Day 166

Chaim starts out by saying he knows that his viewers are interested in truth, and that’s why they don’t just mindlessly repeat slogans but instead try to find out the truth before making a statement.

He gives some examples of slogans that people who are opposed to Israel chant, starting with “Israel has been occupying Palestine since 1948.”

This slogan is an attempt to de-legitimize Israel’s very existance, since the modern nation-state of Israel came into existance in 1948 as part of a process which had the appproval of the United Nations and the endorsement of the major powers.

Another slogan that one hears is “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free” which Chaim admits is catchy because it rhymes. But it also implies that the entire geographical region that has been called “Palestine” since Roman times would be ethnically cleansed of Jews. The country of Israel has over 2 million Arab citizens living alongside around 8 million Jews and around a half million people who are neither Jews or Arabs but still citizens of this country.

Chaim rhetorically asks if it would bring a state of “freedom” to this region if all the Jews living here were killed or chased out?

Another slogan one hears is “Jihad against the Jews” which Chaim says implies that there must be a violent campaign against Jewish people no matter where they live. Another word that gets thrown around a lot is “Intifada” which in Arabic means “violently shaking off” and which was used to describe two seperate campaigns of intense violence, terrorism and murder against Israelis.

Chaim says that his own mother was almost killed by a bus bomb during the Second Intifada.

The next slogan Chaim mentions is “Stop the Genocide in Gaza” which he says is deeply dishonest. It is not only untrue to describe Israel’s war against Hamas as a “genocide” it cheapens the moral gravity of actual genocides which have taken place in the Middle East in very recent times. This includes Saddam Hussein’s genocidal campaign against Iraqi Kurds in the 1990s, the genocidal campaign against Syrian Sunnis by the regime of Bashar al Assad, and even the Nazi Holocaust agains the Jews of Europe.

Chaim says that the war Israel is waging against Hamas and other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon is a war of self-defense and in any such war, there are always civilians and non-combatants who get caught in the crossfire between combatants. This is horrible, but there is nothing historically unusual about it. But for some reason, any time Israel is fighting anyone there is always an accusation made that it is conducting a “genocide”.

Chaim concludes by saying that it might be cool or trendy to chant these slogans, but they are lies and like any other lie, they have consequences. Chaim says that if a person values freedom and democracy, one should not repeat lies and slander against a free, democratic nation that is fighting a war of self-defense against terrorists and barbarians.