How addicted is Jerusalem to Washington's military aid? Israel's planned preemptive strike against Hezbollah on October 11 was narrowly averted after President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stand down, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

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While Netanyahu dismissed this claim, members of his own Likud party are increasingly speaking out against what appears to be the outsourcing of Israel's security to wider US geopolitical interests. Economy Minister Nir Barkat stated in a recent cabinet meeting that "The number of air force bombardments has fallen dramatically. Soldiers are being sent to booby-trapped buildings like [sitting] ducks."

Netanyahu's reaction to Barkat's accusation is revealing: "There are countries [whose positions] we have to take into account. If we don't do that, eventually there'll be a UN decision to impose a blockade on us. The whole world will be against us."

The United States rapidly supplied Israel with over 3,000 tons of weapons and munitions in the days following Hamas's invasion on October 7, when the terrorist organization killed around 1,200 people, and took another 240 hostages into Gaza.

But this assistance has come with serious strings attached. Barkat's statement was in response to the fact that since the weeklong ceasefire with Hamas ended on November 30, there has been a noticeable drop in the amount and scope of Israeli Air Force strikes in southern Gaza.

Instead of destroying the terrorist threat faced by over nine million Israeli citizens, and freeing the hostages, Israel's strategy now is to fight a limited war until Washington, Doha, Cairo, and Hamas iron out a final ceasefire agreement that will end the latest round of violence and prevent it from spreading across the region.

This shift in Israeli operational tactics came mere days after Biden had warned that Israel was losing international support because of its "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza. Washington continues to regard a two-state solution as "the only way to ensure the long-term security of both the Israeli and Palestinian people." Israel's sustained military response to Hamas is viewed by the Biden Administration as an obstacle to this proposed framework becoming a reality.

But Washington's push for a two-state solution is in open contradiction to Jerusalem's post-war plans. While Netanyahu insists that Israel would permit neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority to rule Gaza, the Biden Administration continues to bank on the PA as a viable alternative to Hamas rule. This is even though the Palestinian Authority has little support from either West Bank Palestinians or Gazans. Since the October 7 massacre, Hamas's popularity among people ruled by the PA in the West Bank has soared.

Whether in the West Bank or Gaza, Palestinians overwhelmingly support the Hamas decision to attack Israel.

This growing rift between Washington and Jerusalem highlights the ramifications of Israel's dependence for military aid on the United States.

It was not always so. Once upon a time, Israel was forced to fight short, highly effective wars with clear outcomes.

The Israel Defense Forces put a premium on preemptive action, largely because the country's military between 1948 and 1967 was shaped by the limited resources at its disposal. Leading up to the Six-Day War, the United States and France – Israel's main ally at the time – imposed an arms embargo on the region that mostly affected Israel. Hoping to improve its relations with Arab countries, Paris also refused to deliver fifty fighter jets Israel had already paid for.

Israel survived and eventually even prospered without French largesse. But the lightning-fast, lean, and mean approach that had characterized Israel's operational strategy began to change after 1967. Washington, guided by a Cold War policy of containing the Soviet Union, filled the vacuum left by Paris. Starting with the Nixon Administration, Israel would eventually become flush with military funding.

This generosity has come with a steep price tag. In return for $3.8 billion annually - towards Israel's military and missile defense systems – successive governments in Jerusalem have all but scuttled the doctrine of preemption. To promote US interests in the Middle East, Israel is now expected to absorb the first strike. Only if Israel's enemies decide to initiate war is Jerusalem given the green light to launch a counterattack.

This policy of operational passivity led to the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Israel's aid dependency has only deepened since then. The country's political, military, and intelligence leaders either downplayed or simply ignored repeated warnings that Hamas was planning the attack it launched on October 7.

In sheer volume, the amount of aid provided to Israel by the United States is the most generous foreign aid program ever between any two countries.

For Americans, this massive outlay removes much-needed money from domestic needs. Even a portion of this $3.8 billion in tax revenues could be channeled to address issues like immigration, drug enforcement, social security, and healthcare.

