nuance. I knew nothing else. Yet, somehow the media was able to ensure that I, as a busy high-school student who typically only read highlights of news articles, had only negative associations with my beautiful country.
How is that possible? Why did I not have any reaction when somebody mentioned Yemen, a country plagued by a horrible civil war that has resulted in countless deaths? Where was my opinion about the Nicaraguan President who kills his own people every time they rebel and ask him to, just maybe, stop stealing all of their money? Why did I know nothing about the colonial legacy of France,
Britain, and Belgium in Africa and how the effects of the colonization that only ended after the Second World War still penetrate into so many aspects of African society? I only knew about Israel. And settlements. And Palestinian children dying. That was all.
I came into Vanderbilt University set on never joining our “‘Dores for Israel” Club. I could never join a club that must have been filled with anti-Palestinian, racist, psychopaths who defend Israel’s right to murder babies. Then, I went to a meeting. The people were nice. They were normal. They knew so much. I remember asking our advisor, a former sniper in the Israel Defense Forces, what he thought about his army murdering children. He explained to me, filled with empathy and compassion, the IDF Code of Conduct and how Hamas, the government in Gaza (a part of the Palestinian territories) pays desperate and poor Palestinians more money than they can make in their entire lifetime if they kill Israelis or use themselves as human shields. Tearfully, he explained the horror of Hamas firing rockets from hospitals and incentivizing children to destroy the Gaza-Israel border every week during the March of Return. He explained so much to me.
The more I learned, the more my beliefs shifted. Yes, I was able to acknowledge that Israel, a country the size of New Jersey being attacked on all sides since its creation in 1948, is not always able to compromise in a way that is positive for every party involved. In fact, sometimes the government of Israel does things that are wrong. Morally, diplomatically, and economically wrong. Sometimes these missteps lead to tragic loss of livelihood and even lives for Palestinians. That is deeply devastating. With this being said, I would love to discover a country that has not made missteps that have led to loss of human life when faced with as many life-or-death decisions as Israelis have been. Every time Israel attempts proposing a peace treaty with the Palestinian territories, Palestinian leadership immediately rejects it. Israel, a country that plays by much stronger moral rules than its neighbors, is often forced to make decisions that are imperfect. Yet, the global world expects her to never defend herself. We have reduced the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a fight between Israeli soldiers and innocent Palestinians when there are countless more forces at play (terrorist groups funding attacks on Israeli soil, Palestinian leadership that refuses to compromise or even allow Israel to exist, and innocent Israelis who live every day with rockets being fired into their communities).
I – somebody who was so easily brainwashed by a media keen on demonizing a country that, once contextualized, is one of the net best countries in the world in regards to human rights (and many other categories) – am now one of Israel’s biggest fans. I am constantly astounded by all that our little country accomplishes and am beyond proud that Israel is the national embodiment of the Jewish people and our values. So many Israelis devote their lives to helping others and it is insurmountable how much good Israelis have done for this world, and for this I am unbelievably inspired.
I am able to understand now why I love and fight for Israel. She is an overall incredible country that, yes, is imperfect. We live in a world where, for reasons that are sometimes very intricate and other times as simple as antisemitism, Israel is constantly being attacked with rockets, bombs, threats of war, propaganda campaigns, media articles, and other creative (and sometimes more subtle) methods of demonization and delegitimization. I feel it is my duty to defend Israel against these disproportionate, relentless attacks. In a world where Western college students know nothing about Israel yet demand that we boycott everything that she has provided for our world, it is my duty to defend her. When these students know nothing, as I once did, about any of the thousands of other global conflicts and human rights violations occurring in the world, it is my duty to educate them. I must explain to them why the individuals who have created these anti-Israel campaigns do not have the best intentions. If these students take a step back and take the time to educate themselves, as I once did, then they will see Israel as a country that is defined by more than just her fight for survival.
I love my Jewish State and am proud of how well she embodies our Jewish values of generosity, care, acceptance, and everything else. I will continue to educate my less-informed and typically well intentioned peers about the true motivation of de-legitimizing attacks against Israel and defend Israel’s right to exist. I know that Israel does not need my help – she is strong, wise, resilient, and frankly most any other positive adjective that exists in the world dictionary. She does not need my help, yet I know it is my duty to defend her. Israel is my home and I will always defend my home.
