Dr. Martin Luther King: The Jews and Israel
Monday, January 15, 2024, Americans will celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday for the 38th time. On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the King Holiday Bill designating the third Monday in January a federal holiday to observe the civil rights leader’s birthday.
King was a powerful voice against racism and civil rights. For Jews, he was our ally against antisemitism and a secure Israel. During the last hundred days, since Hamas’ barbaric attack against the Jewish people, his calming voice and support has been greatly missed. Unlike so many others, King would not have ignored Hamas’ barbarism against Israeli girls and women who were subjected to gang rape and sexual assaults.
Fifty years ago, nearly to the day, Egyptian and Syrian forces launched the Yom Kippur War, a war Israel won and culminated in the return of the entire Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in exchange for lasting peace. But peace did not last long. Launched at dawn on Simchat Torah, the Hamas siege was the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust. Hamas savages killed more than 1300 innocents—slaughtering babies, raping women, burning families alive, and took hundreds of civilians hostage.
Due to those events unfolding in Israel, antisemitism has run rampant world-wide. What would Dr. King have said? During the 1968 annual Rabbinical Assembly held at the Concord Hotel in New York’s Catskill mountains, Dr. King was invited to speak. He said, “Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, and its territorial integrity.”
King also said, “Israel is one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy.”
I doubt he’d endorse the Palestinian catch-all phrase, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.” It’s an antisemitic rallying cry which calls for Israel’s destruction and the creation of the State of Palestine erasing Israel off the map. Is this what the people of the world really want? Israeli companies developed Microsoft Windows, Intel computer chips, instant messaging, the cellular telephone, and many medical devices. During its 75 years as a state, Israel has given the world the USB Flashdrive, Drip Irrigation, the PillCam, and the Flexible Stent. And the Jewish people gave us a monotheistic religion, the Ten Commandments, and the Torah. The Israeli nation has one of the highest levels of education in the world and ranks among the top countries with the most engineers, scientists, and PhD holders per capita. Do we really want to drown all of this in the Mediterranean Sea?
In the United States, Jews make up 2.4% of the population but are facing 50% of the religiously motivated hate crimes. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), since the Hamas War began, antisemitic incidents against Jews in the United States, a country we believed to be a sanctuary and our home, has increased 300%. This includes physical assaults, harassment, and vandalism of synagogues and community centers. According to ADL CEO Jonathan Greensblatt, “The American Jewish Community is facing a threat level that’s unprecedented in modern history.” In response to the attacks, Jewish communities across the country are ramping up security.
Since Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack, hostility towards Jews has escalated. A globalized intifada has been declared against the Jewish People. Protestors are marching through U.S. cities celebrating the barbaric violation of Jews in Israel. And to add insult to injury, they blame Jews for the atrocities! It’s the Jews’ fault this is happening. To punish us Arabs have beat up Jews in Brooklyn, NY., a Jewish man was killed during a protest in Thousand Oaks, California and Jewish homes, restaurants, and institutions have been vandalized, and bomb threats against Jewish organizations has become ubiquitous.
David Hazony, an American born Israeli writer, editor, and translator, said, “War has been launched against the Jewish people.” What would Dr. King have said about this war against the Jews? When King addressed the American Jewish Committee convention in 1958, he discussed the similarities between the Jews and African Americans. “My people were brought to America in chains. Your people were driven here to escape the chains fashioned for them in Europe. Our unity is born of our common struggle for centuries, not only to rid ourselves of bondage, but to make oppression of any people by others an impossibility.”
At the May, 1958 address to the National Biennial Convention of the American Jewish Congress King said, “There are Hitlers loose in America today, both in high and low places… As the tensions and bewilderment of economic problems become more severe, history(‘s) scapegoats, the Jews, will be joined by new scapegoats, the Negroes. The Hitlers will seek to divert people’s minds and turn their frustration and anger to the helpless, to the outnumbered. Then whether the Negro and Jew shall live in peace will depend upon how firmly they resist, how effectively they reach the minds of the decent Americans to halt this deadly diversion…”
Because Israel had the audacity to defend itself and prevent a future pogrom from ever happening again, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) invaded Gaza. It’s difficult fighting an enemy that uses innocent civilians as cover in hiding their military outposts under hospitals, elementary schools, and other civilian buildings. The result has been over 22,000 human beings dead because of Hamas’ wretched leadership.
Dr. King would have been appalled by the death toll in Gaza, and as a pacifist, call upon peacekeepers to formulate an acceptable plan to stop the carnage. For any peace efforts to take root, King would call for the Palestinian people to face their poor leadership choices and work a plan of self-governance without the corrupt Hamas and PLO as their guides.
All non-Jews need to show their semitic buddies that they are there for them. Read up on the history of the Arab/Jewish conflict to see both sides of the story, but to blame an American Jew for events unfolding today in Israel is foolish and divisive. As Dr. King once said, “If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.” Hopefully, we will emerge from this conflict and follow Dr. King’s recommendation.
