Is Israel Becoming Dhimmis in Their Own State?

Times of Israel Headline Screams:
“In Israel, Sec. of State Rubio Reaffirms US Ties”  

 

The headline looks harmless enough. A senior American official lands in Israel, flashes smiles, pledges “ironclad” support, and recites the well-rehearsed script of eternal friendship. But beneath the pleasantries lurks a darker question: why does Israel look like the supplicant, waiting for reassurance, as though its sovereignty and survival depend on the blessing of Washington?

Israel was reborn in 1948 so Jews would never again live as dhimmis—a tolerated but humiliated minority, second-class in their own land or any land. Yet reading the headlines, one wonders: have we traded one master for another? Once, Jews looked nervously over the shoulder of the local sultan or czar; today we look toward Foggy Bottom and Capitol Hill.

Of course, Israel needs allies. No nation, especially one surrounded by implacable foes, survives in isolation. But there is a line between alliance and dependency, between partnership and patronage. When every Israeli military move is prefaced by, “Will the Americans approve?”—when every headline trumpets the reassurance of a visiting dignitary rather than the confidence of our own leaders—we risk internalizing the mentality of second-class status.

The irony is painful. In the Arab world, Jews once endured dhimmitude—paying the jizya, bowing their heads, living under the whim of rulers who allowed their existence but never their equality. In the modern State of Israel, founded with blood and faith precisely to end that degradation, headlines now hint at a different but parallel subservience: Jews waiting for the nod from a foreign power before daring to act like a sovereign people.

What does it say about us if Israel’s legitimacy is measured not by its eternal right to the Land of Israel, not by the covenant of Tanach or the sacrifices of our soldiers, but by the reassuring words of an American politician whose tenure will be gone in four years? What happens the day that reassurance is not offered—or worse, is withdrawn?

The danger is not only strategic, but spiritual. A nation that defines itself by foreign approval will inevitably forget its own essence. Israel’s essence is not as a “strategic asset” for America, but as the covenantal homeland of the Jewish people, answerable to Hashem, to history, and to its own people’s destiny.

By all means, let American officials come, shake hands, and reaffirm ties. But Israel’s headlines should not scream with relief at their patronage. They should scream with the confidence of a sovereign nation that knows who it is, why it exists, and Who brought it back to life.

Israel cannot afford to live as dhimmis in its own state. Not before America, not before Europe, not before anyone. We are not guests here. We are home.

 

 REPUBLISHED:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/is-israel-becoming-dhimmis-in-their-own-state/