For Israelis, the lavish US military package has made it possible for the country to remain on a perpetual war footing. But being hooked on foreign aid to such an extent has taken away any incentive for the domestic defense industry to become more efficient and productive, with the Israel Defense Forces shrinking to dangerously low levels as a result.

Outgoing deputy head of the Israel Defense Forces, Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir stated in 2021: "The IDF is on the verge of [not having] the minimum size needed to face more complex threats than those we have experienced in recent years. Along with advanced technological capabilities, Israel also needs a critical mass of people to improve the IDF's overall quality and quantity."

Jerusalem's codependent relationship with Washington has reached a low point during the war with Hamas. When Israel began to plan a massive ground assault against the Gaza-based terrorist group, American generals were dispatched to sit in on and weigh in during high-level meetings at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv. The reason for America's involvement at a granular level in the development and execution of Israel's response to Hamas's attack was the Biden Administration's concern with a "lack of achievable military objectives" in the IDF's ground operation.

Shifting to a strike-first strategy with clearly end games and timetables that does not require US approval and financing would free up Jerusalem to ramp up its domestic defense industry's capability. Unmoored from American aid, Israel would be forced to streamline its defense budget, enabling the government to tackle domestic issues such as the lack of adequate social safety nets, integration of the Arab sector, ssky-highhousing prices, relatively low median wages, and an overdependence on imports for food and other essentials.

Then there is the humanitarian issue. Israel's ongoing conflict with the Palestinians has led to a massive loss of life. Shorter, decisive wars would force both sides back to the negotiating table – this time with the real possibility of reaching a just and comprehensive resolution that finally ends the decades-long conflict.

Regarding each country's respective foreign policy, an Israel decoupled from Washington would be able to independently develop and deepen its regional ties with Sunni Arab countries, the common goal being the destruction of Islamist groups bent on toppling governments across the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the United States would finally be able to shrink its military footprint in the Middle East – a shift in policy that has been advocated for by both the Biden Administration and its recent predecessors. Without the need to be Israel's supplier, the US could focus its time, energy, and aid on other areas deemed to be in America's national interest, such as Ukraine and Taiwan.

After London forced Beijing to legalize opium, to correct a massive trade imbalance, China lost control over its own economy and, ultimately, national sovereignty. To support its people's opium habit, the once mighty Qing dynasty had to cede the territory of Hong Kong to British control, and open treaty ports to trade with foreigners. China's addiction marked the beginning of Western exploitation of the nation.

Israel will only recover its once-vaunted deterrence capability if it rehabs from a decades-long addiction to American military aid. Otherwise, the regional superpower will become a US vassal. Until Jerusalem detoxes from this highly conditional support and embarks on a long-term policy of greater strategic autonomy, the way it keeps its people safe and maintains its sovereignty will be based on the next fix of aid.

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"There are no accidents, only encounters in history," wrote Elie Wiesel. The outbreak of antisemitism that has swept across US college campuses is not a spontaneous reaction to Hamas's massacre of over 1200 men, women, and children - a day during which the Gaza-based terrorist group kidnapped over two hundred people.

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Hamas's invasion of the Jewish state, as well as the organization's fans at Ivy League American universities, are both being funded by Qatar, according to a 2022 study published by the US National Association of Scholars. Doha is in fact the largest foreign donor to American educational institutions.

Like the way it financed Hamas's growth into a formidable and technologically sophisticated foe, Qatar has used its largesse to nurture anti-Israel groups on US college campuses until these cells were ready to spring into action when the time was right.

October 7, 2023, was that time.

The events of that day not only shocked the conscience, but they have also forced Israelis across the political spectrum to reevaluate certain assumptions about the nature of the Hamas threat.

One of the most discredited ideas, at least in Israel, is the notion that a ceasefire between a free, democratic country that puts a premium on individual freedoms and a death cult whose raison d'etre is to murder Jews everywhere can ever succeed.

