THE BIG RED SIGN OF HATE

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

Tom Trento, Director, The United West.

It must have been the third or fourth request before I finally gave in to one of the folks on my tour group and agreed to have the bus driver pull over so that we could get “up close and personal” with the big red sign of hate. As we got off the bus and my group got closer to this simple steel sign it did not take long for the impact of the words, “dangerous – forbidden – against the law,” to touch the heart and soul of clear-thinking people. As confusion turned to anger and then to sadness some of the folks asked me, “Tom, how can this be? How are Israelis not allowed to travel on the other side of this sign, which is still Israel?”

My answer was simple even though the world has made the issue complex. I said it all comes down to, hate. There are people in this world who hate Jews and always will, regardless of land swaps or United Nations payoffs. Then I explained that the Israelis would love nothing more than for this sign to come down and the people on each side of it to travel as they choose in a peaceful, rational, humane manner.

At that point reality started to sink in as my group of pro-Israel Jews and Christians on a national security educational mission realized that the big red sign of hate necessitated an Israeli public policy that prioritized the security of its citizens over the elusive and often foolish quest for peace. This is particularly true with people who are determined to hate with or without the big red sign of hate standing as a clarion of absurdity in the beauty of the Holy Land.

Just before we were about to board the bus after this existential encounter I decided to record a very short video that illustrated the crass stupidity of the big red sign of hate. Without any rehearsal, preproduction or fancy lighting I simply pointed out the obvious contradiction that escapes the “Israel-is-an-apartheid-state” crowd who scream and protest so loudly that foolish people actually think it’s true.

In an upside-down world it is the wise person who gets beyond the foolish, hateful thinking and finds the truth, which inexorably leads to standing with Israel in this epic battle of our lifetime. It is to that end that my team and I are dedicated, in spite of the big red sign of hate.