Brave Bibi and why the world hates the fighting Jew

The one thing that Hollywood definitely excels at, which seemingly defies their blatant biased against Israel, is dead Jews. I have to admit it. The nonstop movies and incredible TV series across Netflix, Hulu, and Max of Jews being gassed, shot, and strangled is impressive.

What Hollywood hates, of course is the living Jew. No, no. Let’s correct that. What they really hate is the fighting Jew. Hence, the last positive movie about an IDF soldier was Paul Newman in “Exodus” in 1960.

Last month my family and I were out west for a Jewish wedding. It was great to finally have something to celebrate. We met many Israeli tourists at America’s gorgeous national parks. We spoke to all of them. Understandably and justifiably, their main concern was the hostages. Second concern: how much they hate Netanyahu. Many told me — I kid you not — that Bibi is more responsible for October 7 than Hamas Hitler Yahya Sinwar.

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Have these Israelis taken leave of their senses? Of course not. Many are brave IDF veterans themselves, as are three of my children.

Rather, they are simply victims of “Fighter-Jew-Derangement-Syndrome.” They have imbibed a self-view of Jews from CNN, the BBC, and the New York Times. Jews should fight. Sure. And here is the most sickening line of all from the New York Times. “Israel has the right to defend itself.” Thank you, Oh Old Great Lady, Oracle of the News Media. Without your permission, we would have gladly allowed ourselves to be pushed into the gas chambers.

Jews can fight back. But only so much. The Palestinians are allowed to fight for a full century, lose every time, steal all the international aid, slaughter and persecute their own people. And the world will respect the fighting Arab.

But Bibi? When he declares that he absolutely seeks to free all the hostages but must also ensure the total evisceration of Hamas? Warmonger! Genocidaire! Nazi! Terrorist.

Recall that at the Casablanca Conference of January 1943, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, arguably the greatest American president of the 20th century, declared to the press that the United States would demand of the Germans and Japanese “Unconditional Surrender.” He did so without even consulting his partners in the war, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill. Churchill thought he had lost his mind. Why Franklin, you’ve just obligated every German to fight till the last man. Do you know how many unnecessary casualties you’ve just inflicted on Allied troops?

And Churchill’s prophecy was right. Not only did the Germans fight till their last bullet for their Fuhrer, but they even continued the war a week after he blew his disgusting brains out all over a Berlin bunker.

But in the end, of course, Roosevelt’s vision triumphed. The demand that the Allies fight until the Nazis were completely, utterly, and thoroughly defeated guaranteed that there would be no Nazi party resurrection, even decades after the war.

So many historical fools say that Israel cannot destroy Hamas because you can’t destroy an ideology. How stupid. You’re not trying to destroy an ideology. You’re trying to destroy an ideology’s ability to organize into a robust mass movement that can murder. And that has never happened again with the Nazis.

And why? Because the military defeat against them was so savage and ruthless that no one is dumb enough to think that Germany will not be pulverized if they ever try that crap again.

When I first hosted Bibi Netanyahu at Oxford in 1989, he asked me to take him to a bookstore where he bought a first-edition book by Churchill. He told me what a fan he is of Churchill. In truth, however, Bibi is an ideological disciple of Roosevelt, who understood that only the total extinction of a genocidal enemy can guarantee a nation’s continued survival.

For the past year I have watched Bibi defamed and libeled with an effort that few Jews in history have faced as he has slowly become the most hated man alive.

Is he perfect? Far, far from it. As his former ambassador to the United States Michael Oren said of him, Bibi is a larger-than-life, almost biblical figure, and he has biblically proportioned shortcomings.

But he is also one of the greatest Jews in all Jewish history and easily Israel’s greatest prime minister, with Levi Eshkol, perhaps, a close second.

