Eliyahu Gasson | opinions editor

Growing up Jewish in America means believing in the Zionist project. Israel is a major part of the Jewish identity, seen as a refuge in case life in the United States ever got as bad for us as it did in other parts of the world. A considerable amount of my time in middle school was spent learning about the Holocaust and how the Jewish diaspora could never truly be safe.

Israel passed a “law of return” in 1950 which guarantees citizenship to anyone with a Jewish grandparent, so if push did come to shove, we had an easy out.

I believed these things, but not anymore. Since Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, it’s become harder to hold faith in Israel as a protector of the Jewish people.

Sure, Israel has taken in many Jewish people who were facing violence and discrimination in their home countries, especially from Russia, northern Africa and the Middle East. But so has the U.S. And yes, Jews have faced discrimination the U.S., but so do Jewish immigrants in Israel, especially Mizrahi Jews who have faced systematic discrimination at the hands of the Ashkanazi elite, not to mention the worse mistreatment of Israeli Arabs.

There is nowhere on Earth that provides a perfect escape from violence, not even Israel. And now, with the continuing war in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas, the Jewish state is not only endangering its own citizens, but also American Jews.

The Israeli government has continued to escalate it’s displacement and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, leveling cities, bombing schools and hospitals and leading civilians on marches away from their now destroyed homes — atrocities which have been put on full display on social media.

The blatant disregard the Israeli government has for the Palestinians and the easily available evidence of said disregard has given rise to protests which are spiritually anti-Zionist but often appear as antisemitic attacks.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitism has become more prevalent in the U.S. since the war started.

On Oct 17, a synagogue in New Jersey received a message that read: “Nothing nicer than seeing dead Jews littered on the concert ground like the trash you are. May Christ grant victory to the Arabs to exterminate you Yiddish [expletive] from the face of the Earth …”

On April 1, an anti-Israel protest took place at another New Jersey synagogue, Bnai Yeshurun, where protesters shouted “go back to Europe” at Jewish people.

In August, a fire was set outside the Jewish Museum in Baltimore. Canter’s Deli, a Jewish-owned business in Los Angeles, was defaced with anti-Israel graffiti.

Here in Pittsburgh, two students at the University of Pittsburgh were attacked by a 52-year-old man named Jarrett Bubba. The students were wearing yarmulkes and Bubba was wearing a keffiyeh, a Middle Eastern headscarf that has become a symbol of Palestinian identity and resistance to Israeli occupation and persecution.

But Israel is even less safe. The country is surrounded by states and militias that are either outwardly antagonistic or indifferent to their Jewish neighbors, and it has been since its founding in 1948. On Oct. 7, Hamas militants abducted 251 people from southern Israel, many of whom were there for a music festival. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, 65% of Israelis have immediate access to a bomb shelter, a system that has been built up over decades due to repeated missile attacks. Iran launched about 200 missiles in October, Hezbollah in Lebanon launched about 250 rockets in November and the Houthis in Yemen have launched close to 220 since the start of the Israel-Hamas war alone.

It’s time to admit that the Zionist project as failed. In its 76 years as a country, Israel has failed to keep Jews safe and has added untold levels of suffering to the region. Its treatment of Palestinians has put a target on the backs of diasporic Jews who have nothing to do with the actions of the Israeli government, which has only moved further to the right and closer to ethnonationalism as time has progressed.

What’s more irritating is that one would think that Jews, with our history of being persecuted in Europe, especially Nazi Germany, would have some level of sympathy for the Palestinian Arabs who have been displaced and killed in the name of a Jewish homeland.

But there is no going back now. Israel has committed to what it is by continuously voting for political parties that espouse nationalism and antagonism toward Arabs, even those in Israel. The solution has to be one that guarantees the safety of everyone in the region, and it seems that the Arabs in the region want the destruction of the Jews as much as the Jews want the destruction of the Arabs.

So, it looks like we’re stuck. Israel has no intention of letting the Palestinians live freely in an independent state, Iran and its proxies don’t want Israel to exist as an independent state, and none of them have the capability, at least right now, to crush the other. The most we can do, at least we who care about the wellbeing of others, is hope that as few people die as is possible and rescind our support for Israel, at least in its current form.