After all, the planning, training for, and execution of Hamas's attack on Israel took place during a negotiated ceasefire. Indeed, every cessation of hostilities between Jerusalem and Gaza City has been violated by Hamas. Two hours after the terrorist group had agreed to a UN- and US-brokered ceasefire during 2014's Operation Protective Edge, Hamas fighters ambushed three Israeli soldiers in Gaza. The terrorists killed two of the soldiers, and shot Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, dragging him into a tunnel. Hamas holds Goldin's body until the present day.

Back in the United States, the notion that Jewish students will only stop being targeted if university administrators commit to implementing an effective ceasefire of on-campus antisemitic activity is also doomed to fail.

Moreover, a White House statement asserting US Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Education have begun working with campus law-enforcement officials to track hateful rhetoric online and provide additional resources is small solace to young Jewish men and women being intimidated.

These steps are insufficient because similar utterances and responses were tried before, with negligible effect. The carnage inflicted by Hamas against Israel on October 7 is the latest, albeit bloodiest, chapter of a decade long conflict that has been marked by periods of violence followed by relative quiet. And despite the best of intentions of and measures enacted by university administrators and law-enforcement, the harassment of Jewish students whenever Israel was forced to take military action against Hamas has only gotten worse.

Why? In the Middle East, what we are seeing play out is a clash of cultures. Israel is a modern country whose people and traditions value life, human flourishing, and the rule of law. Hamas is an aggressive warrior society whose medieval mindset is fueled by a murderous and chauvinist Islamist ideology.

This cultural rift is reflected on US college campuses. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators, often aided by Qatar, display signs and chant slogans calling for the end of Israel, as well as hurl antisemitic slurs. The response of American Jewish groups has been to rely on the rule of law and the promises of politicians and college administrators to ensure the safety of students.

The hope that this time the bullying tactics of Hamas supporters at American universities can be blunted by the same declarations and pledges to act brings to mind the quote: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Israelis learned a hard lesson on October 7: Hamas will never act in good faith, never abide by the terms of a ceasefire, and never respond to steps taken by the government in Jerusalem to improve the lives of Gazans by seeking a diplomatic resolution with Israel.

Hamas understands one language: force. Israel will only vanquish the terrorist group, and keep its citizens safe, by allowing the country's military to act decisively in Gaza. As history has shown, anything less than a sustained, expansive operation will be viewed by Hamas as surrender, which will embolden Gaza's rulers and its benefactors in Qatar and Iran.

The implementation of a robust self-defense program is also an effective way to protect Jewish students on American campuses. Teaching Jews to fight back at Oberlin College, Brandeis University, MIT, Cornell, Columbia, and many other schools, is an immediate solution to the soaring number of hate crimes American Jews are facing.

This initiative would be greatly enhanced if prominent American Jewish organizations commit to investing a small portion of their budgets to train Jewish men and women to defend themselves. These groups are currently focused on educating lawmakers, pushing for policies that have stronger protections, and monitoring antisemitism online as well as on campus. But while these goals are noble, they do not provide immediate relief to Jewish students being targeted today.

The embrace and increasingly violent perpetuation of the Palestinian victimhood narrative on American college campuses, as bankrolled by Qatari cash, proves that sometimes – even at centers of higher learning – fists matter more than facts.

Never Again Fight Club has a nice ring to it, no?

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As Jewish communities gather to mark Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass"), the 1938 pogrom across Nazi Germany that many consider to be the start of the Holocaust, "Never Again" is resounding.

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The phrase, long associated with the Final Solution, is now spoken repeatedly as a vow by world leaders in the context of the October 7 massacre in Israel that left 1,400 people dead, thousands wounded, and 241 people – including 37 children - taken hostage by the Gaza-based Hamas terrorist organization that is dedicated to erasing the Jewish state and killing every Jew everywhere.

But the destruction of European Jewry is also being used by another group of people. After decades of the Final Solution being universalized, Holocaust allusions and imagery are everywhere. The hijacking of this uniquely Jewish tragedy is glaringly obvious at mass pro-Palestinian demonstrations from Sydney to Los Angeles, London to New York, where the obliteration of Israel to prevent a "genocide" of the Palestinian people is openly advocated.

