opinion
certain kinds of guns, like assault rifles, including
the widely popular AR-15 that has been used
in mass shootings, ignore the fact that the dif-
ference between these weapons and others is
largely cosmetic.

More attention and funding for mental-health
awareness and care would help to prevent some
of these terrible crimes. So would better enforce-
ment of existing gun laws.

But if the Second Amendment was repealed
and gun ownership largely banned, the number
of firearms could be vastly reduced. That has
happened in other countries, either in reaction
to mass shootings or because governments,
both tyrannical and democratic, have the power
to prevent individuals from owning means of
self-protection. In theory, that could mean that a
person would find it a lot harder to obtain guns to
use to commit atrocities like the ones in Uvalde or
Newtown, where the killers were 20 and 18 years
old, respectively.

A lot of Americans would think that would be
a worthwhile exchange and point to the quality
of life and safety of those who live in countries
where gun ownership isn’t widespread. Indeed,
even in Israel, where, due to widespread army
service and security problems, there are a lot of
guns in circulation, there is no right to own one.

In response, others would argue that Second
Amendment rights are integral to the American
political tradition, which values liberty and indi-
vidual rights over communal safety or a cradle-to-
grave responsibility of the government to provide
for their well-being. They would also point out
that the right to bear arms is rooted in the par-
ticularly American notion that the idea that the
government should have the monopoly on weap-
ons is antithetical to liberty, even if few currently
envision a need for citizens to possess guns to
defend their rights against domestic tyrants. Not
without reason, a critical mass of Americans val-
ues this tradition.

The strength of that tradition, as well as the
vast number of Americans who currently legally
own firearms and have no intention of giving
them up even if it might somehow reduce mass
shootings, is why even the most liberal politi-
cians claim they have no interest in repealing
the Second Amendment — no matter that many
of their supporters would actually be eager to
see the government taking guns away from their
fellow citizens.

If liberals want to abolish gun rights, and many
of them do, then let them say so openly. Until
they are willing to do so, our gun-control debates,
and the arguments and virtue signaling of those
Jewish groups that take part in them, will remain
disingenuous and utterly irrelevant other than to
those who look to them as ways of solidifying
their political bases. JE
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS.

On Jerusalem Day,
We Showed That
Israel Can Still Win
BY ALEX SELSKY
O n Jerusalem Day, 55 years after Israel’s great
victory in the Six-Day War and with it the
liberation of the Western Wall and the Temple Mount,
the state of Israel and the people of Israel won again.

Israel defeated its enemies: terrorist organi-
zations and their supporters, critics inside and
outside the country, those who try to question
our sovereignty and boycott us, those who
try to destroy us from near and far, those who
still dream, in vain, that we will someday be
defeated. We won because we overcame our own fear.

We did not capitulate, we did not stutter, we did
not change the route of the annual Flag Parade.

Israelis came in droves from all over the country,
our country, and climbed the Temple Mount in
record numbers, with our flags raised proudly,
because we believed in ourselves and our right,
our strength and our justice.

precisely because it is important to both our part-
ners and our enemies. The Mount is where they
want to see us fold.

The Mount is where the struggle is most pain-
ful and therefore the most decisive. That is why
Hamas wants to defeat us there, and why it is
precisely there that we dare not lose.

Some will say that what occurred on Jerusalem
Day was not a victory. Do not listen to them.

Some will say it was a small victory. Even so,
small victories can combine to make great victo-
ries, and great victories are based on our faith.

All our technological and military power, and the
support of the United States, are not what led to
victories in our wars, but spirit, commitment, faith
in the justice of our cause and the knowledge that
we have no other choice.

Do not worry about criticism. It is irrelevant. It always
will be. No matter what our answer to it may be.

Some of the criticism is insincere. It is the result
of domestic and local political struggles, as well as
an organized attempt to put pressure on us from
Our allies want to see us as strong because
otherwise they have less justification to cooperate
with us. Our enemies must see us as strong;
otherwise, they will continue to fight us.

This year was the opposite of last year, and that
is the big difference. When we stood proudly and
did not back down, no one dared to attack.

Many of our neighbors have seen our strength
and resilience, and realized that it is better to
cooperate than fight with us.

This is a major victory because it had an extraor-
dinary symbol. The flags of Israel proudly hoisted
on the Temple Mount are a message of power
and faith to the whole world, to Diaspora Jewry, to
the Christian world and, of course, to the Muslim
world, to both partners and enemies.

Our allies want to see us as strong because
otherwise they have less justification to cooperate
with us. Our enemies must see us as strong; other-
wise, they will continue to fight us.

The violence against us will end only if our ene-
mies fear us, if they recognize and accept that we
have won and there is no point in continuing to
fight us.

There is no more symbolic and proper place to
convey this message than on the Temple Mount,
the outside. It is not going away.

But we have nothing to be ashamed of. We are
a democratic country and attentive to different
voices. We are ready and able to listen to criticism.

We make mistakes and try to correct them. We
argue amongst ourselves, and that is an important
part of who we are.

Part of our power is to withstand and ignore unfair
and unjust criticism. Our best answer is victory, and
on Jerusalem Day we provided a perfect answer.

It should teach us a lesson for the future. Only
an Israeli victory will make the world stop pressur-
ing us and put an end to over 100 years of violent
Palestinian rejection of Jewish sovereignty.

There is still a long way to go, but we will win.

On Jerusalem Day, we reminded ourselves that
we can win.

Happy Victory Day! JE
Alex Selsky is a member of the board of directors
of the Middle East Forum Israel, which runs the
Israel Victory Project.

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