It seems like public consensus is: even though Hezbollah shot 13,000 rockets into Israel over the past 11 months, they barely killed anybody. Only like twelve kids. Israel kills way more when they respond because they’re so much stronger. Which means it’s not fair for them to retaliate. 

While I am still grappling with the staggering loss of life due to the bombardment of Gaza, I am unsure what legitimate choices are on the table for Israel.

Iranian leaders have publicly described their proxy militias like Hamas and Hezbollah as siege forces slowly bleeding Israel dry. The axis has a multi-prong plan for how to dismantle what they call The Zionist Entity, where most of their weapons are indirect because historically every single time Arab countries have directly attacked Israel, they have lost.

Along with their proxy militias, I’ve been truly surprised by the countries willing to manipulate truth for Iran. There has been very credible reporting that suggests South Africa’s genocide application against Israel stems from their relationship with Iran. The leading political party at the time had been bankrupt. The Iranian delegation visited, and the following week, the South African administration announced it was solvent again. Some brief weeks later, South Africa brought its genocide case against Israel. Then 150 lawyers brought a suit in federal courts asking the Justice Department to look into South Africa’s relationship with Iran.

The country has also made inroads in its relationship with the UN. The international body recently made Iran the head of its human rights council. Iran, who has executed close to 700 innocent Iranians so far this year. I feel like I am losing my mind. It seems too ghoulish and ridiculous for even the UN to be antisemitic.

Yet António Guterres, Secretary-General of the UN, seems intent on communicating only negative news about Israel or recycling misinformation about things like aid and never correcting it. Or the lukewarm study on the 10/7 rapes written by Pramila Patten, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. The milquetoast title alone sets a tone of: “ugh fine it was probably rape.” The actual title? Reasonable Grounds to Believe Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Occurred in Israel During 7 October Attacks. 

The antisemites of the world, college protesters included, are invested in denying Hamas committed sexual violence on 10/7. By opening her headline with “reasonable grounds,” Patten, conveys a less than convincing validation of the sexual violence. This is a dangerous message for anyone to send to a world already looking to discredit the victims, let alone someone with such a title that confers expertise. It frightened me that a supposed humanitarian institution can behave so openly bigoted.

It continues to frighten me. I feel like Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby when she discovers that everyone around her is a witch who has betrayed her, including her husband, a struggling actor who sold Farrow’s body to Satan to impregnate in exchange for success and fame. All of Them Witches, she says like a mantra as she begins to see everything around her newly. I, too, am seeing the world in a new way, and it frightens me. All of them antisemites. How can people hate us so much? And what can Israel do about it?

So, let’s say you’re a country founded 76 years ago on land set to be divided among yourself and another group — a scenario several countries faced at that time — and you come under unprovoked attack from the surrounding countries on the second day you were founded. 

Today, you’re much stronger militarily than the other nation, and yet the leaders of that nation passed a ruling charter refusing to acknowledge your right to exist because they plan to continue attacking you either until they’re all dead or you are.  

Hamas is not incentivized to end the conflict because they are winning. Resource wise, non-state terrorists have more flexibility in wartime than countries do. Israel is hamstrung from the laws of engagement that it is trying very hard to follow.

Hamas still believes world pressure will be the beginning of the end for Israel. They’re wrong. This gamble has not worked for 76 years. But then what do you do if you’re Israel? Something has to give.

A reminder: Deligitimizing Jewish or Palestinian connections to the homeland is a bad look. Peace is the right look. Let’s focus on that.