by: Ilse Strauss, News Bureau Chief
Jenan Matari wrung her hands uneasily as she peered bravely into the camera. “This is a very heavy, uncomfortable video,” she began. Matari paused briefly, as if bracing under the burden of the message she was about to deliver.
“We’re going to talk about the existence of Israel as a sadist entity as a whole,” she announced, hands now red from the tormented wringing. “Sadism is the tendency to derive pleasure…[from] inflicting pain, suffering, violence or humiliation on someone else…Israeli society as a whole operates off of the dehumanization and humiliation of Palestinians, and Israelis have made it very, very clear that they enjoy it. That is the very definition of sadism.”
Matari identifies as an Arab–American, writer, content creator, influencer and a whole host of other things. But there’s one thing missing from her resume: she hasn’t spent any length of time living among Israelis in Israel to familiarize herself with Israeli society.
The sorry lack of first-hand knowledge doesn’t deter her though. In the video uploaded to her Instagram account, she confidently unpacks her analysis based on social media posts from individual Israelis taken grossly out of context, sprinkles in some false yet titillating claims and presents her emotive fabrications as fact.
Matari is far from a lone voice. Defining Israeli society as sadistic to the core is a hot button topic for pro-Palestinian voices. And they often draw the conclusion that Israel is entirely inhabited by intrinsically evil human beings, a society so irreversibly brutal that the only solution to cleanse the rest of the world from its vile presence is that Israel “cannot exist,” to quote Matari.
Guilty Regardless?
The past 18 months have been a prime example of good lauded as evil and evil as good (Isa. 5:20). In a bizarre switch, the anti-Israel lobby accuses Jerusalem of the very crimes its enemies commit. While Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis—orchestrated by Iran—lob missiles at civilians, world bodies decry Israel’s pinpoint strikes on terror strongholds. As evidence mounts of Israel’s enemies employing rape and sodomy as a weapon of war, demonstrators protest Israeli soldiers’ alleged sexual misconduct. While Iran’s terror proxies hide behind civilians as human shields, Israel bends over backwards to preserve human life—even to its own detriment.
This begs the question: if Israel knows it will be held accountable for false accusations—of carpet bombing civilian areas, indiscriminate killing, genocide and everything else that’s despicable—why go above and beyond, put its own soldiers in harm’s way and invest significant time, effort and finances into what military experts describe as an example of morality and ethics?
A father-of-three who was called up in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre and spent months on the front lines gave me the answer. “This war won’t last forever. And I won’t be a soldier forever. But I’ll be a father, husband and human being for the rest of my life. I want to be the man my sons look up to, who my wife respects, who I respect, someone who upheld the values of who we are as a people and what we cherish. Our enemies have taken a lot from us, but they won’t take our humanity.”
In Their DNA
Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp famously hailed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as the most moral army in the world. The former British commander ascribes the IDF’s unprecedented ethics to two factors.
“In most armies, everyone chose to be soldiers. The IDF is composed overwhelmingly of citizen soldiers—from professors to plumbers—who defend their homes. They don’t want to go into battle. They have to because their country is under threat.”
The second, is the major influence of Judaism. Although the majority of Israelis identify as secular, the term simply means they don’t ascribe to all religious practices, not that they don’t believe in God or follow His ways.
According to Kemp, Jewish morals and values are intrinsically interwoven into the fabric of Israeli society, much like Christian standards imbue Western civilizations. But whereas Christian influence has waned recently, the virtues of Judaism continue to permeate every aspect of Israeli society. And one of the cornerstones ingrained in the moral fiber of Israel’s makeup is the sanctity of life—any life.
In His Image
“For over 3,000 years, the Jewish people have lived the Hebrew biblical foundations of the sanctity of life and the dignity of every human being as the image of God,” explains Rabbi David Nekrutman, executive director of the Isaiah Projects. Genesis 1:27 is at the core of the Hebrew expression of Kavod Habriyot, which entails that every person is created in G-d’s image and thus endowed with and deserving of honor and dignity.”
The Talmud (rabbinic commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures), teaches: “Whosoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved the entire world” (Sanhedrin 37a). The Mishna (first written recording of Jewish tradition) gives us even greater detail, “Whoever destroys a single life is considered…to have destroyed the whole world, and whoever saves a single life is considered…to have saved the whole world.”
This value runs like a golden thread through the history of Israel. It is the lens through which Israelis view reality and colors everything from warfare to fields of study.
Consider this: The Jewish nation is tiny, its total citizens less than 1/1000th of the world’s population. Yet its contribution to humanity has been astounding; its innovations touching the areas of mankind’s greatest need. And each one is aimed at saving or prospering a life—so that an entire world is saved.
Children from developing nations receive life-saving treatment in Israel. Around the world, the hungry are fed, droughts defeated, emergency assistance in natural disasters received—all because of Israeli technology and compassion. Physically disabled, burn victims, cancer patients, those suffering Alzheimer’s, diabetes or post-traumatic stress—have all received life-changing help from Israel.
During wartime, Israel drops warning leaflets, makes phone calls and calls off missions in order to preserve civilian life. Yahya Sinwar, architect of the October 7 massacre, received lifesaving surgery in Israel to remove a brain tumor. All this because of the sanctity of life—any life.
Same Evil, Different Generation
In every generation, the world’s ancient hatred manifested in human form to present the Jew as so irreversibly base and brutal that the only remedy was complete annihilation. Sadly, this generation is no different. Yet in a stab at political correctness, antisemitism masquerades as anti-Zionism and calls for complete annihilation of the Jewish state. Matari and her ilk might view themselves as innovative, alerting the world of a troubling truth. Yet they’re merely picking up where Hitler and Haman left off.
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