The events and tragedy of October 7 were not isolated to that fateful day. The pain has unfolded across days, months and now, a year. Because October 7 is ongoing, not merely a historical event, it remains transformative and all too current.
As an Israeli Jew, I have felt under attack ever since October 7. It’s not only my Israeliness that is targeted, but also my very Jewishness, as antisemitism has taken hold in my beloved adopted country, the US, and in my beloved adoptive city, New York.
Today, my 12-year-old son does not dare share his Jewish and Israeli identities at school. My Israeli wife is reluctant to read in Hebrew on the subway, just like she was when riding the metro in Paris when we lived there. I cannot help but see parallels between the wave of antisemitism in France in the early 2000s and what we experience in the US today.
My worry, having experienced antisemitism in France, is that it is very difficult to make the hatred unacceptable once it has been normalized, as it has been in certain circles in the US. I am grateful for the strong response by the Biden administration and sincerely hope we’ll not endure the same pain as we did in France.
Antisemitism is all the more poisonous when it turns into a tendency to see antisemitism everywhere, even in good faith criticisms of the Israeli government and its policies. Dangerously, the more antisemitism is weaponized, the more it is trivialized. If everything is antisemitic, then nothing is, and actual antisemitism may not be addressed.
So too does the weaponization of antisemitism tend to silence legitimate criticism of the worst government in Israeli history, its most extreme and its most incompetent, in a time when the Israeli people face the biggest threat in their country’s existence.
The world has changed since October 7, and some of my opinions have as well. The pursuit of a political solution remains critical, but real fears exist in Israel, and they cannot be dismissed. I believe that the best way to pursue peace is by addressing them and reassuring Israelis that their fears are to be taken seriously.
The sense of dread and distress about the very thought of losing the State of Israel has made me even more of a Zionist than before October 7. And I believe the future of Israel depends on a political solution more than ever before as well.
I continue to fight in the US, in Israel and in my native country of France, against antisemitism, for a loving but open-eyed relationship between Jews in Israel and the Diaspora, and for a political horizon to secure the long-term future of the State of Israel.
This piece is part of a series of reflections from the J Street community. Read the rest of the reflections here.