It’s terrifying. We could have been mourning the deaths of many schoolchildren in West Bloomfield, Michigan, this week. That was the intention of the brother of the Hezbollah terrorist killed in Lebanon who attacked Temple Israel, a synagogue filled with preschoolers.
Let that sink in.
This story isn’t about some innocent seeking revenge for his brothers’ unfair deaths – despite the amoral spin many mainstream media organizations imposed. One brother was simply continuing the family business of Jew-targeting in America, 10,000 km. (6,000 miles) from Lebanon, threatening 106 kids and 50 staffers.
Predictably, The New York Times finds “the evidence so far is murky,” as to whether that attempt at mass murder, along with an attempted bombing by ISIS-influenced kids in New York City and the murder of one by a man yelling “Allahu akbar” at Virginia’s Old Dominion University, was “inspired by the American and Israeli attacks on Iran and Lebanon.”
Nothing justifies such terrorism. But it’s journalistic malpractice to ignore the linkage reflecting an evil campaign. These and other attempts advance the jihadist assault on civilizational norms – with Jews most prominently in the crosshairs, but not targeted exclusively.
It’s easy to despair. Jew-hatred mounts on the Groyper Right and the anti-Zionist Left. But that only tells part of the story.
Three important phenomena stopped the wannabe mass murderers in West Bloomfield and New York City. First was their incompetence; bombs failed to explode. Jihadi fanatics are rarely voted “most likely to succeed.” Their zealousness and cold-bloodedness blinds most of them, frequently short-circuiting their competence.
It’s important to spotlight their ineptitude – how useless many are – because too many spineless Westerners romanticize this murderous fanaticism. Reasonable people must repudiate such brutality, morally, psychologically, existentially – and pragmatically.
Second, security worked. Temple Israel had “hardened the target.” This sick language, code for fortifying Jewish institutions, normalizes the abnormal notion of treating Jews as “targets.” It assumes that the only response is thickening walls, hiring guards, and practicing shooting drills.
Broaden the target instead! Show that the attackers hate America and the West, too. They burn American, Canadian, or British flags while burning Israeli flags. Antisemitism is the antisemites’ disease; that’s why non-Jews must fight it, not Jews. And antisemitism is a social disease, warning of democratic decay.
When I speak at synagogues, I propose approaching neighboring churches and saying: “Let’s make a deal. When you need security on Sunday, our members will guard you. When we need security on Shabbat, then your members will guard us.”
“Oh, we don’t need security,” the priests or ministers will say. “Indeed,” Jews should reply, “now, the conversation can begin.”
Still, I live in the real world. Hats off to Temple Israel’s security heroes and the dozens of local cops, SWAT specialists, and FBI agents who responded – running toward the danger. Similarly, on March 7, outside Gracie Mansion, two teenagers threw homemade IEDs – improvised explosive devices – toward protesters hostile to Mayor Zohran Mamdani. A photo that went viral showed Asst-Ch. Aaron Edwards leaping over a security barrier to tackle one terrorist who was throwing a second IED. Meantime, Sgt. Luis Navarro ran toward a lit, unexploded device, to protect fellow New Yorkers. Edwards, who said he was just doing his job – and was relieved he didn’t fall! – joined NYPD after seeing the heroism of the 9/11 first responders.
With quality Americans like that – whose heroism is contagious – I still have faith in America.
America has far more 'pro-Semitism'
Finally, some perspective. Lunatics and loudmouths here and there do not define a nation. America has far more “pro-Semitism,” as one of my kids calls it, than antisemitism. Naturally, we need zero tolerance for Jew-hatred and all forms of bigotry. And the spreading and mainstreaming of antisemitism since October 7 is stunning. But never underestimate the decency of most Americans – or minimize two extraordinary partnerships: the march of the Jewish people and the American people together since 1776; and the alliance uniting Israel with the United States.
Today’s hysterical conversation about antisemitism obscures the more layered reality. Just as the headlines about the Iran war overly emphasize what’s going wrong and could go wrong, today’s narrative about American Jews and about Israel is overly bleak.
We’re at the start of what may be the most significant joint American-Israel project of our lifetimes. If – if – the Iran war succeeds, the world will be safer, America will be stronger, China and jihadism will be weaker, Israel will be more secure, and the American Jewish conversation might change, too.
The doom-and-gloom headlines cannot explain how 58% of American voters consider Israel America’s ally, with only 13% considering Israel an enemy. True, 70% of Republicans feel positively toward Israel and only 47% of Democrats. But those numbers are much stronger than anticipated. The highly respected, non-Israel-oriented pollster Scott Rasmussen explains that the growing “shift toward Israel” – after two difficult years when headlines kept blackening Israel’s name – “is likely because it’s helping in the fight against Iran, a nation that voters overwhelmingly see as a force for evil.”
“We must accept finite disappointment,” Martin Luther King preached, “but never lose infinite hope.” America isn’t perfect – no nation is. Americans stumble – all peoples do. True, American Jews have experienced unexpected, unprecedented disappointments since October 7. But America’s hope-generating values still give it a buoyancy while mass-producing everyday heroes, who get it. They know: when they stand up for and stand with American Jews and Israel, they’re standing for democracy, decency, the real America – and their own futures, too.
The writer is an American presidential historian and Zionist activist born in Queens, living in Jerusalem. Last year, he published To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream and The Essential Guide to October 7th and its Aftermath. His latest e-book, The Essential Guide to Zionism, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism and Jew-hatred, was just published and can be downloaded on the website of the Jewish People Policy Institute.