Hasbara, from the Hebrew word “to explain.” So many of us are still racking our brains how to explain to ourselves, to our children, and to the world the tragedy of October 7th and the last few years that have followed. How to explain how, instead of support, all we’ve received is condemnation and a disturbingly growing antisemitic sentiment around the world.

This Erev Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Remembrance Day honoring fallen IDF soldiers and victims of terror, we try to come to terms with what it means to be an Israeli Jew. What does it mean to live in a country where children as young as two years old play a game of sirens wailing, running to the nearest shelter as a coping mechanism with the reality they’ve been forced to live in; a country where you get into a bus and contemplate whether you should stay on it for the remainder of the way lest it explodes; a country where you see a kid’s backpack on the floor and immediately alert the police that it might contain a bomb. Tonight, we come together, no matter our political differences (that is to say, unless we are ultra-religious and don’t need to serve in this country), to commemorate the lost lives of 25,648 IDF soldiers, police officers, members of Israel’s national security forces, and 5,313 civilians. 

In such a small country, there is hardly one of us who doesn’t know someone who has lost someone. In our case, it is my husband’s father who should have been here to play and smile at his grandkids if it weren’t for a Palestinian terrorist who, some 25 years ago, decided to take his life. It is my friend’s brother who died in one of the battles following October 7th, leaving his wife, son, and unborn daughter behind. It is my friend’s husband’s beautiful sister, only 22 when she was killed in an exploding bus. And yet it seems that more than anyone else, we are so very good at shooting ourselves in the foot. We really don’t need the bombs and hatred of our neighboring countries when it is our own government and some of our extremist soldiers who seem to be doing the work for them.  Today’s news about an Israeli soldier’s desecration of a crucifix in south Lebanon, merely three weeks after the Jerusalem patriarch and Holy Land custos were barred from the Holy Sepulcher on Palm Sunday, only adds fuel to other disturbing articles regarding extremist settlers violently attacking Palestinians in the West Bank, said to be backed by none other than national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Does it come, then, as a surprise that the United Nations (which has long revealed its hypocrisy and antisemitic views to the world) wrote a piece about Israel’s ethnic cleansing and annexation policy just last month?

“It is trendy to hate Jews,” said a girl in an interview with U.S. social media influencer Montana Tucker just the other day. We must not forget her words nor take them lightly, for they are echoed by practically every TikToker around the world.

For a people who are so very hated to have our own government dismantle the national information system back in January 2023 and close the Ministry of Information later that year, following the October 7th attacks, is disgraceful, let alone plain old stupid. If one is to believe channel 14 (and FYI—one should absolutely NOT believe channel 14), we are winning the war(s) and literally have no more enemies in the world (other than the left opposition). If one, however, is to use common sense and read about what’s actually going on around us, we may be winning in certain arenas but we are losing the most important battle of the 21st century, and that is the war of information. If it makes sense for people around the world to say that we are committing a genocide—us, the Jews, committing genocide—then we are obviously at a loss.

For this magnificent country, which we all love so much and that so many have fought and died for, to see its 100th year, we need to make a change. One that will rid us of this government the world believes we all support, one that will rid us of our enemies, and one that will unite us under the understanding that left or right, Ashkenazi or Sephardi, we are all Israeli Jews, and that means more than anyone who isn’t one of us could ever begin to understand. 

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)