Mantra For The Jewish People
By Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel
A humble suggestion for what should be the mantra of the Jewish people, what may be the only worthy and effective response to the global offensive on our identity and our national prerogative:
We have survived the Egyptians, we have outlived the Babylonians, we have outlived the Romans, we have outlived the Nazis, and we will certainly outlive those who seek to destroy us today.
We will continue exhume and reanimate the devotion of our martyrs and the strength of our heroes so that we can continue to spread kindness and justice and the light of truth to the world.
For this purpose, without which the world would disintegrate, G-d has sustained us beyond all historical logic.
Everywhere we have been pushed by the vicissitudes of time, in every corner of the earth where the Jewish people has sought refuge, we have ended up bringing commerce and science and music and the spiritual illumination that, for over 3,000 years, has endowed the world with a conscience and a compass and has elevated the status of mankind.
We will continue to defeat the laws of historical physics and to thrive until the end of history despite the best efforts of the nations to wipe us from their conscience, and we will continue to enrich the existence of all peoples until we finish our utterly unique task of redeeming the world.
The people of Israel will prevail and bring a lasting and just peace into the world no matter how violently the nations may resist us, and when the mask of history falls we will be recognized and exalted by the world for the blessing that we are.
In the meantime, to those in the Muslim world who strive against our existence, we have one word of caution: You do so at the detriment of every grain of truth in your religion and your existence.
Without the Jewish people your spirit and your book would never have entered the world, and in the deepest recesses of your collective subconscious you know with perfect understanding that it is only our unique and eternal status as the ambassadors of G-d that enables you to survive every day.
But remember–if you continue your struggle to denigrate the Jewish people in body and spirit, your own nation will one day join the vast and dusty bookshelf of civilizations as it too crumbles from within.
What would you add to the Mantra of the Jewish People?
Excerpted from Explaining the Hasbarah Gap
