‘Never Again’ means putting Israel first

Since its establishment, life in Israel has resembled a grim trade-off…writes Odelia Kedmi.

In return for the right to live as Jews in the one and only Jewish state, we have been expected to surrender something far more basic, our right to live in safety.

From birth, Israelis enter into an unspoken agreement, one that demands we normalise existential threats. We are told it was our fate. That there is no alternative. That is the cost of living in the Jewish homeland.

And so, we become desensitised. A stabbing in a supermarket parking lot no longer shocks us. We live by missile-alert apps and concealed-carry firearms for self-defence. A semi-normal life under the constant shadow of terror.

But one must ask, is there any other Western democracy whose citizens have lived in such chronic fear for 77 years and still managed to flourish, to prosper, to advance against all odds?

Each year, we recite from the Passover Haggadah: “In every generation, they rise against us to annihilate us.” Today, the Iranian regime funnels billions of dollars at the expense of its citizens into its obsession with wiping Israel off the map.

But even if we accept that the Jewish people will always have a sworn enemy, must we also accept that our lives will be lived according to the enemy’s terms?

The massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, presented the people of Israel with a painful opportunity to re-evaluate the disastrous “deal” that we passively signed with our homeland.

On that Black Shabbat, our enemies exposed our soft underbelly with devastating precision. Yes, we may take pride in the subsequent military responses, but we must confront a sobering fact: For more than 24 hours, a part of sovereign Israel was conquered, not by elite forces, but by elderly men with canes and cheering children in flip-flops.

Nearly two years later, we remain entangled in Gaza, seemingly without direction.

After the Holocaust, we swore “Never Again.” On Oct. 7, that promise was broken. Can we look the children of Israeli victims, or our own children, in the eye and honestly say we’ve done everything in our power to uphold that vow?

The answer, I fear, is no.

To secure the future of Israel and our children, we must embrace a fundamental shift in mindset. If we mean “Never Again,” then we must enforce that. This means Israel’s interests must come first. Without apology.

This philosophy requires a 180-degree turn from how we have been conditioned to think. Put simply, national security policy must be guided by a non-negotiable question: What is best for the Jewish child?

For 77 years, we’ve prioritised the grievances of others—nations, NGOs, even enemies—over our own survival. That misguided compassion ended in catastrophe.

Jewish compassion is a virtue, yes. But it can also be a curse. In striving to be righteous among the nations, we neglected our own. We forgot who we are. We betrayed our people.

October 7 made that betrayal undeniable.

The solution starts with a basic principle: to prevent danger from materialising in the first place.

That means fortified, sterile buffer zones and automated kill zones that require neither legal deliberation nor human hesitation. Whoever crosses that line pays with their life.

A hardened security perimeter will deter not just capability, but intention. It’s no longer enough to react to what our enemies can do. We must respond to what they want to do.

In Judea and Samaria, sovereignty must be asserted not as a political slogan, but as a security imperative. Since Jordan has failed to stop cross-border terror, the buffer must extend into Jordanian territory and be managed by the Israel Defence Forces. The same goes for Egypt and Lebanon, whose governments harbour Hezbollah.

Israel’s technological prowess should be deployed not only abroad, but at home with a dense network of sensors, kill zones and roah-yorah(“see-shoot”) systems. A modern tower-and-stockade doctrine.

The Gaza dilemma boils down to a guiding question: What is good for the Jews?

Gaza is a narrow strip of land, surrounded by Jewish communities. Under an “Israel First” policy, there is no room for a hostile foreign population next door. The humanist approach has been tried, and it failed catastrophically.

Oct. 7 made it brutally clear: It’s either us or them.

Critics will predictably ask, “But what will the world say?” They’ll threaten sanctions, isolation and boycotts. So what? What’s else new? Israel has always faced hatred, regardless of its concessions. Those who oppose us are welcome to boycott Intel chips, Waze and Israeli medical breakthroughs.

The truth is that the world needs Israel more than Israel needs the world.

Self-defence starts with self-honesty. We must stop lying to ourselves. When we speak the truth without shame or apology, we’ll regain the respect of nations.

If Israel is truly a regional superpower, then it must begin to act like one. No more negotiations from weakness or rushing to “peace” deals with terrorists in suits. No more grovelling for approval.

We’ve earned our right to security with rivers of blood and lakes of tears. We deserve it. Now it is our turn. Israel First.

Odelia Kedmi is the deputy mayor of Zichron Yaakov, a women’s rights activist and a civil-law attorney.

JNS