Home truths
Will unpalatable and uncomfortable truths continue to be swept under the carpet this year?
Michael Kuttner
The irresistible urge to avoid unpleasant realities is a dominant feature of political life in most democracies. When it veers into international spheres the results are usually messy and laced with heavy doses of hypocrisy.
Threats that loom large are fervently pushed down the road with the help of a compliant media, leaving someone else to deal with them. By the time action is called for, the toxic fallout is often too dangerous to contain, and we then face another round of futile gestures.
Jews, of all people, should realise the futility of ignoring the obvious, especially when they hit you full in the face.
Take the Syrian regime change as an example.
It is amazing to see the number of European leaders who seem to have all experienced some sort of delusory vision on the road to Damascus. While anything should be better than Assad’s brutality, those now in charge in Syria do not exactly have a pristine track record. Expectations of a sudden blossoming of liberal democratic values are just an illusory mirage that besotted and gullible politicians love to embrace.
It is reported that history textbooks in schools have been revised to reflect a more Islamic viewpoint. Among the new “facts” that Syrian students will now learn are the regime’s attitudes towards non-Muslims.
“Jews and Christians are those who are damned and have gone astray.”
If this is any indication of which way a post-Assad generation is going to be indoctrinated, it does not bode well for the development of liberal human rights values. Needless to say this inconvenient home truth has so far been ignored by all the political pilgrims to Damascus. It has unsurprisingly also been swept under the carpet by the United Nations and all its associated bodies who, with knee-jerk regularity, pillory and condemn Israel for every conceivable crime.
There are reportedly nine remaining Jews left in the whole of Syria. Synagogues are in ruins and thanks to past pogroms this ancient community has to all intents and purposes ceased to exist. One would imagine that given past and current realities, any thought of resurrecting Jewish life there would be a non-starter. Yet, despite all evidence to the contrary, there are voices advocating just that.
The Chief Rabbi of Israeli Syrian Jews has sent a letter to the leader of the new Syrian regime. He begged him to ensure protection of ancient Synagogues and graves. He went on to express the hope that Syria will become a multicultural, tolerant and accepting country and allow ex-Syrian Jews to visit their “homeland” and keep their shared heritage.
If any Syrian Jew now living in Israel or elsewhere for that matter who fled for their lives still considers Syria their “homeland” they must be suffering from a serious case of home truth denial syndrome. Given the new history curriculum being implemented, the notion that Jews, especially those now living in Israel will be welcomed back with open arms is delusory.
On the other hand, one has only to look at places like Germany, Spain and other countries where Jews have returned and now face vicious incitement and hate to realise that historical amnesia is once again prevalent.
The Sydney Morning Herald headlined a recent editorial with these words: “the Middle East conflict will be settled only when words replace weapons.”
Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?
The only problem is that the editorial writer is ignoring some home truths.
Weapons are needed for defence when there are individuals and groups whose entire purpose in life is to threaten and eliminate those deemed targeted. How does a country safeguard its citizens without weapons? For two thousand years, Jews had no means to defend themselves other than by using words. Pogroms, inquisitions, crusades, expulsions, blood libels, church-sponsored ghettos and mass murder were not stopped by words.
Suggesting that words alone can solve the current conflicts presupposes that those articulating them are sincere and genuine. President Sadat of Egypt, in his speech to the Knesset, certainly epitomized that aspect. Menachem Begin reciprocated, and the historic peace treaty was born. Sadat paid with his life, and since then, peace may have survived, but it has taken on a decidedly cold temperature. The same has happened with Jordan. In both cases, warm words have not trickled down to the ordinary population, who are still exposed to words of incitement and slander about Jews and Israel.
This is the nub of the problem. The torrent of malicious words emanating on a daily basis against Israel laced with ancient conspiracy lies about Jews proves that the wrong sort of words can be as lethal as weapons. Take this recent exchange about the Hamas 7 October massacre reported on official PA TV from 6 December 2024:
PA reporter: “Perhaps there was some haziness in the transmission of the scene of the event that took place on Oct 7, 2023. Israel made efforts to erase this image, erase the truth, falsify all the facts and invert them by circulating rumours, transmitting the Israeli narrative in the world. Several media outlets were influenced by this narrative…”
Arab Union for Digitization Advisory Committee Head Fawzi
Al-Ghoweil: “The Zionist entity is able to control, or was able to control the media outlets and the most important media platforms in the world. It harnessed all these tools and they are the most influential media outlets while falsifying the Palestinian position and what happened on Oct 7. They attempted to skew this event in favour of the Israeli entity. The Arab media, in the shadow of this Jewish, or more precisely Israeli or Zionist control over the media outlets, initially participated in transmitting a false representation of reality..”
This interview from official PA TV encapsulates the drip feed of poisonous words issuing forth from our fake peace partners on a daily basis. Viewers are exposed to a denial of the 7 October pogrom and bombarded with age-old Jewish conspiracy theories whereby Jews control the media.
Despite this continuing and clear evidence of verbal toxicity, Israel is warned that it must acquiesce to the creation of “Palestine” in our heartland, which will supposedly live in peace and harmony. Those who continue to peddle this nonsense obviously need urgent lessons in recognizing intrinsic realities.
Those advocating replacing weapons with words need to recognise that a much more fundamental change is mandated.
The first step must be the elimination of jihadist annihilation agendas against infidels and “unbelievers.” That needs to be followed by an educational programme among the currently brainwashed generation of potential martyrs and an inoculation of democratic values for students in the next generation.
The next stage is acknowledging that the Jewish People are indigenous to the Land of Israel and have a legitimate claim to it.
Once this has been successfully achieved, words of peace, reconciliation, and tolerance will follow. Trying to short-circuit this process will not succeed.
Unless and until this is implemented, there will be no chance of any conflict being settled.
The sooner these home truths are accepted, the sooner we can look forward to a future free from the current doublespeak and the beginning of a genuine embrace of peace and tolerance.
Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.
Unfortunately, there is little I can disagree with in this article.
The article should be compulsory reading for the whole population, specially in Arab lands.
In Australia and other Western countries it should be front page in every newspaper.
The World is so naive. It is painful.