67 years later

Jessica Rolnick, Staff Writer

67 years ago, today, the Jewish state was granted independence. A celebratory day for all of the hard working Zionists was turned upside down when, only a few hours later, five neighboring countries declared war. Newfound freedom lasted only minutes before the first bomb was detonated onto these very people who had just become citizens of their new home. Thus began the 1948 War of Independence, a war that would mark the first of many on Israeli territory.

It seemed that since Israel developed and was granted land only three years after the death of 6 million of their people and being liberated from Eastern European concentration camps, the hatred and violence would have stopped; but this was only the start.

At the beginning, Israeli land was extremely attractive to its neighbors. Beginning with the Independence Day War in 1948, the battles have seen their peaks and pits, leading up to the 2006 disengagement of Gaza, when the Israeli people lost a big part of their already small territory.  Following the Gaza conflict, a compromise seemed to have been reached. The land could be shared; the Palestinians had Gaza for their state and the Israelis had the remaining piece for theirs. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict seemed over, but was most recently sparked again in 2014 with Operation Protective Edge in a month-long blood bath between Israel and Hamas.

As conflict in the eastern hemisphere of the world continues to break out, the anti-zionist, anti-Jewish hate has continued to increase in the United States. While the U.S. claims to be a democratic and tolerant country, Jewish hate continues to arise all over the nation.

This past summer, a rally took place in Ft. Lauderdale advocating for Israel and the conflict that ultimately caused the death of hundreds of soldiers. 100 Palestinian advocates showed up to this rally, and then called on the government to condemn “Israeli aggression.” Even earlier, in April 2014, Ku Klux Klan leader, Fraizer Glenn Miller, killed three non Jewish people for their presence at a Jewish community center the day before Passover in Overland Park, Kansas. To name a few, Anti Semitic views have reached their peak on college campuses; with instances such as a Swastika painted on the wall of a Jewish fraternity house at the University of California Davis Campus, less than a month ago.

Whether the circumstance involves a snarky comment about how “Jews ruin everything,” an Anti-Semitic social media post, or even a graphic painting of the symbol that, less than a century ago, symbolized death to the Jews; being a proud Jew in the U.S. is not easy. Being a proud Jew in a nation that advertises its freedom while religious groups feel continuous shame for who they are and what they believe in, is not easy.

Today marks 67 years post independence of a Jewish nation in 2015, not 1940s Nazi-dominated Eastern Europe. Its time to grow past the views that brought people to concentration camps, violence to American college campuses, and suicide bombers into the heart and home of Israeli Jews.