Hi.
My name is Darren Isenberg. I’m an Australian Master of Ceremonies and Corporate Speaker.
As I write this, I’m not sure who you are, but I know that you probably clicked on this post for one of two reasons. Either:
1. You’re disgusted by its title, because you can’t believe it’s true, or
2. You’re disgusted by its title, because you CAN believe it’s true.
Either way, I’m glad you’re here.
The way things in the Middle East are being talked about these days, it’s getting harder to know what’s true and what’s not. Which is why, as difficult as it is for me to write this post, and as much as it may cost me some friends and business, I felt it was too important for me NOT to write it.
Let me start by saying that, what is happening in Israel and Gaza and the West Bank is a tragedy. The current war may end in weeks or months, but the recovery will be long and difficult and the underlying problems in the region will remain.
And while that’s the case, there are no winners.
I support a two-state solution as the only possible (albeit challenging) path to long-term peace. And I have no idea how we get there from here.
My views may be different to your views. I hope that doesn’t mean you stop reading. In fact, it’s all the more important that if you disagree with me at any stage that you also stick around to the end.
Disagreements don’t get solved by disengagement. They get resolved by being open to listening, learning and discussing.
I think it’s important to point out that I’ve come to my views not through reading angry Facebook posts, memes and Tik-Tok videos (although since October 7 my social media feed is full of these) or by listening to marching mobs in the street but by reading a lot of books over the years and researching what is fact and what is false.
I just hope, if you have opinions on what is happening in the Middle East, that you have also been meticulous and careful when putting together your own views … and are not one of those people who sees something pop into their social media feed and shares it simply because it says something that makes you angry, you agree with and therefore must be true.
Memes, Tik Tok videos and posts on Facebook, Instagram and X don’t have to be based on facts and, in many cases that I’ve seen, they’re simply not, no matter how passionate or genuine the presenter appears to be.
But let me return to the question of why you clicked on this post, because I think that’s important. As I’ve said, whatever the reason, I’m glad you did.
If you clicked because you thought, “This can’t be true. I need to read more”, well done.
Taking things on face value is dangerous these days. We all should be taking a little time and putting a little effort into more fully understanding the things that will be influencing our opinions.
And, if you clicked because you thought, “This COULD be true”, then I’m DOUBLY glad you’re here.
You see, the heading of this article is not just untrue, it is RIDICULOUSLY untrue. An out-and-out lie that most people would have looked at suspiciously.
But YOU, for some reason, thought there was a chance it could be factual.
Why is that? You could tell me a number of different thoughts you had when you did so, but they all basically boil down to this: deep down you have at least a teensy-weensy tendency to think the worst of Jews.
Now, I promise I won’t think the worst of you (even though, clearly, you’re willing to do so of me and my people). Clicking on this post because you thought that it was likely a Jew in Australia would behave in this way doesn’t mean you’re anti-Semitic.
But it certainly means you are open to being one. But, keep reading, as we’ll work that out by the end of this post.
And I thank you because you’ve helped me illustrate the main lesson I want all my readers to learn, which is to REACH FOR FACTS BEFORE REACHING FOR CONCLUSIONS.
So, let’s all agree on some facts.
Firstly, Palestinians are in a terrible situation. Do we all agree on that?
Good. I thought so.
And, just to be clear, by Palestinians I mean the Palestinians in the Palestinian territories – the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
I’m not talking about the Palestinians who ignored the pleas of invading Arab leaders to flee Israel in 1948 and who now are Israeli citizens, living in a democracy, with equal opportunities, rights and freedoms of religion, speech and representation. These almost two million people (who descend from the 150,000 Palestinians who didn’t flee Israel in 1948) don’t all quite have a perfect life, but they are living better lives than Arabs in Palestinian lands … and Arabs in all the other countries in the neighbourhood, which is why when you view the footage of all those mass pro-Palestinian rallies from around the world, you curiously won’t find any featuring them.
That’s also a fact. It’s very easy to find the evidence by Googling “Do Israeli Arabs Want To Live In Palestine?” and avoiding the websites you know are likely to be biased one way or the other.
Let’s also agree on another fact: That there SHOULD be a Palestinian state.
There. I’ve said it. And if you can agree with me and ALSO say, “And there should also be an Israel”, then we’re on the same page.
Unfortunately, many of the pro-Palestinian protestors have great trouble with agreeing to the “and Israel should exist” bit. They claim Jews have no link to the area.
Well, here’s another fact: When I wrote this post there were just twenty shopping days left until that special day of the year where billions of people around the world celebrate the birth (in what I’m guessing was the year 0 BC) of a Jewish man (one of many Jews in the area at the time) in a barn in Bethlehem (VERY near Jerusalem).
So, the Jews have an ancient link to the land and, although they lost control to other powers over the years, they never left. If anyone tells you otherwise just say unto them, “Jesus Christ, you’re talking crap”. I’m sure they’ll see the irony.
But now let’s look into why Palestine doesn’t exist yet.
If you believe what you see in many of the Tik-Tok and Facebook posts, or from the angry voices in the street, you probably think that Israel has prevented it.
