As peace talks in the Middle East continue for yet another week with little progress, a central question looms large in the minds of many: Why should we care about Israel? It seems like a fair question. Why should we bother learning about Israeli history? Why should we seek to understand the nuances of a conflict that is seemingly without end? It is, admittedly, far easier to silently support Israel, or even turn a blind eye, than to vocally defend her. So why bother?
The answer is simple; because if we do not, we - not as Jews, but as humanitarians - have lost our place in the world. The world has been increasingly condemnatory toward Israel in a way that is frightening not just for the existence of the Jewish State, but perhaps more ominously, for the future of human rights and freedom. Israel is one of the only nations in the Middle East that accepts refugees from Darfur; the only nation that offers more than 300 courses on water management, emergency medicine and refugee absorption for emerging nations annually; the only nation that has built hospitals and treatment facilities in nations of individuals who have sworn to destroy her; and the only nation in the Middle East where Arab women are free and equal in the eyes of the law. It is also the only nation that is condemned an average of 18 times per year by the United Nations Human Rights Commission. The Commission has passed negligible resolutions against a number of countries, such as Turkey, which refuses to admit its part in one of the most grievous genocidal campaigns in human history - second only to the Holocaust; Iran, where women are legally murdered by their fathers because they are too Western or too "loose;" Sudan, which has, through a terrifying program of government sponsored mass-murder, slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Africans; and China, which has been terrorizing illegally occupied Tibet for years. When Israel responds to more than 10,000 rocket attacks from Gaza with military force, though, "human rights" officials have no problem labeling that "genocide," all the while letting the real genocides and human rights violations go unresolved
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