By Alister Heath
There’s something about Israel that makes people uncomfortable, and it’s not what they say it is.
They’ll point to politics, settlements, borders, and wars. But scratch beneath the outrage, and you’ll find something deeper.
A discomfort not with what Israel does, but with what Israel is.
A nation this small should not be this strong. Period.
Israel has no oil. No special natural resources.
A population barely the size of a mid-sized American city.
They are surrounded by enemies.
And still, they thrive like there’s no tomorrow.
In military. In medicine. In security.
In technology. In agriculture. In intelligence. In morality. In sheer, unbreakable will.
They survive wars that were supposed to wipe them out, and win.
The world watches this and can’t make sense of it.
So, they do what people do when they witness strength they can’t understand.
They assume it must be cheating.
It must be American aid.
It must be oppression.
It must be theft.
Because heaven forbid it’s something else.
Heaven forbid it’s real.
Heaven forbid it’s earned.
Or worse, destined.
The Jewish people were supposed to disappear a long, long time ago.
That’s how the story of exiled, enslaved, hated minorities is supposed to end.
But the Jews didn’t disappear. They actually came home, and rebuilt their land.
That’s not normal.
It’s not political.
It’s biblical.
There is no rational path from gas chambers to global influence.
And there is no historical precedent for surviving the Babylonians, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Inquisition, the pogroms, and the Holocaust.
Israel doesn’t make sense.
Unless you believe in something beyond the math.
This is what drives the world crazy.
Because if Israel is real, if this improbable, ancient, hated nation is somehow still chosen, protected, and thriving, then maybe G-d isn’t a myth after all.
Maybe He’s still in the story.
Maybe history isn’t random.
Maybe evil doesn’t get the last word.
Maybe the Jews are not just a people, but a testimony.
That’s what they can’t stand.
Because once you admit that Israel’s survival isn’t just impressive, but divine, everything changes.
Your moral compass has to reset.
Your assumptions about history, power, and justice collapse.
You realize you’re not watching the end of an empire.
You’re witnessing the beginning of something eternal.
So, they deny it.
They smear it.
And rage against it.
Because it’s easier to call a miracle “cheating” than to face the possibility that G-d keeps His promises.
And He’s keeping them still.
Reprinted from the July 3, 2025 email of Rabbi Shraga Freedman. Alister Heath, a French-British journalist for the Daily Telegraph:
