The piece has been published in The Aus­trali­an Jewish News by ECAJ co-CEO Alex Ryvchin.

For those of us who advocate for Israel in the Diaspora, the question of “why” we do what we do rarely arises.

Why do we defend a country in which we do not live? Why are we prepared to bear the online abuse and real-world threats such a life path entails? Few ponder these questions because that com­pul­sion, that determ­in­a­tion to defend Israel is so instinct­ive that it hardly requires rational explan­a­tion.

When Philippe Petit crossed between the twin towers in New York on a highwire untethered, the question every journ­al­ist asked him as he was bundled into a police car after com­plet­ing his feat was “why? Why did you do it?” Petit replied, “why? There is no why.”

For us, the “why” is equally evasive and equally self-evident. But these questions need to be asked so that we may under­stand how to appeal to new gen­er­a­tions and how we can become more effective in what we do.

When we defend Israel, we are in effect defending ourselves. Israel is an ines­cap­able component of modern Jewish identity. It is not only the concept of indi­geneity and his­tor­ic­al and litur­gic­al links that bind us. It is the reality that Israel was con­sti­tuted to preserve Jewish life and safeguard and enlarge those things that are dis­tinctly Jewish, and which are peri­od­ic­ally expunged from the Diaspora. Israel is every Jew’s exit strategy. And if it is not, it ought to be. There is also the fact that Israel is home to more Jews than any other country and as demo­graph­ic trends show, it will continue to grow as the Diaspora contracts. The notion of Jewish solid­ar­ity and mutual respons­ib­il­ity is a pro­foundly ingrained one and this compels us to care deeply for the fate of the largest Jewish community in the world.

Defending Israel, its right to peace and security and to freely engage with the world, also means defending an idea. It is the idea that dispersed, colonised peoples can be free; that they can survive in exile and one day return to recon­sti­t­ute their national home. It is the idea that multi-faith, multi-ethnic rep­res­ent­at­ive democracy can survive in the Middle East. It is the idea that a lost language can be revived. That a decimated people can be made whole again.

These ideas are worthy of defence as any ima­gin­able. Yet ideas can be discarded or super­seded. This is why it is necessary to under­stand that Israel is more than an abstract bundle of ideas. It is a people and a land. A people of astound­ing diversity, defined by enter­prise, gen­er­os­ity and fortitude. The idea is worthy, but its people are worthier still.

This is also a people that lives with a burden that no other nation has to bear. The threat of terrorism on its streets; the spectre of war orches­trated by a regime intent on its anni­hil­a­tion; and coordin­ated campaigns in the West to blacken its name, turn public opinion against it, thereby under­min­ing its ability to function and exist.

The land of Israel, cul­tiv­ated and enriched by the toil and sacrifice of its people is utterly mesmeric. The city of Jerusalem exists on a higher plane to all worldly pos­ses­sions. It has a serenity that replen­ishes the soul and an energy that brings on peculiar moods in rapid sequence. I write this from a balcony in Jaffa over­look­ing the Tel Aviv skyline and the Medi­ter­ranean Sea with the bell tower of St Peter’s Church at my right shoulder emitting its chimes with an unnerving frequency.

I need not catalogue the cor­nu­copia of sacred hills and valleys, archae­olo­gic­al splend­ours, crumbling forts, biblical relics, shuks and wadis of which this country is composed. Israel is the most spec­tac­u­lar 22,000 square metres on Earth and I would gladly raise my fists to anyone who would beg to differ. It is a land that is holy and promised which is why tranquil anonymity has never accom­pan­ied it.

It is because of the singular enchant­ment of this land and its people that the greatest tool of advocacy at our disposal is to bring people here. No one leaves Israel unchanged. This is why the anti-Israel movement has relent­lessly sought to smear and discredit organised trips to Israel from Birth­right to political del­eg­a­tions. They know that once people are shown Israel, there is nothing left to tell.

It is also why it is essential that advocates for Israel take every oppor­tun­ity to come here. Coming to Israel deepens the bond and affirms what is at stake and what we have the privilege of defending – a land that is ours by right not suf­fer­ance and a people that inspire us to be better, strive harder and fight until the last breath.