When the MS St. Louis sailed desperate circles in the Atlantic in 1939, carrying 937 Jewish refugees begging for sanctuary, America turned its back. When 32 nations gathered at the Évian Conference in 1938 to discuss the Jewish refugee crisis, they offered nothing but empty words and closed doors. When Switzerland tightened its borders in 1942, when Britain slammed shut the gates to Palestine, when America's immigration quotas left Jews to die – we learned the bitter price of having nowhere to go.
Today, every Jew living safely in the diaspora must look those historical facts in the face and acknowledge an uncomfortable truth: Your security, your very existence, rests on the shoulders of young Israeli soldiers standing guard at this very moment. While you attend your comfortable synagogues in New York or London, while your children freely wear Stars of David to school in Paris or Montreal, the Israel Defense Forces ensure that never again will Jews be trapped with nowhere to turn.
The Immigration Act of 1924 that doomed countless Jews? It cannot touch you now. The turned backs of 32 nations at Évian? They don't matter anymore. The British White Paper restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine? A relic of history.
Why? Because Israel exists. Because its soldiers serve. Because young men and women sacrifice their youth to guarantee that every Jew, everywhere, has a final refuge that can never be denied.
Those who criticize Israel from the comfort of the diaspora conveniently forget the MS St. Louis, forced to return its passengers to Europe and likely death. They forget how economic concerns and anti-Semitic sentiments led nations to abandon us. They forget that pretty words and promises meant nothing when hatred rose.
Every Jew who lives safely outside Israel's borders carries a debt written in the blood of those who couldn't escape, who found every door closed, who discovered too late that goodwill evaporates in the face of crisis. That debt is now paid daily by Israel's defenders, who stand ready to ensure such a tragedy can never happen again, who know that their service, especially now, could carry with it a death sentence, whose bodies continue to fill the graves of Mount Herzl military cemetery.
Your gratitude must be absolute. Your support must be unwavering. Because those young soldiers aren't just defending a country – they're defending the promise that never again will Jews beg for refuge and find none. Never again will we circle the globe in ships, begging for sanctuary. Never again will we rely on the goodwill of others for our survival.
The next time you hear someone in your comfortable diaspora community questioning Israel's defenders, remind them of the 32 nations at Évian who offered nothing but excuses. Remind them of the MS St. Louis. Remind them of Switzerland's closed borders and Britain's White Paper.
Then ask them: Where would you turn if it happened again?
The answer stands guard in Israel, right now, at this very moment.
So yes sure, we Israelis appreciate your visits, as you much on bamba and go to the Kotel and buy ridiculously expensive trinkets in Ben Yehuda. But then you pack your bags and head back to Walmart and Target and a cushy American existence.
We, in Israel, don't though. Not because we are forced but because we realize the insane privilege of living in this ancient blessed land. But that comes at a price. It's a price you don't want to think about, not really. It's a price that is paid in graves and funerals and broken dreams, in shattered families.
You do not get a free pass when it comes to looking this truth in its face.