So, let’s look at some more facts … you know, at the actual things that happened in history for real … and you’ll see that there’s another side to the story that needs to be heard and taken into account.
There’s a long, complex history in the region, but if we just look at more recent times, you’ll see that between 1517 and 1918, the area was ruled by … come on … you know this one, surely … the Ottoman Turks.
During that time, they made it a priority to create a state of Palestine in the region for their Muslim brothers and in the year …
Hang on. I’m kidding.
The Turks had just over 400 years to get a Palestine up and running. But they didn’t.
Why that was the case (and why it wasn’t even an issue discussed), you’d have to ask them. But it certainly wasn’t anything to do with Israel.
Again, I’m just going by facts here.
But THEN, if you fast-forward to 1947, a wonderful opportunity came along for all those who felt the Arabs in the region deserved their own country. A country to be called Palestine.
The United Nations met on November 29 of that year to vote on EXACTLY THAT ISSUE – whether to create, in 1948, a Palestinian State and a Jewish State from the British Mandate of Palestine (which the Turks handed to the British as a price of losing WWI after siding with the Germans).
For the Jews, as you’d imagine, since Israel was their ancestral and spiritual home, they said, “Yes!” immediately.
That’s a fact.
And the Arabs, as you’d imagine, given how important the creation of a state of Palestine appears to be to them, they also voted “Yes!” immediately.
Of course, I’m kidding again.
If they’d have done that, things would probably be VERY different today in the region.
What ACTUALLY happened was this:
Thirty-three of the 56 nations that were members of the UN at the time voted Yes to the creation of Palestine.
Ten countries abstained.
And thirteen voted “No” to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Want to know which ones they were? Read the list carefully.
- Afghanistan
- Egypt
- Iran
- Iraq
- Lebanon
- Pakistan
- Saudi Arabia
- Syria
- Turkey
- Yemen
- Cuba
- Greece
- India
In other words, with the exception of Cuba, Greece and India, in the very first time the world had offered to create a state of Palestine … every single Arab member of the United Nations actually voted NO.
That sounds too crazy to be a fact, but look it up. When you listen to those nations today it sounds like all they ever wanted for the Palestinians was a home. But every single one of those countries refused to recognise the UN’s vote. (In fact, EVERY time since then that the Palestinians have been offered a state, the Palestinians and their Arab supporters, say no).
Instead, those nations waited until the British troops left and Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948 … and on May 15 troops from almost all of them invaded Israel with the aim of destroying it and all its people.
Yep. That’s another historical fact.
So, a big reason there is no state of Palestine today isn’t because of Israel. Israel was 100% on board with the UN decision.
It’s because the Arab nations voted against it. And then, as soon as they could, they began their 75-year long struggle to eliminate Israel and rid the area of its Jews.
Every time you hear a protestor chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, that’s them saying “Our aim is to get rid of Israel (the land between the river and the sea) and all the Jews. Yes, it’s not a catchy poem. It is a call for genocide of the Jews.
Of course, this doesn’t FULLY explain why there still isn’t a Palestinian state today.
But what it DOES illustrate is that the history of the region is by no means a clear-cut “Israel Bad, Palestinians Good” narrative.
Anyone who paints it otherwise is simply not being honest. And, if they’re not prepared to be honest about that, then you can be sure they’re not being honest when they yell things like “Apartheid Israel”, or “Israel is committing Genocide!”
So, facts are important here … and here’s an interesting one.
Look up which two countries ruled the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank between 1948 and 1967 (remember 1948? The time the UN had said there should be a state of Palestine in those areas?).
I’ll give you a hint. It certainly wasn’t Israel. But they WERE Arab countries who COULD HAVE declared a Palestinian state in any of those 19 years if they’d wanted to. If it was important enough to them.
But, just like the Turks before them, they didn’t. Because it wasn’t.
But I digress. The point I’m trying to make is that, if you listen to just one side of the story of the region, you are going to miss some very important facts.
It also means you’re not going to know when you’re being told some very outrageous lies.
It really pays to do some reading or speak to people who you trust.
That way, if you’re told, “The Jews stole the land from the Arabs”, you’ll be able to say, “No, actually they didn’t”.
Or, if you’re told, “The Jews expelled the Palestinians from Israel in 1948 creating millions of refugees”, you can show them the clip of David ben Gurion, in his declaration of Israeli Independence on May 14, 1948, inviting the Arabs in Israel to stay, live in peace and have equal rights”. (Remember the 150,000 who did, who are now 2 million, living a much better life than those who fled?)
So, IF there are so many facts available that say “Maybe Israel isn’t the whole problem here”, why is it that so many people (including groups with NO ties to Palestine, such as the Greens, teachers, universities, trade unions etc) make such an effort to make it look like it is?
Well, that’s one of the more simple questions to answer in this whole mess. It’s the same reason why some of you clicked on this post.
It’s because some people need to feel that Jews are the cause of problems (because if it’s not the Jews then it would have to be the fault of someone they DON’T dislike).