Holocaust distortion is a type of antisemitism that according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, "…acknowledges aspects of the Holocaust as factual. It nevertheless excuses, minimizes, or misrepresents the Holocaust in a variety of ways and through various media."

Whether it is comparing meat-eating to the Final Solution as part of a campaign to promote veganism or likening abortions to the genocide of the Jewish people, the Holocaust has been manipulated for the purpose of political gain, social justice, and activist agendas across the ideological spectrum.

But when everything from climate change to COVID-19 vaccine mandates is a potential Holocaust, the actual plight of vulnerable people loses its unique sense of urgency. People who use Nazi symbolism and terminology as a shorthand to describe anyone they do not like or any policy they disagree with are massively ignorant about what made the Holocaust profoundly different: Nazi Germany's actions against the Jewish people were fueled by an annihilationist ideology whose goal was to exterminate every Jew in every place.

So much so, that the term "genocide" being bandied about today by people demonstrating for a free Palestine from the river to the sea (in other words, a Middle East without Jews) was coined in direct response to the Holocaust. A legal definition of the term was thereafter formulated and codified in the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Mass atrocities such as genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur drive home the need to clearly identify annihilationist doctrines and to try and protect vulnerable populations living under annihilationist regimes.

Without such clarity, a second Night of Broken Glass seems inevitable. An arson attack on the Jewish cemetery in Vienna on November 4 left pieces of scripture in tatters, and swastikas sprayed on the walls. The building was left close to ruins. The last time the cemetery was set alight was 85 years ago, almost to that day, on Kristallnacht.

In Germany, the Holocaust began with the ramblings of a madman. Today, what began as protests to "free Palestine" has rapidly degenerated into an outbreak of violence, with antisemitic attacks soaring in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere.

But because the Holocaust has been thoroughly distorted, decent people are now blind to the growing demonization, intimidation, and abuse of Jews around the world.

Some may find such prognostications of doom to be hysterical. So be it. The arc of Jewish history is long and bends toward tragedy. Jews have thus earned the right to take calls for their liquidation literally. All too often what was initially dismissed or downplayed, from Kristallnacht in 1938 to Hamas's incessant vow to complete what Hitler started, turned into a living nightmare.

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This is a false equivalence. When Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir and Labor's Shimon Peres agreed to share power the Israeli economy was teetering on the verge of collapse, with inflation running rampant. Israel was also a country at war in 1984, the First Lebanon War.

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Fast-forward to the here and now. Israel's economy and security are relatively stable and have been that way for some time. Despite regular skirmishes with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces aren't waging a ground war on enemy territory.

Yet Israeli's cultural, media and educational elites are bum-rushing citizens like a pesky used car salesman trying to unload a wreck. Why? Because in a country increasingly divided along political, religious and economic lines, even seasoned observers are intoxicated by the appeal of national unity. But their enthusiastic embrace of a grand coalition is worse than naive, it's dangerous to the wellbeing of Israeli society.

A national unity government would be a clunker for most Israelis because of the exploding cost of living here. Sure, the country's macroeconomic performance is impressive, especially compared to 1984. But a report released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is setting off alarm bells that most citizens have been hearing for years.

Daily life in Israel is grotesquely expensive. Food here is 19% higher than the OECD average. Meanwhile, apartment renters in Israel spend 25% of their gross adjusted disposable income on rent while homeowners paying mortgages spend 15%, a discrepancy that's among the highest in the OECD. Since 2009, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, housing prices have shot up by over 90%.

If you're raising children in Israel, good luck. Elementary school education and academic studies are 17% more expensive than a decade ago, while the average cost of preschools has risen by 14%. And Israel's floundering public healthcare system is forcing many Israelis to supplement their mandatory universal medical insurance with out-of-pocket private policies. According to the OECD, only 8% of Israelis rely solely on public health care.

Here's one more stat to consider: Israel ranked a lowly 38th on the economic freedom scale, dropping one place from 2018, according to the Economic Freedom of the World: 2019 Annual Report. In general, the higher a country's level of economic freedom is the better off its citizens are.

