By any measure, 5762 was a difficult and depressing year for Israel and the Jewish people. Brutal Palestinian terror attacks took hundreds of lives, and injured thousands, and the images of horror from the seder night in Netanya will remain indelibly engraved in our memories. In addition, assaults against synagogues, community centers and individual Jews spread throughout the world, while governments pretended that these were “isolated incidents.”
However, in the longer term, the past year may also emerge as a turning point, in which the propaganda used to justify these attacks was finally exposed, and the Jewish people regained the ability to fight back. In some parts of the press, the automatic condemnation of Israel has ended, or at least the scope has been reduced. An increasing number of journalists, political leaders and diplomats around the world, including Canada, have stopped repeating the Palestinian myths of occupation and settlements as the root of all violence. The hidden history of terrorism has been restored, revealing the violence that took place long before the 1967 war, and was (and remains) aimed at the destruction of Jewish sovereignty in Israel.
Following the leads of Prime Minister Sharon and then President Bush, even the usually “soft” Europeans have withdrawn their support for Yasser Arafat, recognizing that the Palestinian leadership is corrupt and composed of unreformed terrorists. The BBC (and therefore, also the CBC), Reuters and other media continue to allow Palestinian and other terrorists to hide behind terms such as “activists” and “fighters,” but this practice is coming under increasing scrutiny and criticism.
From this perspective, 5762 can also be seen as the year that the Jewish people regained their collective voice and redoubled the commitment to the survival of Israel. The inherent democracy of the Internet has provided a wide circulation for independent information and analyses that are not part of the “conventional wisdom” or the politically correct pro-Palestinian bias. Using these resources, community organizations have mobilized to protest the biased agendas that focus exclusively on Palestinian “victimization,” and to ensure that the myths and false slogans in the press are never left unanswered. Without this activity, Palestinian lies about the events in Jenin would have been accepted at face value. Working together, Jewish organizations also reversed some of the damage from the U.N. conference on racism that took place in Durban last year, and ensured that this year’s Johannesburg conference on the environment was not turned into another platform for Israel-bashing.
In addition, during the past year, the fallacy of the media slogan that “acts of terrorism cannot be ended by military action” was exposed. The Israeli security forces acted with a high level of professionalism and bravery to uproot the deeply entrenched Palestinian terrorist networks. In door-to-door fighting and extensive searches, weapons and explosives have been located and destroyed. The much-criticized policy of “targeted killings” has disrupted each of the terror groups, and greatly impeded their ability to conduct deadly attacks.
Similarly, after 9/11, the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan removed the Taliban from the scene, ending the safe haven provided to Al-Qaida terrorists. (The Americans took far fewer chances than Israel, relying primarily on high-altitude bombing.) Although a series of errors apparently allowed Osama bin Laden to escape, efforts to launch more attacks during the past year have failed.
It is far too early to declare victory, and while the trend has shifted for the better, much work remains to be done. The terror groups have not given up by any means, and attempts to kill Israelis and hijack aircraft to use against Western targets continue. The threats from Iraq, Syria and other sources have not been subdued, and the anti-Israel myths and slogans from the politically correct vocabulary still dominate the university campuses and much of the media. Last year constituted an important beginning on this road, and the work must continue and expand in 5763.