Nave Shoham, 8, a released Israeli hostage, interacts with an Israeli soldier shortly after his arrival in Israel on November 25, after being held hostage by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, at an unknown location in Israel, in this handout picture released by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office on November 26, 2023. Photo: Israeli Prime Minister’s Office/Handout via REUTERS

These are hard times for the Jewish people. Every day, we see our heroic IDF soldiers being killed and injured fighting the inhumane terrorists of Hamas. Our hostages are suffering for no reason — besides the fact that they are Jewish — and we are all suffering with them.

It’s been two months since Hamas murdered 1,200 women, children, and men in cold blood — and the entire world has already turned against us.

Despite this horrific environment, we must remember the words of Zionist ideologue Ze’ev Jabotinsky: “We hold that Zionism is moral and just. And since it is moral and just, justice must be done, no matter whether Joseph or Simon or Ivan or Achmet agree with it or not.”

We cannot let the world lecture us today. We have learned the lesson of the Holocaust, and Israel is not the 51st state of the United States. We will walk alone, if we must, until we completely destroy Hamas and its ability to kill our people.

This too shall pass, and we will see history repeat itself.

In 1982, Menachem Begin told then Senator Joe Biden that Israel would defend itself at all costs; and the same holds true today, even though Biden has been largely supportive of Israel’s current efforts.

As others have said, the only difference between today and the Holocaust, is the fact that there is a Jewish state. And we remember that and we know it. And as Jabotinsky said, we Jews don’t have to apologize for our existence.

Today, sitting in Israel, I choose to believe in hope and goodness. Because I am thankful for the lessons of the Holocaust. I can’t and won’t say “never again,” because it happened again — Jews were killed and the world cheered — but my hope remains in the people of Israel, in the flag of Israel, in the army of Israel.

As the popular song by the Israeli pop artist Jasmin Moallem says, “In the end, it will be good, even from within the darkness, the light will ignite.”

Ronn Torossian is an Israel-American entrepreneur and author.