What you won't hear advocates for a national unity government say is that history shows that such grand coalitions hit the pause button on the implementation of seriously needed policy changes. Neither Shamir nor Peres was able to advance any major issues during their national unity government because each of them was immediately scuttled by the other.

Israel's next government will be tasked with an awesome responsibility: to develop and carry out policies that remove the disproportionately large financial burden being carried by Israel's working men and women. For millions of Israelis today a government of national paralysis is not a viable option.

The cost of prolonged stagnation is simply too high.

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Kashmir has been such a nothingburger that a United Nations diplomat called the UN Security Council session that was convened to deal with matter the "lowest level of council action" and stated that members hadn't even issued a press release about the proceedings. Governments around the world are largely treating the Kashmir issue as an internal Indian matter, the result of a lengthy and complicated democratic process.

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Meanwhile, Netanyahu's latest annexation proclamation is widely portrayed as the premier's latest last-minute attempt to capture a few more votes days before an election. Notwithstanding perfunctory Arab League and UN condemnations, the cause of human rights for Palestinians seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Between the threats posed by ISIS and Iran, Arab leaders are scrambling to hold on to power. At most, Palestinian independence is paid occasional lip service.

But are the human rights of Kashmiris and Palestinians being ignored as a result? The most vocal proponent of Kashmiri self-determination is Pakistan. But this Islamic republic is itself an egregious human rights violator. The part of Kashmir administered by Pakistan denies people their most fundamental political and human rights. And you can forget about self-determination: Pro-independence groups such as Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front are routinely targeted and repressed by the government in Islamabad.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights recently released a report on human rights in Kashmir. It noted that human rights abuses in Pakistani Kashmir were of a "different caliber or magnitude" to those in Indian Kashmir and included misuse of anti-terrorism laws to target dissent, and restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and opinion, peaceful assembly, and association.

Back in Israel, Netanyahu's plan to apply Israeli sovereignty to large swathes of the West Bank has fanned the sacred fire of liberty. Turkey, Syria, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are among a rogues' gallery of human rights villains who are lining up to support Palestinian liberation. The same Middle East governments extolling the virtues of freedom are cracking down on civil society actors and political opponents at an increasing rate.

And what of the Palestinian Authority, tasked with the responsibility of midwifing the political and economic reforms needed to usher independence? Over 25 years after the Oslo Accords granted Palestinians a degree of self-rule over the West Bank, systematic arbitrary arrests and torture perpetrated by the PA are in gross violation of the human rights treaties it has signed.

It's hard to not become disheartened when the very concept of human rights has been hijacked by the world's worst human rights violators. Palestinians, Kashmiris and stateless people everywhere will only taste the sweet nectar of freedom once they demand and demonstrate support for a transparent, accountable, democratic form of government that respects and guarantees their inalienable human rights.

Their cause would be best served by taking their destiny into their own hands and allowing their ostensible supporters to quietly rot on the ash heap of history.

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The political fatigue is palpable right about now: Picture an old basset hound passed out on the front porch, trying to escape the summer heat. Sure, the major media outlets continue to breathlessly report on corruption allegations and the latest attempted mergers and acquisitions of splinter parties, whose potential votes could prove to be the difference between a center-left government and a right-wing one. But Israelis by and large have tuned out of the incessant focus on labyrinthine negotiations, political jockeying, and mudslinging.

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Their concerns are more immediate. Parents are busy getting their kids back into the school year swing, young men and women are gearing up for their university studies and those who've recently returned from vacation are just now trying to figure out how on earth to pay off that seven-day luxury trip to Greece. Israelis, once the most politically engaged citizens of any democracy on the planet, have settled into a low-grade stupor just days before a national election.

What's this epidemic of ennui all about? Some of it can be traced to that point in Israel's history when personalities began to trump platforms. Local journalists have only fueled this "Gossip Girl" approach to covering politics. As a result, there are no great issues, only rumors, allegations, spin, and endless innuendo. It's not surprising that people would rather spend their well-earned Saturday afternoons at the beautiful Beit Yanai Beach not discussing politics with their family and friends.

