'Israel’s War of Self-Defense': Capturing a nation in despair - book review
Alan Silverstein, a rabbi and PhD in political science, has written a 235-page book addressing every anti-Israel canard.
The funeral of Eliyahu Moshe Zimbalist, a 21-year-old soldier killed in southern Lebanon during the current war(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)ByHAROLD GOLDMEIERUpdated: Non-Israelis seem incapable of understanding the depth and despair we have suffered daily since the October 7, 2023, attack. Unprovoked violent racism by Palestinians who chose war over peace, barbarism over humanity. There is no room for forgiveness. The world blames the victims.
We are a forlorn nation with grief in our pits. Israel feels alone, distanced from humanitarian world leaders and media, and pursued by profiteers tormenting us with falsehoods and accusations. We are drenched in agony.
We are angry at our leaders. We lash out at a former US president who, reluctantly, resupplied our armed forces but declared, “I am a Zionist.” We wait for the wrath of hell the new president swore is coming. We are seething with anger at every instigator of antisemitism overseas and those who defend evil. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Lannan Foundation, The Proteus Fund, and many others are reportedly financing many anti-Israel protesters and harassing Jews.
Half the number of hostages and many of those slaughtered by the Palestinians are foreign nationals; their national leaders have forsaken them.
Israelis and the Jewish people are small in number. There is little more we can do than defend ourselves. In memory of the strangulation of the Bibas children, Israelis give no quarter to talk of a Palestinian state. General Moshe Dayan allegedly observed that Israel is too small to defeat unified Arab armies, but we can make them bleed. The government has unanimously decided to do more, to obliterate the attackers and perhaps sacrifice any living Israeli hostages, as commanders have done in all wars.
Israel’s War of Self-Defense, Rabbi Alan Silverstein, Gefen Publishing House, 160 pages; $18 (credit: Courtesy)
On the attack
Alan Silverstein, a rabbi and PhD in political science, has written a 235-page book addressing every anti-Israel canard. Every Israel advocate, no matter how ignorant of the history of the Palestinian-Israel issue and post-October 7 slanders, can find truth in slanderous fiction. Israel’s War of Self-Defense (Gefen Publishing House, 2025) ought to be gifted to every Birthright participant, given free at every Hillel and Chabad house, evangelical church gift shops, gifted to tourists visiting the state, and attendees at Middle East conferences around the world.
Israel boasts 8,600 sq. miles, standing 150th out of 200 for its size. The population is over 10 million, giving Israel a global ranking of 98 among the 200. Muslims, Christians, and Druze comprise 20%, Jews 74%, and other faiths and ethnicities about 5%. Its military has the 17th-most powerful firepower. Israel is a world leader in advanced technology, its air force and special forces are among the best in the world, and the Mossad and Shin Bet receive the highest accolades from global spy and intelligence agencies.
Less spoken about are the more than 75,000 charities and nonprofits serving every kind of cause. They raise about $7 billion annually compared to the $558 billion that American charities raised in 2023.
Silverstein attributes a shift in polling data, suggesting that favorability numbers for Israel are slipping among Gen Z. They get their news from short clips on social media which are frequently sponsored. Silverstein points out that the Right and the Left decry academic studies in “religion, the humanities, and philosophy.” It is fashionable to consider these subjects a waste of time and tuition. It is these subjects that develop a moral compass in students.
Western civilization thinkers and America’s founders were morally educated and largely set a standard of behavior of truth and justice. Silverstein quotes one thinker who charges that without religion, the humanities, and philosophy in favor of “business, technology, economics… the opportunity to think, to debate with individual people who differ with you, and thereby confront the big questions of life,” erodes. Science and technology are cold and heartless. What is medicine without bedside manner?
Israel’s War of Self-Defense is a far more useful book than the David Friedman manifesto, One Jewish State. However, they complement each other. In the end, both authors can only foresee a one-state solution and the annihilation of Hamas. Silverstein claims no deal is worth another Jewish sacrifice. His closing chapter captures the position of most Israelis after October 7: “A Two-State Solution Is Not Possible.” The tragedy is that the hostages are other people’s children. Our son, a former sergeant in the IDF, is dead, though not in fighting; some of our oldest grandchildren and nephews have been in this war, and our three youngest were called to duty. Sacrifice is a haunting, awful memory.■
Dr. Goldmeier teaches at Touro College Jerusalem. He is an award-winning entrepreneur, receiving the Governor’s Award for family investment programs in the workplace from the Commission on the Status of Women. He was a Research and Teaching Fellow at Harvard. He is a managing partner of an investment firm, a business management consultant, a public speaker on business, social, and public policy issues, and has taught international university students in Tel Aviv.
Israel’s War of Self-Defense, Rabbi Alan Silverstein, Gefen Publishing House, 160 pages; $18
