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The Addiction to Approval: Why Israel Still Defends Itself for Defending Itself

by Ram ben Ze’ev


The Addiction to Approval: Why Israel Still Defends Itself for Defending Itself
The Addiction to Approval: Why Israel Still Defends Itself for Defending Itself

There is a popular meme circulating once again — “Israel is the only country on earth that has to defend itself for defending itself.” It’s meant to provoke outrage at the world’s hypocrisy. But the truth is far more disturbing.


Correction: Israel is not the only country that has to defend itself — it is the only one that thinks it must.


Let’s be clear: no other nation on earth would tolerate the murder, torture, and abduction of its citizens and still pause to explain its actions to those who cheer for its destruction. Yet Israel, even after the atrocities of ז׳ תשרי תשפ״ד (7 October 2023), still plays the role the nations have carved out for us — the nervous defendant, the trembling Jew in the dock of global opinion.


We didn’t choose this role. We were trained into it — by exile, by centuries of appeasement, by the delusion that if we’re nice enough, if we die politely enough, we’ll be accepted.


And it worked. But only for those who hate us.


We are not commanded to be loved. We are commanded to be strong, to be holy, to be distinct. The world doesn’t love strength from Jews — but it respects it. Our enemies don’t weep when we weep. They don’t attend our funerals. They dance. And yet, every time we are attacked, we rush to apologise for surviving.


There is something broken in the Jewish soul when we measure the morality of war not by victory, but by the body count of our own people.


But here is the deeper sickness: this victimhood complex, this endless self-justification, is not just weakness. It’s a mask. A cover for guilt. The guilt of a people who have, in large part, abandoned תורה (Torah), distanced themselves from G-D, and forgotten our role as a עם קדוש (am kadosh – holy nation).


We speak of injustice, but forget that nothing — not even stubbing a toe — happens without His permission. As it says in תהלים (Tehillim – Psalms) 77:11:“ואומר חלותי היא, שנות ימין עליון”“Then I said: ‘It is my affliction that the right hand of the Most High has changed.’”


We interpret our suffering as injustice from others, when it is often a wake-up call from Above. A reflection not of the world’s evil — but of our spiritual condition.


We are not victims. We are a nation in need of תיקון (tikun – correction). We cry out to the nations for sympathy, instead of crying out to the One who actually governs the world.


Ask yourself: what other nation, after suffering the brutal slaughter of its civilians, would be forced into a ceasefire by foreign powers? What other country would be expected to supply water and electricity to those actively trying to destroy it?


And what other people would agree to such madness? Only us.


This is not mercy. This is spiritual confusion.


The answer is not more diplomacy, more restraint, more empty yearning for affection from the nations. The answer is חוסן (ḥosen – strength), גבורה (gevurah – might), and above all, תשובה (teshuvah – return), אמונה (emunah – faith), and יראת שמים (yirat shamayim – fear of Heaven).


We are not just another state. We are ישראל (Yisrael) — chosen not to be liked, but to be a light. And a light doesn’t ask the darkness for permission to shine.


It is time we stop defending our defence. We are not guilty for being alive. We are not sorry for surviving. But we are responsible for the state of our souls.


Let the world be outraged. Let the haters seethe. Let us return fire — physically, spiritually, and morally — without apology, without hesitation, without pause.


Because we are still here. And that, in itself, is already our greatest act of defiance.


>>>> BUY ME A COFFEE <<<<


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