The problem is that such apathy is anathema to the long term well-being of any democracy. What truly legitimizes any form of representative government isn't its regulations, laws, constitution or declaration of independence. These are but procedural mechanisms that will blow away like dust in the wind if people stop cherishing and fighting for the values that undergird free nations everywhere.

Democracies can't long function on autopilot. The very legitimacy of a representative government depends on a proactive public holding its leaders' feet to the fire. Lifting a phrase from George Bernard Shaw's "Back to Methuselah" that US President John F. Kennedy referenced when he addressed the Irish Parliament and that his brother Robert quoted in his own campaign for the presidency, while some people see things as they are and ask why, a passionate and engaged citizenry dreams things that never were and asks, why not.

Detached, disinterested citizens accept the smallness of their countries' leaders and settle for small victories: holding on to a job, making the monthly rent, getting through an entire summer without a call from the bank.

When the national discussion isn't about Israel's security, economy or place among the family of nations, playing matkot or backgammon is surely a more productive way to spend one's time. But viable democracies demand much of their citizens. Escaping these responsibilities will only prolong and deepen Israelis' crisis of confidence in the country they so love.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The cartoon provoked a backlash that led to an online apology by the magazine's co-presidents: "We realize the extent of offense we have inflicted and understand that we must take responsibility for our actions."

This cartoon was undoubtedly perceived as sexist, anti-Semitic, dehumanizing and just plain creepy by many people who saw it. Nonetheless, apologizing for the publication of an offensive cartoon is a form of self-censorship since it also silences discussion about the creeping feeling that anti-Semitism in the United States is on the rise.

It's more than a feeling. Recent data shows an alarming rise in hate incidents against Jewish people and institutions. In 2017, anti-Semitic incidents jumped 57% compared to 2016. Hate crimes against Jews grew by 37% during the same period, according to a separate FBI analysis.

But one doesn't need to do the data to see that the ancient scourge of Judeophobia has shape-shifted to fit contemporary political sensibilities. Today, anti-Semitic tropes are regularly being expressed from the hallowed halls of Congress. Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) have successfully infused the old hatred of Jews with a new guerrilla chic appeal by asserting that their controversial statements and questionable associations are on behalf of an oppressed class of people, the Palestinians.

But saying "I'm sorry" or outlawing any forms of expression that could be regarded as hateful only drives such drivel underground, giving it a sort of "street cred" among the confused, angry, uneducated or ignorant. Apologizing for controversial content short-circuits a primary purpose of free speech: robust, unhindered debate.

And debate doesn't just matter; it's essential to the nurturing of a free, pluralistic society. Being exposed to even the most offensive ideas helps us develop the ability to rebut them. John Stuart Mill wrote in "On Liberty" that if someone is "equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion ... He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form."

Unfortunately, Holocaust education in the U.S. has failed to combat ignorance about anti-Semitism. Two-thirds of American millennials surveyed in a recent poll don't know what Auschwitz is, according to a study released on Holocaust Remembrance Day. This poll also found that knowledge about the genocide that killed 6 million Jews during World War II isn't robust among American adults in general, with 22% of millennials saying they haven't heard of the Holocaust or aren't even sure whether they've heard of it.

This gross lack of awareness is the result of a Holocaust studies curriculum that universalizes the destruction of two-thirds of European Jewry, morphing the mass murder of a distinct religious, ethnic and national group into a broadside against all forms of racism and prejudice. Anti-Semitism as a uniquely malevolent force has been glossed over in the service of a wider, more fashionable, social justice agenda.

The educational system's failure to combat anti-Semitism highlights the importance of individual responsibility. Americans don't have the luxury of outsourcing the struggle against ignorance and prejudice to self-appointed moral gatekeepers. In a free society, citizens must be encouraged to pursue truth on their own, even if that means having unpleasant encounters with falsehoods along the way.

Disallowing debate and quietly toiling in a culture of instant outrage will only result in the mainstreaming of anti-Semitism in the U.S. and the ascent of its proponents.

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