A Game Changing Book for âDefendingâ Israel
As I write these words, Israel is in yet another difficult situation with the possibility that we are now entering a third Intifada, a Palestinian effort to undermine, disrupt and even destroy the infrastructure of life in Israel. With each attack, back and forth, between Israeli defense forces and Palestinian attackers, using or imitating the Isis model of cruel destructiveness, the world media is doing what it usually does, at best treating the situation as wrongs done by both sides, and at worst, blaming Israel for more than its share of the violence.
For the most part, Americans continue to see through the media distortions and recognize the difference between Israel’s democracy longing for peace, for Jews and Arabs alike vs. Palestinian dedication to ultimately destroying Israel cloaked in the language of claims that Israel is at fault for all their problems.
It is easy to be seduced by the call for even-handedness in asserting that both sides are at fault and thereby diminishing awareness of Israel’s actions being more in the mode of defense and protecting the rights of its citizens to live their lives in peace.
A new book has been published this past month that will allow anyone interested to see through the arguments that both sides share equal responsibility and are deserving of equal blame for the violence in and around Israel. Dr. Michael Harris, co-founder of San Francisco Voice for Israel, now a Bay Area Chapter of a national effort called StandWithUs, has written an amazingly enlightening book that allows anyone to understand Israel’s situation well enough to be able to respond to those that wish Israel ill. Winning a Debate with an Israel Hater is paradoxically not designed to be used directly with such a person because as Mike acknowledges, you won’t be able to influence them. Their hatred borders on illness in itself. However this book, humorously written, will give you the kind of background and information that will allow you to respond to those that wonder whether there is any substance, which there is not, to the claims made by Israel haters. Mike points out that most Americans continue to view Israel favorably, but they don’t necessarily give close attention to the details of what is happening when things are going badly, as they are now, between Israel and the Palestinians.
By having the information Mike provides in this book, you will be able to respond knowledgably to those that question Israel and its behavior when it responds to attacks. It will also serve to reassure you of Israel’s good and noble intentions in the difficult neighborhood in which it dwells.
You can see for yourself on Amazon with its “look inside” feature and then purchase a copy so that you can do your part to respond when you hear well-intentioned people questioning Israel’s actions, motivations and integrity.
It is vital for us to be able to know and respond because the media war against Israel has the potential to do as much harm as those that use rocks and knives to attack Israeli citizens in their efforts to disrupt and undermine the quality of life that Israel provides for all its citizens, Jew and Arab alike.
I am proud of what Mike has done and the modeling he demonstrates as a Jew who is not professionally involved in Jewish life (since his day job is as pediatrician [which he was for our kids]) and only became expert in this subject because of his awareness of a need to effectively defend Israel. For we live in a world that still seems more comfortable with Jews as victims than as a people that says “never again” to the fall of Masada some 2 thousand years ago, and more recently to the Holocaust where Jews found themselves in too much isolation from a world that showed little or no concern for the plight of our people.
Go to Amazon for a look inside the book and then buy a copy so you can help people better understand how difficult the neighborhood is where Israel resides and why it does what it must to stay alive. Then, tell others you know to buy a copy so that there will be more voices to counter the falsehoods and misleading reports that come through western media concerning Israel and its unfriendly neighbors.