OPINION:
Anniversaries are opportunities to put historical events in perspective.
May 16 is the 80th anniversary of the fall of the Warsaw Ghetto, where a few hundred poorly armed Jewish fighters held off 3,000 SS troops for almost a month.
Finally, the only way the Nazis could end the uprising was to burn down the ghetto block by block. More than 13,000 died, about half of them burned alive or suffocated by smoke. The survivors were taken to death camps.
On May 14, 1948, not quite five years later, the state of Israel was proclaimed in Tel Aviv. It was immediately invaded by five Arab armies, which were fought to a standstill.
After the Holocaust, Jews decided it was probably best to handle their own defense.
Now, 80 years after the Warsaw Ghetto was reduced to rubble, antisemitism is a growing worldwide phenomenon. Jews represent at most 2.2% of the U.S. population, but account for over half of religion-based hate crimes.
Israel is today what it was 75 years ago, a nation of refuge for a people under siege.
Iran and radical Islamic groups have sworn to wipe Israel off the map. The Biden administration is doing its part by pressuring Israel to negotiate with the terrorists, subsidizing the Palestinian Authority and helping Tehran acquire nuclear weapons.
So it was, so it will be until the messianic age. The Bible says Jews will be a people apart — a people who need to keep their weapons handy, to never let their guard down and to know why they fight.
It also helps to know your adversaries and allies.
Prominent among the former are radical Islam and neo-Marxism here and abroad, including the Democratic Party of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib — a far cry from the party of President Harry Truman and President John F. Kennedy. Friends include conservatives, evangelical Christians and America under better leadership.
During World War II, the Department of War produced a film series called “Why We Fight.” An updated version for Jews would include (1) because we have no choice if we want to survive as a people, and (2) to keep the light of Torah shining in a world of growing darkness.
The fight for Jewish survival is a fight for Western civilization.
While Athens and Rome played a part, the history of the West began at Sinai three millenniums ago. The Bible has shaped our consciousness more than any other source, especially in the founding of America.
At the dedication of a synagogue in Washington, President Calvin Coolidge quoted 19th-century historian William H. Lecky, observing, “Hebraic mortar cemented the foundations of American democracy.”
World War II was one stage of an epic struggle. Hitler wrote that conscience and morality were “Jewish inventions” from which he would free mankind. He said the struggle was between him and the Jews — “nothing else matters.” In a way, he was right.
By killing the Jewish people, Hitler believed he was killing the idea of God and an ethical code based on justice and compassion.
Hitler failed, but his heirs carry on. The mullahs claim the Holocaust never happened — but they hope to rectify that. Hamas and the Palestinian Authority intend to succeed where their predecessors failed by driving the Jews into the sea, which would mean the annihilation of 46% of the world’s Jewish population.
The Nazis had Kristallnacht and Judenrein. Progressives have boycotts, divestment and sanctions.
Last year, Rep. Tlaib and a number of her colleagues introduced a resolution referring to Palestinians as “indigenous people,” affirming their right of return to pre-1967 Israel (which would mean the end of Israel) and referring to the founding of the Jewish state as the “Nakba,” Arabic for catastrophe.
There was no recognition of Jews historic ties to the land, the continuous presence of Jewish communities over millenniums or the approximately 900,000 Jews driven from Arab lands after the founding of Israel.
“The Squad” is only part of the “woke” war on Zionism and the Jews.
The Santa Ana, California, Unified School District just approved a new curriculum with two courses for high school students that accuse Israel of being an apartheid state that commits war crimes. Even California Gov. Gavin Newsom, not an ardent Zionist, opposed a similar curriculum as antisemitic.
Sometimes, the choice is simple: fighting under your flag or being murdered under theirs. The wheel spins round and round. Whether it lands on 1943 or 1948 is up to us.
• Don Feder is a columnist with The Washington Times.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.