The rise of antisemitic attacks in America after the brutal Oct. 7 Hamas murders has been alarming not just for its cruelty or sudden ubiquity but for the apparent tranquility with which so many have accepted it. Antisemitic incidents have risen by 360% from the previous year— close to the highest rate recorded.
Now, amid the recent spate of anti-Israel campus protests, Jewish students are afraid to attend classes because of the level of hostility. Students have called Israel “genocidal” and the Jewish people “oppressors” and have called for another “intifada.” Almost three-quarters of Jewish students said they’d experienced or seen antisemitic hatred or violence just this school year.
Protesters have advocated violence with slogans like “Burn Tel Aviv to the ground” and “Go Hamas, we love you, we support your rockets too.” Some Jewish students who peacefully support Israel have been assaulted and harassed and – horrifyingly – told to “go back to Poland."
Jews worldwide will commemorate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, on Monday, May 6. Do they know that they have the support of American leadership? Do they know they have the support of ordinary Americans? Is “Never Again” a concrete part of U.S. foreign policy and foremost in the minds of Americans? Or are Jews once again left alone to defend themselves?
There are 16 million known Jews on the planet today, and many of them recently recounted the story of Exodus over Passover. The Passover story is a story of the Jewish people’s cry for deliverance — and their successful escape from oppression.
Nearly 3,500 years have passed, yet they still face oppression. They still cry for deliverance. Those who live in Israel are surrounded by hundreds of millions of suspicious or hostile neighbors, a significant number of whom are openly intent on their annihilation.
Hamas leadership has been all too clear about what it wants and what it’s willing to do to achieve its goals.
“Israel is a country that has no place on our land. We must remove that country,” a former official said in the wake of their first attacks. He vowed Hamas will repeat the cruelty of Oct. 7 “again and again.”
This isn’t the speech of a political faction American leadership can or should take lightly. Israel is among our most cherished allies. It isn’t just geopolitically important to Americans as part of our cultural and religious heritage — it’s significant as one of the only outposts of democracy in the Middle East.
Israel is simultaneously an indispensable part of our past and a crucial part of our future. If we hope for a stable Middle East — one with greater political liberty and economic prosperity — we must know that Israel’s future is secure. If we hope to safely and freely visit the land where Christ lived, ministered, and died, we must know that Israel’s future is secure.
But just as importantly, the Jewish people must know they are secure. They must know that they will have our defense, no matter who in the world vows to eradicate them. They must know they will have our friendship and support even in the most frightening times.
Today, they face oppression that has not yet turned to victory. We must rally behind Israel and behind the Jewish people who live here in America. They must understand this year, and every year, that they will know deliverance.
Timothy Head is the executive director of the Faith & Freedom Coalition.