The global wave of antisemitism is totally unjustified, says Jewish Agency head

Jewish Agency head, Israeli Major General (reserves) Doron Almog, decided at the last minute not to fly to Johannesburg from Israel to attend Limmud last week out of concern about potential harassment from the South African government.

“It was entirely my own decision not to go to South Africa,” Almog told the SA Jewish Report from his home in Israel. “I didn’t need the embarrassment of being questioned by the South African administration or the police. I thought this was a very sensitive time,” he said, “as the head of the Jewish Agency while South Africa is pursuing its totally untrue ‘genocide’ case against Israel. It’s no secret I was a major general in the Israel Defense Forces and had command in Gaza previously.”

Almog, who was scheduled to speak at Limmud Johannesburg on Sunday, 17 August, about his journey from the battlefield to healing, said changing his mind about coming was a precaution more than anything. Considering the government’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and its general hostility towards Israel, it seemed to him the smart thing to do.

Almog admits that the pall of 7 October 2023 hangs over him, as it does over all Israelis and Jews. He lost two family members, murdered by Hamas on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a kilometre from the Gaza border. They were among the 1 200 slaughtered and more than 250 captured that day. Agam Goldstein-Almog, aged 17, was taken with her mother, Chen, and her two younger brothers, Gal and Tal. Her father, Nadav, and sister, Yam, were killed in the attack. The surviving hostages were released after 51 days.

Almog was unequivocal about Israel’s subsequent war against Hamas in Gaza, where more than 60 000 people have been killed. “Our war is justified,” he said. “Who initiated this war? It started with 7 October. They still have our hostages. The people are still in trauma. Hamas has never changed its approach or ideology. For Hamas, there is no place for a Jewish state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.”

He pointed out that just four hostages from Gaza were returned by military operation; all the others were freed by negotiation through mediators. “We need a deal and then to fight Hamas. They want an international guarantee that Israel won’t continue fighting. But there’s no guarantee that Hamas stops fighting either.”

He said Hamas had taken billions of aid dollars to build a network of terror tunnels and stockpile deadly weapons rather than feed, clothe, and educate its population. Only 30% of the tunnel network has been destroyed. Israel has been fighting a difficult war in dense urban terrain for almost two years. He argued that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) maintains the highest ethical standards, and does its best to avoid civilian casualties.

Despite the war on seven fronts – Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, Libya Syria, Iraq, and Iran – Almog remarked that more than 47 000 Jews had made aliya since 7 October. “They are coming to live in the world’s most threatened country. It’s not logical or rational. But for 2 000 years, we have prayed every day to Jerusalem.”

He does, however, acknowledge that Israel is “poor at explaining to the world what is happening here”. The global wave of antisemitism and hate against Israel is “totally unjustified”, said Almog. “Israel is showing power and restraint.”

For Almog, it’s the memory and inspiration of two young men – his late brother, Eran, and his late son, named after him – that animate him. This decorated soldier and winner of the Israel Prize is a champion of rights for people with disabilities, and since 2022, has headed the Jewish Agency.

Almog’s first battle was the 1973 Yom Kippur War. At the age of 22, Doron lost his brother, Eran, fighting Syrians in the Golan Heights. Eran was left bleeding in a field for seven days before his body was recovered. “I swore never to leave any wounded soldier behind. I dedicated my 34 years of service in the IDF to my bleeding brother. That was the reason for my long military service – not a love of killing or the battlefield.”

Doron was the first soldier to land in the Entebbe Raid in 1976 in Uganda, when 105 Israeli hostages were heroically rescued from Palestinian terrorists who had hijacked their aeroplane. He also worked for years in Sudan to help evacuate Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

Almog gave his deceased brother’s name to his son, Edan, who was born with autism and a severe brain injury. “He never spoke a single word, and died at the age of 23, but he was the greatest professor in my life. He was stereotyped, stigmatised, and called ‘retarded’.” He believes that his brother’s spirit entered his son’s life for 23 years, living as a wounded person, “shouting in the silence”. It was up to Doron to honour both these young men’s lives.

“My son was badly treated, and I wanted to establish a place for people with disabilities in Israel that would be loving, inclusive, and professional.”

It was the inspiration for him to build such a village in the south, named ADI Negev-Nahalat Eran. “This, too, was about never leaving the wounded, the weakest, behind,” Almog said.

He has also built a hospital at ADI Negev-Nahalat Eran that treats severely injured soldiers, where the latest medical technologies, prosthetics, and robotics are tested.

Almog urged South African Jews to continue supporting Israel, praying for it, visiting it, and raising funds for it. He pledged to give the utmost assistance to anyone making aliya. “Israel is still the most secure place for Jews despite the brutal aggression of 7 October and the thousands of missiles fired at us by all our enemies,” he said. “We have stamina. We have courage. And we welcome every Jew in these times of growing antisemitism.”