So, to repeat, whilst the situation in Palestine is terrible, there is no answer to it as simple as, “The Jews are evil”.
If you want to have an opinion on what is happening there, you need to do more than listen to one-sided sloganeering.
If I haven’t convinced you of AT LEAST that, then I’m worried. And I’ll tell you why.
Firstly, it means (I’m sorry to say) that your anti-Semitism is showing.
And, I know, very few people like being accused of being an anti-Semite (they’ll usually say “I’m not anti-Jewish, I’m anti-Israel) but here’s the thing.
If, despite lots of real evidence to the contrary … and the fact you can look at all the other nations in the region where Israel has no influence and see how peaceful and democratic and open and happy they are(n’t) …
If you can look at all that and still say that only Israel (only the country with Jews in it) is to blame for the problems in that region … then you really don’t just have a problem with Israel.
You have a problem with Jews.
(By the way, there used to be over a million Jews living in those Arab countries in the region before 1948, but now somehow there’s just a few thousand. How did that happen? Hello, ethnic cleansing!).
But, here’s the second reason why your bigotry concerns me … and it should concern all fair and open-minded people.
If you choose to believe that Israel is so entirely evil and Jews are incorrigible liars and nothing, not even facts, can get in the way of your opinion, that really doesn’t have any impact on your life. It doesn’t make it better. It doesn’t make it worse.
But it is hugely impactful on the life of me and my family.
You won’t care, because you think somehow I’m responsible for something happening on the other side of the world, but here’s a little snapshot of what it’s like to live in a world where antisemitism exists.
For many years, my children’s school (yes, it is a Jewish one) has had to have armed guards on site.
They’re there not because we want our children to see men with guns every day (we’d rather they didn’t) but because people who believe what you believe have constantly, for years, posed a threat so serious, that we have no choice.
Yes, people who think like you, regularly abuse and threaten people like my children and their schoolmates.
Since October 7, that threat is bigger than ever. My children are now told to cover their school uniform when on public transport, because more and more Jewish people are being harassed in public for being Jewish. By people who think like you.
We are being yelled at on our local streets by people coming in convoys of cars and bikes from other areas of Sydney, simply to intimidate us.
When I go to my synagogue (which is not all that often, sorry God!), I used to make sure I wore my yarmulke (the little skullcap) as I walked there. Now I can’t, for fear that I (and my kids who would be with me) will be abused or even physically harmed.
Since October 7, the explosion of lies being spread about Jews, again, by people who think like you … and the lazy acceptance of those lies, has grown at a frightening pace.
The pro-Palestinian rallies, which barely (if ever) mention peace with Israel, are designed to shout lies loud and shout them often … taking a page out of the Nazi’s playbook (it was Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Minister for Propoganda, who once said, “Repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it”).
And that’s what has me really concerned. Anyone who has read anything about the causes of the Holocaust could tell you that the first stages were an environment of elevated anti-Semitism, mixed in with the spread of propaganda and lies by o vocal minority while a silent majority, who could see things weren’t quite kosher, were too timid to speak up.
Some days I find myself wondering if the changes I’m seeing are what my great-grandparents saw when things began to change in Europe before the Holocaust.
It was slow at first. Just a bit more abuse and harassment than usual. The swirl of lies becoming a bit more vigorous.
And then the next thing my great-grandparents would have noticed was the harassing and boycotting of Jewish businesses and products.
In recent weeks we have begun to see that, too. There have been angry protests outside several Jewish-owned restaurants and businesses (like Anita Ice Cream) … and stickers like these are being placed on the products of businesses owned by Jews.
This was found on the Obela Hommus tubs in the Coles right near where I live:
I wouldn’t be surprised if some people reading this no longer book me for events, because they deep-down don’t like Jews.
The spreading of lies. The boycotting of businesses. What will happen next? Well, in the lead-up to the Holocaust, it was the violence against the Jews.
I don’t want to sit in silence and wait to see if that happens (which is why I’ve written this post). And I hope, as someone who has read this far, that you won’t, either.
So, I’m just asking you to maybe do these four things:
1. Be open to listening to ALL sides of the story
2. Be a bit skeptical when listening to someone whose opening argument in this debate is something that is clearly not true
3. When someone sends you something that screams “Genocide!”, “Apartheid!” or “From the River to the Sea etc” … you know, the sorts of things that are either wrong or themselves genocidal … could you please speak up? Don’t let them pass by without at least a polite challenge. ESPECIALLY if you don’t happen to be Jewish.
4. And reach out to your Jewish friends and colleagues. Whether it’s just a short message to say, “I hope you’re ok”, or a comment when you see them post something about this on social media.
Don’t be part of the silent majority.
Please let me know (by DM or in the comments section) if you’d like an opportunity to hear more or as some questions about the history of the conflict, I’d be happy to put on a Zoom Forum some time in the next couple of weeks, a safe space to discuss what’s going on.
I would also welcome people who hold views very different to mine. As I said earlier, disagreements are never resolved through disengagement.
So, let’ have a discussion, even if we have to agree to disagree.
Agreed?
Now I’m off to the supermarket to buy some Obela Hommus.