I am an Israeli-American Jew writing from the bomb shelter of my home in a suburb about six miles north of Tel Aviv. All over the world, Jews are being hunted in a way that hasn’t happened since the Holocaust. It comes in the form of many different ways and many different manners.
Just yesterday, on Feb. 27, Nerdeen Kiswani, the New York City-based leader of Within Our Lifetime, sued Betar, the organization I lead, in addition to a number of other Jewish Americans. She claimed that we “threaten, intimidate and violate [her] civil rights.”
She and her radical organization seek to eliminate Zionism from Jewish life using statutes originally enacted to combat the Ku Klux Klan. It’s a follow-up from the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, which found that Betar USA had engaged in a “campaign of violence, harassment and intimidation against Arab, Muslim and Jewish New Yorkers.”
Apparently, the state of New York supports Palestine and hasn’t investigated any Palestinian groups.
This lawsuit is a dangerous attack on Jewish life in America, a further attempt to criminalize Zionism. Similar efforts in Europe are targeting French leaders of the Ze’ev Jabotinsky movement.
Meanwhile, in Israel, we maintain headquarters at Metzudat Ze’ev in Tel Aviv, the historic home of the Jabotinsky movement and Likud Party, where we are mainstream Zionism and entrenched in the institutions of Israel. Calling Betar a terror group is calling all of Zionism terrorists.
We’ve heard it before. As Jabotinsky taught us, “We hold that Zionism is moral and just. And since it is moral and just, justice must be done, no matter whether Joseph or Simon or Ivan or Achmet agree with it or not.”
I am a Betari, a Jabotinsky follower since the age of 11 and the proud son of Penina Waga, who was born in a Displaced Persons’ camp in Poland to a family of Holocaust survivors. As Israel is attacked yet again by Iran, as it has been in full force by its proxies since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, at least now the country and its people are in a position of strength. We have Jews fighting as Jews, exactly as generations of our forefathers did, and as Jabotinsky, the father of the Israel Defense Forces, insisted upon.
What a dream come true for generations of Jews: a Jewish fighting force. And we are proud of this army and our nation.
Jabotinsky also taught that “human society is based on reciprocity. If you remove reciprocity, justice becomes a lie. A person walking somewhere on a street has the right to live only because and only to the extent that he acknowledges my right to live. But, if he wishes to kill me, to my mind he forfeits his right to exist—and this also applies to nations. Otherwise, the world would become a racing area for vicious predators, where not only the weakest would be devoured, but the best.”
Since 8:15 a.m., we have been to and from the bomb shelters since learning that the IDF had attacked Iran in a coordinated attack with the U.S. President Donald Trump, who is the right leader for this moment.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that he personally chose the name for this military operation, “The Roaring Lion.” Today, March 1—on the Jewish calendar, 11 Adar 5786—is exactly 106 years since Betari, Joseph Trumpeldor (“The Roaring Lion”) and his comrades fell defending Tel Hai in 1920.
This war is named for a Betari. Trumpeldor’s famous last words—“Never mind, it is good to die for our country”—are still taught today. He and the seven others, who fell that day, are honored by the iconic “Roaring Lion” statue at Tel Hai.
The Jewish people will fight in Israel and all over the world for what is right. We will fight for the State of Israel. We will fight for Zionism.
