Israel’s Founding: A Unique Moral Achievement
By Dexter Van Zile
May 2009
Editor’s note: In May 2009, Dexter Van Zile, Christian Media Analyst for CAMERA (the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) spoke in Boston at a rally celebrating Israel’s Independence Day. His remarks, printed below, offered an eloquent defense of Israel as the Middle East’s sole democracy.
My name is Dexter Van Zile and I’m a Zionist.
I believe that the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 was a unique moral achievement. A beleaguered people who had been subject to violence and oppression for close to 2,000 years returned to its ancestral homeland. They created a sovereign state where they could exercise their right to self-determination and wield the power necessary to protect themselves. No longer did the Jewish people have to rely on the good will of others to protect them from those who would murder them.
To be sure, this justice was not perfect. The Arabs living in Palestine objected to Israel’s creation, and under the circumstances it was unreasonable for people to expect otherwise. Sixty-one years later, however, it’s time for leaders in the Middle East to abandon the fantasy of Israel’s destruction. Those who encourage extremists in the Middle East to hold onto this fantasy by chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at rallies here in the United States have blood on their hands. They are giving aid and comfort to a movement intent on mass murder.
Israel’s creation was proximate justice, which in the world we live in is pretty good. As Barack Obama’s favorite theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr, said two years before Israel’s founding: “There is no way of finding a perfectly just solution of any political problem. The fact however that the Arabs have a vast hinterland in the Middle East and that the Jews have nowhere to go … establish the relative justice of their claims and their cause.”
Israel is a great moral achievement because in addition to laying claim and affirming a national identity, its people have also accepted national responsibility for the actions of its leaders. Israel has demonstrated the principle of accountability that is so patently obvious in the Torah: With liberty and power comes responsibility and accountability. Sadly, Israel’s enemies have not yet learned to follow the example of self-criticism and self-correction set for them by the Jewish state and by the Jewish people. Instead they have used this self criticism as a tool to de-legitimize the Jewish State.
The vast majority of the American people are not fooled by this tactic. The American people may not speak Hebrew or Arabic, but we can see the difference between aliyah and jihad. We can see the difference between aliyah and intifada. The American people can see the difference between Am Yisrael Chai and “Back to the Ovens.” The American people know who has withdrawn from territory and who has launched rockets. The American people know the difference between the people who build greenhouses and those who demolish them. The American people know who has made the peace offers and who has rejected them. The American people know who has mourned the death of civilians and who has danced in the street when civilians were murdered. We know who our friends are, and who they aren’t.
So on this 61st anniversary of Israel’s Founding, my message to the Jewish State, to its supporters and to the Jewish people and their defenders is a simple one. Be strong. Let your heart take courage. And let not your foot be moved.
Dexter Van Zile
What do you think?
6:42 pm
the arabs are fighting a losing battle.when they are going agaist GOD’S chosen people they are going against HIM!great peace have they who love the LORD.pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
7:43 pm
amen the world needs to know God will stand with Israel and her right to exist
11:36 pm
God actually didn’t want the jews in the HOLY LAND after they crucified his only son, Jesus. Then they come back after almost 2000 years expecting to just take it back ?
6:20 pm
Nick, I cannot believe you wrote that. Jesus was a rabbi and the Romans killed him.even the pope has stated this fact. Yes, thet more than deserve this holy land.what happened when the Arabs occupied
11:39 am
I love the way you make our cause clear to the world that reads: I’m a Zionist also, and very proud of it.
3:55 pm
Amen. I could not put the above sentiments any better.
11:52 pm
Great great great. We know the truth and whom victory belongs to in the end.
Long Live Israel.
Shalom.