Lizzy Savetsky, a top influencer and pro-Israel activist, sparked controversy this week after posting to social media a clip of Meir Kahane conveying the message that Arabs in the Middle East only understand force and fear.
Back in the 1980s, Kahane, a polarizing figure among Jews, advocated for ideas such as the “transfer” of all Arabs out of Israel. He was assassinated in New York in 1990.
Four years later, his Kach movement was banned as a terrorist group in both the United States and Israel after one of his followers, Baruch Goldstein, murdered 29 Muslim worshippers on Feb. 25, 1994 (and was also killed that day), at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
“I saw a clip of [Kahane’s speech] on Twitter and then I went on to YouTube so that I could watch the full speech, and I screen-recorded it,” said Savetsky.
“The trigger was knowing that the Bibas babies were strangled to death by these monsters, watching the Palestinians in Gaza celebrating with celebratory music and bringing their own children to this dead Jewish baby parade.
“Seeing Kahane speak about the enemy and how we need to stop trying to use diplomatic pleasantries because they take that as weakness and that the only message they understand is force and fear. I thought it was the wakeup call that we needed.”
While Kahane’s “transfer” idea was previously deemed beyond the pale, 68% of Israelis now support U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for relocating the population of the Gaza Strip, according to a pollpublished earlier this month.
A fifth of respondents opposed the plan and another 12% said they weren’t sure.
Trump revealed his plan in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Feb. 4. “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip,” Trump said. “We’ll own it … We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal … the Riviera of the Middle East.”
In response, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz recently announced his decision to establish a directorate for the voluntary departure of Gaza residents, Israel’s Channel 14 reported.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich applauded Trump’s suggestion that Gazans be offered residency in Arab nations as the “most realistic solution.”
“For 76 years, they have been held in Gaza—on purpose—in poverty, in destitution, in overcrowding,” he told JNS. “Instead of helping them start a new life,” the United Nations kept the Palestinians “in very difficult situations on purpose, so that they would suffer. Why? To maintain their desire to destroy the State of Israel.”
With close to half a million followers on Instagram, Savetsky, a well-known lifestyle influencer, dedicated the last five years of her life to advocating for the Jewish people and the State of Israel.
“I made the full pivot to really dedicating all of my content and platform to it in 2021 when in the springtime, Hamas sent a barrage of rockets killing Israeli civilians and then the moment Israel retaliated, I saw how all of my colleagues on social media, all these influencers and celebrities, jumped immediately to demonize Israel without having any understanding of the situation,” she said.
“I just didn’t really see anyone in my position standing up for Israel and I felt a responsibility and an overwhelming need to do whatever I could.”
On Oct. 7, 2023, Savestky was visiting Israel with her children and found herself in a bomb shelter in Jerusalem on that fateful morning.
“I looked at my husband and I said to him in the bomb shelter that we know exactly what will happen. Israel is going to respond and the world is going to jump to demonize Israel. Jews all over the world will be attacked because this has never been about land and it’s always been about Jew-hatred,” she said.
“I said that I am going to have a lot of work to do in America fighting antisemitism because of Israel being attacked in such a horrific way. I knew how it would unfold and I have been extremely consumed, overwhelmed, trying to do everything that I can to fight for what’s right, for the truth and to empower my fellow Jews to do the same,” she added.
Growing up in a tiny Jewish community in Fort Worth, Texas, Savetsky told JNS she always knew she was different.
“I never took my Jewish identity for granted. It was something that I felt that I had to explain and defend from a very young age. In a way, I felt like an ambassador for the Jewish people from third grade, explaining the Holocaust to my friends, explaining the Jewish holidays,” she said.
“When I moved to New York at 18 to go to college, I was suddenly surrounded by Jews. I was surprised to see how their Jewish identity was just another part of them. It wasn’t their full identity like it was for me.”
Savestsky called her first visit to the Western Wall a “foundational moment.”
“My great-great-grandfather had his eyeball poked out in a pogrom in Ukraine. [His family] came to America with nothing, and felt lucky that all they had was their Jewish identity. It was so important for them to cling on to that and my parents made sure to pass on to me that I am a link in the chain and it comes with responsibility,” she said.
“When I went to the Kotel, all I could think about was what my ancestors would have given to be able to go to the safe haven of Israel and stand where I was standing. What I am doing is for them. I am fighting this fight for them and obviously for my children and their future.”
At this very emotional time for the Jewish people, Savetsky called on Jews around the world not to get distracted.
“It’s really important right now for us as the Jewish nation to remember what we are fighting for and who we are fighting against. There tends to be a lot of misplaced anger and misplaced attacks because we are so emotionally fragile, as we should be,” she said.
“It can be really easy to feed into drama, get distracted and go on these witch hunts, and it’s just not productive for any of us.
“We have a common enemy who wants to wipe us from the face of the earth and we need to keep our eyes on that, whether it is protests happening on college campuses, we are facing a real threat and we need to keep our focus on how to eradicate it.
“I think of the moment that we are in right now, and I want to be able to look back on it and know that I did everything I could. Fighting antisemitism and instilling Jewish pride is something that I will continue to do until the day I die.”
Published on Wed, 26 Feb 2025 09:22:00 -0500. Original article link
