The two men sat in a dimly lit corner of a Boston lounge, the low hum of the city filtering through the glass. David watched his friend, Moses, stir his drink. They hadn’t seen each other in a few years, and the atmosphere felt heavier than their college days.
“It’s a great name, you know,” David said, breaking the silence. “Moses. It carries a lot of weight.”
Moses gave a self-deprecating smile. “It’s biblical. Hebrew. My parents weren't exactly subtle.” He paused, leaning in as if to offer a necessary clarification. “But look, I want to be clear—I’m an atheist. And I want you to know there’s a massive difference between being Jewish and being a Zionist. I don't want people thinking I support what’s happening over there.”
David set his glass down slowly. “Moses, Judaism isn’t just a confession of faith you can resign from. It’s a civilization. It’s an ethnicity. You can be as secular as you like, but atheism doesn’t exempt you from being part of a people. As Chaim Weizmann, the first President of Israel, once said, ‘Jerusalem is ours by a right which is not written in the books of the nations, but is engraved in our hearts.’ You’re part of that history whether you acknowledge it or not.”
Moses sighed. “I just can’t get behind the idea of a state built on someone else's land. It feels... wrong.”
David leaned forward, his voice calm but firm. “Let’s actually look at the history, man. You talk about ‘stolen land,’ but do you know the demographics of the early 20th century? There was Jewish immigration, yes, but there was a massive, simultaneous Arab migration into the region because of the economic opportunities Jews were creating. It wasn't a vacant paradise or a sovereign nation; it was a neglected Ottoman province.
“And consider the name,” David continued. “Why was Judea renamed ‘Palaestina’ by the Romans in 135 CE? It was a punitive act to erase Jewish identity after the Bar Kochba revolt. If you’re against colonialism, why side with the Roman colonialists who tried to rename a people’s home out of spite?”
Moses remained silent, staring at his drink.
“You know the word Nakba,” David said. “But do you know the 1947 UN Partition Plan? The Jews accepted a tiny sliver of land to finally have a refuge. The Arab leadership rejected it and launched a war of annihilation the very next day. There are documented archives from Egypt and Jordan in 1948 where leaders urged Arab civilians to leave ‘temporarily’ so their armies could sweep through and ‘clear’ the Jews out. They promised they could return in days. The displacement was a result of a war they started to prevent a Jewish state from existing.”
“But the connection to the land,” Moses argued, “it feels so ancient. Does it really apply today?”
“It’s not just the Bible, Moses. It’s the dirt. The Tel Dan Stele from the 9th century BCE mentions the ‘House of David.’ The Merneptah Stele from 1208 BCE identifies Israel as a people in Canaan. Even the Arch of Titus in Rome shows Roman soldiers carrying the Menorah away from the destroyed Temple. As David Ben-Gurion famously said to the British Peel Commission: ‘The Bible is our Mandate. The Bible which was written by us, in our own language, in this very land, is our Mandate.’
"And if you don't like the Bible, look at the DNA. Peer-reviewed studies show that Jews—whether they’re from Ethiopia, India, or Europe—are more genetically linked to each other and the Levant than to the populations they lived among in the Diaspora. We aren’t ‘white Europeans’ colonizing the Middle East. Most Israelis are Mizrahi and Sephardic—refugees from Arab and Muslim lands.”
Moses shifted uncomfortably. “I just think people have a right to the land they live on. If it was taken by force, it should be returned.”
“If we follow that logic,” David countered, “we have to leave Boston tonight. This land was taken from indigenous tribes. Australia was colonized. Half of Europe changed hands through conquest. If the rule is that land taken by war must be returned to the ‘original’ owners, then no border on earth is valid. So, are you moving back to wherever your ancestors were before New York? Or does this hyper-moral standard only apply to the one sliver of land where Jews have self-determination?”
Moses hesitated. “I believe in open borders. Everyone should be able to go anywhere.”
“Then why,” David asked, “didn’t Jews have the right to migrate back to Judea? You believe a person should be able to move anywhere on earth, except for a Jew going back to his ancestral home? That’s a glaring double standard, Moses.”
David took a breath, his voice lowering. “In 2000, Ehud Barak offered Arafat nearly everything—95% of the West Bank, all of Gaza, and a capital in East Jerusalem. Arafat walked away and started a suicide bombing campaign. In 2008, Olmert offered Abbas even more. Abbas never even called him back. In 2005, Israel left Gaza entirely. No occupation, no settlers. What did they get? A rocket launchpad.
“This isn’t a territorial dispute. For the other side, it’s a theological one. The doctrine of Dar al-Islam teaches that once a land is under Islamic rule, it belongs to Islam forever. A Jewish state isn't a political grievance; it’s a religious impossibility to them. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, ‘When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism.’ He understood that denying Jews the right to their home is a unique form of prejudice.”
Moses shook his head. “I still think the Zionists are the biggest problem in the world right now.”
David felt a sting of frustration. “How can you say that? I’m Israeli, Moses. My family came from Iran, India, and Tunisia. They lived as second-class citizens—dhimmi—paying the jizya tax for the ‘privilege’ of not being killed. They kept our culture alive for two thousand years in the face of constant persecution. When they returned to Israel, they weren't colonialists; they were survivors coming home.
"You see me and think ‘white and privileged’ because that’s the narrative Qatari-funded PR firms and campus activists have fed you. They’ve spent billions to make the world believe Israel is a European colonial project so they can justify its destruction. They want you to ignore the fact that Hamas’s own charter calls for the murder of every Jew on earth.”
David stood up, preparing to head out. “Moses, don’t settle for a narrative that was built to erase you. Learn the history. Read the archaeology. Trace the money behind the slogans. As Natan Sharansky said, ‘Zionism is the idea that the Jewish people have a right to their own home. If you don't believe that, you don't believe in the basic rights of all people.’
"Ignorance isn't a virtue, especially when the cost of that ignorance is the safety of your own people. Next time we grab a drink, let’s talk facts, not slogans.”
