The end of the Jewish year of 5781 leaves Israel and our allies in the Middle East in a more precarious position than we have witnessed since perhaps June 1967.  Irrespective of what one thinks about America’s presence in Afghanistan, little doubt remains that the chaotic and haphazard U.S. withdrawal was conducted had a devastating regional impact. The enemies of both the United States and Israel feel emboldened and empowered, and our friends are feeling abandoned and betrayed.  

As reported by MEMRI on August 28, 2021, senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk congratulated the Taliban on its victory liberating its people from “colonialism” and “occupation.” 

Iran and the Taliban have often been at odds about the Taliban’s treatment of non-Sunni minorities, nonetheless has congratulated them for their “big and impressive victory” against the United States. 

This past weekend, feeling empowered by the diminished presence of the United States in the region, Hamas initiated a fresh wave of violent protests where hundreds of Gazans rioted, throwing incendiary balloons across the border, burning explosives and causing chaos.  

EMET is in operation not to despair, but to look at the reality of the situation and to convey our analyses and policy recommendations to policymakers and their staffers on Capitol Hill on a near-daily basis. 

As we enter 5782, there are certain rays of hope in the darkness that we are able to convey to our policymakers. 

As the United States departs Afghanistan, we are eradicating our “eyes and ears on the ground.”  That means the United States and her newly-formed Sunni Arab alliances will have to rely even more than they already do on Israel’s stellar intelligence. As evidence of this, one need look no further than the stunning 2018 raid on a Tehran warehouse, where Israeli forces seized approximately 110,000 nuclear related documents in broad daylight. 

It also means Israel’s Sunni Arab allies, who are as threatened by a nuclear Iran as Israel (if not more so) will be relying much more heavily on the Jewish state for their own survival.  

All of this seems to be received on Capitol Hill with eager eyes. 

Having been in Israel during the war in May helps me contextualize to young staffers, giving them a history and a perspective that they have never heard before, of what it is like to have less than 60 seconds to go into a sealed room and to pray for one’s very life. 

I tell them about how Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, in the hopes that they could finally prove to the world how far they would go for peace, even in the absence of a peace partner; about how the rabbis wanted to leave the synagogues, because “after all, we all pray to the same God” and how the greenhouses were left so that “the nascent Palestinian state” would have some sort of economic infrastructure.  

And how these greenhouses and synagogues were all destroyed in an atmosphere of heightened antipathy and chaos. 

We then talk about why the people of Gaza are so intent on destroying the state of Israel. We talk about the education from their antisemitic, jihadist textbooks in the UNRWA schools, which teach them that one day they will return to their great grandfathers' orchards and vineyards in Haifa, perpetuating not the 1967 conflict, but the 1948 war, and condemning these children to never move on from perpetual victimhood. 

And then we tell them about the Izz ad Din al-Qassam Brigade, the terror wing of Hamas, “Pioneers of Liberation” summer camps, where children, beginning in primary school, are indoctrinated with military training and taught how to hold and fire rifles, jump through hoops of fire and abduct Israeli soldiers and civilians. 

Many of the young staffers we meet with have been indoctrinated by professors in their Middle Eastern Studies programs who have given them a highly biased, pro-Palestinian view of the conflict. All of this essential knowledge enables our policymakers to get a better, more balanced understanding of the conflict. 

In order to continue this incredibly important work, we are counting on every one of you for your support. 

As the Jewish New Year is rapidly approaching, we are asking each one of you to support us as much as you can to continue educating U.S. policymakers 

Thank you very much. 

Sincerely, 
Sarah 

Sarah N. Stern 
Founder and President 
Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET)