Letter: Examining Ed Kass’s Claims on Israel’s Leaders and Historical Parallels

Dear editor:

Ed Kass quotes Kohelet and tells us that nothing changes. (Opinion: Zealotry and Arrogance: Our Historical Recipe for Self-Destruction Alive and Well, BJN 9/2/2025) He claims modern Israelis are acting just as badly as ancient Israelites did, meaning that the modern State of Israel is sure to fall due to the malfeasance of its leaders. After all, Kass reminds us, Kohelet teaches “There is nothing new under the sun”.

But Israel’s rebirth is a unique accomplishment. No people other than the Jews have managed to return to their ancestral homeland, reclaim its ancient tongue, and fulfill a divine commandment to be a Light Unto the Nations. In its earliest days, even when food was being rationed, Israel absorbed and uplifted Holocaust survivors and Mizrachi Jews who had been thrust from their homes in the Muslim countries of the Middle East and North Africa by Arab leaders ashamed that their armies had failed to prevent the emergence of the Jewish state. And, in less than one century, Israel became the Start Up Nation, developing a military power capable of protecting its people from the evil intentions of its neighbors, and sharing its innovations in agriculture, water management, and technology with the world.

Kass disputes the traditional explanation for the fall of ancient Israel and the destruction of the Temple: Sinat Chinam (causeless hatred), blaming, instead  zealotry and arrogance, both of which he claims to see in modern Israel’s leaders and military personnel.

While I cannot judge the accuracy of Kass’ assertions that ancient Israelites brought about their own destruction, I can definitely differ with his analysis of more recent events. Kass asserts that “Palestine was not an empty land” when modern Zionists began returning to Eretz Yisrael (then dubbed the Southern Syrian Administrative District of the Ottoman Empire). True, the land wasn’t “empty” but it was poorly developed and sparsely populated. Many of the people who today call themselves “Palestinians” descend from families which migrated to Palestine only after Zionist activity had improved the area’s living standards.

https://israeled.org/zionist-jewish-economic-development-in-palestine-before-1948

Kass is also incorrect in implying that Israel denies the suffering (nakba) of the Arabs as Arab nations fought to prevent Israel’s rebirth. Certainly some Arabs simply left Palestine as its leaders turned their attention to preventing the establishment of a Jewish state on the land of the defunct Ottoman Empire but, certainly, there were also Arabs who lost their homes during the actual fighting. However, the true tragedy for the displaced Arabs is that the Arab League told its member states to deny citizenship to them and to their descendants. While Israel absorbed and uplifted 800,000 Mizrachi Jews driven from their homes in the Muslim nations of the Middle East and North Africa, fewer than 700,000 displaced Arabs have grown into 6,000,000 Palestine refugees on UNRWA’s rolls, told that they will remain in refugee limbo until Israel can be forced to allow them to return to the homes fhe “refugees” claim their forebears lost in what became Israel in 1948. With the refugees having been taught that killing Jews is a Muslim’s ticket to Heaven, this is an obvious plot to turn Israel into a Muslim-majority state where no Jew would be safe.

https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2018/07/06/expose-the-palestinian-refugee-scam

I also differ with Kass on his views of the Six Day War. Kass implies that Israel chose to go to war in an attempt to gain control of land that was, indeed, part of ancient Israel.  He ignores the fact that Egypt and Syria instigated the war with the open intent of destroying Israel and annihilating its people. Israel urged Jordan to stay out of the fight, but Jordanian forces fired on Israeli-controlled western Jerusalem and the Six Day War was Israel’s response. As Kass points out, holding Gaza, eastern Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria could create a demographic problem for Israel. But he fails to mention that, shortly after the end of the war, Israel offered to withdraw from newly liberated lands in return for recognition and peace. But the Arab League flatly rejected the offer.

https://www.sixdaywar.org/immediate-aftermath/the-3-nos-of-khartoum/

I have no idea how many Arabs thus found themselves living in Israel but I am sure that they have full civil rights and I hope they appreciate the gift of living in the Nation-State of the Jews which gives its non-Jewish residents those civil rights

In closing, I have to admit that I agree with Kass on one thing–the concerns of the border watchers should not have been ignored in October, 2023. But, “once burned; twice cautious.” I hope Israeli leaders have learned from their mistake.

Toby F. Block
Atlanta, GA