Israel Won the Information War

By Abe Greenwald

We’re not even two weeks into the new year, and two American synagogues have been attacked in different ways by different parties. Last Thursday, a group of anti-Semites descended on a synagogue and Jewish school in Queens and chanted their loyalty oaths to Hamas. 

Early Saturday morning, a man set fire to the oldest synagogue in Mississippi, the Beth Israel Congregation, in Jackson. The fire destroyed large portions of the structure and two Torah scrolls. The main sanctuary, thankfully, was spared, as was a Torah rescued from the Holocaust. 

Today, the FBI released the name of the alleged arsonist and some details about his motive. Stephen Spencer Pittman apparently told agents that he set the fire “due to the building’s Jewish ties,” and he described it as the “synagogue of Satan.”

Israel’s war has been over for months, and the country has been thriving since its victory. But American Jews are facing an increase in naked anti-Semitism from both Hamasniks and “right-wing” Jew-haters. 

Here’s a thought: Maybe Israel did win its so-called information war—and American Jews lost theirs. 

We’ve heard endlessly about how Israel failed to articulate its side of the story throughout the war with Iran and its terrorist proxies and how it ceded the information space to Hamas and its allies. 

The problem with that analysis, however, lies in the story it assumes Israel should have articulated. 

Those who fret about the issue believe that Israel needed to continually explain the reasons for its military actions: It should have been more forceful in demonstrating that Hamas hides behind civilians and operates from civilian structures. It should have debunked Hamas casualty figures in real time, proved that there was no famine, explained the unparalleled effort the IDF makes to spare civilian lives, and so on.

But that’s not the story Israel needed to tell. There’s little point in the Jewish state trying to prove that it’s innocent of all the calumnious charges against it. Why? Because if Israel’s devoted critics could be persuaded that it’s a good and just country under continuous assault by barbaric fanatics, they would have been convinced by the decades of evidence—culminating in October 7—showing just that. 

The vital information that Israel needed to disseminate, rather, was this: We will not perish. We are fiercer in battle than you could ever imagine, more accomplished in intelligence and operational execution than any nation in history, peerless in the art of war, and unapologetic in our commitment to survival. We don’t bend to public opinion; we stop at nothing to defend our existence.

And that message came across loud and clear. 

Too many American Jews, on the other hand, spent two-plus years swallowing Hamas propaganda and publicly agonizing over Israel’s actions to varying degrees. Their story was: We’re just so sorry for all this ugliness. 

And while they explained and apologized, they also bent over backwards to give the Jew-haters the benefit of the doubt. Some went so far as to kasher the mob. 

We know exactly how that’s worked out. It’s long past time for Diaspora Jews to tell a different story of their own—one of bravery rooted in reverence for the Jewish tradition. But first they must believe it themselves. The Israelis do, and the world found that out.  

Abe Greenwald is the executive editor of COMMENTARY.