Why Eshkol? Hasn’t everyone forgotten that short, uncharismatic Jew? And it’s not because Eshkol oversaw Israel’s greatest military triumph in 1967 in the Six Day War. Rather, it’s because President Lyndon Baines Johnson warned Eshkol over and over again, “You won’t be alone unless you go it alone.” But the short (yes, I am partial to short Jews), seemingly pliable Ukrainian-born immigrant to the Holy Land could not be pushed and could not be blackmailed. Seeing Nasser’s closure of the Straits of Tiran for what it was — an act of war — he utterly disregarded LBJ’s threat and launched a decisive first-strike against the Arab Air Forces that decimated their capacity to wage war.

Now, what is the closing of the Tiran Straits compared to the savagery and Holocaust-level attack of October 7? Who is really dumb enough not to understand that Bibi has no choice but to completely destroy Hamas, as the Allies did the Nazis? Does anyone really believe that without their total military annihilation we won’t be facing another October 7 attack in a year or two?

And what of the hostages? WE MUST BRING THEM BACK. There can be no question about that. But to believe that Hamas can be trusted with any deal whatsoever is to believe the catastrophic “conceptzia” of Israel before October 7: That Hamas is more interested in its survival than in murdering Jews.

Israelis seem to have forgotten that Bibi’s beloved older brother and Israel’s most celebrated military martyr, Yoni Netanyahu, died in a successful rescue of hostages. The demonization of a man who has given his life and his sibling to the State of Israel by saying that he could not care less for the hostages and only for his political survival is why we’re seeing insanity be spoken of him like he’s worse than Sinwar.

You can hate Bibi all you want. You can hate his right-wing coalition. You can hate his policies. You can hate his coalition’s attempt at judicial reform. But to call him a traitor to Israel is disgusting, vile, and unforgivable. And the same would be true if anyone were to say the same of Benny Gantz, Naftali Bennett, or Yair Lapid.

For God’s sake. Demonize Hamas. Not Netanyahu.

Throughout my life I have learned the lesson of how much the world hates the fighting Jew. Notice that in the Bible the greatest Jewish fighter of all time, Samson, is actually exiled by his fellow Jews and must live among the Philistines. He devotes his life to destroying Israel’s enemies and his reward is to die, abandoned by the Jews, in a Philistine temple. But since he took most of the murderous Philistines with him, they were not likely to forget that it’s a mistake to mess with the Jews.

I had the great honor of being mentored by the late, great Elie Wiesel, whose name we Jews must ensure remains a household term even eight years after his passing. But who among us today can remember, let alone spell, the name of Mordechai Anielewicz, the father of modern Jewish resistance and the commander of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, who blew himself up with grenades, along with his 700 immortal fighters (the resemblance to Masada 2000 years earlier is uncanny) in May of 1943? No, Anielewicz is being forgotten because the fighting Jew is never fully celebrated.

Last week Donald Trump told the Republican Jewish Coalition that without him as president, Israel will be annihilated. Trump gave his remarks from New York and did not bother to travel to Las Vegas for the conference. I don’t blame him. Ever since the RJC, under the incompetent guidance of one of its top paid consultants, Larry Weitzner, wasted $3 million on the campaign of Erdogan-controlled Dr. Oz rather than the great John Fetterman, they have largely been consigned to irrelevance. And let me be clear. Historical fact as well as gratitude compels me to once again affirm that Trump was the best friend Israel ever had in the White House. But that does not excuse his words. The whole idea of an independent Jewish State is that we no longer ever have to rely on foreign princes or presidents to protect us. We no longer have to run to popes or Hapsburg emperors or British regents for mercy. We defend ourselves.

Benjamin Netanyahu, alone among Israel’s current leaders, seems to get that. And that’s what makes him — however much he is detested by the rest of the world — the perfect Israeli leader to destroy Hamas and, by doing so, rescue the hostages as well as ensure that Israel will never again have to negotiate the release of Jews from Nazis on Israel’s borders.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach of Englewood is the author of the newly published guide to fighting back for Israel, “The Israel Warrior.” Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @RabbiShmuley.